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RedSnapper posted:Yeah, RT is a fun idea but the execution is profoundly stupid. Amen. I had to do a lot of house ruling when running my multi-year Rogue Trader game. Among the party were a Sister of Battle canoness-equivalent and an Imperial Guard stormtrooper-alike. I less substantially altered existing classes as kinda building new ones from scratch for them.
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Apr 10, 2018 19:22
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Also I admit some of my vitriol on a personal level is that I'd rather play a game about kicking the stereotypical Rogue Trader in the dick rather than one about playing one.
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Apr 10, 2018 19:24
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Night10194 posted:Also I admit some of my vitriol on a personal level is that I'd rather play a game about kicking the stereotypical Rogue Trader in the dick rather than one about playing one. Fair enough. My big RT campaign involved very little in the way of traditional rogue trading and a whole lot of saving the Imperium from itself.
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Apr 10, 2018 19:26
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It's the old Steampunk paradox. Steampunk settings would be way more fun from the point of view of the resistance against the rear end in a top hat with an airship, top hat, and death ray than they would be playing that rear end in a top hat, and RT is Cogservative Steampunk as *hell* in the books. E: Game about a Rogue Trader hovering in orbit to begin dominating a planet and then getting X-COMed by the locals would be sweet. Who then steal his warrant and ship. Imperium never notices while these relatively normal people explore the star empire that tried to kill them from within as one of its 'nobles'. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Apr 10, 2018 |
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Apr 10, 2018 19:31
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Night10194 posted:Like, I see the *logic* behind Unnaturals. You have them because in WHFRP2e, I have played a PC who has a higher Str and Tough score than a Dragon. The difference being that character is still significantly weaker than a Dragon due to lower attacks per round and having 20 Wounds instead of 60 and no fire breath or special rules about multiattacking while doing other things and flying. But still, they thought the idea was silly, and so wanted to introduce a way to say 'this character is really strong' without just giving them a 70% strength. But it doesn't end up working out, because A: They already give the Unnatural character a higher % strength. And B: They make the scaling go crazy.
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Apr 10, 2018 20:01
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Night10194 posted:It's the old Steampunk paradox. Steampunk settings would be way more fun from the point of view of the resistance against the rear end in a top hat with an airship, top hat, and death ray than they would be playing that rear end in a top hat, and RT is Cogservative Steampunk as *hell* in the books. Yeah Steampunk and things that are conceptually similar jump way too far up the rear end of imperialist shitheads, which is kind of baffling because a lot of the sort of stories that inspired it also wouldn't consider mister top hat the good guy.
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Apr 10, 2018 20:05
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Zereth posted:I believe somewhere along the way they realized this was a Problem and changed unnaturals to being a flat bonus to your Strength Bonus or whatever. It didn't really help, but it did put a bit of a lid on the absurd scaling you could get up to sometimes. They did, this happens in Black Crusade and onward. But they mostly kept them at high-ish levels. It gave them more granularity but they mostly used it to keep things as they were.
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Apr 10, 2018 20:06
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DalaranJ posted:This would be nice, as the setting is, at least, interesting. Well we are getting a new RPG for 40k pretty soon. (Along with a new edition of WHFRP.)
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Apr 10, 2018 20:08
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We are? I hadn't heard about a 40k one, only the WHFRP4e one.
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Apr 10, 2018 20:09
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Feinne posted:Yeah Steampunk and things that are conceptually similar jump way too far up the rear end of imperialist shitheads, which is kind of baffling because a lot of the sort of stories that inspired it also wouldn't consider mister top hat the good guy. Seriously, I'd rather play a factory seamtress that steals her boss's shiny new airship to play literal corporate raider than Baron Pounce of Tosserdale, but I've read Lyddie at a pretty informative age and just think factory mill girls got way more grit and badass factor than the robber barons. Robindaybird fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Apr 10, 2018 |
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Apr 10, 2018 20:14
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Robindaybird posted:Seriously, I'd rather play a factory seamtress that steals her boss's shiny new airship to play literal corporate raider than Baron Pounce of Tosserdale, but I've read Lyddie at a pretty informative age and just think factory mill girls got way more grit and badass factor than the robber barons. There's a reason my Rogue Trader campaign opened with the actual Rogue Trader getting executed by Space Marines and the PCs being his senior officers who know they're next on the chopping block. I think it's similar to the old "how do you make an anti-war movie" quandary. People have an astonishing ability to miss the most blatant text if there's cool imagery and neat stuff that makes war (or the Imperium of Man) seem glorious and cool and admirable. You generally have to beat people over the head to drive home a message like that - see Spec Ops: The Line. But even then, it can backfire. Sometimes it's even a case of being deliberately spiteful - I for example like to think of humans as the good guys in Avatar because I was bored of how preachy the movie was.
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Apr 10, 2018 20:34
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Avatar was the first movie I can remember being partly spoiled to me by everyone's immediate cynical hot take. Not the last, tragically. I think Rogue Trader would have benefited from, in addition to all the other mechanical stuff, leaning in on being some kind of weird-rear end swashbuckling skull-heavy Barbarella where you're doing insane poo poo in space largely for personal gain, but at that point you risk 40k becoming good and/or fun instead of grimdark, I suppose.
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Apr 10, 2018 21:17
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Night10194 posted:We are? I hadn't heard about a 40k one, only the WHFRP4e one. Yeah were are getting 3 Warhammer RPG's The 4th Edition of WHFRP and Age of Sigmar RPG, Both by Cubicle 7. Meanwhile by Ulisses North America we are getting Warhammer 40k Roleplay: Wrath and Glory. Ulisses has provide quite a few previews on their site of the RPG along with an example of play comic. http://www.ulisses-us.com/games/warhammer-40000-roleplay/     
MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Apr 10, 2018 |
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Apr 10, 2018 21:33
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A Scout along with normal(ish) humans? That's kinda weird.
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Apr 10, 2018 21:44
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A bit, but way closer in power then a full marine armoured in ceramite. I'm actually excited, I always wanted to run stuff in 40k and Ulisses actually know how to build a functional system. Which is why I never played the preceding systems.
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Apr 10, 2018 21:46
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Dawgstar posted:A Scout along with normal(ish) humans? That's kinda weird. Black Crusade has both humans and Marines, I think, so there is precedent. Never got those books myself, though.
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Apr 10, 2018 21:49
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Dawgstar posted:A Scout along with normal(ish) humans? That's kinda weird. The March Designer diary gives it's setting justification for as many weird groups as you wants. http://www.ulisses-us.com/wrath-glory-designer-diary-march-2018/ Namely the Dark Imperium is dangerous and people that would not normally work together over time will here. Other then that types of characters are in Tiers which they explain here http://www.ulisses-us.com/wrath-glory-designer-diary-december-2017/ with this diary explaining a bit about how you can bring lower tier characters into higher tier games. http://www.ulisses-us.com/wrath-glory-designer-diary-february-2018/
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Apr 10, 2018 21:51
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In BC humans tend to be significantly more skillful (and more widely skilled) while Marines are big meatwalls. My BC party was all humans, but they hired on a Marine with the promise of helping her achieve the ultimate shotgun at one point and their Renegade (human fighter) was more than capable of outdoing her. Partly due to being an NPC hirling, but partly because with a bunch of the mechanics and a shift in how melee multiattacks work Vincent was just a goddamn blender. Dude killed a Bloodthirster in a duel once. Admittedly I had to houserule out its various 'Can instantly make its attack unblockable' sub-rules because, well, if it has those the only solution to it is shooting it in the face from very far away, since at 99% WS and lascannon level damage no human PC will survive a hit from one. And if you're not going to set up a character to let him have a proper swordfight with a balrog why even play 40k. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Apr 10, 2018 |
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Apr 10, 2018 21:51
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Scion: Hero Witches In Three Flavors Aje are curse-layers and curse-breakers, the kind of people Europeans call witches or shapeshifters. They are more than that, though. They are power. When someone is hurt or sick and cannot be cured, it is because an aje prevents it in secret. When one of their curses is broken, it is because another aje broke it. Aje can be friends or enemies, but they always end up being the ones to struggle against each other. Heroic Aje Night-Bird: From sunrise to sun-set, you can send forth your spirit in the form of a white owl. Your body lies in slumber, and can only be awoken by your return or the destruction of your special ritual objects, like a calabash with potions in it or a red feather. While you are an owl, you may lay your Barren Curse, but cannot use your powers on anyone that has washed thoroughly with soap in the past day, or anyone in the presence of a dead but unplucked chicken. (A successful Occult roll can identify an aje by their ritual objects.) Barren Curse: You can make an Occult+Cunning roll to curse someone with infertility, importence or disease at Medium range. You may do the same to break someone else's Barren Curse or similar supernatural affliction, though you have to beat their roll, if they had one. Nagual Sorcerers aren't shapeshifters. Rather, they use their knowledge and visions to guide people. They are taught by older and more powerful sorcerers to control their dreams and visions, allowing them to view places that are far away and even see the future. Interpreting these visions can be difficult, of course, and they must study constantly to maintain their skills. They tend to look down on the nagual who shapeshift instead. Heroic Nagual Sorcerer Dreaming Flight: As long as you are intoxicated by alcohol or a hallucinogen, or as long as you have consumed enough to put you in a sleeping stupor, and you are in an enclosed space no larger than a normal bedroom with all entrances and exits closed, you may shift your vision into the sky. From there, you can see anything in Long range of where you are. Wu are women who work to keep the realms of human and spirit seperate. (Men are called 'xi' instead.) They drive out spirits that break the rules and prevent human meddling in the spirit world. They also serve as spiritual doctors who handle the problems that come when men and spirits mingle. Their methods involve ecstatic trances that take them to the border of flesh and spirit, which makes them highly visible to spirits, who often show up to ask for help. Wu often feel they must try, even if they lack the ability to do much about the problem, because it is the right thing to do. Heroic Wu Spirit Voice: Once per session, you may ask a brief, precise question of a ghost or spirit that is nearby. If it knows the answer, it will tell you. If it doesn't, it will tell you that instead. In any session in which you use this, you are visible to all spirits nearby. If one approaches you to ask a favor, you gain 1 Momentum. Balance Disorder: You may strengthen the boundary between a willing person and a spirit or ghost (which need not be willing). For the rest of the session, neither can affect or even perceive the other by any means. Alternately, you may use this to force a spirit to end or undo any one effect it has inflicted on the person, but doing that won't stop the two from interacting. Either way, in any session in which you use this, you are visible to all spirits nearby. If one approaches you to ask a favor, you gain 1 Momentum. Aos Si are, it is said, those angels that sided with neither Heaven nor Hell, consigned to the World for their actions. Alternatively, they are the lesser children of the Tuatha De Danann, too minor to be gods. Alternatively, they are the souls of the dead remained in the World to settle their obligations. None or all may be true. The Aos Si have been around for a long time, sometimes hiding in hidden hillforts and sometimes living among mortals. They come and go with little understanding of the passage of time, and they are fascinated by the progress and rapid changes that humans seem to make. Heroic Aos Si Bounty of Foison: You can make a banquet for up to 9 people, using whatever you like, that lasts for one scene. Those that eat get +1 Enhancement to Athletics and Survival rolls for the rest of the scene, but afterwards they realize that they were not actually nourished at all and get +1 Difficulty to the same rolls in the next scene. Alternately, you may steal the essence of a meal, preventing the eater from being nourished at all; this causes only the penalty, with no blessing first. Jo-Ge-Oh, unlike most of the creatures known as Strange Folk, are not tricksters or bored immortals. They genuinely want to reward those who do good, no matter what. The more they grant their rewards, the stronger the communities they gift are, and the more peaceful. Or, at least, that's what they claim. Things can be more complex than that, but they are an inherently optimistic people. They find the virtuous wherever they go, rewarding them for making a difference in an effort to bring peace. Heroic Jo-Ge-Oh Reward the Good: Once per session, when you deem that someone has upheld their community's values, you can reward them with either a set of fine clothes, a +2 Enhancement to any single profitable enterprise, or a +1 Enhancement to impress someone they love. Flying Canoe: You may imbue 1 Legend into a water vehicle to let it fly for one scene. It moves at its normal speed and requires the normal fuel and effort to drive, but can go as far as the ST allows. Yaksha come from a land of total plenty, where every need was provided for. They find the World and its lacks to be strange, so they try to give what they can - which is quite a bit. The thing is, they don't judge whether people are worthy of their gifts. They're not especially particular about it, in fact. If someone asks for something, they give it, even if they know it'll hurt them in the future. All that matters is providing for every need and desire, after all. Heroic Yaksha What You Need: Once per session, you may create whatever a mortal NPC desires. Anything - cash, a lover, drugs, a car, anything. When you do, they owe you a favor you can collect later. However, whenever you do this, you must take an equivalent desire from someone else you know. The scales are always balanced by making a loss that damages the life of one of your acquaintances. Jiaoren make gifts. It's their nature. When they have nothing else to do, their instincts drive them to create Dragon Cloth. Their pearls, however, are made only when they are sad enough to weep, for their tears transform into the pearls that mortals so value. Jiaoren do want to help people, but it always seem to cost them their happiness to do so. Still, people love their gifts, and that's worth something to them. They try to hide that it takes so much from them, to avoid tainting that joy. Heroic Nagual Shapeshifter Dragon Cloth: Over the course of a day, you can make enough Dragon Cloth to clothe someone. Such clothing provides no armor or protection, but cannot be damaged by any means and is always in perfect condition. Also, when you are upset enough to weep, your tears manifest as pearls. They are quite valuable, but you know that if you give them away you lose a part of yourself. Mermaid: You can breathe underwater, ignore underwater Obstacles and can swim as fast as you can run. Nixies are fiddle-players, creatures that live by the rivers and try to lure people to the water to drown them. No real reason - they just think that kind of thing is fun. Of course, these days they do less drowning. They still stay by the water, but they've tended to get bored by the drowning part a lot of the time. Not that they don't do it - just less often. Instead, these days, a nixie is as likely to just play music for people without the drowning. They tend to be confused when people give them money for it, but not upset. Heroic Nixie Mermaid: You can breathe underwater, ignore underwater Obstacles and can swim as fast as you can run. The End.
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Apr 10, 2018 22:01
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Cythereal posted:There's a reason my Rogue Trader campaign opened with the actual Rogue Trader getting executed by Space Marines and the PCs being his senior officers who know they're next on the chopping block.
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Apr 10, 2018 22:11
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Halloween Jack posted:I like the PBP that starts with the Rogue Trader getting his brain fried so the PCs are operating under cover of a Weekend at Bernie's masquerade. Eh, we concluded after a few sessions that having someone pretend to be the Rogue Trader/the Rogue Trader's wife or child just wasn't fun. We decided that anyone who really cared would be able to bypass any relevant deception, and that most people just don't care one way or another. The Inquisition isn't going to give a poo poo about a Writ of Trade if they're mad at you, and your typical planetary noble's appreciation begins with you having a starship and its attached guns and ends with how much money you have. Like Night said, though, at a certain point you find yourself asking why you're running your game in 40k to begin with.
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Apr 10, 2018 22:18
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MonsterEnvy posted:The March Designer diary gives it's setting justification for as many weird groups as you wants. http://www.ulisses-us.com/wrath-glory-designer-diary-march-2018/ Namely the Dark Imperium is dangerous and people that would not normally work together over time will here. If moving from Tier 1 to Tier 3 is less of a hassle than Ascension then we can call it a success.
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Apr 10, 2018 22:21
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Has a release month or date been given yet for Wrath and Glory? I didn't see one browsing their site but I'm really interested in seeing how it turns out. I like the basic d6 system but there's a lot of advanced stuff that I can see making or breaking the game.
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Apr 10, 2018 22:39
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:Has a release month or date been given yet for Wrath and Glory? I didn't see one browsing their site but I'm really interested in seeing how it turns out. I like the basic d6 system but there's a lot of advanced stuff that I can see making or breaking the game. GenCon of this year.
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Apr 10, 2018 22:44
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MonsterEnvy posted:The March Designer diary gives it's setting justification for as many weird groups as you wants. http://www.ulisses-us.com/wrath-glory-designer-diary-march-2018/ Namely the Dark Imperium is dangerous and people that would not normally work together over time will here. Oh I was wondering about that. Setting it in the Dark Imperium* is actually quite clever and could make for an interesting setting. * The new 40k fluff. A massive permanent Warp Storm has literally divided the Galaxy in two. If you're on the wrong side of it, you can't see the Light of the Astronomicon (hence Dark), which amongst other things makes Starship navigation incredibly difficult and TL:DR you're basically hosed.
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Apr 10, 2018 23:58
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gradenko_2000 posted:This section I would say accomplishes some of the goals that it set out for itself: because the effects no longer just inflict stat penalties, they're both easier to integrate into the game without needing to do a lot of derived-stat-math, and the penalties can be both gentler at the early onset and harsher at the late stages. This sort of progression is also more intuitive to deal with, and dare I say realistic, but in a good way. It divorced itself from the D&D 3rd Edition model of diseases and poisons, and is arguably all the better for it. Well, as I covered in my Starfinder review, this system ends up going way off the rails for two main reasons as it's implemented in that game. Firstly, a lot of the poisons and diseases are so crippling they can cause permanent stat loss and death remarkably quickly, unless you have remove affliction, at which point they're trivial. So it ends up being wildly binary depending on whether or not you have access to the appropriate spellcaster. Secondly, it's used for drug addiction, which means many drugs can kill regular users in mere weeks (not that most people can actually afford addiction to most drugs, given most are $2,000+ a dose, and one is merely $95) because addiction is treated as a disease you can die from, and one that progresses pretty rapidly for most addicts. It also raises the question of why you have detailed rules for drug addiction anyway, but you know, RPGs. It's pretty much become a pet peeve for me at this point, drug rules are almost never necessary or particularly well-done.
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Apr 11, 2018 02:39
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hectorgrey posted:So we continue this chapter by moving straight into the variant rule that allows for multiclassing at first level. hectorgrey posted:After this, we get the rules for creating a character above first level. This is easiest to do by creating a first level character and increasing them level by level. There is also a table of starting money for higher level PCs - 900GP for second level PCs, going up to 760,000 GP for 20th level PCs. My take is that this sort of thing always existed: Fighters needed +x weapons to hit high-level enemies, Magic-Users needed Bracers of Protection AC 4 or whatever, and everyone wanted stuff like Gloves of Dexterity or Belts of Ogre Strength to actually be able to use the high-stat-modifier rules that would normally be unreachable because of old-school D&D's random stat rolling. There's even guidelines by Gygax himself on the back of the AD&D DMG on how to create higher-than-level-1 characters similar to this, and it does include giving them a set of magical items. The difference though is that, in true Gygaxian fashion, you had to roll for poo poo. By making the wealth levels determinate you could make things a lot more predictable. Unfortunately, this did also introduce the issue of the game now having a direct and literal "item treadmill", which DMs would often fail to account for when planning out their campaigns, especially when they wanted to run "low magic" campaigns for whatever reason. It would be a problem that D&D would, and perhaps still does, struggle with to this day. hectorgrey posted:Next, we get a side bar on how the Leadership feat works. Basically, you have a leadership score equal to your character level, modified by your Charisma modifier. So long as you have a leaderhip score of at least 2, you can attract a cohort (an NPC who joins the party at a lower level than your PC). If it is 10 or higher, you gain a number of followers - eventually this can become a small army with officers of up to 6th level. A cohort gains XP equal to half the XP that the PC gains, and levels up independently to a maximum level of one lower than the PC. Leadership gets a lot of flak for being an "overpowered" feat, but it's worth mentioning that all Leadership really is, is a formalization of the "name level followers" of old-school D&D. It's even level-gated to character level 6. They perhaps failed to account for how powerful it would become once you factor in having direct control of a more-or-less fully-kitted-out second character, and especially when combined with the formalized action economy, but I think Leadership is one of those things that suggests that D&D 3e was still being written with previous editions in mind.
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Apr 11, 2018 05:18
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Alien Rope Burn posted:It also raises the question of why you have detailed rules for drug addiction anyway, but you know, RPGs. It's pretty much become a pet peeve for me at this point, drug rules are almost never necessary or particularly well-done. The original Cyberpunk RPG had comically punishing drug rules: quote:Each time your character uses a drug, you must roll a 1D10 value lower than the total number of times you have taken that particular drug. A failed roll means you are addicted and probably in big trouble. quote:Smash: Smash is 2013's answer to alcohol-its yellow, foamy, and comes in cans. It makes you loose, happy and ready to party. The downside is that when it wears off, it makes you suicidal. If you're not hooked; no problem--the effect wears off in about three hours. But if you're hooked, the depression gets worse. Every hour you go without Smash, roll 1D10. You must roll lower than the total number of hours you have gone without Smash. On a failed roll, you sink into total catatonia; a feebly mumbling ball of pain--a ripe target for some Booster looking for spare change.
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Apr 11, 2018 05:59
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Deptfordx posted:Oh I was wondering about that. Setting it in the Dark Imperium* is actually quite clever and could make for an interesting setting. Hopefully they'll release rules letting people include Bloodaxes in their groups.
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Apr 11, 2018 06:35
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White Coke posted:Hopefully they'll release rules letting people include Bloodaxes in their groups. Orks are a playable race, so I don't see why not. For those who are curious about the new system I did a couple of infodumps here and here based on what we know so far.
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Apr 11, 2018 06:42
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I remember working it out once, and in Shadowrun 5 you can totally make a player-character who is high on a dozen different combat drugs every run and never has a single problem with it, but since they gave alcohol, Soykaf (the local coffee/tea equivalent) and legal simsense (the local trip-to-the-movies equivalent) addiction ratings, your average office worker is well on the way to dying a horrible degenerative death from Starbucks addiction.
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Apr 11, 2018 06:45
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FMguru posted:It's really hard to balance drugs in an RPG. Either the benefits outweigh the hazards (so there's no reason not go around flying high on FastCombat and ThinkSmarter 24/7) and they become just another boring always-on buff everyone has or the downsides outweigh the benefits (and you wonder why anyone would ever take ReflexBoost even once). Cyberpunk drugs are also super, super-expensive compared to IRL as well. Smash, for instance, is about 100 eurodollars (or $200 thanks to inflation according to the Home Of The Brave splat) for a six pack. From what a quick internet search tells me without going into those places or TCC is cocaine runs about approximately $100 a gram of decent quality and that will last you a night, while Cyberpunk's SynthCoke is 1000eb for a single dose that lasts 1D6+1 minutes. There's is literally no reason to use drugs in Cyberpunk.
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Apr 11, 2018 06:59
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If there aren't rules for playing Necrons (perhaps wearing cowboy hats) who join your group because they hate Tyranids that much then why bother. :-p
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Apr 11, 2018 07:11
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8one6 posted:If there aren't rules for playing Necrons (perhaps wearing cowboy hats) who join your group because they hate Tyranids that much then why bother. :-p With Newcrons that could very well be expansion content.
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Apr 11, 2018 07:12
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I'd just like it if Settra showed up all covered in golden armor and the Necrons finally actually become the Tomb Kings because something something a Dark Imperium Wormhole is now pouring out stuff that got retconned from one universe into this one and Settra's just like "well well well, look what belongs to me and my family now". And thus begins the next great age of the Khemri Empire!
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Apr 11, 2018 07:31
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MonsterEnvy posted:Yeah were are getting 3 Warhammer RPG's Notably, Wrath and Glory is being designed by Ross Watson, who also created Rogue Trade and Death Watch, and contributed to Black Crusade. Despite this, I'm cautiously optimistic from what I've seen so far. I think he might do better without being shackled to trying to the skeleton of WHFRPG (which as Night10194 has said is a great system, but does not scale well when you throw big numbers at it). His Savage Worlds stuff is interesting, though a bit uneven. I remember in the World of Morden sourcebook for Accursed there were some pretty dire design choices, though thankfully those were fixed after I pointed them out in the comments. I've heard the Savage RIFTS stuff is actually pretty good.
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Apr 11, 2018 07:42
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Young Freud posted:Cyberpunk drugs are also super, super-expensive compared to IRL as well. Smash, for instance, is about 100 eurodollars (or $200 thanks to inflation according to the Home Of The Brave splat) for a six pack.
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Apr 11, 2018 07:51
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 NS9: Daughter of Thunder and Storm  Unlike the previous adventures, Daughter of Thunder and Storms is suitable for levels 13th through 16th. I have not actually run this adventure yet (we just finished NS8: the Hallburning) so I do not have any notes on What I Changed. There are few great heroes of the North who can match the PCs in power and deed. Hengrid Donarsdottir is one of them*. Unfortunately her time in the captivity of Shibauroth's cultists made her susceptible to demonic influence. After many years Althunak drew upon one desperate attempt before his divine essence is destroyed from the earlier destruction of his temples. And that involves possessing the body of the greatest heroine the Northlands has known. When Hengrid sails for the Hall of the Hearth Stone, she lays siege to it and steals the sword Kroenarck. This is one of the three artificats necessary to open a portal to the Ginnungagap in Mount Helgastervän, where she can make direct contact with the Lord of Ice and Cold. If the demon-god is successful in this endeavor, he will enact his will on Midgard in full control of Hengrid and bring about the Fimbulwinter...and thus the onset of Ragnarök. *But if she is dead since the PCs failed Blood on the Snow, Astra Thunderswif is the one to slay the divinity of Shibauroth and her replacement for this adventure. Our adventure begins with a summons with all possible haste from the Hall of the Hearth Stone. This is the most sacred godshouse in all of the North, and due to its reputation the PCs are assumed to have already been there and studied the environs carefully for teleportation purposes. Hengrid carved a swathe of destruction, leaving plenty of structural damage and an unnatural iceberg covering the hearthstone beneath the building. The senior godi Kollsveinn Hearthson appraises the PCs of the situation: there are unnatural monstrosities within, and he impresses upon the party the need to save the people still inside and to get to the hearth stone as quickly as possible. What Kollsveinn is not telling the PCs is that he has suspicions that Hengrid sought a secret chamber within the stone for the legendary sword. The sword was secret because otherwise all manner of opportunists would have come to claim it and become the next High Køenig.  The Hall is an architectural marvel, a walkway held up by magical and mundane supports over a river. Inside are various halls with shrines to gods and carvings displaying the history of the Northlands. The dungeon is rather straightforward, although Area 15 (the hearthstone) is surrounded by an invincible supernatural ice stone. The only way to it is via descending through a hole in Area 6. The complex is full of ice elementals, devil gods (cold-based animals), godi and former members of Hengrid's crew taken over by Althunak's fell power (becoming evil clerics or barbarians), frost drakes, and even a glacial ooze from the Ginnungagap. The "boss" is an ancient white dragon who is summoned if the PCs break the snow crystal, a magical giant snowflake anchoring Althunak's dread influence in the Hall. There are several survivors the PCs can rescue as well as the Warspear of Kein, a treasure in a storage closet. The legendary weapon was originally taken down from a mantle by the godi for cleaning and then forgot about somehow. The island containing the Hearth Stone has evidence of a destroyed room as well as an empty treasure box and debris. Once the Hall is cleared out, the godi and hirthmenn will move in to make repairs. Kollsveinn meets the party again and explains the truth of the Hearth Stone's secret chamber and the sword within that Hengrid Donarsdottir somehow knew about and stole. Via prayer with the Æsir he learned that she is under the influence of a powerful spirit of the Ginnvaettir: Althunak. However testimony from a surviving godi mentions that even as she destroyed the hall she spared him and gave him her waterskin so he would not die of thirst. This is seen as evidence that the real Donar is still somewhere inside, fighting and exhibiting one of the Nine Virtues of Donar (hospitality). The Nine Virtues of Donar play a major role in this adventure. Right before the final battle the party has the opportunity to impress upon Hengrid of the hero she still is by using examples found throughout the adventure. The more examples they give, the less power Althunak has over her body. In fact, the form of the final boss of NS9 is effected by the amount of examples given. The saved godi utters a prophecy... quote:"Three keys he needs to feed his fury; ...and then one of the godi stabs him to free an ice oni secretly implanted within him!  In the aftermath of the combat, the PCs can make knowledge and divination checks about the Nine Virtues of Donar, Ragnarök and the Fimbulwinter*, as well as Korenarck's legacy, how it was forged in the fires of Mount Helgastervän, and the Gates of Hel within that mountain. There is a sidebar on if the party uses divination to track Hengrid: Kroenarck has an anti-divination field, but indirect things like tracing Hengrid's route and lucky yes/no questions via Commune work. Otherwise Kollsveinn will use his spells to reveal that Hengrid crossed the North Sea in record time and wrecked her ship on the Virlik Cliffs (in Nûkland). There's also mention of how wind-based magic can be used to speed the party's travel by ship if they don't teleport. *the end of the world and the three-year-long constant winter preceding it respectively Additionally, each chapter further has updated information for divination spells cast regarding Hengrid and the recovered keys required to open the Gates of Hel and thus entry to the Ginnungagap. The Virlik Cliffs  This is another dungeon crawl, where the PCs find the wreck of Hengrid's ship and later on a dungeon in the form of a cave filled with Wikkawaks (goblinoid monsters). In fact, the first time in this entire adventure path do goblins of any sort appear! A secret shrine to Althunak is located in a fog-filled cave near the crash site, where Hengrid claimed a prehistoric idol of Althunak within as the second key to the Gates of Hel. The PCs may find it on their own, or by meeting an entity known as Old Sea Mother (pictured above) who will tell the party about it as well as Hengrid's movements to the Wikkawak lair. But she will only cooperate if they beat one of her children in a game of Hnútukast, a game where two parties throw bones at each other until an eye is taken out or blood is drawn. The Wikkawak lair feels a lot like filler; Hengrid tortured and corrupted the chief, causing him and the rest of the tribe to resort to previously-unpracticed cannibalism. The Wikkawak within are low-CR monsters with levels in the Warrior NPC class at best, with the only "strong" encounters the chieftain, his jotun consort Griseld, and a pet akhlut in a nearby chamber. The main focus of this dungeon plotwise is to have a surrendered Griseld remark upon how she has never seen a Northlander warband "show such discipline" in regards to Hengrid, which is one of the Nine Virtues of Donar. The Tundra and Nûkland  After the PCs make their way out of the caves, the party follows Hengrid's trail out into the tundra. Every few miles are dead wikkawaks and human huscarls with choice pieces of flesh removed. Hengrid is searching for the third key, located in a forgotten crypt where the first Winter King, and first worshiper, of Althunak rests. Along the way the PCs come across the ranger Geirolf who was originally hunting for monsters with his companion. But a savage wolf-beast has been harrowing him, even as he stands guard over his fallen ally's body for 9 days (an oath he swore). It's 8 days in and asks if the PCs can help stand vigil with him for one more night. If they agree, he promises to serve them as thrall for a year and a day. He provides information to the party if they stay, telling of how he met Hengrid's war party. Several of the beasts sought to devour him, but she struck one of them down with her hammer to spare him. In spite of her distinctive appearance he could not believe that she is the heroine of old, but notes that she gave him an amulet of Donar before leaving (loyalty virtue, refusing to be disloyal to the symbol due to her actions and giving it to someone worthier). As for the wolf-beast, it is an advanced greater barghest with the jotunblood template. Technically a subversion of the rules as the barghest does not have the giant subtype. Later encounters include a wendigo seeking to give nightmares of starvation, cold, and cannibalism to the party while they rest. The next encounter's a camp of Hengrid's left-behind human and wikkawak followers who fell to cannibalism and turned upon each other. They are under the thrall of the wendigo's psychosis. At one point one of them will transform into a wendigo themself and fly off into the night, prompting a surviving berserker to realize his eventual fate and ask the PCs to grant him a merciful death. The crypt of the first Winter King is a spooky mound containing an ancient skeleton encased in ice with its skull removed. Hengrid ordered her minions to excavate the mound, where she removed the head to take the crown and third key for the Gates of Hel. The wendigo previously stalking the party enters into the crypt with its howl attack to possess the skeleton as a winterwight. The final encounter for this chapter is in the taiga forest, with increased evidence of Hengrid's band diminishing in number as the bestial huscarls consume each other. The only encounter here is with a manitou who appears as a tree-like giant. He tells the PCs that Hengrid wrestled a forest drake and forced it to fly her to Mount Helgastervän. As for her remaining minions, they transformed into baykoks who interrupt the party's conversation; the manitou vanishes instead of fighting. Due to their cannibalism they will attempt to eat any fallen enemy, but not before wasting time fighting among themselves. The manitou will return, granting a magical pinecone for defending the forest (saving throw bonus) and remark it odd that the monsters stayed. "Apparently she left them behind in order to complete her quest without their help." Self-Reliance, another of the Nine Virtues. If the PCs need help traveling to Mount Helgastervän, the manitous calls an elder air elemental to carry the PCs in its whirlwind. Mount Helgastervän  This legendary mountain has a prominent presence in the stories of the North. It was where Kraki Haraldson recovered Kroenarck from its depths after slaying a dragon, and is home to a legendary dwarven forge. It is currently home to a kingdom of giants. There are many communities within this mountain beyond the scope of this adventure: the fire giants are a labor caste for a tribe of jotuns deeper within, and the deepest caverns hold a clan of dwarves. The mountain entrance is guarded by Rethryvimar, a wounded tarn linnorm within a subterranean pool. She is weary from a fight with Hengrid and willing to talk with the PCs instead of immediate battle. She does not wish to let mortals pass through her territory again and informs them of a side passage, only to betray the PCs in a second thought of not wanting others to know of her lair. The PCs may figure out that Hengrid displayed another of Donar's virtues, meaning she "refused to back down and shown great courage even when she didn't have to." The rest of the dungeon is a fire giant fortress as well as various lava flow caverns and tunnels. Fire giants, volcano giants, and fire lizard pets are frequent encounters. There's a surprising variety of types, from regular old fire giants, fire giant huscarls (Fighter levels), fire giant smiths (hammers but no armor), and even fire giant children who use ogre stats (WHY?!). There's a forgotten tunnel where Kraki Haraldson cavred a Runic inscription into the wall: quote:53 days out of the Vale entered the din of spears with the Red Beast Verthenstyr in its cave. 4 good men soaked in battle-dew to stand upon the banks of the Storm nevermore. A sword for kings as a prize. K.H. It is possible that the PCs may be able to earn an alliance with the volcano giants, who serve an old red dragon named Eskvrcar. Although seeming servants of the fire giants, the dragon wouldn't mind having their lands and resources to herself, so the PCs may be able to get an audience with her via a shaman middle-man. If the PCs act appropriately obsequious she offers to grant them safe passage and an item of choice from her hoard if they bring her the head of the fire giants' jarl. Speaking of treasure, there is a secret artifact within the dungeon's temple of Surtr: the Mead of Poetry. Given that this artifact instantly grants 3 levels in Skald (the advanced class guide or the Northlands archetype), that does raise the issue of whether or not to let the PC level up in the middle of a session or not. Leveling up in Pathfinder is time-consuming in comparison to other RPGs.  There's also a secret door here leading to the final section of the dungeon. It is guarded by a cinder knight and leads to the Gates of Hel. On the way the PCs can find the fabled forge of Bvalin and a very deadly trap which turns the door and surrounding walls into lava (which deal 20d6 damage per round). Alas, the forge's smith is deceased, pinned to a statue by the Gates by the possessed Hengrid. He has a weapon tied to his hand via a piece of fabric torn from a winter wolf cloak. A successful knowledge check points out that dying with weapon in hand guarantees your place in Valhalla, and Hengrid displayed the virtue of mind's-worth. But due to the dwarf's oath to guard said gates, he still exists as a ghost here. Bvalin tells the PCs that Hengrid already passed into the Ginnungagap, the void-like portal floating between the statues. Although she used the three keys, all hope is not lost: the PCs may yet deny Althunak's vessel by stopping her "by skill of tongue or spill of blood." He also informs the party that they have enough time to rest if they need it (10 hours), but due to his oath Bvalin must face the PCs in battle before they can cross. He will rejuvenate and keep watch over the three keys (all in depressed sconces) to ensure that nobody closes it while they're on the other side. The Ginnungagap  The final chapter of this adventure takes place in another plane entirely, the primordial realm which existed before Creation. It is a hell-like realm home to evil outsiders, wendigos, and the souls of unclaimed mortals. The Ginnungagap has its own planar traits: it is strongly aligned with Chaos and Evil, so characters and spells opposite one or both alignment suffer inferior mental skill checks and caster levels. This portion of the realm is metaphysically beneath the Lake of Frozen Screams, meaning the edges wrap in on themselves. One hour in this place equals one day on the Material Plane. The first challenge within this realm is a cave full of acidic negative energy geysers which cause the party's flesh to degrade in small black flakes. Hengrid left a trail of flakes behind her, lending evidence of perseverance as one of the Nine Virtues from the horrific damage she endured. Outside the cave is a bleak, black wasteland with smoky and smudged features. The dark sky has bluish light in the impression of a frozen lake, with a distant hillock the major feature with a corpse-like giant laying upon it. Hengrid Donarsdottir is here, holding up her hammer as green flames descend to slowly bring the comatose Althunak to full power. Travel to the hillock is subjective and does not follow the laws of physics. There will be a certain amount of random encounters beforehand, with the number depending on the Will Save of a designated PC guide. They are appropriately creepy, including advanced gibbering mouthers, lesser banshees, various kinds of demons, and even a mammoth-drawn sled upon which sits Kimrach Ulnslayer, a frost giant who played a major role in the subjugation of the Uln.  The final encounter of this adventure takes place as the PCs come up to an obviously-corrupted Hengrid Donarsdottir. The ritual to revive the god to his full power is nearly complete, and instead of immediately attacking she engages the PCs in a mocking conversation. Although she speaks confidently of the Fimbulwinter's inevitable arrival, a Sense Motive check looks into her eyes to reveal the distraught heroine within. As the ritual has a few hours to go and she will not attack until the PCs do, the players control the pace. This is handled not by skill checks but by pure improv role-playing. For every example of the Nine Virtues they give, the weaker Althunak's hold gets. PCs who make clever use of kenning, deliver their speeches in a suitably heroic oration, as well as any other examples the PCs come up with that the adventure did not include, add additional "examples." A list of eight virtues are provided along with their place in the adventure. The one I did not mention earlier was her Industriousness into getting into the mountain by collapsing a stone outcrop to create a precarious causeway. The ninth unmentioned one, Truth, comes into play later. Once the PCs finish their speeches, Althunak loses patience and attacks via a demon-possessed Hengrid. There are one of five forms she takes, all with varying levels of ex-paladin, from most to least powerful: a wendigo (CR 20), an ice yai oni (CR 17), a jotun (CR 14), a cold rider (CR 13), or a yeti (CR 12). As a result, the climactic battle varies largely in difficulty; however this is only Althunak/Hengrid with no assistance against a full party. This means that the action economy is in the PCs' favor. All of the forms allow her to generate a huge iceberg as an AoE attack, DC 28 Will save attacks (touch attack which corrupts the soul, or a bomming voice which Dominates Monster on evil creatures) in addition to the monster's natural abilities and the properties of her signature weapon Thundersurge. Regardless of the form, the Experience is suitable for a Challenge Rating 20 encounter due to the climactic nature. If Hengrid is defeated in battle, the green fire nimbus retreats from her and her broken body changes back to her original form. The fire takes on the form of Althunak as he attempts to bring the Fimbulwinter to reality: quote:“She is no more. She is nothing. Althunak is all. There is no truth but Althunak. Althunak is here! Yet Hengrid gradually awakens, confused and believing herself to be the evil god as the demon lord begins to shred the last of her identity: quote:Tendrils of green flame continue to stream from the maiden’s still form and cause her cheeks to grow hollower, her eye sockets to sink deeper. The demon is drawing the last bit of the essence it needs as it feeds off of her to reach its full might. The sunken eye sockets flicker, and you catch a glimpse of clear blue eyes. The maiden yet lives if only for a moment more. She struggles to speak, “Who? … Is that me? Am I Althunak?" There is one more virtue: truth. Whether by coming to their own conclusion or via a Knowledge check, they can remind the daughter of Donar of her true self along with bonus Experience to go with this. In a final act of defiance, her soul fades from her body as Althunak rises seemingly at full strength. Yet the icy barrier of the sky cracks open as Donar himself soars down on a goat-driven chariot! With a mighty blow with the power of an erupting volcano, the Æsir slays the Lord of Ice and Cold once and for all! With a respectful reverence, he places a hammer amulet in his daughter's hand, her faith her truest weapon. He shares a meaningful look at the PCs before he departs for Asgard. Hengrid seemingly rises from the dead, yet she is not of Midgard any longer. She is a valkyrie, and in addition to heartfelt thanks she mentions how her duty is to find the greatest of heroes upon the battlefield to bring them home. And she can think of no worthier heroes than the PCs which stand before her. Concluding Thoughts: This should have been the final adventure. It is a bit of a straight dungeon crawl with unrelated enemies, but the opposition really sets the epic tone for the Northlands. Giants, dragons, demons, venturing to the primordial void, engaging a role-playing speech challenge with the final boss who is the god-possessed body of the setting's greatest hero. The ending part with the valkyrie hits me right in the feels and is a perfect way to end such an epic campaign. Overall, Daughter of Thunder and Storm made up for Return of Hallbjorn and The Hallburners because it actually felt heroic. I will say that the alternative option for Hengrid's death in Blood on the Snow feels weak, in that it's an unheard-of NPC cleaning up the PCs' mess from that time. Otherwise I like this. But what could the foe of the final adventure be? With Althunak's influence gone, what is there left? The Jomsvikings? Loki angry at being thwarted in Plague at Trotheim? Nah, it's a completely unrelated and unheard-of bad guy faction: the Huuns, inhabitants of a distant mysterious empire from the eastern continent of Libynos. Join us for our final adventure in NS10: the Broken Shieldwall!
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Apr 11, 2018 08:24
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 Pathfinder Unchained Simplified Spellcasting These rules are supposed to "simplify" spellcasting by changing low-level spells into a spontaneous pool. The book explains that once (prepared) spellcasters get to higher levels, they have a lot of low-level spell slots that they need to track, and this gets fiddly and tedious. Therefore, they propose converting all but the three-highest spell levels into a shared pool that can be cast spontaneously. For example: A level 6 Wizard has three 1st-level spell slots, three 2nd-level spell slots, and two 3rd-level spell slots (plus bonus spells). This does not change under Simplified Spellcasting, since the three-highest spell levels are all the spell levels that they currently have A level 7 Wizard has four 1st-level spell slots, three 2nd-level spell slots, two 3rd-level spell slots, and one 4th-level spell slot (plus bonus spells) under Simplified Spellcasting, a level 7 Wizard instead has a Spell Pool, three 2nd-level spell slots, two 3rd-level spell slots, and one 4th-level spell slot (plus bonus spells) The Spell Pool at level 7 is 1, plus 25% of your spellcasting modifier, so at 18 Int, the Spell Pool would be 2. The Spell Pool lets the Wizard spontaneously cast any level spell covered under it. In this case, they could cast any two 1st-level spells that they want, without having to prepare/memorize them ahead of time. To extend the example, a level 20 Wizard has four 7th-level spell slots, four 8th-level spell slots, four 9th-level spell slots, and then a Spell Pool of 5 (plus bonus spells), and then the Spell Pool covers everything else from 1st-level to 6th-level spells. Two things are immediately obvious with this system: * You are effectively losing a TON of potential spells this way - even the level 7 Wizard is going from four 1st-level spell slots, down to two or so. * The assumption is that you won't need that many - a level 7 Wizard has six spells before they have to dip into their Pool. Now, the idea is that you'd mostly use the Pool spells for "utility"-type spells, and that this helps the player by letting them freely pick between Alarm, Hold Portal, and Floating Disk without having to commit ahead of time, but if you kept the old system and simply used the extra spell slots to have two Alarms, two Hold Portals, and two Floating Disks, then you still get all the utility that you need anyway, and this system is still technically a restriction on your power! So from a practical standpoint, I'd use this system - it restricts the power of spellcasters by robbing them of spell slots, and then it also does reduce the book-keeping. But it doesn't really just simplify spellcasting - it actively changes the power level of the game. Limited Magic These rules change how spell DCs and caster levels are computed. It assumes that all spells are cast with the minimum possible caster level with the minimum possible spellcasting stat. If you cast a 1st-level spell: * the spellcasting stat is always considered to be a 10/+0 * the save DC is always considered to be 11: [10 + 0 spellcasting modifier + 1 spell level] * the caster level is always considered to be 1: so a caster level check to overcome Spell Resistance would always be [d20+1] Aid would always last just 1 minute and only offer 1d8+1 temp HP, while Magic Missile would always have a range 110 feet and would only ever shoot 1 missile. If you cast a 5th-level spell: * the spellcasting stat is always considered to be 15/+2 * the save DC is always considered to be 17: [10 + 2 spellcasting modifier + 5 spell level] * the caster level is always considered to be 9: so a caster level check to overcome Spell Resistance would always be [d20+9] Cone of Cold would always only deal 9d6 cold damage, and Wall of Stone would always create 2-inch-thick walls and only be 9 squares long. This has some practical utility: if the spell stats are static, then you could pretty much treat them as "ability cards", since there's never any computation required. The more obvious change is that it significantly reduces the power of spellcasters. The problem with these rules is that it still preserves a lot of power anyway, because actual effects can vary wildly depending on what the spell actually does. Anything that lasts a minute or an hour per level and just applies a flat effect is probably going to be just fine, such as Fly lasting for 5 minutes or Haste lasting for 5 rounds and still being able affect up to 5 targets. Feeblemind is going to be resisted maybe between 40 to 50% of the time by vulnerable targets, but as long as you land it, then the target is just as disabled anyway. Meanwhile, direct damage spells are hit thrice as hard: their damage is locked, their save DC is locked, and their Spell Resistance check is locked. I wouldn't be totally against trying these rules out for a spin, but at the same time, I can understand why people would just refuse to play a spellcaster if I did, and especially a "blaster"-type build. I can kind of tell what they were going for with these rules, but it just seems like if you wanted to restrain spellcaster power, there are other ways to do it, up to and including playing a different game that doesn't require so much rejiggering.
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Apr 11, 2018 08:53
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gradenko_2000 posted:I wouldn't be totally against trying these rules out for a spin, but at the same time, I can understand why people would just refuse to play a spellcaster if I did, and especially a "blaster"-type build. I can kind of tell what they were going for with these rules, but it just seems like if you wanted to restrain spellcaster power, there are other ways to do it, up to and including playing a different game that doesn't require so much rejiggering. It's worth noting that Heighten Spell increases the spell level of a spell, which increases the minimum caster level and minimum stat - though since Sorcerers require a full round action to use metamagic (and as such their spells go off the round after they start casting), it does dick them over significantly more than Wizards. Edit: Forgot to mention gradenko_2000 posted:Leadership gets a lot of flak for being an "overpowered" feat, but it's worth mentioning that all Leadership really is, is a formalization of the "name level followers" of old-school D&D. It's even level-gated to character level 6. They perhaps failed to account for how powerful it would become once you factor in having direct control of a more-or-less fully-kitted-out second character, and especially when combined with the formalized action economy, but I think Leadership is one of those things that suggests that D&D 3e was still being written with previous editions in mind. On the other hand, given that it costs a feat and most PCs don't get many feats; given that your cohort probably starts significantly lower level than you, and given that class features available to spell casters lower this further, it does seem a decent way to help a Fighter catch up a little compared with other characters - a Fighter with a cohort and (at higher levels) a small army to back them up provides far more options to a party than how the Fighter would otherwise only get to hit stuff. hectorgrey fucked around with this message at 11:58 on Apr 11, 2018 |
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Apr 11, 2018 11:52
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