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Cultures: Africa, pt. 5 Degenesis Rebirth Primal Punk Chapter 2: Cultures Anubia The Nile has swollen, eating up "long forgotten cities" and carrying Psychovore spore packs down the stream (that's how Turkey got hosed up). It has conquered Anubia and the jungle belt around Cairo, the Forbidden City, is said to be impenetrable. The Anubian Cult doesn't give a poo poo, and the city is their capital. Anubia posted:A city where the Anubians’ ancient knowledge about humanity and time is hidden in giant pyramids whose tips catch the lightning and speak of wisdom. Did the Anubians transform the pyramids of Egypt into Frankenstein labs? Who knows. People say that Anubians can avoid the necrotic, bone crumbling effects of the Psychovore poison, but nobody knows for certain. Not even the people reading this book. Thanks for making this section about an important location for one of the player classes super short! Leopards Remember these guys from Lisbon write up? Well, the thing with Neolibyans is that wealth flows downward to all the branches of the family tree. Even some failson cousin that's "as useless as a one -legged slave" gets to be decked out in silks and whatnot. However, some towns and villages either don't get or lose such privilege. Instead of living suckling at the toll-booth-ed teat of Neolibyans, they get back to a more pastoral existence. Leopards posted:Their inhabitants fish in lakes, hunt antelopes or monkeys. They weave their own fabrics from plant fibers. At their hips, they carry bone knives, and they paint their naked torsos with tribal symbols using holy earth. They watch the metropolis with skepticism and curse the Scourgers’ stinking, noisy buggies They're quite content with their life, but they are aware that they're poor. That's why a lot of these folks have banded into loose trade confederacies that defy the Neolibyans. They go where they wilt, sell what they wilt, and generally get up to shenanigans. They call themselves the Leopards, as a leopard is faster than a lion. They use secret paths and waterways to to penetrate inland. Outside of Africa, their ghanjahs sail the Atlantic. The Neolibyans have abandoned the ocean because all sorts of gelatinous blobs assail their ships, congealing and slowing them down. It is theorized that ghanjahs, being sail driven, don't attract mystery ocean bubbles like the engine driven ships do. The Leopards even trade with Leopards posted:But so far, all ghanjahs have returned, loaded with crates full of books, golden jewelry, and golden teeth. There's a joke to be made about British teeth somewhere here... The Leopards don't give a poo poo about Neolibyans. They don't care about their laws and they don't buy their goods. As the book says it, the leopard villages thrive without drowning in pomp, putting Leopards in the position of a cool, grass-roots organization based on communities rather than some bank. However, the Neolibyans don't like it - the word of Bank of Commerce is law! Something has to be done about the Leopards. And while Scourgers are very much unwilling to open fire on fellow Africans, someone else (on Bedain?) might. Lifelines Remember how north Africa suddenly became a rich jungle? That's because the moisture/rain from the western winds suddenly started getting caught up in the triangle formed by Ahaggar, Air and Tibesty mountain ranges. That's where most of the rain falls and where many rivers that feed both the normal and Psychovore jungle originate.  Marked this region for both you and me. Oh, and it's basically unexplored. Hinterland Leopards or no Leopards, the influence of Neolibyans reaches into the hinterlands, with plantations and oil fields sprouting up here and there. If the locals live in traditional mud buildings with wooden roofs, the Neolibyans raise palaces. Here, slaves from Hybrispania and Balkhan are put to work building Surge Tanks in scrapyards and tending the crops. Not that many try to escape, as jungle is, quite naturally, not much more merciful than Scourgers. Steel In the deep jungle, you can find overgrown outposts from the Bygone era. While fortresses and barracks from the ages past are a fun thing to explore, they're also dangerous: here there be robots! AMSUMOs – I don't know why anybody would know their official name or what it means – are stooped, humanoid bots that spontaneously reactivate, clean themselves up and start patrolling their environment. Supposedly they were used by pre-Eschaton whitey to oppress the local populace, but rebelled and started doing their own thing. Steel posted:Those who meet them in the African jungle these days may be lucky and encounter a machine that has scratched a 2 to the power of 16 into its own forehead. Presumably, these AMSUMOs have a soul, having watched humans or animals and learned from them through imitation. Maybe they’ll never again leave their humans finder's side, copying his habits and speech patterns. However, it’s However, they're not Chernobog levels of deadly, as Scourgers and Scrappers hunt them: Neolibyans pay a lot of money to get certain parts of them to wear as jewelry. <<<>>> And that's it! We're done with cultures! What have we learned so far? Probably that while the book is beautifully formatted, the editing and pacing is all over the place, and the authors are not that good at walking the thin line between "mysterious and tantalizing" and "what is this unexplained proper noun bullshit." But maybe we'll have more luck with the next chapter of the book: Cults! Next time: Cult of personaaalityyy
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Jun 8, 2018 05:40
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Realms of Sorcery By God this is a lot of fluff! Would you believe I'm not even halfway done with the fluff in this book? Both Realms of Sorcery and Tome of Salvation are very dense with material, with dozens of pages of background and fluff before they get to the rules. In theory, every human is capable of some small degree of magical aptitude. In practice, that level is usually so small that no amount of training within a human lifetime could even unlock the ability to see the Winds of Magic, let alone manipulate them. It is posited that about one in every thousand humans possesses the natural degree of talent necessary to be an Imperial Magister, with others having lesser talents that can still manifest in unusual luck or twists of fortune (you could use this to explain Fate Points, if you wished). Very few humans can inherently sense the Winds of Magic, and so very few ever try to reach out to them. Three major aptitudes will be present in admixture in any truly promising future wizard, often referred to as the sixth, seventh, and eighth senses: Aethyric Attunement, Witchsight, and Channeling. An Aethyrically Attuned person (someone with the Talent for it) will feel the variations in background magic wherever they go. They are prone to flashes of insight and strange, sudden feelings; if an attuned person entered a region heavy in the power of Aqshy, they would feel excited and be unable to explain why. They might start to sweat despite it being a cold day, or show other signs of being exposed to unnatural heat. These characters very literally feel the Winds at all times, and this ability cannot be turned off; this can lead to a person being labeled mad, especially if this ability manifests from a very young age in a community with little experience with magic. Naturally, a trained wizard will feel their own chosen wind the strongest, and will be influenced by it more heavily than the others. All attuned individuals can feel a creeping sense of dread if they enter a place tainted with Dark Magic. Witchsight is so named because it is tradition; the Magisters of the Empire have been unsuccessful in getting people to call it something less pejorative like 'Soul Seeing' or 'Spiritsense' or other more impressive (and less accusatory) names. Like attunement, Witchsight is an additional sense that cannot be turned off, though a character not actively using their Magical Sense skill might be paying less attention to it and trying to 'tune it out' to focus on the physical world. Wizards always see the work of the Winds on the world, manifesting in colored auras, strange hallucinations, and visions of the beings that exist beyond reality, lurking just past the veil; these strange visions are another reason young magically sensitive people can be declared mad before the Colleges find them. Some of them actually DO go mad, seeing things that they know are 'real' but that no-one else can see. Witchsight is very useful for an adventurer, though they suggest a terrible optional rule where you punish players for making checks with it too regularly by giving them Insanity points if they miss a test by 20 or more (don't use this rule; in fact, don't use the optional Insanity system at all). Witchsight is also very distracting and can be the cause of the a Magister's reputation for eccentricity; they try to ignore it in normal social situations, but a particularly vivid vision can distract even the most disciplined wizard. Channeling, the Eighth sense, is absolutely necessary to actually work magic rather than just observe it. Channeling reflects the ability to draw in and give shape to the power of the Aethyr, and it is quite possible for someone to be born with an inborn ability to Channel but no attunement or Witchsight. These unfortunates tend to have tremendous swings of luck and strange phenomena that happen all around them, and lacking the senses to understand what they are doing, are at risk of possession or being accused of dark witchcraft unless they are found and given proper training. It is actually very rare for a human to possess all three without any training, and marks someone of significant potential and skill. Without training, Channeling can lead to ruin as a hedge-wizard doesn't know how to avoid creating magical 'run-off' in the form of Dhar, and may not know how to distinguish 'spirits' and forces of the Winds from demons playing for their soul. Some people are actually capable of shaping magic without formulae or spells. These people tend to have towering egos and tend to be insane, like necromancers and Chaos Sorcerers, and even then those can benefit from ritual. Magic's fuel is still the raw energy of change and aethyr, and magisters theorize that the binding 'order' of a spell serves as a medium that will attract the power and give it shape. You'll remember the gold wizard theory that magic is attracted to thought and then 'cools' and solidifies its expression in the natural world by contact with properly ordered thought? That isn't far off from the theory of spellcraft. As I said, it is possible to simply beat magic into shape by raw will. This is difficult and very likely to explode. Magic expresses itself in the spells and rituals of the colleges because these are known, well-trod, relatively safe paths for the expression of aethyric energy into reality. When a Bright Wizard invokes the ancient language and gestures that produce a fireball, they can be reasonably certain it will, in fact, produce a ball of fire if done properly, and will do so in balance with the available wind of Aqshy in the area. This also gets to linguistics in magic. The Speak Arcane Language (Magic) skill is necessary for an Imperial Wizard, and is itself a simpler version of the Elven arcane language passed down by Teclis. The human Magisters had simpler spells, as they were learning in an emergency situation, and so were given a much simpler lexicon to work with. As we see from Teclis' own theories in the book, he believed that the arcane languages are derived from the language of the Old Ones (elves also believe Eltharin is a devolved form of the Old Ones' own tongue). This language was the language of all creation, and thus perfect for inscribing precise magical formulae that will properly shape the energy of the aethyr on contact. Humans actually believe that the Old One language may form a sort of genuine mother-tongue of all languages for the Old World, explaining many of the similarities in languages like Breton and Reikspiel, and the relative ease of learning languages in Warhammer. Another interesting point is that the Language of Magic is also linguistically related to Dark Tongue as well as Eltharin. It is impossible to avoid using the Language of Chaos when shaping the Aethyr, even if the incantations are much more precise and scrubbed of direct reference to the Dark Gods, and this is generally kept from the Witch Hunters. The Light College holds that if the language of the Old Ones could be fully uncovered, that the Old Ones had catalogued every being and phenomena in existence, and thus their full lexicon could open up incredible new heights of magical and scientific development. They also believe that somehow the language of the Old Ones has a life of its own, and continues to add to itself, cataloguing every new thing and idea dreamed of by mortals. Discovering it would be a holy grail to these scholar-wizards. It is interesting to me how much the Old Ones come up, obliquely, in this book. Wizards are interested in the nature of the world and their own powers, after all, and they cannot help but be curious about the supposedly Godlike beings who could use magic to reshape entire planets without the taint of Chaos. In many ways, the Old Ones would be the ideal state of the Wizard's art, wouldn't they? Next: Magic in Imperial Society
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Jun 8, 2018 16:47
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One wonders what the wizard linguists would say on learning that proper speech in the tongue of the Old Ones involves croaking, or that most of said speech is irrelevant to its speakers, who can usually manage spells with a single word.
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Jun 8, 2018 19:15
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Realms of Sorcery That's a burnin' Licensed magic is new in Imperial society, and as we've gone over, it can be easy to mistaken a budding magic user for a madman. Given the relative rarity of magical talent among humans, many Imperial communities have never seen a genuine wizard. Add to this that the cults still don't especially like wizards, that unlicensed magic is fairly likely to lead to Chaos or Necromancy, and that the Colleges have a vested interest in being the sole source of magical legitimacy in the Empire, and things can get hairy for a wizard out in the sticks. Folktales of evil wizards and sinister witches abound in the Empire, and most Imperial citizens still believe that mages are inherently touched by Chaos. This same reputation of power and darkness also means the locals aren't likely to grab a collegiate in their robes and signs of their profession and try to nail them to a tree or burn them, though; the average Imperial citizen doesn't know enough to distinguish a struggling Journeyman or Apprentice from a Master Wizard and they would likely not want to risk their wrath. Strangely, the very rural areas of the Empire are actually safer for a mage than the small towns, even for an unlicensed one. Superstition, folk religion, and a thousand and one different little 'rites to Rhya' or simple tricks to 'keep the Beasts away' exist in the countryside, and many of them have actual hedge wizard power behind them. Most of the rural folk of the Empire would still run in terror if they saw a Celestial Wizard call down lightning and fling it at someone, but the idea that you ask a wise man to auger the skies and see if the rains will be coming on time (and maybe to perform a little rite if they aren't, to make them do so) is so ingrained in the Imperial peasantry that they'd be fine with these more subtle manifestations of magery. Many small communities also have contact with minor spirits like dryads, who aren't necessarily linked to Chaos despite being things of magic. The blurry line between superstition, magic, religion and hedgecraft in the Empire's rural communities makes it easier for mages to operate there, even though 'witchcraft' is still feared. It's the small towns that are the worst. They tend to have comfortable priests who have very little oversight, and who can say what they wish to their congregations as major community leaders; there's always the chance some radical anti-magic firebrand was banished to a small out of the way burg and is just itching for a chance to conduct a burning. They also have much less contact with folk-magic and tend to stick tightly to the dogmas that any form of sorcery is witchcraft and unable to be separated from the powers of Chaos. It is dangerous for a young magic user to grow up in these insular and suspicious communities, and it can be dangerous for an experienced one passing through. Your license might not protect you if the locals get up the courage to overcome their fear and decide that they don't care what Emperor Magnus said 250 years ago, Sigmar despises all weavers of the black arts; and at that point, a wizard has to choose how they're going to trick their way out of this mess because slaughtering a bunch of Imperial citizens with their magic won't sit well with their orders or the Hunters. The cities tend to be the safest place for wizards. For one, they have the largest population and thus the largest population of magically sensitive people. They also tend to contain guilds for masters and journeymen, or in the case of Altdorf they hold the Colleges themselves. People in a city are much more likely to recognize the official garb of the Orders and many of the large merchant houses have lucrative deals with the wizards for aid in their business. Nobles tend to be able to read and tend to be a little more in the know about larger Imperial politics, and thus tend to realize they shouldn't randomly piss off wizards. The cities are where you are most likely to find people who make a distinction between witchcraft and magic, who may admit that a wizard can be far more help than harm, and who might not run away screaming if they see overt spellcraft. Altdorfers, especially, make it a point to act blase and unimpressed by magic as a point of civic pride. Altdorf is the only place in the Empire where you can draw a flaming sword from mid-air and have a crowd stumble over themselves to act unimpressed, criticizing its size, its heat, its shape, its color in their rush to cover up that they're scared out of their minds but know there's no escaping goddamn wizards as long as the Colleges exist. Magical sensitivity has been on the rise in the Empire, especially since the Storm of Chaos. The most recent classes of apprentices in Altdorf are more numerous than ever before, with some worrying that this represents a growing tide of magic in the world, which could bode poorly. While more wizards can be helpful, if the Vortex is weakening or the flow of Chaos is increasing in the north it can only mean bad things. It is difficult for wizards to undo millennia of paranoia and tradition, as well; they have only been a legitimized and licensed force in the Empire for about two and a half centuries, compared to the millennia of 'burn on sight' policies. Most people also try to avoid getting involved with magic because they fear that mention of it might draw the eyes of hard-looking men and women in big, wide-brimmed hats and long coats who ask a lot of questions about why such things are your concern. Regardless, there are still those who dabble in magic without license. The most common sort of unlicensed dabbler is the Hedge Wizard. These people have been able to sense and manipulate magic on their own, and often take advantage of the tolerance for their craft mentioned in the rural areas of the Empire. A local 'wise woman' who has figured out a simple fertility charm to help infertile couples conceive, or an 'apothecary' whose potions sometimes cure sickness better than natural medicine ever could? Communities will often tolerate such things. Many of these dabblers experiment with ways to draw power from where it seeps into the surrounding environment, figuring out how to squeeze energy out of rock and glen to power their experiments. Left unattended, these people can be dangerous, but their spells leave tracks and their ability to work them self-taught indicates real potential: Imperial Magisters often wander about specifically to investigate and apprentice these amateur sorcerers. After all, these people are unquestionably talented, and a good student reflects well on their master. Even more, they may have insights you didn't, and if you make one your graduate student, you can take their ideas for yourself! The academic potential is thrilling! Witches are not inherently Chaos witches, nor is it a gendered term in the Empire. Witches are specifically Hedge Wizards who have practiced for a significant amount of time and discovered more than simple petty magic. They work actual Lore magic, or a facsimile of it. If you'll recall from Tome of Corruption, the Vikti magic users among the Norse use a very similar talent and style as Witches in the Empire, whereby they can put together (at significant EXP cost) a sort of patchwork of minor spells from several Lores that they can work at slightly higher risk of miscast. Witches that don't use Dark Magic are often prized students; they've gotten as far as they can go without a teacher, whether it be Chaos or the Colleges, and the Colleges would really prefer it be the latter. For the Witch, working magic is a dangerous, fine line to walk where the practitioner has to be very careful to sift the spirits from the demons and the winds from the darkness, and has to do it all on their own lest they fall to a worse sort of magic. That magic being the magic of Warlocks. We'll also get a career for Warlocks, and they're amusingly not that great of wizards, despite their arrogance. These are people who refuse to submit to the magical traditions of the Colleges and who believe that Dark Magic is forbidden solely because it is powerful, rather than because working with it is insanely dangerous. They tend to be towering egomaniacs who uniformly believe they are magical geniuses, eager to mess about with demons, toy with necromancy, and generally do stupid poo poo that will get a lot of people killed. It's common to find Warlocks claiming that Teclis 'crippled' human magic by 'only' teaching the Color Spells and that the elves kept the secrets of Dhar for themselves. It is very common for Warlocks to start out 'independent', believing they need only their wills and egos to work their 'brilliant' magics, before falling into worship of this or that demon prince or evil spectre because it flattered them at the right moment. These people know exactly enough to be genuinely dangerous and will often be the source of magical adventures. Dedicated Necromancers represent some of the most dangerous human practitioners of Dark Magic. As you'll recall from the vampire book, Necromancy is uniquely human. Elves barely acknowledge it exists, and it seems only humans are 'close enough' to death to really grasp these sorts of dark arts regularly. Necromancers are generally obsessed with extending their own lives, and often end up serving the Vampires, making them enemies of the state and enemies of the Cult of Morr. The Amethyst College is also devoted to wiping out the practice of Necromancy. This sort of Dark Magic is less likely to cause flashy mutations and instead causes a cadaverous, unhealthy appearance and pallor, even as it cracks the user's mind and soul. Necromancers usually remain exactly sane enough to be truly dangerous threats, and a skilled Necromancer can equal a Master Wizard or even a Wizard Lord in raw power, as they have extensive traditions to draw upon and masters to learn from. Of course, there are two kinds of sanctioned magic in the Empire. The collegiate Magisters, and Priests. Priests tend to deny they use magic, accrediting their powers to their Gods alone, and the forms of miraculous magic granted to Annointed Priests and Warrior Priests do tend to be much more stable (if less powerful) than the magic of Magisters. Priestly miracles are blessed, and the common folk hold magic-using Priests in very high regard. Magisters are still usually held in some degree of suspicion, tolerated but not exactly trusted. Foreign wizards are technically not permitted to practice magic, but in the interests of diplomacy, Kislevite Ice Witches and Bretonnian Damsels are grandfathered in as 'priestly' magic traditions (despite that not being the case in either case) because the Hunters trying to seize either of those would instantly create a serious international incident with an allied nation. Next: Where do wizards come from?
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Jun 8, 2018 19:16
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WHFB: People sometimes confused the wind of Shysh with causing skeletons and the undead. AoS: Shysh is literally Nagash's realm.
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Jun 8, 2018 19:21
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One really interesting bit is that most of the alternate magical traditions cap at Mag 2. You either need to become a dedicated Chaos Sorcerer, go to wizard college (and then maybe drop out to study evil if you wanted to use renegade magic), or get some kind of gift of the Dark Gods to get above Mag 2 as a Cult Magus, Witch, Vikti or Warlock. At a certain point you need someone to teach you to really get great at slinging spells.
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Jun 8, 2018 19:27
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JcDent posted:WHFB: People sometimes confused the wind of Shysh with causing skeletons and the undead. In this case it's justifiable. Nagash ate the Wind of Death and corrupted it a bit. Despite this the Realm of Shyish is still a realm of Heavens and Hells brought into existence by Belief. (The Dead normally traveling to their believed afterlife in Shyish which they unintentionally created.) There are two parts to Shyish the surface, which can be like any place in the world. (Though it tends to have a bit of a macabre theme because of the association with Death.) the living live here and do stuff that normal people do, like farming. Under the surface are the Underworlds which as mentioned take on appearances based on belief and as a result is filled with various afterlives. However Nagash as Shyish's most powerful god, goes around with his army of the Undead and takes control of the afterlives and people of Shyish, and consuming other death gods. Doing stuff like turning one afterlife into a prison for people that defy him. And for the longest time no one did anything about this as Nagash was promised the worlds souls as the god of death when the other gods allied with him. Pretty much Shyish is still supposed to be a realm of natural death, but Nagash is a corrupting influence. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jun 8, 2018 |
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Jun 8, 2018 20:03
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I don't know much about Age of Sigmar, but the "Mortal Realms" setting seems pretty esoteric. For those in the know, does it have potential as an RPG setting? I feel like not having the more grounded sense of history that you find in the Old World will just make it harder to make it feel lived in. Like, how the heck do people act when they've just been zapped into this arbitrary place? Are there, like, roads there?
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Jun 8, 2018 20:48
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Wikipedia Brown posted:I don't know much about Age of Sigmar, but the "Mortal Realms" setting seems pretty esoteric. For those in the know, does it have potential as an RPG setting? We are getting an Age of Sigmar RPG and I think it can work as one. There are Roads and towns and such. There are farmers, merchants and settlers. (Though this is relatively recent lore as in the start Chaos had more or less taken over the world and other then one Realm most stuff was under Chaos control. Fortunately they did a time skip and now a good chunk of the lands are settled and all the realms now have normal people in them.) I did some research on the setting recently. And I think it has potential for the RPG. I have some difficulty just explaining stuff from the get go in you have any questions I can try my best to answer them about the setting. Like the place was just confusing to start with, but there is a history and the setting has become a bit more grounded recently.
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Jun 8, 2018 20:59
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Night10194 posted:Ironically, for people who can't sense magic at all, the dwarves are some of the best artisans of magical tools. All Runesmiths are descended from the Ancestor God Thungni, and while they I don't think they have the same magical senses humans and elves do, they have an intuitive ability to figure out how to make runes, even ones that are lost. And rune making gets pretty crazy, like hammering the rune 57 times every new moon for three years sorts of craziness.
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Jun 8, 2018 21:07
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White Coke posted:All Runesmiths are descended from the Ancestor God Thungni, and while they I don't think they have the same magical senses humans and elves do, they have an intuitive ability to figure out how to make runes, even ones that are lost. And rune making gets pretty crazy, like hammering the rune 57 times every new moon for three years sorts of craziness. Oh believe you me, we are absolutely going to rune town in this book. This book has rules for rediscovering the Rune of Alaric the Mad and being able to make a new facsimile Runefang, or forging one of those insane dwarven king crowns.
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Jun 8, 2018 21:11
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"No, we can't sling fire about. What we can do is create weaponry so good you won't have to".
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Jun 8, 2018 21:27
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Spire part 21 Well, it's close to the end of the main rulebook now. One of the nice things is that Spire is around 90% setting, if not more, and at least in my experience it's all been quite an interesting read. So now we get to the appendices - even more setting! Some of which originated in requests by higher-tier kickstarter backers. Appendix 1: The New Gods The aforementioned backer rewards; eight gods imported into Spire via Pilgrim's Row and New Heaven. Notably, most of them are human - not just worshipped by humans, but humans seem to ascend into godhood at an alarming rate in the setting, in contrast to Gnolls or Elves, whose gods tend to be more abstract. Most of the New Gods are structured as (smallish) extra advance paths. And they're all quite fun. Ishtuk, God of Personal Demons In the deserts of the south, the Drow of the wandering Duchy of Aliquam have collected numerous gods and minor faiths, worshipped in addition to the Danmou, and some of them have made it to the Spire. Ishtukism is an old faith; he is the brother of Charnel, grey and tired-eyed who preaches self-denial and self-mastery; the chaining of your inner demons. This gets a bit literal with a touch of magic. Join the cult by forswearing something you love at Ishtuk's altar. Refresh when you are tempted and refrain at a cost to yourself. Low Smell the vice of an NPC. Medium Cough up stress as noxious black tar or drive a target to follow their basest urges.  Luxulyan, the Duke of Air The human god of (powered) flight. Once part of the cult (through a series of terrifying initiation ceremonies), followers of Luxulyan construct a Skyshrine (a medium advance) - a personal flying machine which works through a blending of technology and divine magic, and may be mechanical wings, a personal dirigible, jetpack, helicopter, you name it. Refresh by adding significant modifications to the shrine, which itself acts as a Bond, taking stress when you fly. Fallout is various flavours of it breaking down or crashing. Apash, the Martyr of Whitecross In his mortal life, the human known as Apash was instrumental in overthrowing the tyrannical despot of Whitecross; once the greatest of the arcologies unearthed by humanity. A hundred and fifty years later he's a popular cult figure, worshipped by increasing numbers of Drow in Spire. The cult's always open to new members of a revolutionary bent. Refresh by donating something useful or valuable to the cause. Low Take a Firebrand low advance or mark stress to Blood or Mind when you'd otherwise take it to your other resistances. Medium Deliver a sermon to prevent fallout to a bond.  High The above, but in defense of a person, mission or idea. Carabys, the Chained God Not a god with a cult or worshippers, and evidence of the demonology the Aelfir deny using in their wars, Carabys was once a human mercenary. Implanted with an aelfir memetic summon circle, an attempt to use him to create a demonic incursion didn't cause the usual devestation to the world around, but instead was channeled into Carabys himself. Now he's something other than human, sustained by a cult of demonologist-priests who keep him chained in a hidden temple, mouth stapled shut to keep his powers bound, and fed on hidden truths. Petitioners can ask him for knowledge, but this always comes at a price. The Many From the Home Nations of Ys, embroiled in their never-ending civil wars comes a constant stream of refugees, bringing with them fragments of the old faith of the Drow; cthonic gods that never saw the sky. Here in Spire they've formed into a single religion, a faith of Drow tradition and family. Worshippers of the Many will take any genuine acolytes into their communion, although most are born to the faith. Followers refresh when they sacrifice for the good of their community. Low Walk through wards of divine magic or gain knowledge and power from one of the aspect sof the many. Avoid stress when assisting another character. Medium Ignore stress equal based on the size of your group. [/i]High[/i] The Many unite to protect you from harm. Miah, God of Secrets Lost Faceless and gentle, Miah guards that which has been forgotten. Secrets are sacred to them, and their followers commit one of their own to the sacred flame. They refresh when they commit further valuable secrets to their god. Low Burn a secret, avoid stress if it comes to light or gain a bond on someone who entrusts you with their secrets. Medium Invoke a ritual to smooth over social misfortunes. After ten minutes of conversation with a (restrained) subject, become aware of the biggest secret they are harbouring. High Condense the essence of a secret into a living being, preventing it from being spoken while the secret now lives. If they find this out, they take stress. If they speak their secret, they explode.  Garrick, the Steel-Boned Another ascended human, Garrick was a skilled technician whose body was failing them, and who sought to patch themselves up with experimental prothesis. Eventually they were entirely machine and a cult has grown up of those who seek to emulate their idol. Worship of Garrick is open to any who are willing to implant or augment their bodies with technology. Refresh when you repair a machine that improves peoples' lives. Low Replace your ribcage with silver and steel. Cut away a limb and splice on a mechanical replacement. Fix technology at a divinely augmented rate (and 'improve' it somewhat). Delegate simple tasks to a bundle of semi-autonomous machines. Medium Gain mastery to Fight and Fix interacting with machines. Implanted galvanic coils can heal your body and mind (but weigh you down). The Masked God A recently-discovered being, as Drow have been forced to don masks in service to the Aelfir. Visions of the Masked god appear in the dreams or mirrors of the faithful, guiding their hand and giving them another face to show the world. They appear as a Drow in visions, but this is probably just another mask. To follow the Masked God, you much live the life of another person for at least a month, even when alone. You refresh when you successfully pose as another person. Low Once a session, ask the GM who is lying. Change your face to that of anyone you've seen for the past day. Medium Weave a blessing of anonymity and subterfuge. A minor lie you tell becomes true until the next dawn. High Become a perfect replica of a subject you've met and studied. Once per session, ignore fallout entirely by having it happen to a cover identity.  And this is why the Masked God is probably the best of the bunch. Next time; more appendices
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Jun 8, 2018 21:46
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Barudak posted:
This is that good 90's poo poo.
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Jun 8, 2018 21:46
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LongDarkNight posted:This is that good 90's poo poo. Good news: its time to point buy dexterity to the max
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Jun 8, 2018 22:16
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Barudak posted:Good news: its time to point buy dexterity to the max Does it give you extra actions in combat, or does it just govern most of the most useful physical skills, accuracy, and your main defense all at the same time? Trying to determine the level of 90s we're dealing with here.
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Jun 8, 2018 22:43
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Night10194 posted:Does it give you extra actions in combat, or does it just govern most of the most useful physical skills, accuracy, and your main defense all at the same time? Trying to determine the level of 90s we're dealing with here. Both, of course. I have to recalculate the odds but a basic gun has a stupidly high chance of instantly incapacitating or outright killing a player in a single shot.
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Jun 8, 2018 22:52
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Realms of Sorcery is still one of my favourite source books ever because of all the Wizard Politics and descriptions about the life of a Wizard Student. drat, Fantasy Warhams was/is such a great setting when its allowed to get away from the 'raa raa man wants to stab another man' boredom of the miniatures.
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Jun 8, 2018 22:55
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A lot of that comes from 2e being lucky enough to be written right on the heels of the Storm of Chaos, before they retconned it and went back to before it had happened. Having to write for a setting that had just survived the apocalypse and had it go a lot better than they expected let them spend a lot more time on wizard politics and how people are paying down the debts they took forming the international interracial coalition of asskicking that put down Archaon rather than spending all the time moaning about how doomed they were and how war's eternal. One of the saddest things to me is that they couldn't see how perfectly in theme it was for the destined hero, who may not have been the hero at all but just some kid who was brave enough to take up the right hammer and stand against the Dark Lord, lose. And for it not to matter because the world was strong enough to win anyway, because it wasn't just down to that one guy.
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Jun 8, 2018 22:58
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Yeah, the 2e materiel came out at just the right time to get to expand on all the fun things about the setting and ignore all the deathviking stuff since, you know, the LORD OF THE END TIMES had just been slapped around by some orc before running away with his tail between his legs. Maybe I should start writing up the 1e material some day so you get to see how the setting has evolved through its life. There are no noble warrior-kings who are also skilled diplomats valiantly fighting against the armies of darkness there (but then again chaos in 1e was pretty much just cultists doing weird poo poo instead of metal vikings trying to kill everyone)
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Jun 8, 2018 23:08
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Wikipedia Brown posted:I don't know much about Age of Sigmar, but the "Mortal Realms" setting seems pretty esoteric. For those in the know, does it have potential as an RPG setting? GW has spent a lot of time solidifying the setting in preparation for the second edition and I'm quite keen at getting that rulebook just to see how they've done it. Out of 320 pages of the new rulebook apparently half of that is dedicated to lore about the realms. But like MonsterEnvy mentions there is settlements and such in the middle areas while towards the edges things get weird and very lethal.
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Jun 8, 2018 23:10
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I'd love to see anything on the 1e material.
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Jun 8, 2018 23:16
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Barudak posted:Good news: its time to point buy dexterity to the max
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Jun 8, 2018 23:23
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IIRC the techniques Teclis taught to the fledgling Magisters are considered dangerous and forbidden on Ulthuan. Focusing on a single wind to the exclusion of all else allows a mage to gain in power extremely quickly, but over time will inevitably drive them mad. ...humans die of old age before they get much beyond 'eccentric'. So, it works.
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Jun 9, 2018 01:02
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As cool as Spire is, I wish it had more GM material (although the prefab campaigns they put out later are pretty good). It throws a lot of weirdness at you but doesn't give you great guidance (in my opinion). A list of good Aelfir targets to aim your players at would be nice, as would any kind of notoriety or faction system to give you some clear mechanical rules on how much hell to bring down on the players. I think if I run Spire, I'll be kludging in the Reign company rules and/or clocks from Blades in the Dark.
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Jun 9, 2018 01:02
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The Lone Badger posted:IIRC the techniques Teclis taught to the fledgling Magisters are considered dangerous and forbidden on Ulthuan. Focusing on a single wind to the exclusion of all else allows a mage to gain in power extremely quickly, but over time will inevitably drive them mad. Yeah, I can't remember where I read that, but it's like 'within 100 years of starting you'll go mad from the technique of the 8 keys' or something. But, as you say, humans don't live that long and it lets them learn extremely quickly. As far as I know one of the greatest barriers to humans learning stuff like High Magic is their lifespan. And I believe becoming a Vampire fucks you up enough that you can't perceive the winds in harmony the way you'd need to anymore, too. That's all conjecture, but I really like the idea that it isn't the weakness of humans but just the amount of time involved that stops them.
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Jun 9, 2018 01:13
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Vampires are "living" emanations of natural Dhar and prefer to focus on necromancy anyway (because that's a human-only thing and a great force multiplier for their INEVITABLE CONQUEST), but there's no reason they can't also learn some color magic.
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Jun 9, 2018 02:05
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They learn color magic fine (It's even one of their Advances at Lord) but I think they might struggle with actual High Magic thanks to the natural Dhar, is what I meant.
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Jun 9, 2018 02:11
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Night10194 posted:They learn color magic fine (It's even one of their Advances at Lord) but I think they might struggle with actual High Magic thanks to the natural Dhar, is what I meant. High Magic also probably just isn't that useful to a vampire. A Necharch might get some mileage out of it, but High Magic tends to be pretty esoteric in application. Color magic, though, has all sorts of direct uses. Think a vamp is already a nasty customer? Now imagine facing one who's an amber wizard and has been buffing herself up while monologing to the PCs.
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Jun 9, 2018 03:36
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Yeah though it's still pretty rare for a Vampire to learn and master more then one type of magic. So they tend to focus purely on Necromancy. Mannfred is pretty much known as the best mage of all the Von Carstein Vampires. (And perhaps the best Vampire Mage period.) Having mastered Necromancy and the Lore of Death. His pure focus on mastering magic the way he did are apparently what caused his change in appearance during the editions.
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Jun 9, 2018 04:26
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Entertainingly enough, possibly the most powerful mage in the Old World is technically an undead mummy; Venerable Lord Kroak. Did they ever make a model for the elderly Skink Priest who was gifted his own hovering palanquin?
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Jun 9, 2018 09:36
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Entertainingly enough, possibly the most powerful mage in the Old World is technically an undead mummy; Venerable Lord Kroak. He's not undead. He's just dead.
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Jun 9, 2018 10:06
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The Lone Badger posted:He's not undead. He's just dead. But he hasn't let that keep him down!
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Jun 9, 2018 10:18
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Entertainingly enough, possibly the most powerful mage in the Old World is technically an undead mummy; Venerable Lord Kroak. Yes. He is probs the best Celestial Mage around because he has a special math stick that lets him calculate meteorite paths and redirect them.
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Jun 9, 2018 11:12
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Mors Rattus posted:special math stick Slide rule?
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Jun 9, 2018 11:19
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The Lone Badger posted:Slide rule? It has a special gyroscopic thingy on top.
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Jun 9, 2018 11:22
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Night10194 posted:A lot of that comes from 2e being lucky enough to be written right on the heels of the Storm of Chaos, before they retconned it and went back to before it had happened. Having to write for a setting that had just survived the apocalypse and had it go a lot better than they expected let them spend a lot more time on wizard politics and how people are paying down the debts they took forming the international interracial coalition of asskicking that put down Archaon rather than spending all the time moaning about how doomed they were and how war's eternal. Split the line in two; let WHFB 9e continue after whatever happened in Storm of Chaos, and let the official line be what leads to AoS. Archaon is a bitch, anyways:  Chosen of Blingee, more likely.
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Jun 9, 2018 14:53
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JcDent posted:Split the line in two; let WHFB 9e continue after whatever happened in Storm of Chaos, and let the official line be what leads to AoS. There is some rumors they plan to do something with their old revival rules Warhammer Legends. As stuff like Total Warhammer and Warhammer Fantasy 4e coming out has heightened the settings popularity.
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Jun 9, 2018 18:27
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Some RPG's feel more like outsider art than anything. I don't even know what this thing is called, it's someone's homebrew RPG that was so bizarre one of his players decided to upload it to 4chan. For instance...Races posted:The Nosemen of Altansor have nothing at all to do with noses. However, by a totally meaningless quirk of evolution, they just happen to look exactly like giant human noses with legs coming out of the nostrils and arms coming out of the sides. They have eyes and ears and reach up approximately to average human height. The back of the ‘nose’ body is just a flat surface. It is extremely common to tattoo the back of the nose with tattoos of your city, religion, social status, marriage, and major life events. Ironically, they have no sense of smell. Among other things, being good with a polearm lets you use your spear to detect lies. Because that makes sense to someone, I guess. Spells posted:Level 1 Spells And breathing is magic, so is spitting, and burping. Spitting on someone actually does a minor amount of damage, so theoretically you could spit someone to death. I'm much too baffled(and too busy dying from the boiling hot weather) to actually analyze this thing, but the following link contains all of the files that the despairing player uploaded: https://ufile.io/9db55 I'd suspect it was a troll or parody if not for the ridiculous amount of effort that seems to have gone into making it. The more bizarre thing is that according to the player, despite names like Nostrildamus, King of the Nosemen Oracles, the GM appears to be trying to run gritty political plots in the setting.
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Jun 9, 2018 19:03
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races posted:The Nosemen of Altansor have nothing at all to do with noses. However, by a totally meaningless quirk of evolution, they just happen to look exactly like giant human noses with legs coming out of the nostrils and arms coming out of the sides. They have eyes and ears and reach up approximately to average human height. The back of the ‘nose’ body is just a flat surface. It is extremely common to tattoo the back of the nose with tattoos of your city, religion, social status, marriage, and major life events. Ironically, they have no sense of smell. I would play this. "spells" posted:Level 1 Spells Nevermind, I would not play this. PurpleXVI posted:The more bizarre thing is that according to the player, despite names like Nostrildamus, King of the Nosemen Oracles, the GM appears to be trying to run gritty political plots in the setting. disregard that, I would play this at all costs. Magic posted:Magic is keyed based on elements. Although some of these elements share the names of traditional what stats posted:Start with 200 stat points. You must have a minimum of Lvl/2 in all stats and a maximum of Lvlx3 (preracial penalties/benefits).  levels posted:Because people keep asking, I have created this level reference sheet.  races posted:Arachadeen Percentile bonuses? This game has to be a parody. races posted:Corvan-lulu are these barbiefolk? did they really do this? dadadadadada posted:Dadadadadadadada They look just like birds without beaks or feathers or wings. They have birdy-like eyes tho. races posted:The Embarola are the children of Embarola, goddess of mirrors. One-thousand years ago, another god (reports disagree as to whom) bet her that he could create something as pretty as her. If he succeeded, she would have to never leave the island of Boros and irritate the other gods with her presence again. Being extremely narcissistic, she agreed. He created an entire race of people physically identical to her in every way, except that half were male (and even then, it takes some effort to tell which is which).The goddess Embarola was ecstatic and didn’t mind at all her loss. Now she had an entire island of toys to play with. The society of the Embarola is based around their goddess, who is not merely the head of their government, but is personally involved in the lives of every single person. She visits them in school, talks to them and learns about their likes and dislikes, advises them on what careers to pursue, helps set up marriages for Embarola who are shy, and so on. Other races who visit the island almost always describe the Embarola as basically being children in mentality. Playable Embarola are assumed to be the few who find her stifling and flee to see the rest of the world. Embarola look humanoid, except incredibly thin (like the mass of a small child stretched out to the size of an adult). They have obsidian skin and long, flowing golden hair that reaches down past their waists. From their back extend six fiery wings that can curve to cover their bodies. Their legs are extremely thin wisps incapable of supporting their weight except when sitting. They lack noses, and their eyes are almost twice as large as a human’s. Their foreheads are also very long by human standards. Facial hair is unknown. All Embarola look identical except for gender, and the men still look very feminine. finally, we get to the adolescent anime goddess race. After the relatively sane treatment of little girls and tentacles earlier I was starting to get worried. humans posted:No one knows where humans come from, though it’s rumored they were dropped out of another world and into this one. They are confined to the continent of Shallos, as the surrounding continents are either filled with hostile empires or otherwise impassable for most mortals. Wherever they’re from, they quickly gained a reputation as unscrupulous. They drove out most of the natives of Shallos some centuries ago, leaving many races to perish. Shallosian humans are split into many realms, often called the Manyrealms. They have no proper leader, though times of conflict sometimes bring them together. Most Shallosian humans are dark-skinned with light hair, but some southern Shallosian humans have fairer skin. Green eyes are universal. Oh it was a modern game the whole time that's weird. HCFJ fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Jun 9, 2018 |
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