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Young Freud posted:Nah, cassowary henge.  I want to help you with your problems.
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Apr 2, 2016 20:24
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Don't cassowaries have frikken velociraptor claws and a bad temper?
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Apr 2, 2016 20:28
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Much like everything else in Australia. 
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Apr 2, 2016 20:31
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 Hello, can I help you with your broken window? Sorry about the base--why are you all running away in terror?
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Apr 2, 2016 20:38
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Tasoth posted:Now I almost wish the Australian flightless bird species could be found somewhere in Japan. An ostrich or rhea henge sounds fantastically odd. Add in critters from New Zealand, and I would totally go for a kiwi henge.
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Apr 2, 2016 20:43
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 Part 3: Future History Last we left off, it was 2016, and the world was falling into ruin.  After a few years of waning food supplies and massive starvation, the "Food Riots" begin, and order collapses entirely in most countries. Cities are looted while people flee to rural areas, where they conflict with locals over land. Highly organized cycle gangs, already honed from their raids across Mexico, proceed to ride in and clean house in America. Asia is hit the hardest of any continent, with flotillas crossing the Pacific to try and escape the chaos going on there. Africa and South America fragment and those continents descend into complete third-world status. Surviving farms, towns, and cities in America began to take on a fortress mentality to fight off raiders and bandits, and armed caravans began to emerge as a means of combating bandits and raiders. State governments fall apart, and local governments are left operating effectively independently. The loss of grain alcohol fuel (and its expenditure in the Second Civil War) means the US military is practically grounded, and can't effectively maintain order. While the US military is converting over to electric technology during this time, it will arrive too late to prevent the shitstorm hitting the proverbial turbine. Texans and Mexicans raid each other constantly. After a massive earthquake in LA, Northern California secedes, becoming the Free State of Northern California. Minnesota also secedes briefly before diplomatic talks bring Northern Cali and Minnesota back into the fold. Britain keeps order through severe rationing and martial law. Meanwhile, refugees from all over the world converge on Australia. Scientists rapidly work on a way to counter the Blight, but no cure is forthcoming. Instead, the focus is put on alternative foods, and the development of "quick-grow" techniques developed for cloning make it possible to develop a fast-growing algae, which is put into production by ConTexCo, a Texan company. Meanwhile, Dr. Richard Sardusky at Harvard uses the fast-growing clone technology to clone himself, but the resulting clone is effectively mindless and he's jailed on child abuse charges. The Supreme Court eventually declares the mindless clone to be "experimental material" and Sardusky is freed and immediately hired by Amalgamated Meditech. Secret experiments at Meditech find a way to transfer stored memories from earlier technology into fast-grown clones, and they create a new division to pursue a means of practical if not literal immortality: Gold Cross. Meanwhile, the growing algae industry begins to distribute a cheap, plentiful food source.  Art from Sunday Drivers. The 2020s With the economy slow starting to recover between the new food source and the refurbished US military, the federal government of the United States develops a mobile reorganization for the Army to reassert control over the country. Russia, on the other hand, seizes government control of any and all food supplies to enforce order. Mexico and Texas sign a peace treaty, though Mexican warlords still continue to raid other border states. Australia tries to turn back refugees while simultaneously fighting "vigilantes" trying to just slaughter or sink refugee boats. Britain confiscates all private weaponry in reaction to events across the rest of the world. US forces finally turn back Mexican warlords, who make a concerted push into California only to be driven back. Science-wise, Gold Cross becomes massively successful, with rich people beating down their door to have clones made to cheat death. The Supreme Court rules than a clone programmed with the memories of an individual is treated as that individual, legally, but does not at the time deal with the question of a living person with a programmed clone. However, "living clones" tend to be banned locally in America nationwide as a result. Autoduel Death sports are legalized in America and later in Canada, giving us the birth of autoduelling when "Crazy Joe" Hershman puts a .50 caliber machinegun on his car at demolition derby. Unsurprisingly, given the writers, the first official "autoduel" is held in Austin, Texas. The Boy Scouts and other scouting organizations reform as the Scout Commando Corps, where armed young men learn to help local communities maintain order and defense. The popularity of autoduelling and the still generally chaotic nature of rural areas leads to the production of the first mass-market armed vehicles. Autoduelling, in turn, becomes America's national sport. The AADA, or American AutoDuel Association, forms as its regulatory body, and also as an analogue to the real-life AAA (American Automotive Association). Meanwhile, Australia legalizes autoduelling in more lawless regions. Autoduelling becomes a pasttime on American roads for a variety of reasons, sometimes just as the equivalent of street racing or good-natured brawling (except when somebody loses a face). The armed vehicles serve as a partial deterrent to cycle gangs, though the gangs that survive onward are the most large, experienced, and/or deadly. In New England, anti-duelling lobbies create the Eastern Driving Safety Enforcement League (EDSEL) as well as a number of anti-duelling statutes. Local autoduellist clubs form, and often serve as local defense for communities that hold them, to say nothing of armed police cars. The 2030s The era of roving cycle gangs in America and Canada starts to wane symbolically when the MONDOs (Midville Operatives for Neighborhood Defensive Ordinance) of Midville, Ohio fight off the reknowned gang the Crusaders using only traps and small arms, and similar local defense organizations are inspired by their heroics. Gangs are still widespread, but attacks on local communities start to die down as a constant concern. GURPS Autoduel posted:Car Wars, autoduelling simulation game, is released to the public; immediate hit with duelling fans, game is scorned by real-life duellists.  Autoduelling vehicles, designed for sale in other counties, are stolen by criminal organizations or by heist organizers in Britain. The British government is forced to arm police vehicles as a response. EDSEL makes a push into the Midwest only to be literally fought back by duellists in Ohio and Indiana. The RAADA (Royal Australian AutoDuel Association) is formed as a sister organization to the AADA in Australia. Meanwhile, news organizations start to include spectacular coverage of duels in their traffic coverage, which starts to actually outpace arena autoduelling. Meanwhile, part of the AADA weary of safety regulations and division rules breaks away and forms BLUD, or Big League Unlimited Duelling. BLUD chapters form, quickly demonstrating a violent rivalry with their AADA counterparts. They're the Cobra Kai to the AADA's Mr. Miyagi, if Mr. Miyagi had a nationwide sports organization's cache.  A real thing that was sold. What happens in Europe or Japan?  And that brings us to 1986 - or 2036, as the timeline of Car Wars was always set perpetually fifty years in the future. This was notable in the equipment books known as Uncle Albert's Catalog, which were labeled by year - 2035, 2036, 2037, 2038, finally ending with the last Car Wars release, Uncle Albert's Catalog From Hell, released in 1992 but labeled as 2041. Ooops. Well, it was where the line was buried for the next decade. Next: The 2036 Mini-Atlas of North America (European Edition)
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Apr 3, 2016 02:05
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With the skewed damage for ranged weapons in early GURPS how much damage did a machine gun do compared to a pistol? One of the guys I played Car Wars with in the '80s was mistakenly given Autoduel as a present from his parents who thought it was a compatible product. We hadn't even heard of GURPS at that point so we were freaking out at the crazy large counters included with the book wondering how they were supposed to be used. We stupidly tried to incorporate some of the rules included such as peds being able to shoot under cars at other ped's feet which got out of hand when players started doing it with LAWs combined with the rule for aiming for a square to get a better targeting roll... For the record I was completely trolled by the 7th Sea review.
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Apr 3, 2016 05:00
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The year is 1938. The space race has pulled the world out of the Great Depression with the great empires and nations building rockets and colonies in our solar system. There are unknown riches of minerals and lost technology in the stars, aliens wary of mankind or welcoming them with curious arms, a frontier of adventure and exploration. There's money to be made, sights to be seen and forces of evil to be triumphed over, but the Second World War is still coming. This time, it won't just be fought on Earth. Welcome to Rocket Age. ROCKET AGE is an atomic pulp sci-fi tabletop RPG by Cubicle 7 games that runs on the Vortex System (also used by their Doctor Who game). Vortex uses point-buy character building and d6 dice and emphasizes talking and thinking before fighting and shooting (in true Doctor Who fashion). The setting is Pulp Adventure! with an influence from Burroughs, Heinlein, More, Brackett and Stark. The heroes are square jawed and will only kill if they have no choice, the villains are flawed (and may have a redeeming trait or two that might let them become good if given the chance) and everything is shiny and portable. The writers admit that unironic black-and-white morality might not be everyone's bag, but here's the thing I really like about Rocket Age: you're not just fighting "bad guys" to make the world better. Rocket Age is set in the 1930s and the writers know it. The planetary colonies are run by nations and the ugly side of colonialism is in full force with humans enforcing/balancing national culture with native aliens and encroaching on land. Nazi Germany and the USSR are big players in space and we're talking Stalinist Russia. The book provides ethnic slurs for the alien races that you might hear a big-hearted asteroid miner drop casually in polite conversation. We brought the culture of Earth to space, including all the bad parts. We didn't mean to, but it's still on us. In Rocket Age, you fight to make the solar system a better place because it is the right thing to do. We may have opened Pandora's Box to the planets, but we can bring hope and make things better. NEXT TIME, we'll get into just how mankind started to explore the stars, cursory glances of the planets of our solar system, the intelligent species (sophonts) of the stars and mankind's colonies. Vox Valentine fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Apr 3, 2016 |
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Apr 3, 2016 05:05
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Hostile V posted:Rocket Age This sounds awesome, but you've got a broken image link there.
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Apr 3, 2016 05:07
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ProfessorProf posted:This sounds awesome, but you've got a broken image link there.
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Apr 3, 2016 05:32
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Are you two sure? I'm seeing the image just fine.
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Apr 3, 2016 05:33
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That's what I get for being lazy. Image is fixed.
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Apr 3, 2016 05:44
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Covok posted:Are you two sure? I'm seeing the image just fine.
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Apr 3, 2016 05:55
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Zereth posted:You aren't browsing the forums in https are you? I'm browsing without any https protocol enabled. Why?
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Apr 3, 2016 06:00
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Because that's why the image isn't appearing for some people.
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Apr 3, 2016 06:05
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Alien Rope Burn posted:
I think the whole cars with guns and clones as 1-Ups part would make a bit more sense if it wasn't set in a post-apocalyptic, anarchistic wasteland were people have trouble getting enough food and fuel and not getting killed by gangs, but rather in a post-scarcity utopia where these death games exist solely because the people are just that decadent and bored.
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Apr 3, 2016 07:56
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Doresh posted:I think the whole cars with guns and clones as 1-Ups part would make a bit more sense if it wasn't set in a post-apocalyptic, anarchistic wasteland were people have trouble getting enough food and fuel and not getting killed by gangs, but rather in a post-scarcity utopia where these death games exist solely because the people are just that decadent and bored. I have Opinions about Car Wars, and yeah, part of it is that Mad Max is always brought up to explain it and it gives bad expectations. There's a regulatory body for Autodueling, and cloning, and the like, and big automotive manufacturers are churning out these cars new, they're not salvaged, armored and armed wrecks. It's not really post-apocalpytic at all.
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Apr 3, 2016 08:30
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Crasical posted:I have Opinions about Car Wars, and yeah, part of it is that Mad Max is always brought up to explain it and it gives bad expectations. There's a regulatory body for Autodueling, and cloning, and the like, and big automotive manufacturers are churning out these cars new, they're not salvaged, armored and armed wrecks. It would be possible to have post-apocalypse that's not evenly-distributed. You could have economic and environmental pressures, such as an automated transportation industry killing highway towns and global climate change making exurb life expensive, force most people into the big cities on the coasts (considering Gulf region as a Third Coast), leaving middle America into sometime akin to the town in The Cars That Ate Paris, with the townsfolk causing wrecks to bring in cash from selling scrap autos and welfare money from disabled drivers while the local teens going wild with car parts and small town boredom, creating automotive monstrosities. Then you can layer the various forms of pansexual biker gangs from the Mad Max series and armed professional mercenaries riding shotgun through the new Wild West.
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Apr 3, 2016 09:13
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 Summer: How to Make a Henge Time to make characters! What's Your True Form? Once you've got a high concept, first step is picking a species. As established, there are six options - Fox, Raccoon Dog, Cat, Dog, Rabbit, Bird. It won't affect any stats, but each one has a very different list of powers. Depending on your true form, you'll record a set of six Basic Powers and their Wonder costs. What Are Your Weaknesses? The powers list for each type of henge also lists various possible Weaknesses - things about you, supernatural or otherwise, that will get in the way of things during your stories, like a cat's inability to swim. You pick between 1 and 3 Weaknesses, but for each one you pic, you get one specific additional power - for example, if your cat henge can't swim, then they get the ability to spend Wonder to perform seemingly impossible feats of acrobatics. If you have less than three Weaknesses, you can add more later. What Are Your Attributes? There are four attributes in Golden Sky Stories, and they're a pretty unique spread:
What Kind of Human? Time to decide on the details of your human form. Sex is the same as your animal form, but age doesn't have to line up - an old fox could have a young human form, or vice versa. A henge's human form is most likely to fall somewhere in the range of 8 to 18 years old, anything outside that range requires Narrator permission. You can decide the details of their default clothing, but unless you have certain Weaknesses, it'll be something that fits in the current era well enough to not cause a fuss when you walk around town. Some small accessory is permitted, like a cap or simple prop. Keep the description pretty simple, so that it's easy to remember; don't get bogged down on details. If you're a cat or dog breed from another country, that might affect your human form's appearance, too. Wrapping Up You've probably picked out an age and gender by now, so you've just got name selection left. Henge tend to have simple names, usually something with a straightforward meaning. Pets will sometimes adopt the last names of their masters (the sample character dog henge did this), but otherwise it's just one word. Foxes tend to have flowery, archaic Japanese names like Kuzunoha Murakami. Some sample names for less esoteric henge:  Fox Powers  Foxes are skilled at influencing others, but lacking at doing things directly. They're strange, aloof, and keep their distance from people, but in a pinch they can make effective leaders. Each power has a number after it - that's how much Wonder it costs to use it. More on Wonder after we finish chargen. There will be references to various mechanics that haven't been explained yet, don't worry about it for now. The quick version:
Basic powers: Alluring (0) When a human of the opposite sex (or same sex, if that's how they roll) forms a Connection with you, the strength of the Connection is increased by one. Oracle (6) Send a dream to someone sleeping nearby, describing its contents. If your Henge attribute is higher than their Adult attribute, this can make them hold back on something they were planning to do, or do something they were planning to hold back on, if it lines up with the dream content. Fox Fire (6) Create a small orb of glowing fire at the tip of your tail, which can be used to lure in the curious or drive away the frightened (pending a Henge VS Adult check). Can only be used at evening or night, and only when your tail isn't hidden. Invisibility (8) You can only be seen by someone beat you on a Henge VS Henge check, to which you get a +3 bonus. Lasts until dismissed or scene end. Fake (10) You can hide an object's outer appearance to make it appear as something else, but not its real properties. A rock disguised as a person couldn't move, a broken car disguised as a new car would still be broken. Fairy Rain (12) Cause it to rain, even if there's not a cloud in the sky. In this rain, Henge can take human form for free, and can use Feelings in place of Wonder. Lasts until scene end. Fox Weaknesses After each Weakness is listed the power you get in exchange for it. Fried Tofu Your love of fried tofu is so great that, if you come across it, your transformation is partially undone - if you're fully human your tail comes out, if it already was your ears come out, if both were out you revert to a full fox. quote:Liar(8) Secret You hate having your true form discovered by anyone. If a person sees your fox form, your Connection to that person and to the town lose 1 strength. quote:Old Friend (6) Pride Your arrogant attitude makes it harder for you to make friends. When someone wants to strengthen a Connection with you, it costs an extra 2 Dreams. quote:Shrine (0) Strange You're behind the times - because of your archaic speech mannerisms and clothing, you'll draw undue attention anywhere you go. quote:Float (4) Cold You aren't good at expressing your emotions. When you make an Impression Check upon first meeting someone, reduce the Connection's strength by 1. quote:Marriage Knot (4) Next: Tanuki, cats.
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Apr 3, 2016 13:36
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Valor - The Heroic Roleplay System The smaller font reminds me of Street Fighter 2 Introduction Valor - aka "Final Fighter Z 4E", aka " The game appears to take a few cues from 4th edition D&D and adds in some stuff that one of those JRPG-inspired roleplaying games would do (especially Super Console, which I can only approve of), and the rules are written in such a way that you can use either square or hex grids for combat without having to change anything. Action resolution is done with 1d10 + modifiers vs a target number or opposed roll. Characters are level-based (ranging from 1 to 20), but build in a point-buy fashion where each aspect of your character uses different points, making min-maxing harder to pull off. The opposite is also true, for the writer assures that making a character that sucks balls is almost impossible to do as long as you don't spread out your Attributes aka stats too evenly, because you only really need to focus 2 or 3 of those depending on your "build". The book doesn't beat around the bush: There's no "What's a roleplaying game?" section or a multi-page introduction. It goes almost immediately into character creation and rules. Attributes The game uses five Attribute pairs, consisting of a Base Attribute and an Active Attribute each. The former is your raw stat, used for derived statistics and to determine the power of your attacks, powers etc., while the latter is used as a modifier for rolls. Active Attributes are always the average of the character's level and the Base Attribute (rounded up), though this value can be modified a bit later. This averaging process reminds me of Super Console and means that your character will automatically get slightly better at everything as he levels up. A starting Base Attributes can range from 1 to 8, so the maximum difference in contested rolls at level 1 is like a 4. This gap will of course increase as the characters level up and increase their most important Attributes - but fear not: While contested rolls have both sides use the same Active Attribute by default, the defender can always opt to substitute the default with any other Active Attribtue (ideally his highest one), at the cost of having a slight negative quirk attached to his roll. But enough about that, let's look at the actual Attributes (which the book is kind enough to cover in quite a bit of detail, covering each Attribute's merits and flaws and how it can be best combined with other Attributes). Strength and its Active Attribute Muscle are for raw strength. It is one of the two Attributes used to cause physical damage, and it is also used in calculating your Health and Defense (aka physical armor). It makes you pretty buff and strong in melee combat, but Strength itself does nothing to get you into melee range, and though you can make ranged attacks based on Strength, their range is a bit gimped compared to other Attributes. Substituting another Active Attribute for Muscle when defending is called Muscle Guard, as the character just decides to deflect the incoming attack with his massive pecs or something. The downside is that the attack will always deal a bit of minimum damage. If the attack doesn't actually do any damage, your roll does instead get a slight penalty (which is true for all substitutions against stuff that doesn't do damage). Agility and its Active Attribute Dexterity are the other side of the physical damage coin, primarily meant for ranged attacks and quick and light melee strikes. The former is pretty ideal as Agility-based ranged attacks get a bit of extra range, whereas the latter is a bit more tricky because Agility itself does nothing to boost your Health or Defense. Luckily, Agility also determines your Move, so you can make a pretty crazy skirmisher. And you will probably want to put points in another Attribute that comes later for some survivability. Dexterity is also used for Initiative rolls, which is always nice. Substituting for Dexterity is called an Acrobatic Dodge, which naturally involves getting out of the way of the attack. Failing to do so will cause extra damage as you take the full attack to the face. Spirit and Aura are your blaster Attributes. Spirit-based attacks deal energy damage, and they're usually far from subtle, as you can gain a nice discount when adding any kind of area effect to the attack. Spirit is also used to calculate your Stamina (basically MP) and Resistance (aka energy armor). Substituting for Aura is called an Aura Deflect, allowing you to defend against an attack by creating some sort of force field or just hardening your body with Ki. Each deflect costs Stamina to use, so you might get overwhelmed if you're not careful. Mind and its Active Attribute Intuition is the other energy damage dealer. It does just as much for your Stamina and Resistance as Spirit, but it is much more precise in nature. You don't get a discount on huge AoE attacks, but you do get one to have them be bendy, indirect or selective, making it much easier to avoid friendly fire. Substituting for Intuition is called Attack Prediction, which does just what it sounds like. As the process takes a bit more time than a more instinctive dodge, you suffer a temporary reduction to your Initiative, which again can have you get overwhelmed via Zerg rushing. Guts and Resolve are the odd man out, as they are mostly defensive in nature. Sure, there are ways to roll Resolve offensively, and you can use Guts for healing spells and techniques, but there is no way to actually cause damage with it. Still, Guts has the biggest impact on Health and is also used for Defense, making it a very popular choice to make your character less squishy. Substituting for Resolve is a Resolute Defense, aka ignoring an attack through sheer badassery. Its only drawback is that you can't use it if your Valor (more or less your Limit Break points) is too low, so you can't just shrug stuff off unless the situation has become serious enough. Derived statistics have mostly been covered above, and they are for the most part self-explanatory. Health and Stamina also increases automatically as you level up, as does your base damage you deal with each Base Attribute (sans Guts, of course), and your Defense and Resistance. Again, levelling up makes you better at everything. An interesting kind of tertiary statistics are the Increments, which exist for Health, Stamina and your base damage and are equal to 20% of the respective values Health and Stamina Increments are used for your natural healing rate (which happens on a scene-by-scene basis) and to quickly eyeball stuff like falling damage. Doubling your Health Increment also determines your Critical Health value, which works like the Bloodied state in D&D4e. Damage Increments are used for special occasions to figure out things like minimum damage or extra damage gained from doing feints and air juggles (yes, that's a thing). Valor is your fighting spirit. Each scene starts everyone at 0, and it escalates from there. Powerful attacks might cost your Valor, and you gain a passive bonus to all rolls if your Valor is maxed. On the downside, Valor can actuall go into negatives, which adds a penalty to every roll. Getting really low can actually knock you out of the fight. Skills are one of the main customization options in Valor. They are essentially Feats, Class Abilities and Flaws, granting permanent or situational bonuses and new types of actions to use. The higher your level, the more points you can spend on Skills. Techniques are all of your attacks, special moves, spells etc, bought with their own pool of points. These work like in most effects-based games: You pick a basic effect and slap on some stuff to add utility and/or drawbacks until you get roughly what you wanted. Interestingly, there is no such thing as a basic attack in Valor. If you don't have at least one damage-dealing Technique, you can't hurt anyone. All Techniques also cost Stamina to use, unless you've slapped on enough drawbacks aka Limits to reduce the Stamina cost to zero. Next Time: The Rules - which takes up surprisingly little space for a tactical combat game. Doresh fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Apr 3, 2016 |
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Apr 3, 2016 14:29
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Young Freud posted:It would be possible to have post-apocalypse that's not evenly-distributed. You could have economic and environmental pressures, such as an automated transportation industry killing highway towns and global climate change making exurb life expensive, force most people into the big cities on the coasts (considering Gulf region as a Third Coast), leaving middle America into sometime akin to the town in The Cars That Ate Paris, with the townsfolk causing wrecks to bring in cash from selling scrap autos and welfare money from disabled drivers while the local teens going wild with car parts and small town boredom, creating automotive monstrosities. Then you can layer the various forms of pansexual biker gangs from the Mad Max series and armed professional mercenaries riding shotgun through the new Wild West. "In the future, there will be death sports" was definitely a 1970s pop-SF thing, Which was expressed in movies like Rollerball and Death Race 2000 . Come to think of it, those movies also had Americas with high-tech dystopian cities and savage, gang-filled wastelands between them. Car Wars itself has some claim to be one of the earliest freeform RPGs. Characters all had 3 hit points, a six-item carrying capacity, a tiny number of wargamey skills (Cyclist, Driver, Gunner) and a Prestige rating, and there was a paragraph of rules for roleplaying non-combat activity (which were literally: the player declares an action, the GM rolls 2d6 and interprets the result with higher meaning the player was more successful). Your character started with a certain amount of money and gained experience and money as he fought in the arena and on the roads until he died, at which point you started another character from scratch (or activated your clone if you'd been keeping up your Gold Cross payments). There were adventures published (some were solo numbered-paragraph CYOA efforts like Convoy). People eventually wanted comprehensive RPG rules, so you got things like GURPS Autoduel (and, before that, a delightfully weird hybrid/crossover with the Hero system titled Autoduel Champions) But you could RPG for a good long while with just the pocket wargame and the published scenarios. Here are some pages from a typical mins games RPG scenario:  
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Apr 3, 2016 15:49
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Crasical posted:It's not really post-apocalpytic at all. It's not per se, which is why I termed it post-post apocalypse; disasters happened which caused society to regress, but for the most part things have gotten better. That being said, there was an awareness of this. Though the line didn't really have much metaplot, there was an early attempt at it in Autoduel Quarterly where Japan goes to war with America (again), and the result would be that America's infrastructure was knocked back down again. However, that plot was seemingly (and probably wisely) buried, as much as I liked cute references to "President M. Culkin". In any case, it never appeared outside of the magazine. Young Freud posted:It would be possible to have post-apocalypse that's not evenly-distributed. It isn't, as we'll see. New England is a lot better off than the Southwest, for example. Some areas are still ruled by gangs but others are comparatively civil. That being said, Autoduel is obviously intended as a "Points of Light" style setting like Rifts or D&D 4e, and the main problem with "Points of Light" style settings is that you need more than single points to develop and maintain a wider culture or industry. In Autoduel, you need a mine to bring up ore, a refinery to make the metal, a parts manufacturer to make the parts for the car, a car manufacturer - and the same for rubber and glass and silicon and grease and whatever the hell else you need to put it together, and all that is vulnerable, and that really isn't brought up. Granted, it can be taken as assumed that there are places safe enough to do this (for example, they have Britain making cars, which makes modest sense because it never collapsed), or that are at least under armed guard with Brotherhood trucks driving the supplies, but it's always taken as an assumption when it probably could be explained without a world of effort. I think Allston and Haring do a pretty good job with the history, or at least a better job than anybody who would come before or after would do with it; Autoduel 2nd Edition is even more hand-wavey (and even adds in a Y2Kesque computer virus). You can at least see chains of events happening, when most RPGs just have An Event happen without any buildup or progression. That being said, there's issues like scientific progression needing to occur in certain ways because, well, it's part of the game already and never you mind how.
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Apr 3, 2016 16:19
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Part 4: (One half of) The (AADA) 2036 Mini-Atlas of North America (European Edition)  Why the European Edition? Presumably it's so it can go into explanations of things that would be presumed to be common knowledge in America. Not that we have any idea what's going on in Europe, so it's a little odd. We get some generalities that local laws vary widely in the setting. It's suggested that when posted, speed limits be obeyed; some police departments will fine you, others will just shoot speeders.Armed people and vehicles - concealed or otherwise - are legal unless specifically noted, though actually using them is illegal inside city limits in most jurisdictions. Active autoduellists in a city may also be held accountable for property damage, or just shot on sight. That's a problematic tack for police to take, since it just escalates things, but the game needs its excuses for shooty shooty bang bang. It's generally considered discourteous to point your weapons at somebody unless they're approaching your home or approaching in a threatening manner. Keeping vehicular weapons trained on another vehicle is considered insulting and often a good way to trigger a duel. Some municipalities prohibit weapons entirely. Vehicle licenses are acquired through the state police, and the United States, Canada, and the Free Oil States (Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma) recognize each other's licenses. Each section notes the quality of roads; some are in bad enough shape to damage tires. Some private owners maintain toll roads and charge extremely high tolls (hundreds of dollars) that maintain safety through patrols by private security. GURPS Autoduel posted:Don't even think about trying to bypass or crash the toll booths. This is never worked yet. The East Coast  This area is probably the best-recovered area in America, and there are areas where road duelling is practically unknown. The book warns us to make sure we have winter driving and survival supplies during those months. Arms, vehicular or otherwise, require a permit in Connecticut, Delaware, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
It notes that Southerners love guns and hate foreigners. A region of "bucolic beauty".
 Known for largely being an abandoned "Badlands", with wide stretches of unoccupied land.
Next: The other half. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Apr 3, 2016 |
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Apr 3, 2016 17:19
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Rhode Island: Water sporting events are popular here; save caveat as before. Open display of sidearms is frowned upon. Things are alright.  e: I always love looking up RI in supplements like this, because game writers never even bother to look anything about us. So it always ends up being "uh, there's some relevant strange thing going on, I guess?"
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Apr 3, 2016 17:30
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Nowadays they could just make a reference to the 38 Studios debacle.
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Apr 3, 2016 18:26
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Doresh posted:Add in critters from New Zealand, and I would totally go for a kiwi henge. There are zoos. You could have Henge that help around the zoo?
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Apr 3, 2016 18:33
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Evil Mastermind posted:e: I always love looking up RI in supplements like this, because game writers never even bother to look anything about us. So it always ends up being "uh, there's some relevant strange thing going on, I guess?" Well, the descriptions are often extremely short in a lot of cases unless you're Texas, California, New York, or have a city that was already written up in Autoduel Quarterly. Rhode Island gets more detail in the East Coast book, of course, but it's mostly focused on it being a military center and it being shockingly peaceful and nice. "Even the hookers are honest.", it says. At least it's not North Dakota, which just gets "Roads: Fair to Poor" with no additional description.
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Apr 3, 2016 18:50
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Angrymog posted:There are zoos. You could have Henge that help around the zoo? This actually sounds like a fun way to run a more urban setting GSS game.
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Apr 3, 2016 18:52
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The most unrealistic thing in Autoduel is that Oklahoma willingly politically aligned itself with Texas on anything.
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Apr 3, 2016 19:40
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Angrymog posted:There are zoos. You could have Henge that help around the zoo? So basically Madagascar, except they stay around the zoo and can turn into anime girls.
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Apr 3, 2016 19:41
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Alien Rope Burn posted:It isn't, as we'll see. New England is a lot better off than the Southwest, for example. Some areas are still ruled by gangs but others are comparatively civil. That being said, Autoduel is obviously intended as a "Points of Light" style setting like Rifts or D&D 4e, and the main problem with "Points of Light" style settings is that you need more than single points to develop and maintain a wider culture or industry. In Autoduel, you need a mine to bring up ore, a refinery to make the metal, a parts manufacturer to make the parts for the car, a car manufacturer - and the same for rubber and glass and silicon and grease and whatever the hell else you need to put it together, and all that is vulnerable, and that really isn't brought up. Granted, it can be taken as assumed that there are places safe enough to do this (for example, they have Britain making cars, which makes modest sense because it never collapsed), or that are at least under armed guard with Brotherhood trucks driving the supplies, but it's always taken as an assumption when it probably could be explained without a world of effort.
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Apr 3, 2016 19:54
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Alien Rope Burn posted:At least it's not North Dakota, which just gets "Roads: Fair to Poor" with no additional description. That is a fairly accurate description of my state. To be fair the only book I know of that actually put North Dakota in any frame of importance turned it into a Non-Euclidian Hellscape with a portal to the home of the eldritch horrors at the center of it. Since doing that means that Minneapolis and Chicago become much more interesting places to adventure.
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Apr 3, 2016 20:05
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Angrymog posted:There are zoos. You could have Henge that help around the zoo? The only downside to this is there are no capybara henge rules and when I think of Japanese zoos, I think of capys for some reason. 
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Apr 3, 2016 20:24
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Kurieg posted:That is a fairly accurate description of my state. Monte Cook's WoD I'm guessing?
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Apr 3, 2016 22:33
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RECENT HISTORY The first manned spaceflight took to the skies on April 17th, 1931. The ship, The Eagle, was designed by Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein and Robert H. Goddard. Einstein and Tesla were on the ship (it launched from Tesla's lab in New York) but Goddard was ill and was instead replaced by a young pilot named Ray Armstrong who took the controls. It took six months of travel (and lots of minute adjustments and learning moments along the way, such as the invention of the space suit and the space walk) but Einstein, Tesla and Armstrong were the first humans to walk on Mars outside of the city of Jilvar. The three astronauts took to learning Martian and were well received by the people of Jilvar and their Prince, Javos. Armstrong explored the city with the help of guides while the scientists were showed the most sacred of relics: ancient machinery created by the ancestors of the Martians. After three days of study, Tesla and Einstein made it more efficient and Earthling/Martian diplomacy was off to a grand start. The three astronauts lived on Mars for six months, working with Javos to create the first trade agreements and accrue everything they could about Mars. After six months of travel back, the three were hailed as world heroes. Armstrong and Goddard opened a rocket company together, Tesla kept returning to Mars to study energy weaponry and Einstein would invent the first trans-relativistic drive for space ships, setting out in 1937 with a new ship to explore beyond Pluto. That's all well and good for Tesla, Goddard, Einstein and Armstrong but what about the rest of the world and the planets? Mars is the big point of interest in the stars for Earth's nations. Mars is known for being beautiful and exotic, an easy mark for people who want to make big money. America, Britain, France, Italy, Nazi Germany and the USSR all have colonies on Mars and there's problems balancing mankind's interests with the fact that Mars has its own culture, its own people. Venus is a tropical death world, lush and teeming with natural resources: diamonds, gold, radium. The jungles are full of primeval thunder lizards, giant insects, deadly pockets of gas, disease and the native Venusians, a species of ape-people. Jupiter is home to the Europans, a race of psychic humanoids who claim themselves to be lords and masters of the solar system. The Europans can back up those claims, possessing technology that blows the old weapons of Mars out of the water. Tensions between Earth and Europa are frosty to say the least and until recently were barely allowed to go past Mars' asteroid belt without taking a warning shot from a Europan ship. As for Earth? Well, the technology boom is spreading across the world, the big kicker being the invention of nuclear power. Radium is the rock of choice, doing everything from helping power ships to make flamethrowers burn brighter but this isn't Fallout: radium is still dangerous and will not give you super powers. Radar has already been invented, radio is the big form of communication, computers are still the size of a house, vacuum tubes might be on their way out, Tesla has officially invented the RAY gun and every nation worth its salt can offer either cleaner industrialization or rocket weaponry, jet planes, machine guns or big bombs. The major nations are the USA, the Empire of Japan, Italy, France, Germany, the British Empire and the USSR. Despite some nominal divisions (pre-WWII style, it's USA, France, England and the USSR vs. Japan, Italy and Germany), every power is stepping on the other to stake a claim in the stars. Mankind is directly engaged in colonization of Mars, Ganymede and Venus and there's still so much more out there with ships only going so fast. Publically, they don't even know what to do with the Europans. This isn't even counting "lesser" nations that want to join the others as a big power. Sophonts and You: Intelligent Beings of the Solar System The discovery of alien intelligence has not been well received by the public at large. Yes, many good men and women of Earth are willing to accept that Martians are sapient beings. There are also people who believe that mankind must unite as one to stand up to the alien menace or believe the aliens to be lesser beings. The biggest thing that changes people's minds is, of course, to live and work alongside another sapient species. The US Rocket Corps and the Rocket Rangers are space rangers who have become excellent friends with species across the solar system and are essentially leading the charge to accept them. The USSR is happy to teach aliens about Communism, the Catholic church is charging theologians with debating the topic, there are Methodists and Unitarians spreading the word on Venus and Mars and some governments and religions just remain mum or pro-human on the subject. Aside from those examples? Well, it comes down to individual belief, but the game assumes that the player characters are the sort of people to be open-minded and accepting (plus you can play as alien beings). Let's take a look at the sophonts: Earthlings: Officially we go by Earthlings. I like the name Terran more, but Earthlings works fine. Europans: Europans all have an aptitude for psychic powers and a generally condescending attitude. Those are stereotypes, mind; what's definitely known is that they want to know more about mankind and Europans are sending out emissaries in the forms of doctors, teacher, scientists to spend time with us and learn. Europan biology is complicated and not really well understood by us (especially because it's the 1930s) but they have roughly five genders.  A Europan. Ganymedians: Ganymedians aren't particularly advanced and that kind of puts them in a weird position with mankind on their planet. They're symbiotic organisms made up plant and fungal species working together.  A Ganymedian. If you thought I was describing an Ork, you're sorely mistaken. Ioites: Io used to be a civilization on par with the Europans until the Europans nuked them back to the stone age (for reasons not entirely clear). They were once a humanoid species like Earthlings or Martians but now they've been afflicted with mutations and damage, walking with a hunch and marked with irregularities. But make no mistake: the people of Io are survivors.  An average Ioite. Venusians: Venusians are the apex species of Venus and the only mammals, a hardy and strong race of ape-like humanoids. They may seem primitive, but Venusians have a rich oratory history and a love for philosophy and logical debate. Plus if you call them primitive it's a good way to get your skull beat in.  Portait of a Venusian. Martians: Martians are different than the others. If the Europans are Elves in attitude, then the Martians are Elves in sub-species. Millennia ago, a near-extinction event on Mars resulted in the creation of the Martian caste system. This involved the creation of actual subspecies of Martian divided by caste, only fertile within their own caste. They all lay claim to the name "Martian" but there's more to them than that. There's more specific nuance to it all because there's quite a bit about Martian politics and bureaucracy but the seven types of Martian are:
A note about the setting: there's a lot that's happened between 1931 and 1938. This may be too many changes too soon for some people or it may not. Adjust the timeline as you see fit; maybe you want to set it in the 40s or 50s. That's up to you. For the review, we're going to keep the clock on 1938.   NEXT TIME: Welcome to Mercury and Venus and Luna.
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Apr 3, 2016 22:52
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Tasoth posted:The only downside to this is there are no capybara henge rules and when I think of Japanese zoos, I think of capys for some reason.
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Apr 3, 2016 23:09
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Uh, point of order, despite the love affair Pre-War Fallout America had with fusion power, in the actual games radiation is still deadly dangerous.
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Apr 4, 2016 00:00
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Crasical posted:Uh, point of order, despite the love affair Pre-War Fallout America had with fusion power, in the actual games radiation is still deadly dangerous. That's a point of information.
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Apr 4, 2016 00:46
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quote:New Jersey: Duels are common along with poor road conditions; Newark actually survived the Food Riots by repelling refugees from New York City, and Manhattan has never forgiven Newark as a result. Street gangs in Newark are in a constant state of warfare with New York gangs, down to having armed camps at the border. Please tell me there's an article or something with a bunch of gangs and characters named after Springsteen songs, like the Suicide Machines that are sprung from cages on Highway 9. Connecticut is accurately boring, though we do have WWE Wrestling headquarters. Maine is just begging for Christine stats. There are a few good classic sci-fi stories about autodueling. Didn't Bradbury or Harlan Ellison write one?
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Apr 4, 2016 04:11
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 Windriders Of The Jagged Cliffs Part 9: Into The Swamp Included in the book is an intro adventure: Into The Swamp, for characters of 4-6th level. It claims that it can be used for rhul-thaun characters or for general Dark Sun PCs. Background: The intro to the adventure is centered around Sahl-oren. Sahl is an explorer who has traveled up and down the cliffs, into the swamp and even beyond into the thri-kreen empire and back. He's so badass you guys. Rumors have been passing around that he's recently discovered a super-awesome-special-total-super-ultra secret. It's so amazing you guys. Some possible rumors are the discovery of the High Lord's mummified remains, a super powerful life-shaped artifact, the source of Rajaat's Curse or the plans for a huge invasion by the thri-kreen. What he has actually discovered is a magical item: one designed specifically to destroy the life-shaped. He found it in the swamp along with several of his companions, who all died. The slaughter prevented him and his companions from actually recovering the item. The item is an ancient creation by Rajaat himself who, realizing that he might have uncomfortable encounters with the halflings, created the item (called little death) in order to defeat them by stripping them of their life-shaped items without killing them directly. Apparently Sahl learned about little death while exploring Rajaat's ancient sanctuary in the swamp but was never able to reach it because of the traps and magical protections...of course if he never reached it how the hell is he supposed to know what it does or that it exists at all? Did Rajaat leave notices written in ancient halfling posted on the walls of his sanctuary detailing the function of one of his personal magic items? Well, anyway Sahl apparently let this secret slip (despite the fact that none of the rumors are close to accurate) and got himself snatched up by the Chahn who want to force him to reveal the location of the item in order to use it in their war against the status quo. Rhul-thaun are assumed to be interested in searching for Sahl to find his secrets, either for their own purposes or because they've been hired by a sponsor interested in his secret. Outsiders are more complicated. Basically because they need to be safely introduced into rhul-thaun society, probably including learning their language, culture and even a basic understanding of what is going on. Then somehow they've got to get interested in Sahl and his secret. After this section the possibility of the PCs being non-rhul-thaun is completely ignored and everyone is assumed to be a halfling. The Set Up The adventure opens in Thamasku and assumes that the PCs have been hired by Cohg-agon, a merchant and information broker, who wants to know what Sahl does. She meets the PCs in a fancy safehome (halfling inn) called the Mirrored Host where she fills the PCs in and asks them to find Sahl, or his secret. She'll pay 500 ge per character and if they agree to an exclusivity agreement on the information she'll give them a 20% cut of any profits made by selling the information. If the PCs agree then she'll inform them that Sahl was last seen in Glerran and disappeared 3 days ago. She'll supply transportation to Glerran as well as the names of some contacts who migh know what's happening: a tender in the village, a painter and the barkeeper at a local safehome. One thing the PCs don't know is that Cohg-agon is deep in the pockets of the lifeshapers of Thamasku and they're the ones after Sahl's secret. On The Trail Traveling by Soar Whale to Glerran the PCs are guided by a windrider named Trav-osald. They leave from Thamasku and make a short supply stop in Sol-fehn to pick up supplies. The PCs are given an hour to wander the little village. After 10 minutes of doing whatever the GM is supposed to give them an Int check at -3. Anyone who succeeds will notice that they're being watched from a tower nearby. If the PCs attempt to approach the observer he'll try and flee (or if that fails) use his clerical abilities (he's a 7th level water cleric). The guy is a secret member of the Chahn and is very ugly (just so you know he's a bad guy). The Chahn have learned that the life-shapers are sending investigators and know that the PCs have been hired by them. He doesn't have much spine though, if threatened or trapped he'll confess he's a Chahn member and was told to watch for the PCs although he apparently doesn't know anything about Sahl in particular. If no one makes any of their intelligence rolls then everyone just wanders around town for an hour I guess. Glerran The flight down to Glerran is quick enough since it's just a matter of flying straight down, taking only an hour. The PCs are then expected to hit up their contacts. *The Tender: this is an old man who tends a flock of slugs who ooze anti-biotics. He also does a bit of healing on the side as well and is an old friend of Cogh-agon, having worked for her father in the past. He knows that the Chahn kidnapped Sahl, but has no details beyond that. *The painter: She's "very observant" and is willing to sell some info for 5 ge. Her information is pretty much useless though: she knows that Sahl had been on a trip to the swamps after some kind of relic related to Rajaat's curse (so apparently someone knew about the item already? How?). She can also show them sketches of the explorers as they left the city. This is in no way useful. *The bartender: This is the "Mos Eisley Cantina" scene, a bar full of criminals and ruffians. He's already been threatened by the Chahn and is unwilling to share information. Before the interaction can go on too long the PCs will be attacked by 4 Chahn agents: 4th level fighters, one armed with a grappler and another with a sleep pod...which they waste by using it on the bystanders to put them out of commission. After beating the Chahn and saving the bar and its patrons the bartender will spill everything: the chahn captured Sahl after he shared that he found a secret citadel in the swamp. The main bit of info he can provide is the general route that his expedition took to reach the citadel. He thinks that the Chahn probably already left for the swamp with Sahl as an unwilling guide. The bartender is right and since its apparently absolute impossible (as the adventure says) for the PCs to locate any other Chahn or their base in town so they have no choice but to follow. Down The Cliff There are two ways down: *The first is climbing. It's easy to find the path the bartender described and pretty much requires a professional climber and probably requires all of the PCs to at least have the mountaineering skill. It takes 2 days to climb down (a day and a half if everyone is a climber). *The second is flying, via windriding. This is obvious a lot faster (about an hour) and of course requires the funds to pay a windrider. Even if they can track down the windrider who found the citadel in the swamp originally and get directions none of them will be willing to actually land in the swamp...only set them down on the ridges at its edge. Despite the fact that travel times vary between 1 hour and 40 hour this has absolutely no effect on any of the encounters in the swamp. Near the bottom of the cliff is a climbing camp (along the trail). It has no real information or useful items other than perhaps as a general clue that the Chahn (or perhaps anyone else) has been walking along. Unfortunately there is a nest of cliff-kanks nearby who'll attack in groups of 3d6 (which is not a small challenge since kanks have a paralytic bite). Even worse they'll continue to attack in waves until the characters flee or all 500 kanks in the nest are gone. It's not clear how the people who camped here originally avoided being bug-murdered.  Scrotum warrior fights testicle monster. Scene not actually appearing in this adventure The Swamp Visibility is better in the swamp as the mists shoot up from steam pools and gather above the trees, allowing you to see a whole 2d10+10 feet. The water level is about waist-high on a halfling and includes sinkholes and quicksand. Of course, what would a 2nd edition adventure be without a random encounter table! 1-20 Quicksand: Getting caught in quicksand sinks you in 1d4+1 rounds. Attempting to escape requires assistance or a rope or branch to pull on and a strength check. Each failed attempt to pull yourself counts as an extra round. 21-30 Steam Burst: A blast of hot steam catches 1d4 characters and take 3d6 damage (save for half). 31-38 A giant crocodile 39-45: Giant frogs 46-50: Poisonous frogs 51-55 Strangling vines 56-60 Bog Wader 61-65 Hydra (I'm sure a group of 4th level characters will be totally fine) 66-70 Shambling Mound (another group murder) 71-75 Behir (and yet another) 76-80 Giant Leech 81-85 Bvanen 86-88 Will o Wisp 89-93 Reggelid 94-97 Monstrosity: a heavily mutated creature. The table for generating a monstrosity is actually larger than the original encounter table itself. 98-00 Rajaat's Curse: A random magic effect that ranges from enchanting PC equipment to forcing PCs to make a save or turn into a monster. No guidelines are provided for this. You're meant to roll a 1-in-6 chance for an encounter every 4 hours...but we are never actually told how far the PCs have to travel from the cliffs to the citadel in the swamp. I mean, we get this map:  which has several unhelpful notations for places miles away from where the PCs will actually travel and it does have a distance scale...but good luck getting an accurate measurement from that to the winding trail, or any information on travel times through the swamp. Then we get this map:  With no context beyond a section labeled "Mapped Dangers and Obstacles" telling us the streams are "only" 1-3 feet deep (telling me that the authors forgot that the PCs are probably all halflings). The paragraph also says that there are steaming pools (which do not appear on the map) which can inflict steam damage and produce mudmen. Next we have a paragraph on following the trail (automatic success for those with Tracking, otherwise an Int-1 check). It still tells us nothing about how far this trail actually is. It also tells us that PCs make an Int check to notice they're being watched and a second Int-5 check to actually spot 1d6 Bvanen at the edge of their vision (which means...20 feet away?) The Bvanen will follow the PCs to and back from the pyramid and even have a 30% chance to help the PCs if they're in trouble but may react with hostility if the PCs are aggressive. The Inverted Pyramid The trail will lead the PCs to the Confluence (the map that showed up a few pages ago). The pool in the center is unusually deep (50 feet) and the situation will be very different depending on whether the PCs arrive in daytime or nighttime (in which case it would be important to know how long it took to get here). If the PCs arrive during the day the trail just leads to the edge of the pool, which is too murky to see into. If the PCs swim to the bottom they'll find a rusty iron door...250 feet by 500 feet. The door is far, far too heavy to be moved, but a knock spell will open it...a spell that no halfling character would have access to and probably couldn't cast at the bottom of a pond even if they did. If opened magically the doors will slide open and the bottom of the pond begins to rise, revealing an inverted floating pyramid.  Hopefully whoever opened that door didn't cling to the pyramid as it rose into the air because they are now 600 feet above the ground with no way down. The "door" only leads to a shaft filled with water and nothing else, to a depth of 500 feet. The actual entrance is at the bottom of the pyramid...which is also floating 100 feet above the ground. Of course if the PCs come to the place at night the pyramid is already floating there. It apparently does so every night, rising up on its own and floating above the swamp. Let's just think for a moment how dumb this stronghold is. The whole "knock spell to lift up the pyramid" thing is really weird and inconvenient but its at least decent security...except the entire pyramid floats up all on its own every single night. And again things get a little bit out of order: First we're told that the Reggelid are watching the PCs from the swamp (apparently along with the bvanen...which means two groups spying on PCs a mere 20-30 feet away given the visibility here. The Reggelid wait to see how the PCs get in and follow them. The group consists of 5 standard reggelids who seem to be 3rd level wizards and their leader who appears to be a 7th level spellcaster. The stat-blocks here claim that reggelids are vulnerable to life-shaped objects, taking 1d6 damage when touched by them. This is not something that shows up in their full monster description at the end of the book, so clearly there's been some editing issues. Also, despite apparently living in the swamp and actively searching for the pyramid (which they know is a storehouse of magic) they've never notice the 500 foot tall pyramid that floats above the swamp every night. Then we're told that the Chahn and Sahl have already arrived at the pyramid and many of them have been killed in the swamp already. There are six remaining 4th level fighters and its leader a 7th level fighter/thief as well as Sahl himself (6th level fighter/thief). Sahl has told them everything he knows and they don't know what to do next. Despite this they apparently did manage to get inside and are going to be encountered somewhere in the pyramid (GM's choice). Next we're actually told how players are supposed to actually enter the pyramid. The entrance is at the bottom and the only way to get in is to move directly below the entrance which will cause it to suck up the person in a golden tractor beam from the pond. Of course, this shows the writers didn't really think very much about what this 50 foot deep pond is going to look like when the 500 foot tall, 500 foot wide pyramid leaves it.  Despite the massive size of the pyramid the interior map is quite small. Area 1: This room is round and only 15 feet wide. There is a silver hatch set in the ceiling with no apparent means of getting to it. around the walls are 5 shallow alcoves holding blue gems (2" wide). Beneath one alcove is a blackened halfling corpse, one of Sahl's original companions. All her life-shaped equipment is fried as well. Each gem is protected with a spell that inflicts 6d6 electrical damage on anyone that touches them. The only way to successfully activate the gems is to pass your hand over them without touching them. There is no indication of how to find this out, the gems don't glow, hum or otherwise give any signal when activate them correctly. They just shock you when you touch them. Leaving the pyramid is done in the same way, you just have to desire to leave the pyramid. Area 2: Each area beyond the first is themed based on a school of magic. This one is themed on divination. Of course, this would be a more meaningful gimmick in an adventure where the assumption is that the characters not only aren't wizards (since halfling wizards don't exist back in 2e), but are also completely ignorant of the existence of wizardly magic at all. The characters are deposited on a silver "landing platform" next to another blue gem (pass your hand over it and you're teleported back to Area 1). Above the gem is written runes in a unique language invented by Rajaat which (if read with a comprehend language or read magic spell) reads simply "divination". Why Rajaat would feel the need to label this chamber intended only for himself...who knows. The room is a catalog of the magic items that Rajaat has gained over the years. On the eastern wall is a stone bookcase filled with ancient scrolls and tomes, all of which crumble to bits when touched. There's also a silver plaque with words in ancient rhulisti listing the items kept here (for some reason). In addition touching the writing will mentally transmit the information about the function of the item to the person touching it. Just think...what reason would Rajaat have for creating this item. Keep in mind the amount of time and effort that goes into making your average magic item, especially back in second edition. Why would this super-smart archmage bother with this? Maybe if there were hundreds of entries that needed organizing...but nope there's 6. 6 items: *A Sword of Sharpness *Staff of Power *Rod of Rulership *Ring of Gray (a unique item intended to open a portal to the Gray and summon a spirit) *Circlet of Life (Allows you to magically warp and manipulate living beings) *Little Death (the plot item). Each of these items are kept in their own separate vaults for some reason and all but little Death are already gone. You may notice from the map that there's a secret door here. If you follow the stairs it basically leads to a separate section of each level (hidden by a secret door as well), the main door leads to Area 3. Also recall the Regellid are apparently supposed to show up here and attack the PCs, presumably having figured out the gem puzzle without problem. Area 3 This is the area accessible by the main door from Area 2 and is where Sahl's original group was driven back. It contains two mind-controlled and altered Thri-kreen. There's another magic label on the wall labeled "Enchantment/Charm". The corpses of Sahl's original team is here, with a selection of still-living (but near starved) life-shaped items. The first Thri-kreen has a permanent Stoneskin enchantment, ignoring the first attack every round. The other has a magical Strength of 20 and crystal forearms. By the way, if you recall the Chahn and Sahl have already infiltrated the pyramid you may be wondering when they'll make an appearance. Well the adventure suggests that they show up in Area 2, 4, 8 and 10. Keep in mind that if they show up in Area 2 that's two big fights in rapid succession (the chahn and then the regellid) which is probably going to be a complete TPK for a mid-level party that this adventure is designed for. If they don't show up in area 2 then...well how do they possibly show up in any of the other areas without dealing with these encounters already? Area 4: Accessible from Area 3 by stairs, this is an empty chamber where some of Rajaat's charmed halfling servants lived back when this place was being used. It contains only rotting furnishings and the door leading to Area 5 and a secret Door leading to area 6. Area 5: This door is locked with a conventional key lock (its unclear how a halfling thief would know how to pick such a lock). If the door is opened it reveals a gothed out room: rotting black tapestries a stained bone-white rug and black candles in silver candelabras. Unsurprisingly this is the Necromancy chamber. The halfling servants have been reanimated here as wights. So...halflings basically have no magic items as far as I can tell. Nor do they engage in any kind of mining. Keep in mind that 2e wights are straight out immune to non-magical or non-silver weapons...so these guys are going to gently caress up a team of halfling only PCs. The only ones who can hope to hold their own against them are elemental clerics who could hit them with magical damage or possibly turn them. But given the expected level of characters and the fact that most clerics are probably leaning heavily on healing and support spells and that wights drain levels with every hit...I think the party is likely screwed barring some exceptionally clever tricks or unusual supplies. Area 6: This area is only accessible via secret door. The secret door in area 2 leads to a set of stairs that will take you here, likewise a secret door in Area 4 will take you here as well. For some reason all these secret doors are used to guard Rajaat's trash pit. Sure its a magic trash pit, containing the remnants of damaged, drained or useless magic items, but still not clear why this area demands higher security than the rest of the stronghold. Regular searching is useless but detect magic (assuming you've got a party cleric and they decided to memorize that) will find two remaining magic items: a necklace of missiles (still with two 3d6 and one 5d6 missile) and a damaged ring of free action which now works as a ring of clumsiness. Area 7: The alteration room. This room contains a trap to prevent further entry. The room appears empty with colored floor tiles (evil wizards love floor tile puzzles!!) The left third is blue, the middle third is red, and the right third is green. Anyone touching the green zone will be affected by a Slow spell when they walk on the tiles. Anyone who enters the area of the red tiles (not simply walking on the tiles, merely being in the area targets you) are targeted by polymorphing beams. If you're already slowed your saves are at -4. Those who fail are transformed into small animals such as rats or lizards. Touching the blue area will transform you back to your original form. However, its impossible to get to either exit without passing over the red zone again (barring a teleportation wild talent). Wasn't it nice of Rajaat to include that blue zone for no apparent reason. Oh, and remember: fun fact, the life-shaped count as individual creatures meaning the average halfling adventurer is going to transform into a small swarm of little creatures...several of which are half-mindless and will probably just scurry in random directions. Area 8 After getting past Area 7 there's a hallway leading to Area 8. The end of the hallway has a pair of closets containing statues (one ebony and one ivory) in the form of snarling watchdogs (again...are there dogs in Athas?) upon approaching the door to Area 8 the closet doors slide open, revealing the statues which function with the Repulsion spell, forcing everyone to make a save or be pushed back into Area 7 (right back into the red zone) and then back down the stairs into area 5 (so even if the PCs avoid transforming when they hit the red zone they'll have to go back through again). The doors then close and the spell ends, but they'll reopen if anyone approaches again. The only way past is to somehow seal the doors, make your save against the repulsion effect or find the secret doors in Areas 2 or 4 which will bypass this area entirely. The only contents of the room itself are statues of various humaniods mimicking spellcasting gestures. There is no magic or anything else. Area 9 This is the "invocation" room and is only accessible via secret doors (from below via the rubbish room and above via area 12). No reason why this one is hidden away from the others is given. There is a brass sphere hanging by chains from the ceiling which randomly targets anyone who enters with an evocation spell: If you're lucky it'll be a forcecage or web spell that lasts about 15 minutes (why?) or a couple of magic missiles (also why??). If you're unlucky it'll be a lightning bolt or cone of cold. Keep in mind that AoE spells will utterly demolish any life-shaped creations you're equipped with. Area 10: After area 9, this is the "minor vault" of lesser magic items. It's been mostly emptied but there are a few magic items here: potions of levitation, health and treasure finding, a metal long-sword +1. a rod of security with 5 remaining charges. and a ring of protection +1. Disturbing anything sounds an alarm spell, but none of the guardians left behind are programmed to react to it. Area 11 Back to the "main" section that isn't hidden behind secret doors. this is the highest part of the pyramid and this area is themed for summoning and conjuration. It has a large well in the center and the walls are carved with bas reliefs of different creatures, most warped or mutated. Upon entering the room a creature is summoned from the well. A Feylaar (30%) or two Bhrog (70%) (both unique athasian monsters). better hope its the bhrog because the feylaar is baad news for a mid level party. Even more fun...every five rounds a new creature (roll again to see what) is summoned! the party is so hosed. There's also a little room to the south which is where Rajaat teleported in and out of the pyramid (so...why have the elaborate entrance in the first place?) Area 12 The illusion chamber. This room is the top of the 'secret door" section of the pyramid. The middle of the room is split by an illusionary wall of fire. Or at least it claims its an illusion. The wall inflicts normal damage from both sides and there's no "save to disbelieve" mentioned or anything of the sort, the damage doesn't disappear or anything like that...its just a wall of fire that is supposedly an illusion. There's a secret door to the south that leads to Area 13. Area 13 The final chamber. Area 13 is the vaults where Rajaat stored his major magic items. Only little death is still around, but the place is still guarded. The chamber is really big and contains a constantly flowing magical fountain, all carved with images of magical creatures. The vaults are along the north wall and all but the last is standing open. The last vault is locked and touching the door summons its guardian: Tethire, an athasian wraith. Tethire is basically a hopeless fight: not only is it difficult to fight him at all since he can possess and animate your weapons and even when you fight him he can only be hurt by +2 or better weapons (which the party won't have) and has the ability to possess living beings too. He's far too tough to be turned by a cleric of the adventure's level and there's no way the party's minimal spellcasting abilities would include enough damaging spells to eat through Tethire's 51 HP. He is at least somewhat merciful, if the characters surrender he'll allow them to leave. If the PCs somehow manage to defeat Tethire they can unlock the vaults and get the little death: a wand which can (for 1 charge) shoot a beam that slays any single life-shaped being or (for 3 charges) shoot a 50 foot cone that does the same. There's also the possibility of a plot hook for future adventures. the fountain contains an inscription that gives directions to another citadel (why? I don't know, apparently Rajaat is just absent-minded and needs to leave elaborate notes for himself). This would be a much bigger and more powerful place full of demons, super-monsters, etc. Ending The Adventure If PCs get little death and make it back they'll presumably turn it into Cohg-agon, who'll turn it over to the life-shapers (assuming they don't roll an encounter with a hydra on the way back and get their face's murdered). If Sahl is rescued he'll try and stop the PCs from bringing little death back to Cohg-agon, claiming its his by right with all his friends dying (and his kidnapping) and may attempt to steal it back. If the PCs decide to keep it they'll probably be hounded by life-shaper assassins. And with that we have finished Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs! It was way worse than I remembered! Well, I showed you guys that so we could kick it up a notch with the next book: Psionic Artifacts of Athas.
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Apr 4, 2016 04:20
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