|
Nessus posted:You could probably do some cross-line round-ups of Confederate apologia and see if you can trace particular ideas back to particular authors. Now considering we're talking about nerds who freelanced in the nineties I don't think this would accomplish anything, but it would be conceptually interesting. Back East: the South was written by Chris McGlothlin, who was a pretty big fan of the Confederacy and he often inserted his fondness of the regime in various works. He helped write the Mutants & Masterminds Golden Age sourcebook, which had a picture of a tank with the Confederate battle flag. He also did a Worlds of Freedom sourcebook detailing the M&M universe throughout the eras. It caused some consternation on the message boards a while ago when one poster took issue with two superteams representing the Union and Confederacy being portrayed as morally equivalent. This entry from said book in particular sticks out to me: The Knights of the Confederacy posted:Though outnumbered by the Patriot Regiment, the Liberators, and other mystery men fighting for the Union, the Knights of the Confederacy were able to stave off their country’s defeat for four long years. Courage and cunning were the team’s greatest assets, and they served the Knights well in their shadowy war with the Union’s super-agents. Though theirs was ultimately a Lost Cause, the Knights proved that glory, honor, and valor are not exclusively the victor’s province. But like others said, the pro-Confederacy stuff cannot be laid solely at the feet of one writer. Although McGlothlin's writings are the most well-known to me due to the above examples, he hasn't to my knowledge written for any Deadlands or RPG books in general for a while. Even then Pinnacle's works still hew to the false equivalence of North and South. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Jan 30, 2019 |
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 00:48
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 10:15 |
|
|
Libertad! posted:Back East: the South was written by Chris McGlothlin, who was a pretty big fan of the Confederacy and he often inserted his fondness of the regime in various works. He helped write the Mutants & Masterminds Golden Age sourcebook, which had a picture of a tank with the Confederate battle flag. "Knights of the Confederacy" is a loving loaded name, given the love of white supremacist terror groups of the period to posture at being knights. The Golden Circle and the White Camellia, for example.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 01:03
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:"Knights of the Confederacy" is a loving loaded name, given the love of white supremacist terror groups of the period to posture at being knights. The Golden Circle and the White Camellia, for example. First they came for the Vikings, now they're coming for the knights. Unrelated: Valkyria Chronicles, in spite of being a rather weeaboo Fantasy WWII game, was pretty head-on in examining fascist aesthetics. The Empire in it has a fetish for Ye Medieval Times, outfits its troopers in plate mail-looking uniforms, and refers to tank operators as "the modern-day knight errant." Libertad! fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jan 30, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 01:09
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:"Knights of the Confederacy" is a loving loaded name, given the love of white supremacist terror groups of the period to posture at being knights. The Golden Circle and the White Camellia, for example. In Kerberos Club the Golden Circle are specifically nominated as "these are the Indiana-Jones-style nazis to punch during your globetrotting adventures".
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 02:41
|
|
|
Libertad! posted:Back East: the South was written by Chris McGlothlin, who was a pretty big fan of the Confederacy and he often inserted his fondness of the regime in various works. He helped write the Mutants & Masterminds Golden Age sourcebook, which had a picture of a tank with the Confederate battle flag. That's a direct callback to The Haunted Tank, a Golden Age DC feature in G.I. Combat, which featured precisely the same imagery. Not that such excuses it, mind, but that was probably the justification that kept it from getting the scrutiny it should have.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 02:54
|
|
|
 Rifts World Book 20: Canada, Part 15 - "Only around 20% are "Renegades" who acknowledge their native heritage but who embrace the ways and technology of the White Man." Much like Spirit West, we get a long list of tribes and groups without any particular description or context. We're reassured, of course, that the rules and beliefs from Spirit West are close enough and you can use those. They're all the same, yeah? Other Notable Spirits of the North We get a mercifully brief overview of Inuit deities - there's references to the religous significance of bears, dogs, and eagles, and then very short summaries of gods.
Alignment wrecks nuance every time.  This section deserves a little squinting, to be fair. We get some discussion of Inuit shamanism and that they may have known about the interdimensional nature of the universe. Or not! Most are "Traditionalists" that "follow the old ways" because, once again, apparently tradition doesn't change just because of an apocalypse, but there's a minority that will deign to carry a gun and ride a rad motorycle eat my driven snow, spirits! Angakoq O.C.C. The Inuit Shaman Rifts World Book 20: Canada posted:Disclaimer: The Angakoq Occupational Character Class is inspired by Inuit myth and traditions, but is not intended to be an accurate portrayal. Nor is it our intent to mock or diminish the beliefs and traditions of these proud people. Similarly, my portrayal of Kevin Siembieda is inspired by his public persona, but is not intended to be accurate. Nor it is my intent to mock... well, okay. I'll do some good-natured ribbing. Some jovial joshing. Keep your chin up, Kevin! So, these are shamans "blessed by the Polar Bear". And yes, there is a "racial" requirement - you have to be at least 50% Inuit and "follow the old traditions". The old traditions which are not really explained here, so you better hope you've got a copy of Spirit West on hand! Not that the writeup directs you do it. In any case, they're chosen by the spirits through a dream that acts as a test of their spiritual awareness and compassion. If they pass, they get a free bear!- that is, a spirit bear will show up to be their lifelong companion. "70%" are male", but why? Are the spirits sexist? Do we have some  about men being more compassionate or spiritually aware? Well, I presume we can blame the sexism of Polar Bear Spirits, since they're the ones where you can be raised by Inuit, believe in the spirits, be sensitive to the needs of spirits and man alive, and the spirits say: "Boy, he'd be a great shaman. Too bad he's only 41% pure Inuit and has impure, filthy blood of the invaders!... by which we mean the Tlingit, gently caress those guys. We can't let our followers get tempted by their Tlingit hussies!"... so, in any case, they can take on an "astral form" to speak to spirits, but no real idea how that works or if they can use it for anything else (they get psychic powers, but no astral-based ones). They can recognize shapeshifters within 1/3rd to 3/4ths of the time, and get an unexplained affinity for werecreatures as a "kindred woodland spirit". Maybe somebody should send a memo to let werewolves know that they're "woodland spirits" now? They get some minor sensory and healing psychic powers and a variety of spells. But the weird part is that they have no spell progression listed. So though their capacity to cast spells increases, their breadth of spell knowledge never seems to. They can create a variety of talismans and amulets specific to this class, though, and get a lot of spells to begin with.  Sadly, the Inuit tradition of bears dancing doesn't play in here. Their legitimately neat ability is that they get a spirit bear that helps them out, with a decent amount of M.D.C. - though their melee attacks, like most melee in Rifts, is surprisingly weak for a bear. The more powerful element they get is a variety of spells they can cast by drawing upon the bear's power, and this is where most of their cool spellcasting comes from - and with a powerful reserve of power to boot! The bear really makes the class, and is pretty cool. But there's a catch. This is Palladium - there's gotta be a catch. And the catch is that if the bear dies, you lose all the powers associated with it, and the bear too, of course- permanently. There's no penance you can do, no quest to seek out a new one, no ritual - it's just gone. However, you can wish the bear away back to the spirit world to keep it out of harm's way. Without the bear, you lose its magic temporarily, but that's better than permanently. Then the catch has a catch. You can't just wish the bear away whenever you want, and by default it'll fight to the death for its shaman. No, the has to be in a genuinely life-threatening situation, and most likely down to 20%-25% of its M.D.C. before it'll go away. So you can't prep in advance or say "Hey, we're fighting a Glitter boy, maybe go scarce for a little bit?" Nope, your bear's gotta be hosed up, and enjoy the argument of what type of combat action it takes to dismiss your bear, because you best believe it isn't covered here. That all aside, there's some other oddities to note. Because they're created - to the writer's credit - to not use Spirit West, they use conventional magic, just rethemed. However, that means they don't get any access to shamanistic magic if you do have a copy. Furthermore, it's not really clear whether or not they're as restricted in terms of technology usage / behavior as the shamans from Spirit West - it's implied, but never stated. Similarly, it's not clear if, unlike previous shamans, their amulets and talismans will work for anybody, or only those who "follow the old ways".  Okay, you're probably going too far in trying to come up with a bold new direction for Cyclops, Marvel. Lastly, they get two pages of magic goodies made from dead animals. Amulets usually give some bonus to a save (like bison gives a bonus on magic saves) or an immunity (walrus gives immunity to mundane cold). Talismans usually give some magic power, like increased strength and mega-damage protection (bear claw), or improved bow effects and mega-damage arrows against magical creatures (eagle claw). Lastly, there's unique items, like a bear coat that lets you turn into a bear, or a demon mask that scares away lesser demons. All of this requires some level of ritual preparation to make, but the bear's high magic reserves make it easier than it is for most classes (and allow them to create more before being crippled out of the magic game, like the Fetish Shaman from Rifts World Book 15: Spirit West). Overall, the Inuit Shaman is... surprisingly alright? It shows that focusing on one specific concept can really help a class like this, but it's also buried under a ton of vague or unclear terms. For example, I was legit confused by the amulets that "give control over the animal's spirit" which I figured meant if you have a seal amulet, you can control seals, but it seems to be intended that, no, it's just a metaphor for calling upon the animal's power. And so on. Natural language, the bane of rules clarity. Next: Northern Guns.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 03:04
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:That's a direct callback to The Haunted Tank, a Golden Age DC feature in G.I. Combat, which featured precisely the same imagery. Not that such excuses it, mind, but that was probably the justification that kept it from getting the scrutiny it should have. Wasn't there a modern version where the ghost is an obnoxious racist to the mixed-race crew, then realizes his descendant isn't the white guy? EDIT: Opened the article, and yep.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 03:20
|
|
|
  The Last Sons Plot Point Campaign, Part 1 Now we come to the main 9 adventures of the Last Sons. It covers the PC’s attempts to put a stop to Raven’s machinations by traveling through the heart of the West, from the Sioux Nations in the north down to Oklahoma and back north again for one last great big battle. Much like the Flood before it and various “open world” RPGs, it has a lot of side stories the PCs can accomplish at their relative leisure between major chapters or whenever the Game Master fancies. Many of these Savage Tales are location-centric, but a few are meant to trigger after a certain progression in the timeline. We get a summary of the nine Plot Point adventures, along with a timeline for the Last Sons. It spans from late Late July 1880 to July 4th 1881 and most of its events are independent of PC actions save near the end which explicitly cover the events of the last two adventures. The timeline covers political dealings and rising tensions which act as a backdrop to War’s ambitions, notably Custer’s invasion of the Sioux Nations, the Union’s Presidential election results, and Hellstromme’s double-dealings between the USA and Sioux Nations. One thing I forgot to mention in my write-up of the Flood is that each of the 4 Plot Point Campaigns start out with two quotes meant to reflect on the adventures’ major themes. They tend to be a mixture of historical quotes, Bible verses, or even lines from Spaghetti Westerns. The Flood quoted Genesis 6:17 and a children’s song about Noah’s Ark. The Last Sons borrows quotes from two historical figures contemporary to this time period: Wovoka posted:Our land is everything to us. I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it with their lives. William Tecumseh Sherman posted:There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all Hell. You can bear this warning voice to generations yet to come. I look upon war with horror. These quotes, along with the build-up of the setting in the last two sections, gives the impression that this Plot Point Campaign’s going to be participating in a lot of large-scale battles using the Mass Combat Rules, where building a PC with leadership Edges would be useful. The Last Sons...does not deliver on this save in a few adventures. Much like the Flood a good portion of the major plot involves traveling around the Weird West as local troubleshooters. The major difference is that instead of joining a secret society of monster-hunters and do-gooders, you’re helping out Jordrava and the Ghost Dance Movement stymie the Order of the Raven’s plans. A Friend to the Indians posted:The Last Sons depends on the heroes—or at least one of them—being sympathetic to the Indians’ cause. If one or more heroes are Indian shamans or warriors, all the better! We’ve given players all sorts of new incentives to make Indian characters in the Makin’ Heroes chapter (see page 15). If those don’t work, you’ll have to have a chat with your group. It’s not often you see games of the Western genre, tabletop or otherwise, give a heavy emphasis on experiencing things from the indigenous perspective. This is not just fluff: the first few Plot Points in particular will be much harder to run if none of the PCs are citizens of the Sioux Nations. Their freedom of movement outside Deadwood and the Iron Dragon rail line will be severely curtailed otherwise, which can make it hard to justify running some of the Savage Tales in the area unless the party goes out of their way to hide, run from, or fight every Sioux patrol they come across in order to get to the adventure locale in the first place. I’ve read about some gaming groups online whose GMs did not specify this sidebar, and tended to either end up with the party getting out of the Sioux Nations as soon as possible due to this or just not having enough incentive to ask “why would my PC get involved in all this?” The whole unnamed stranger drifting through town and fixing trouble which happens to come their way is a classic trope, but in starting the Last Sons you need a much stronger hook than this. 1. The White Calf The Plot Point Campaign proper begins with the PCs taking the Deadwood Stage stagecoach service out of Bismarck along the Sioux Nations’ sole legal trail for foreign travelers. The driver is Jeb McKeever, an otherwise ordinary fellow but handy when something needs fixing. He’s accompanied by his brother Big Danny McKeever, a tough guy armed with a Gatling shotgun. The vehicle’s brought to a sudden stop for our first encounter with a group of stagecoach robbers seeing green. The robbers are nothing special, but the ditch they dug in the center of the road is not. It damaged the stagecoach’s two front wheels and caused the horses to detach and go running off into the wilds. Retrieving the horses is left to skill checks while the McKeever’s stay put to repair their ride. While repairs are being completed the PCs hear the whistle of a train followed by the shrieking of brakes. This is the Iron Dragon line and is common enough knowledge that PCs will recognize its Chinese logo, but the plot will interfere to have a wounded NPC in distress stumble up to them on horseback. Said NPC is a Shoshone man by the name of Sky Hawk who is not fluent in English or any of the Sioux Nations tribal languages. PCs who can speak with him by a related language family or speak language spell learn his name, that he was the bodyguard of Wovoka, and that his charge is in danger and asks them for help. Sky Hawk will gesture to the trouble spot otherwise. The adventure presumes that the PCs will be eager to help him out, but... Fun Fact: In both real life and the world of Deadlands the Shoshone people were on hostile footing with the Sioux tribes on account that the former group fought alongside the United States and Crow tribe during the Black Hills War of 1876. Although the Shoshone also subscribe to the Ghost Dance Movement, if PCs belong to tribes of the Sioux Nations they may very well be suspicious of a lone Shoshone man who can’t even speak with them. The adventure also really doesn’t want the PCs to investigate the train further or even view it as a faster route to Deadwood on account of their broken stagecoach. You see, there’s no rail depot anywhere close by. It is in fact dropping off a secret detachment of rail warriors delivering weapons shipments to the Ravenites via wagon. Nine guards stand vigilant and will try to kill any witnesses they spot. The adventure for its part acknowledges the possibility of a PC victory, and this will cause Kang to send out hired guns to track down those responsible. Otherwise Sky Hawk accidentally leads the PCs into a filler encounter with devil bat monsters before arriving at Wovoka and the Ravenite’s location. Wovoka and his surviving encourage of Ghost Dancers are trapped on the cliffs of a narrow valley with a river far below, and a much larger force of Ravenites are overlooking the place and preparing bundles of dynamite to literally blow them off the cliff face. Due to darkness they do not have sure shots with their guns (thus the dynamite), but loud fighting with the devil bats may have alerted them to oncoming trouble. Otherwise the PCs can ambush the Ravenites, using cover between trees and rocks or even crawling prone in tall grass. I like this last idea; it’s a good way of introducing a group to the powers of stealth in Savage Worlds* and figure out ways to save Wovoka. *you get hefty attack and damage bonuses After saving the Ghost Dancers, Wovoka calls the PCs around a campfire to introduce himself and dump some mucho exposition on them. He was traveling to the Sioux Nations to spread word of the birth of a white buffalo calf. This auspicious event foretells a prophecy in line with the Ghost Dance, where white settlers are driven off indigenous land as part of the culmination of a bunch of other events. He also talks about how the ones who attacked them belong to the Order of the Raven, and that the monsters the PCs saw earlier are evidence of a phenomenon known as the Reckoning which the Ghost Dance Movement also seeks to end. Wovoka can answer more questions for the PCs, which actually reveal some pretty big plot secrets in the overall setting: he explains a bit of Raven’s origins, how he unleashed slumbering evils, and how the Order of his name seeks to destroy both indigenous ways of life as well as the white man’s society. He cannot teach any PCs the Ghost Dance yet, but offers to do so after they meet again and help him out. This adventure ends with Wovoka saying that if the PCs wish to help him out to head to Deadwood and ask for a man named Bull All the Time, aka Charley Bull to non-Natives. He will then give them a task as a means of ascertaining their dedication to the cause. Otherwise Wovoka can provide them with shelter and lodging in town. By this point the McKeever brothers repaired the stagecoach and are ready to take the PCs the rest of the way to Deadwood. What I’d Change: I have not GMed or played in the Last Sons, so the entries of campaign alterations are in the theoretical rather than actual play. First off, I would have the campaign begin differently depending on several factors. The Ghost Dance was a huge pan-Indian movement which saw representatives from tribes as far south as the American Southwest attending, so PCs who are not members of the Sioux Nations can be diplomatic emissaries arriving from elsewhere in addition to the suggested “A Friend to the Indians” sidebar origins. The starting PCs could just as easily be braves on patrol as stagecoach travelers, or as two groups combined into one due to shared trouble. Furthermore, I would make Sky Hawk a Paiute rather than Shoshone and fluent in one of the PCs’ tongues. I would also not have Wovoka infodump so much; I’d have him tell the PCs about the white calf and the Ghost Dance Movement, but not about the Reckoning, Raven’s motivation, or the Order of the Raven. I’d lead into the Ravenites’ plots slowly, by having Sky Hawk mistake the Ravenites for members of the Crow tribe due to seeing a Raven tattoo he mistook for a Crow symbol. A raven’s tail appears wedge-shaped, a crow’s is shaped like a fan. Later on I’d insert a friendly Sioux NPC who will help the party in Savage Tales around the Nations, only to have him appear in Kang’s illegal mining camp to uphold the “guns for ghost rock” deal. The party has a chance to notice that very same tattoo on him, or survivors of the initial fight with the Ravenites among him. Not only would this feel personal, it would put the Order of the Raven firmly in the bad guy camp for willfully participating in large-scale desecration of the Black Hills. It will also demonstration said Order’s initially understandable motivation. The United States has superior numbers and steampunk technology, and if they’re coming for the ghost rock they figure they may as well use it to fight for their lands.  2. Dark Doings in Dusky Jewel Technically speaking this Plot Point begins as the stagecoach driver approaches Deadwood, but the plot does not kick off until the PCs go searching for Charley Bull. We get some boxed text complete with some period-appropriate expletives (“Well I’ll be a suck-egg mule!”) when Jeb McKeever spots a marching column of blue-suited Union soldiers moving towards Deadwood. The stagecoach starts to rush in hopes to beat them before they could set up a blockade, but PCs who approach one of the smaller bands of soldiers will find them surprisingly non-hostile. They’re headed up by Colonel Brook Manning who originally headed to apprehend Armstrong Custer before his private army could start an international incident. They failed in part because the sight of US troops on Sioux soil was quite rightly interpreted as a violation of the Deadwood Treaty. Manning’s forces suffered losses and now they’ve decided to join Custer’s rag-tag band rather than arrest them. Regardless, the joint Union Army-irregular soldiers number 4,000 and more or less take over the town of Deadwood. They bunker down for the long haul, building fortifications and trenches around the place. Charley Bull is not hard to find: he’s quite fond of European plays and is a frequent attender of the Langrishe Theater. The play in question is King Lear, one of Shakespeare's tragedies. Charley Bull is less than impressed at the yokels’ performance: “Foolish white men, no respect for the source material” he mutters in the Siouan language. Sitting next to Charley will cause him to pull out a knife, thinking that the PCs are there to rough him up for paying the entry fee with a wooden nickel. Mentioning Wovoka will only provide a +2 on the Persuasion rather than an auto-success, and failure can cause him to refuse to speak with the party any further or try to escape. Advancement of the main plot hinging on a single skill check. Never a good sign. As for the job the Ghost Dancers have in mind, Charley talks about how Wovoka’s message hasn’t been met with universal agreement among the Wicasas, and that the “ravens” are roosting in bigger numbers in Deadwood. Four days ago one of his miner contacts went missing after witnessing a secret deal between a group of Sioux and Chinese Iron Dragon employees. Said miner went missing, and he wants the PCs to help track him down. The PCs have three leads to find the miner, whose name is Wallace Blount. The first involves checking in at the Office of Indian Affairs, whose operator is secretly a Ravenite and will try to get more information out of the PCs while passing said information to Sitting Bull. Second is Blount’s favorite saloon, who believes that Blount was kidnapped by spirits of dead miners along with serving as a general information provider for various Savage Tales in the general vicinity of town. Third is following Charley Bull’s map to Blount’s claimed mine, whose trail has decomposing corpses on poles put up as warning by the Sioux. Two of which animate to attack the party. The mine itself bears bloody signs of a fight, but there are no bullet holes or gunpowder residue. The blood was scattered there by a pair of miners who figured to use the ghost miner tales to scare off others and use it for their own purposes. They can be encountered and interrogated and are loathe to put up a fight. They mention that Wallace was poking around for a hidden mining town by the name of Dusky Jewel shortly before he disappeared. Finally there’s a group of Hunkpapa Sioux warriors who will attempt to secretly track the PCs’ movements, and if spotted will be hard to win over their trust even if the party includes a Sioux PC. They know of the existence of Kang’s mining camp, but due to Sitting Bull’s deal with Kang, along with the rail baron’s small army, they can do little but keep tabs on the situation. Dusky Jewel itself is a stealth-based segment of the Plot Point. The large amount of rail warriors combined with the party’s Novice rank means that a straight fight is ill-advised. Kang also has a group of Japanese samurai known as the Seven working for him, who due to some anti-feudal attitudes in their homeland made them seek new forms of employment abroad. Failing a stealth roll will cause a group of them to attack the party. Although they’re Extras, the Seven are quite strong: they have Fighting d12+1 which is a Legendary level of skill, their Parry is 10 which will be very hard to hit in melee, and their Toughness is 10 which is high as well. They deal 2d10 damage with their katanas*, can attack everyone within melee range with the Improved Sweep Edge, and they each have a steam velocipede vehicle to ride around in! *for comparison, the average revolver deals 2d6, a shotgun close-range 3d6, and most rifles and carbines 2d8. Fortunately Dusky Jewel is rather large and has lots of mining tunnels to evade patrols, and Wallace Blount’s location is plain as day: hanging from the gallows in front of the general store. Although the man is dead, he has an obvious journal poking out of one of his shirt pockets which will give the PCs the skinny of his most recent investigations. It discusses how Blount saw the Sioux and Chinese deal go down at night at the foot of Devil’s Tower, along with its estimated location near the particular mountain trail in question. The adventures notes that it is possible for lucky PCs to sneak in and out without raising an alarm, but for those who need to make a hasty escape a Smarts rolls will reveal a nearby steam-powered mining cart which can also be learned about from the Hunkpapa warriors. There’s discussion for how to handle a mine cart pursuit, using the Chase rules from Savage Worlds with rail warriors in their own steam carts and velocipede-riding samurai hot on their trail! Once the PCs return to Charley Bull, he’ll be saddened about Blount’s death but also surprised about Duskey Jewel’s existence. He’ll encourage the PCs to check out the meeting place at Devil’s Tower to find out more information. What I’d Change: First off I’d remove the Persuasion check necessary for earning Charley Bull’s trust if the PCs mention Wovoka’s name. Additionally, there’s a rather ingenious way to bypass the Dusky Jewel encounter: I recall reading on one group’s online campaign journal that the party Shaman shapeshifted into a hawk who scanned the mining camp from overhead. Upon spotting Blount’s journal, he dived for it and flew off with the thing in his clutches. I’d suggest having Blount’s corpse in a coffin or harder-to-reach place, or maybe have the journal in one of the rail warrior’s office quarters but grant the PCs opportunity to overhear conversation about its location. Additionally, the arrival of Custer’s joint army in Deadwood feels off. It seems strange that the PCs will be able to come and go as they please given that the adventure does not mention any complications or difficulty in entering and leaving the town. McKeever’s mad rush seems to suggest that a blockade would happen, although it’s possible in-character for an NPC to be wrong, so... Personally speaking I’d have it so that the army shows up sometime after the PCs escape Dusky Jewel and reunite with Charley Bull, ideally after they had several opportunities to pursue some local Savage Tales. In combination with my idea of the Ravenite-traitor present this will show the PCs that there’s a conspiracy going on to plunge the Sioux Nations into war. Once the Union and irregular soldiers start marching on Deadwood, it’s not out of the question for someone to assume that the weapons shipments in exchange for desecrating the Black Hills cannot be a coincidence. There’s also the fact that if the PCs are committed to the cause of Native autonomy like the adventure suggests, there’s a very real chance that the party will prioritize Custer’s invasion over some shifty trade deals and look for ways to stymie and sabotage the army. Disappointingly the adventure provides no room for this, either in the Plot Point or in Savage Tales.  3. In the Fortress o’ Fright Fun Fact: This entire Plot Point is a callback to Fortress o’ Fear, the third adventure of the Devil’s Tower trilogy of Deadlands Classic. Said adventure was notable for being the book to introduce readers to the Reckoners as the masterminds behind all the supernatural badness, as well as the first in-game appearance of Stone. In that adventure the PCs dungeon-delved in the eponymous monument to prevent Stone from using a magical gem to create a Deadland and thus help jumpstart the Reckoners’ return. Going by page-length this is by far the longest Plot Point of the Last Sons. Most of them run 5 pages on average, but this one’s a whopping 24! The major reason for this is that this is a multi-level open-ended dungeon crawl. Devil’s Tower is a rather static location and not time-sensitive, and the adventure recommends that at least one in-game month passes while the PCs do Savage Tales around Deadwood and reach at least Seasoned rank. Devil’s Tower is inhabited by an alien race whose names are unknown to humanity but are a Crossbred species of humans and aliens whose otherworldly masters arrived to colonize Earth thousands of years ago. The overlords departed, leaving the Crossbreeds behind who were overthrown by human uprisings. The colony in Devil’s Tower is one of their few remaining enclaves. For a while the Crossbreeds managed to maintain a high standard of living via use of a portal to the Hunting Grounds powering their technological devices, and their deal with Kang kept their food supply intact. But 4 years ago things changed for the worse when a futuristic version of Stone came through the portal and cleaved a path of destruction through their colony. He returned with the Heart of Darkness with a group of heroes on his tale, which in turn caused even more devastation as the generator was destroyed. The Crossbreeds fell into infighting among their number and now their civilization is a primitive remnant amid a war-torn backdrop. When investigating the location in Blount’s journal, one of the PCs will experience a vision from Jordrava talking of how they need to free him from the “mirror realm.” Further visions will follow, providing clues for them to find ways into the Devil’s Tower and maybe even helpful warnings if they’re at risk of wandering into a deadly area so as to build trust. There are three main ways into the Devil’s Tower: through an underground lake with air pockets and vicious genetically-modified barracudas; the “front gate” guarded by a Prairie Dog Town full of Crossbreed-created flesh-eating prairie dogs* and 8 of Kang’s hired guns and martial artists; and finally the top which can be climbed with rope and lots of endurance and patience or landed on by autogyro.** The eyrie is home to a dozen devil bats, and contains a shaft going into the Devil’s Tower itself home to manta ray-bat creatures. These last monsters were bred as a swarm of aerial guards for the Crossbreeds. *Iron Dragon guards use a steam wagon going at full speed to cross this section of land **which can be hired in Deadwood for $200 The portal to the Hunting Grounds is the goal of this Plot Point, where the PCs can enter the spirit world and find Jordrava. As it is located in the Crossbreed’s laboratory which is nearer the top of Devil’s Tower, the higher entrances may result in a faster dungeon delve. The river enters into the underground lake, Kang’s guard entrance the Middle Caverns, and the Eyrie leads down into the Garden Level. For the sake of brevity I’m only going to cover each level in short detail. The Garden Level on down to the Training Grounds are the Crossbreed’s living quarters connected by ramps of stone. Lack of acoustics means that loud noises do not carry between levels well, so barring fleeing Crossbreeds the PCs do not have to worry about alerting the entire complex if a fight breaks out. The rooms contain pieces of malfunctioning technology, from water pumps which now contain stagnant liquid to light sconces which are burnt out. The cavern levels below are natural passages full of all manner of savage, animalistic monsters. Garden Level: This is a single large chamber strewn with plant life of both alien and terrestrial flora, although the latter are super-sized crops such as apple trees and corn stalks. The specially bred wasps and worms will attack intruders in swarms. Home o’ the Folk: The living quarters of the civilian Crossbreeds, about 150 of their kind live here due to infighting and a low birthrate. They live in pitch darkness and most are not very tough to fight in combat. The one unique enemy here is an imprisoned hovering metallic orb which will try to “clean” all organic life with burning cones of energy beams. The Barracks: The soldier caste of Crossbreeds live here in tiny Spartan chambers. Their numbers are 30 but they’re much tougher physically than the ones above. A few of their rooms contain functioning alien technology, randomly determined and detailed at the end of this adventure section. The Laboratories: The only inhabitants of this level are an elderly miner by the name of Mortimer Johns who is mortally wounded from vivisection, and a Crossbreed scientist known as General Nor who has welded armor plates, additional arms, steam-powered mechanical legs, and networks of rubber tubes entering and exiting his flesh. Nor is the boss battle of the Devil’s Tower, as he has a deadly raygun along with armor providing him a total 13 Toughness. He also has Improved Frenzy to make two Fighting attacks per round in case he’s forced into melee, and he’s not too shabby with 1d10+1d8 claw damage. The adventure ends in a final scene when the PCs approach the shattered power generator in the portal room. Training Grounds: This maze-like level is full of pit traps, tripwires connected to explosive charges, pendulum blades, and crushing wall traps along with 10 mutant Crossbreed soldiers who know the level like the back of their hand along with all of the unpsrung trap locations. There’s a locked metal gate which blocks access to the Caverns below. Upper Caverns: Packs of dog-like scaly creatures known as stingers live here. Once a Crossbreed’s best friend, they now view anyone else as an enemy and attack with sharp teeth and paralytic stinging tails. Middle Caverns: The sole living creature here is referred to as the Darkblob by Kang’s soldiers for its tar-like appearance. It is in fact a sapient colony of slime mold which can communicate in a psychic hivemind. The darkblob is outright immune to most attacks save fire, electricity, explosives, and magic. Even then it can regenerate from even a single cell over time which renders it effectively immortal. It can also split itself into up to 3 smaller forms. Lower Caverns: This level is home to a giant rattler whose corpse constitutes a fair bit of this level’s western portion. Around 100 of its still-living spawn are scattered throughout the level, but will only attack in groups of up to 2 rattler young’uns per PC. Underground Lake: A water pump used to provide the Crossbreed with a steady stream of clean water, but now it is broken down. It can be repaired, which the Crossbreeds will be grateful for and try to find the responsible party.* There is an unconnected section of sewage home to a leviathan living within the sludge, which will attack anyone who goes to close to the muck. *the adventure does not expand or discuss what happens if the PCs manage to open communications and earn the Crossbreed’s trust. At the Portal: The room is home to what appears to be a tear in reality, and Jordrava will show the whole party a vision of himself walking through it before vanishing. In the center of the room’s shattered machine is the corpse of a Pony Express rider with his head blown to pieces. The rider’s corpse is wearing Harrowed Boots and has $250 worth of Confederate coins in his satchel. The last danger in this Plot Point is a masau’u Kachina, an evil spirit which will try to possess the body of one of the PCs. It does this in hopes of following the party into the Hunting Grounds and betray them later if possible (or until its 1d6 hour duration possession runs out). The book advises taking a possessed PC’s player aside for a moment to explain what happens, but oddly expects them to control the possessed PC when the time comes to turn on the rest of the party. This seems like it can end poorly for most groups. I’d suggest the GM takes control instead at the moment of betrayal. We also have a full page worth of seven Crossbreed technological devices. Three of them have combat uses, such as a concealable tunic of armor, a raygun which can deal a varying level of damage based on charges expended, and a stunstick which can cause a target to be Shaken on a failed Vigor roll with penalty based on charges expended. I found the stunstick boring on account that you can already cause the Shaken condition by default by hitting an enemy’s Toughness with damage from just about any source. The other four are utility devices: a medikit which can heal wounds with a d10 healing die and a Wild Die; a handtorch which can generate 1d6 years’ worth of light but is fragile and can shatter if dropped; a powercell which can provide chargers for other gadgets listed here; and finally a translator necklace which when worn around the neck can generate a canned translation of the user’s native language to those in the vicinity. General Nor and Kang’s soldiers guarding the entrance have copies of the last device on their person, which can allow for communication with the Crossbreeds. What I’d Change: I’d first change the rationale for why the PCs are heading to Devil’s Tower. The existence of Dusky Jewel will soon be found out, and when push comes to shove the Sioux Nations will accept the aid of Kang’s forces in Plot Point 8 to fight the invading US thanks to the new Garfield Administration. I’d make it so that a Ghost Dance member sometime after Deadwood’s occupation approaches the party, and have Jordrava appear in visions before Plot Point 3 here and there.* The Ghost Dance member would speak of how one of their number knows of a way to repel the invading forces, but said person is within the world of spirits. Jordrava’s description would match his account, and thus the PCs would have a strong incentive to check out Devil’s Tower. I’d also have it so that a scouting legion of Custer’s forces are camping near the Tower based on word of the Indians gaining supplies from outside aid, who may or may not have dealt with Kang’s forces at the entrance already. *the book mentions doing this already, but only at one point during Plot Point 1 when the PCs are fighting the Ravenites, and only see his face and nothing else. As for the Devil’s Tower interior, it all depends on the makeup of my potential party. This Plot Point can become combat-heavy, and the number of Crossbreed fought can vary wildly due to encounter die rolls. I would change the Kachina encounter to either not happen, have them attack the party immediately upon possession, or provide some “out” for other party members to figure out the PCs’ status.  4. Vision Quest This Plot Point immediately kicks off at the last one’s end. The boxed text opens up with the PCs adjusting to being in a cool, dim place with an otherworldly sensation of “being aware of your own soul.” Beyond them stretches the massive tree as described in the Marshal’s Section for the Hunting Grounds. They do not have much time before a swarm of manitous disguised as leaves attack, proclaiming that the “medicine man is ours!” The Hunting Grounds are separated by a series of suggested scenes supplemented by the Spirit Encounters table from the Marshal’s Section. There’s encouragement to play upon the PCs’ Worst Nightmares and elements from their past in the form of visions and eerily familiar spirits. The scenes are rather thematic, from a bound procession of ancestor spirit slaves captured by manitous taking them to the Deadlands, a repeating loop of the Battle of the Cauldron where spirits of rail warriors fight each other with the PCs in the crossfire, or a stand of massive pine trees forming a pseudo-roof tended by Little People which serves as a peaceful resting place. There are only two fixed, mandatory encounters, and the first one is a bridge made of vines spanning a canyon. The canyon stretches out to infinity on the wide ends and a yawning black void reaches across the bottom. The bridge is a spirit named Wakanda, and when the PCs step on it will scold them for their rudeness. He will forgive them if they can entertain him, otherwise he will refuse to let the party cross. The entertainment necessary is open-ended and to be decided on by the players with an appropriate roll at a -2 penalty; Wakanda has high standards. Failure causes him to jeer the performer, but the PCs can try an infinite number of times unless they get a snake eyes, which means they will not be allowed to cross. Crossing by force will cause the spirit to do his best in throwing them into the darkness below, which will cause the PC and their soul to fall into the Deadlands and never be seen again...unless the GM’s feeling merciful and lets the entire party go there to rescue them. The adventure notes that Wakanda means “possesses magical powers” in Sioux. I tried to ascertain the veracity of this, and found that there is a similarly-spelled name called “Waconda” by the Kaw tribe of modern-day Kansas and Oklahoma. It means “Great Spirit” in their language. The second mandatory encounter is beyond the chasm within a barren rocky land full of tangled vines and thorns. It leads to a 50 foot tall hill resembling a tortured man’s face, and Jordrava is at the top suspended on a huge dead oak tree. Said “oak tree” is actually a greater manitou by the name of Hex. It is accompanied by a lesser manitou swarm and will attack the PCs on sight. Statwise the lesser manitous are more a minor foe or nuisance who deal automatic damage within their sphere of influence, while greater manitous are big bruisers with 14 Toughness whose claws can ignore all forms of armor. Along with a 1d12 Strength and 2d6 claw attacks, Hex can hit pretty hard. Jordrava is heavily wounded, but once tended to he will be thankful to his rescuers. Introducing himself, he will infodump on the party about Raven being responsible for the widespread blight of evil spirits, and that their actions so far have made them enemies of him and his Order whether they like it or not. He will ask the party if they wish to run or to fight. Jordrava will let the party leave back to the mortal world and even talk with them further, but he’ll be visibly disappointed if the choose “run.” He can further tell the party of an abridged version of how he and the other Old Ones sealed the supernatural powers of the world to prevent a great evil from gaining sway. He will also tell them of their battle against the Last Sons, his recent awakening, and eventual capture at the hands of the manitou Hex. He also goes into more detail on the prophecy of the white calf, how it heralds the exile of white settlers, reclaiming of ancestral lands, along with an era of peace and prosperity. He will also explain how Wodziwob, Wovoka’s father, saw a dark future which is basically the Deadlands Hell on Earth setting and how Raven will be responsible in bringing it about. Finally, Jordrava says that he cannot aid the PCs directly as his famous face will cause the Ravenites to descend on him and cause trouble for everyone involved. But he mentions how two tools of his are somewhere back in the mortal realm: a medicine rock in the shape of a buffalo, and a supernaturally-sharp tomahawk. He knows that the rock was put in his peoples’ burial ground in what is now “a town the white man call Dodge,” but he does not know of the tomahawk’s location. He trusts the PCs will be able to find the second one if they managed to find him in the Hunting Grounds. He’ll then create a portal back to the physical world, which can drop the PCs off at any of the locations in this book the GM desires. The writers suggest it being far enough away from Dodge City to allow the PCs an eventful journey and opportunity to complete some Savage Tales. What I’d Change: Not much honestly. The infinite-rolling save snake eyes is almost guaranteed to let the PCs pass and seems more of a pure role-play thing, which I like. Thoughts So Far: The adventure’s fine so far. It’s not as railroady as the Flood’s first plot points, but it does have the same sins of a big event happening while the PCs are off doing other things. It also has the possibility of misdirecting the party to the “wrong enemy” in the process: Custer’s forces won’t be dealt with until much later at Plot Point 8, and even then it’ll be an offscreen affair. The Ghost Dancers are this campaign’s Explorer’s Society equivalent, although they’re weaker in the sense that the PCs don’t have opportunities to take Savage Tales on their behalf or a Tombstone Epitaph equivalent of an “adventuring list.” Despite being a prominent pan-Indian movement they feel much more in the background. Join us next time as we cover the second half of the Last Sons, starting in Bleeding Kansas and ending up once again in the Hunting Grounds for one final showdown!
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 10:26
|
|
|
What would be a real twist with all these weird west things is if you had one where Mexico caught a few breaks and became a first-rate power. But I suppose that doesn't play to the fiction.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 11:14
|
|
|
Wait so, Deadlands has loving aliens? This seems like a strange thing to just breeze over in a side quest rather than something that's a major plot point.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 13:21
|
|
|
Rifts World Book 20: Canada, Part 16 - "Cost: Only the Tundra Rangers have it and they aren't selling." Notable Equipment Yep, it's time for Canadian lasers. Sadly, they don't fire in a miniature maple leaf pattern.  Note the arm patch change from the cover. Tundra Ranger, Weapons, Gear & Vehicles So, let's do this quick. Legion Tundra Body Armor is kind of crap, and for some reason the helmet (50 M.D.C.) is more durable than the suit (40 M.D.C.). However, they do get a Thermal-Armor Body Suit - literally their top-secret mega-damage thermal undies, I'm not exaggerating - which adds 20 M.D.C. under any armor they wear. Tundra Ranger Energy Weapons are just reskinned old corebook Coalition weapons, since they apparently based theirs on the same pre-Rifts tech the Coalition did. That's a space-saver of an assertion! And the TR-5000 Tundra Ranger Heavy Laser Turret has a passable but relatively weak laser and mini-missiles, but it'll at least put a roof over your head in a firefight.  Ready to race through the woods of Light vehicles include the Legion-90 Sky Pack (generic jet pack), Legion 2/20 Snowmobile, and Legion 50/50 Arctic Hovercycle. Most of these are just mild adjustments on previous statblocks, right down to the snowmobile's warning from Warlords of Russia not to go too fast in the wrong terrain will cause a crash, gently caress what your actual skill level might be. Apparently the Hovercycle is based off the same technology that Novyet (the vehicle company from Warlords of Russia) uses.  I feel like Burles is just taking the piss with Siembieda here. "Want guns?" On a weirder note, we have the Legion SOL Flying Arsenal, which is self-admittedly a statblock built around a Kent Burles pick. And yes, the SOL does stand for "poo poo Outta Luck". This is a new hoverpick design that isn't widely available even to Tundra Rangers. It has a wide variety of average weapons, but has short-range missiles and mini missiles. Finally, Siembieda remembered short-range missiles existed! It's the little things. Also, it can fire silver spears for a low, low damage value of 2d6 to supernatural creatures vulnerable to silver.  The centerpiece of your Tundra Ranger toy collection. For the final arctic ninja battle vehicle, we have the Legion Armored Snow Lion A.P.C., no doubt named after the fierce Canadian snow lions of the tundra. Like most A.P.C.s in the game, it's bizarrely vulnerable (300 M.D.C.) and so can easily become a death-trap for eighteen brave soldiers if you're looking to fight Free Quebec or whatever. It has lasers and grenade launchers, but the only real damage output comes from short-range missile lasers. But it can ascend inclines up to 55°! But 30° to 45° are optimum! So you won't be defeated by small hills. Lastly, the rules for Homemade M.D.C. Armor get repeated again; apparently Canada calls it "hodgepodge" instead of "homespun". We have Fury Beetle Armor, made from fury beetles, but it's pretty unimpressive. Also, we have Skis: Downhill/Cross-Country, which implies that somewhere in the dark wasteland haunted by demons, there's a factory churning out skis. No, there aren't any rules for what you can do with skis other than a skill percentage. Use your imagination, gosh! We get some XP tables. Ogopogo use the Dragon table, even though they aren't playable. The usual weirdness. Conclusion quote:Alien Rope Burn: Canada isn't too bad, but it's not too great either. It's not some neat ideas like demon beavers, anti-robot nerds, little d-bees in personal spaceships, cyber-centaurs, and you could probably massage them into something cool in a better system. But a lot of it is still weighed down by Rifts' lack of mechanical weight, thematic tropes, and some cookie-cutter content. I mean, there's not much that separates a cyber-centaur from a regular cyborg, and- wait, why is this in a quote box? THE END. CANADA WILL RETURN IN RIFTS WORLD BOOK 23: XITICIX INVASION.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 13:47
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:Wait so, Deadlands has loving aliens? This seems like a strange thing to just breeze over in a side quest rather than something that's a major plot point. It was a major plot point in the original adventure it featured in, but that adventure was also terrible.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 14:14
|
|
|
Emerald Empire: Fish Town Swirling Pool Village is a Crab Clan fishing village along Earthquake Fish Bay, one of the many such villages that the Crab rely on for food. The dried fish these villages produce feeds the Wall, as the land around the Shadowlands produces no plants worthy of human consumption. Swirling Pool sits at the junction where four streams feed out from the Sunda Mizu Province hills into Earthquake Fish Bay, and it is run by the Yasuki family. The houses are built on the very edge of the shoreline, standing on wooden piles sunk into the seabed. Each home has its own small dock and working area for nets and fish cleaning, with the tide drawing waste back out into the sea. The scent of drying fish is palpable, and the houses sit about ten feet above high tide, so they remain secure even in storms. The village maintains the Shrine of the Four Gifts, in celebration of the four stream kami that join the inlet, and the shrine has one statue to each kami, each on one of the four walls. Traditionally, residents must make equal offerings to all four, to avoid them becoming jealous of each other. It is said that the village prospers most when all four are content and willing to work together harmoniously. Everyone depends on the success of the village fishermen, either because they are those fishermen or support the work of the fishers. Uniquely, the village pays its taxes in dried fish rather than rice. Visitors are often impressed by the quality and taste of the fish, especially when it's fresh, and most of the fishing fleet works the bay directly with gillnets, though some use cormorants. quote:Swirling Pool Village Rumors Our NPC is Murata Hisao, the young and enthusiastic priest that maintains the Shrine of the Four Gifts. He believes the kami influence all aspects of life and will happily offer his insights and anecdotes to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, he is absolutely awful at keeping secrets and is not particularly good at being insightful. As a result, he often comes across as boorish, and he has more than once accidentally revealed things told him in confidence by visitors and locals alike. The community has about hit the limits of their patience with him. Adventure seed: The PCs arrive in the village to the scent of rotting fish, and the locals appear gaunt and miserable. They soon learn that many of the fish caught recently have been sickly, rotting even before they could be dried. Murata Hisao believes that a cleansing ceremony must be done for the bay. He asks the PCs to come with him, sailing out several hours travel to cleanse the fishing waters. Along the way, the waters grow treacherous, and dead fish can be seen floating on the surface. When the ritual begins, the group is attacked by a sea hag, who wishes to stop the rite. She has taken up residence in the area, and it is her presence which has contaminated the fish. The PCs must either defeat her or convince her to leave the area in order to restore the proper fishing. Kaori Tea Farm sits in the Uebe Marshes, an inhospitable part of Anshin Province ruled over by the Hiramori vassal family of the Daidoji. The scent of rotting vegetation is constant, and the dense foliage blocks any breeze. Some communities survive in the forests and swamps, but farming is very difficult there. Further, it is near the cursed site of Dark Cloud Village, which keeps most visitors away. Despite this, a family of farmers has turned just over 50 acres of land into a tea farm over the past decade. They work the land, trying to force the tea to grow in the very damp weather. The temperature is good for tea, but the soil is too wet. To fight this, they have gone to lengths to import sand, which they have been mixing with the soil. It's working, but it may take a generation or more for the farm to thrive. Their limited workforce doesn't help matters. The farm is worked entirely by the members of a single close family - Hirotaka, Noriko, their seven children, and Noriko's sister, Kotomi. All of them work to keep the farm going, and it's clear that there is sometimes far more work than workers. They don't have the resources to hire anyone or even to feed and house any volunteers. Their clothing is patchy and worn, often poorly fitted. Their farm has only one house and one outbuilding where the tea leaves are dried and processed, and both are poorly made and maintained, built entirely out of materials easy to harvest from the marshes and with shortcuts taken in construction. The only animals on the farm of any value are a few chickens kept in a small pen next to a vegetable garden, the produce of which is often sickly. A small stand of bamboo grows nearby, and it is harvested almost constantly. quote:Kaori Tea Farm Rumors Our NPC is Hirotaka. He, his wife Noriko, their children, and Kotomi work the farm. He's happy to see any visitors at all, anxious for news beyond the farm. He is quick to invite them to eat, but he has only limited resources to serve visitors with, and they may well notice his children missing a meal or sleeping outside to make room for them. However, he is also shockingly well educated, able to speak cogently on philosophy and military strategy at a high level, though he seems to know very little about agriculture. While the family is clearly struggling to maintain the farm, anyone can see that they are cheerful and deeply love each other. All of the adults give the kids chances to take part in discussion and are both very polite and always looking to find a teachable moment. Many of these lessons focus on philosophy or religion rather than anything relevant to farm work, though. Adventure Seed: Any PCs who have spent time in the capital realize, after they arrive on the farm, that Hirotaka's face is extremely familiar. They will eventually realize that he was once a noted member of the Imperial Court and a prominent figure in the Daidoji Family. He fled the court following accusations that he had redirected resources to help a friend rather than to serve a military installation that needed them. Of course, the PCs must confirm Hirotaka's identity. Once they do, they must then decide whether to leave him in this obscure, honorless life in a backwater or force him to return to the capital to face punishment for his crimes. Hirotaka has definitely accepted that his current rural lifestyle is the consequences of his past actions. If the PCs do want him to face justice, they will have to recognize that his wife, children and sister will probably not survive without him - every member of the family is absolutely required to keep the farm going. However, if they were brought back with Hirotaka, they would certainly suffer after the man was punished. If the children learn of any plans for the family to leave the farm, some of them will flee into the marshes, which are dangerous and full of predators. Next time: How samurai deal with peasants
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 15:06
|
|
|
Urban Jungle I'm gonna need some guys So, this is going to be both a couple example characters, but also some thoughts on character creation and how ideas like Type vs. Skill Marks actually feel once you start plotting out character concepts and throwing together some guys and dolls. All of this should be taken with the caveat that I have not yet run Urban Jungle, since I have other games to work on at the moment, so this is a spot judgment based on what I can see and what making PCs feels like comparatively rather than something where I've seen it all in motion for myself. Let's take Barry Bertolli first, because goddamnit I started with the Bear and I'm gonna keep going with the guy. Barry is, of course, a Bear. This gives him Endurance, Fighting, and Presence and the Gifts of Wrestling (gets access to a bunch of special grappling moves, rather than a bonus grappling) and Giant (d8 bonus to situations where bigness matters, though it's not clear if that helps in a fistfight or not, plus his Reach turns to 3m with all melee). Barry is gonna be a tough guy who means well, who don't listen so good when people tell him the world can't be better. So he takes Knight as a Type because he likes the flavor of it. This gives him Endurance, Presence, and Tactics, an Injury -4 Soak, and the Gift of Bodyguard, so he can swap places with allies and take hits for them. Barry's also a proper Mobster and a made man, with a dapper suit and hat, always smoking a cigar. So he gets Presence, Shooting, and Negotiating, plus Bullet Conservation (Ammo dice are all one size higher to start) and Streetwise (d12 on criminal dealings, easier to get illegal stuff). Barry's a big guy and a very good bear, so he puts his d8s in Bear and Body. He's not to quick on his feet, being huge, so his d4 goes in Speed. Everything else gets a d6. Let's look at what he can do off the bat. Barry's pretty good with a shotgun or magnum, since they rely on Body and he's got a d6 Shooting from Mobster. He's solid in melee since he's got those d8s from Body and Bear (and maybe Giant, it's unclear), though his d4 Speed slows him down (a lot of melee includes both Body and Speed). He's not so good at dodging or sneaking, because he's got only a d4 to roll. What he's really good at is being intimidating; he's got Presence from Bear, Mobster, and Knight, plus his Will isn't bad, his Body is great, and I think 'I loom over him while I suggest we have a serious discussion concerning his health and well being' is a place where you can argue Giant kicks in for sure. He's also tough as hell, having his good Body, then 2d6 in Endurance, so he has a chance of shrugging off a shot from a service pistol or a hit from a combat knife without even having to go to soak (those are both Damage+2, he can soak up to 3 damage from Endurance+Body potentially, though odds are low). On everything but being a scary (or just impressive) guy, fighting, and some basic negotiation and street smarts, he ain't too good, because it's way easier to run into situations where you only have 1 die in something in Urban Jungle. He picks up the Personality of Kind and the Motto "Bigger means better.", and a goal of 'Help somebody with their debts.', and he's good to go. Still, he's definitely playable, and definitely fits the archetype of a big, burly made man who's secretly kinda soft on the inside and probably listens to sob stories, which then gets him in trouble with the boss and gets everything in his life spiraling out of control. Let's take another. Hilda Mariendorf is a Fox, which gives her Athletics, Evasion, Observation, a Danger Sense (d12 to deal with traps and hazards, +d12 to Init), and makes her a Coward (+d12 to Dodges while Panicked, runs faster while Panicked). For Type, she's an Egghead. She's always been a smart girl, and gets Academics, Transport, and Craft, plus Noncombatant (+d12 to Dodges if you haven't fought back yet, have to go a full day without fighting to recover it if you Counter or Attack) and Injury Soak -4. She's also a Reporter, because hey, Reporters getting up to messes is a classic. That gets her Observation, Questioning, and Transport, plus Gossip (Same as MS), and Research (Also same as MS). Hilda's real good at her Egghead background, so she's got a d8 in Type, and her whole core is being sharp, so d8 in Mind. She's no fighter, though, so she's got a d4 in Body and d6s in everything else. Like with Barry, Hilda's got some big things going for her off the bat. For one, she's a really good reporter; d12 from Gossip, d6 from Career, and probably d8 from Mind means she's great at just taking the temperature of a place. She's also a surprisingly good scientist and academic, with Research applying to labwork as well as library work. She's perceptive and picks up on trouble easily. She's also nearly impossible to actually pin down and kill in a fight, because you can choose to turn Panicked at any time to activate Coward, and with Coward+Noncombatant even dedicated fighter types will have a hard time hitting her while she runs away. She's not especially impressive (probably kind of mousey looking) and not great at negotiations and dealing with people outside of asking them questions. She's not good at fighting back, but then her goal in a fight is to get the hell out of the fight or draw fire, not to gun people down. Pen's mightier than the sword and all! Also makes a competent getaway driver and ain't bad at all at making stuff. She picks up a Personality of Inquisitive, the Motto "What a Scoop!" because how can you not, and then the goal 'Get to the bottom of this!' and she's good. Something I've noticed when making characters with this system is they tend to fall more rigidly into archetypes than they do in something like Myriad Song. This is obviously intentional, when you've got a literal type-casting stat on your character sheet. You're also more likely to be outright bad at some things than you would be in MS, and more importantly, you actually start with fewer Gifts and effectively less skills, if you count Type as a replacement for starting Skill Marks (which I think it is). Now, this is probably due to a mixture of trying to simplify the system, and a different in genre compared to space opera adventures. But it does feel much more constrained to make characters with. It's faster, much faster; you make 3 major decisions and then assign 2 good dice, 1 bad die, and fill in from there. You can make a PC in 2 minutes. But there's a lot less personalizing your PC mechanically. Also, the lack of Skill Marks is something where yeah, I get it; raising skill marks was the only source of 'uncapped' advancement and they're experimenting with reining that in (I suspect). Similarly, on a pure EXP basis, you get more from raising a Trait for 10 than you would for spending 4 on 3 skills to raise 'em after all. That eliminates a variable EXP cost, which I also believe is a design goal. Similarly, you can take a Gift to instantly get a d8 Skill in a Skill, which I think is meant to keep the same cost (10 EXP as opposed to the 12 EXP it would cost under the Skill Mark system) but also make it harder to focus on a single skill and get a d12 in it (you can't raise the d8, it just remains as a constant bonus at that level). This also pushes absolutely all Advancement to be done via the Gift system, which achieves more standardization and technically simplifies things. The problem is, it also makes learning something new to any degree kind of a big investment. You see, when you want to buy a new Type or Career (you obviously can't buy a new Species) you need both its Gifts/Soaks first. So say Barry wants to go to school and become an actual wise guy. He'll need to learn Geography and Research before he can then spend 10 EXP to become a Professor, too. Or Medicine and Research and then spend to become a Doctor. He'd have an easier time picking up Egghead, by taking Noncombatant and then Extra Type: Egghead, since he's already got Injury -4. But that's still a 20 EXP investment (or some adventures for Goal fulfilling). Then he's got to slowly creep up from d4. He could also just take Skill Expert (Academics) to get a minor edge, but it's generally a big investment to actually learn new things. Type can also be an awkward replacement for Skill Marks just because it's so heavily tied to your character's flavor. I mean, this is your type-casting, one of the core adjectives/descriptors for your PC. It's a big part of your concept, but it's also a really important mechanical building block, seeing as it's your only source of Soaks and possibly a big portion of your starting Gifts. I think tying it so heavily to a major mechanical foundation of your character increases the temptation to pick a Type because it will get you the bonuses you want, not because it sounds like a cool flavor for your PC. When your Species, Career, and Type are your only source of 'skill marks', there's more of a mechanical incentive to pick them by mechanics rather than trying to smooth out or fill in gaps in mechanics later. Same for eliminating free Gifts. I get the intention; the idea is both to make character creation a lot faster and to make it more directed so that you don't have people starting with crazy builds. It's an attempt to reduce the influence of system mastery (which is always an issue and always worth considering in a highly crunchy system) and make it quick to make an archetypal character, because this is a genre driven by archetypes. It makes it nearly impossible to make a 'bad' character, too. All 14 skills are useful and broad. You're going to be good at what you put down on your sheet, no ifs, ands or buts. You make a reporter, you'll be a competent reporter. You make a mobster, you'll be a decent mobster. Etc etc. That has real value, especially for a first time player coming into a new system. I worry, however, that making genuinely branching out into new things very difficult will lead people to primarily advance in what they're already good at. So in the end, I find the changes to PC creation kind of a mixed bag, though again this is without having actually run a campaign and seen how advancement interacts with the initial PC creation for myself. They provide guidance against system mastery traps, they're quick, they'll generally produce competent PCs, and they're in-genre. However, they're much more constrained and there are fewer decisions to make during PC creation, which makes it harder to make PCs really mechanically distinct from one another. Also, in general, a starting UJ character is going to have fewer Gifts by a longshot. They can have as few as 4 (and 2 soaks) and only up to 5. Compare to 2 for Upbringing, 2 for Legacy, 2 for Career, and 3 free in MS. I suspect this is part of simplifying the system, since UJ is an intentionally cut down version of Cardinal; there's a reason the book is 100 pages shorter than Myriad Song. At the same time, it will produce lower power PCs to start. Next Time: Shooting people.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 17:24
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:Wait so, Deadlands has loving aliens? This seems like a strange thing to just breeze over in a side quest rather than something that's a major plot point. I'd also like to point out that the original "Fortress O' Fear" boxed set adventure, which was the bridge between Deadlands and Hell on Earth, literally starts with a beautiful woman from the future approaching the PCs in a saloon, telling them that she's from the future, that the Reckoners are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and giving them a book (which was a physical prop) that explained the future history of the game line. And when I say "literally", I mean that in the correct way.  
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 17:41
|
|
|
Emerald Empire: Your Betters While Rokugani caste structure is deeply engrained, samurai still have to interact with peasants, and their relationship is more complex than it might seem at first. Commoners are taught to be deferent to samurai from an early age, and more importantly, to avoid samurai whenever possible. They are respectful and quiet and avoid eye contact and get out of the situation as quickly as they can. To do otherwise is to implicitly act against the Celestial Order, a grave blasphemy and crime. At the very least it will earn censure - and that only if the samurai is merciful. Far more likely, they will be beaten or even killed, and it will not be considered a crime to do so. At worst, the samurai may have to pay recompense to the local lord - assuming they aren't that lord. Thus, most commoners are essentially terrified of samurai. Typically, they will never speak except to answer questions and will not initiate any exchange...which can mean they don't volunteer important information, either. It is not uncommon for samurai to be surprised by crises the commoners have known about for quite some time. Regardless of a samurai's status, commoners will always address them with the 'sama' honorific, and typically use only their family name or the word 'samurai'. However, despite these rules of etiquette, there are complexities. Almost all samurai are extremely aware that the Empire requires the peasantry to function at all, that there are many tasks that samurai are simply not capable of which keep society running. Thus, most samurai are careful to treat commoners with a sort of civil indifference, recognizing their work but ignoring them entirely unless they have a reason not to; it is comfortable that way for everyone involved. Some samurai go even further, taking the tenet of Compassion beyond its broader sense of protecting the common folk from large-scale harm. They apply it in personal dealings as well, treating commoners with polite courtesy or even working to protect them from abuse. These samurai are rare, mostly found among the Phoenix and Unicorn, and are often seen as strange by their peers, or even ridiculed for the peasant sympathies. However, they are much beloved by the common people, often becoming renowned as heroes of the people. On the other hand, some samurai treat commoners with contempt, seeing their status as less human in the Celestial Order as justification for cruelty. Some will answer any slight, real or imagined, with death. This is a failure of Compassion, of course, and against Bushido. It has consequences, too. Killing commoners can easily anger their lord, who will demand compensation or even pressure a samurai's lord to punish them. Other samurai may also take exception to their actions, as killing servants of the Empire, even lowly ones, is wrong. And, of course, if the common people are aggravated enough, they may overcome their ingrained subservience and form a mob, driven by anger. A mob of peasants with farming tools is more than capable of overwhelming, injuring and even killing even skilled bushi by weight of numbers, even if they'll face dire consequences afterward. Most samurai understand the work of the peasantry and how they benefit from it, though. There is a sidebar saying that players should be cautious about playing cruel rear end in a top hat samurai - if the table is made uncomfortable by you beating up random peasants for minor misdeeds, don't do it, rear end in a top hat. RPGs are supposed to be fun and making your friends uncomfortable isn't fun for them! Talk about this stuff before the game! Samurai tend to recognize the heimin as valuable to the Empire and therefore possibly valuable to themselves. The peasants of highest value and status are, of course, farmers and fishers - those that produce food. Without food, everyone would die. Thus, lords tend to be extremely protective of their farmers, treating them well (or at least not badly) and often rewarding those who work hardest or produce best. This ensures sufficient food. Most will even treat the farmers of their enemies well. Wanton murder of farmers is frowned on heavily by both other samurai and Imperial authorities, even if it would provide military advantage, and doing so means you risk your enemy retaliating by doing the same. Further, if you manage to win, not hurting the farmers means you get their land with a minimum of disruption of work. Bonus! Thus, samurai tend to treat farmers well, no matter who they belong to. In return, most farmers are accomodating and will readily offer food and lodging if required, as well as medical aid if someone is injured. Those that mistreat farmers often find poor accomodation, are told the locals have run out of food and do not get much aid even when they need it. Just below farmers are the craftspeople who produce the tools needed for life. They are nearly as valuable if they are skilled, for their work enables the farmers. Weaponsmiths are also considered especially valuable. They do not make katana or wakizashi, of course - that would be forbidden, and no samurai would dream of wielding a heimin-made weapon. However, they make the many weapons used by most ashigaru. For a samurai lord, well-made tools and weapons are not just vital to the functioning of the land, they are an important source of trade income. Thus, most samurai treat crafters well, as long as they are properly deferent. Merchants produce nothing of value, dealing only in the goods of others, and this makes them the lowest of the heimin, yet the ones with the most complex relationship with the samurai. On the one hand, commerce is distasteful and to be disdained or treated with contempt. On the other, wealth is nice, and skilled merchant vassals brings in wealth. It is not rare for a samurai to hate merchants for their crass commercialism yet also maintain close relations with them to benefit from their work. Not all samurai hate commerce, either. The Daidoji, Yasuki and Ide all have samurai traders, and other clans usually have a few samurai that specialize in such affairs. Even then, heimin merchants play a major role as the people who actually do the negotiations on price and directly oversee the movement of goods. The samurai tend to act as patrons, giving them broad direction and support, while the merchants drive the bargains and make profits for their masters. This allows the samurai to maintain a polite distance from the act of business. More traditional samurai still look on this kind of thing contemptuously, however. They often fail to realize or deliberately ignore that wealthy samurai have better lives and are often more influential. The hinin, the lowest form of commoner, do the unpleasant but necessary tasks. They dispose of trash, handle and cremate the dead, make leather and so on. They are treated with far more contempt than the heimin are by samurai, and are not generally considered to be human at all. They are property. It is very rare that a samurai will ever interact with a hinin, and when they do, it almost exclusively ends poorly for the hinin. Killing a hinin is, at worst, a form of minor vandalism, which most lords will not care enough to do anything about. However, Compassion still requires some things. The wanton slaughter of large numbers of hinin can inconvenience their lord and reflects poorly on a samurai doing it. Most samurai instead ignore the hinin, as if they were objects or animals. Most hinin prefer things this way, because they are terrified of samurai, and for good reason, as samurai are unpredictable and dangerous and getting involved with them can be disastrous for the hinin. However, it also means that if the hinin are suffering, only the most compassionate samurai are going to help - or notice at all. There are, however, some specific exceptions. Geisha, literally 'artful person,' are a unique role in society. They are hinin, legally not people, but because of this, samurai may seek their company and relax the normal emotional control they are expected to show while in their presence, and it is not seen as shameful, as if they were showing emotion with no one else present at all. Geisha can be of any gender, and their training requires years of dedication. They are skilled in conversation and various forms of artistic performance. Beginners must show skill to an extremely high standard to become apprentice geisha, much less full geisha, and many do not make the cut. The best of those that do can become extremely sought after, mostly gaining the patronage of powerful samurai, who benefit from the prestige of having such a skilled vassal...plus the not inconsiderable wealth they bring in. Despite what gaijin often think, geisha are not courtesans, though. Some samurai become enamored of or even fall in love with skilled geisha, due to their ability at being entertaining companions skilled at drawing forth emotional release. It is not unknown for samurai and geisha to have children together, and in most cases such children are not legitimized or acknowledged and grow up as hinin. Some samurai, however, may choose to acknowledge or even adopt these children, or arrange for their adoption elsewhere. In some instances the child may even be raised as a samurai, though the circumstances of their birth must be kept a careful secret if so. Some geisha even rise to become trusted advisors to their samurai clients, becoming influential far beyond their status as hinin would suggest. Some use this to gain their clients' secrets, which they use for spying and blackmail, and few are even trained to do so, particularly by the Scorpion. More than one samurai has had their life disrupted or ruined by a secret revealed in the presence of a geisha. Torturers are also worth noting. To obtain a conviction in court, confession is normally required. Magistrates and judges prefer voluntary confession, but if not, well, torture of the accused until they confess is fine. Because no honorable samurai would ever do it, and it is unclean and beneath even heimin, torturers must be hinin. The torturers are an important part of a magistrate's retinue, and they must be much more than simple brutes. The job is to get a confession, not cause unnecessary suffering, after all. A skilled torturer is, in their own way, seen as an artist, and the best can draw forth a confession merely under the threat of suffering. Because of their deep understanding of the human body and how to harm it, some torturers are also extremely handy to have during criminal investigations, as they can determine the type and sequence of injuries on a murder victim, among other things. These skilled torturers are highly sought after by magistrates, and can become quite influential in their own way. Next time: Travel
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 18:18
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Killing a hinin is, at worst, a form of minor vandalism, which most lords will not care enough to do anything about. However, Compassion still requires some things. The wanton slaughter of large numbers of hinin can inconvenience their lord and reflects poorly on a samurai doing it. Most samurai instead ignore the hinin, as if they were objects or animals. Presumably also, killing hinin means you are interacting with hinin, which is distasteful. Far better to simply pretend they don't exist at all and that their tasks happen by magic.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 22:13
|
|
|
The only game I'd play in L5R is BURN IT ALL DOWN 
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 22:46
|
|
|
Emerald Empire: People That Don't Exist Gaijin are notable - they are anyone that either is from somewhere that isn't Rokugan or, in the case of the Yobanjin, are from Rokugan but decided not to follow the Kami at the start of the Empire. Gaijin, no matter their origin, have no place whatsoever in the Celestial Order. They are less than hinin, and this is what fuels Rokugan's rampant xenophobia. Most samurai avoid all contact with gaijin if they can, but not all can. The Unicorn and the Mantis have the most contact, particularly with the foreign powers of the Ivory Kingdoms ('not India'), Pavarre ('not Europe') and the Mweneta Empire ('not sub-Saharan Africa'). The Unicorn, Dragon and Phoenix have also met some of the various nations that lie beyond the great deserts of the north and west. The Phoenix Clan is also known to historically have had interactions with the Yobanjin, although they publically disavow such actions. Gaijin are usually the ones to initiate contact, seeking trade and diplomacy. Most samurai ignore such offers, seeing only risk without value by interacting with beings that have no place. More progressive, curious or opportunistic samurai, however, are sometimes known to engage with gaijin, and some even go so far as to learn the ways and languages of the gaijin they meet. Traditionalists see this as blasphemy or close to it, and may believe it to be criminal, though legal enforcement varies. It is always best to handle dealings with gaijin with the utmost discretion, or to be too powerful to attack over it. Now, travel! The kaido, or highways, of the Empire are built for many reasons. Crab and Lion lands have roads designed to support rapid troop movements and supply trains, while the Unicorn favor soft dirt tracks made more by horse travel than any engineering. The largest and best-traveled of the Imperial roads are known, collectively, as the Five Highways or the Emperor's Road. These stretch into all clan lands. Branching off from them are many smaller paths meant for individual clan use. These roads are essential, but bandits are a danger on them, and heavy rains can make them nearly unusable. Others, as in Crane or Dragon lands, are intentionally dangerous. Crane roads are built with blind corners and sudden turns to slow down enemy armies and give chances for Daidoji skirmishers to strike and fade against larger forces. Dragon Clan mountain roads are also treacherous, with narrow passage and steep climbs designed to make up for the Dragon's low numbers if attacked. The Five Highways and most major roads have toll and way stations dotting their lengths, giving travelers places to stop for the night in safety. Roadhouses are simply buildings with futons, firepits and a well, and it is considered dishonorable to leave a roadhouse in poor repair for future guests. Most are maintained by a nearby village or town, and are legally part of those places. Most towns and villages are built along a road or close to one, after all. Well-traveled roads will always have teahouses in the villages along them, of varying size. The Emperor requires the Great Clans maintain the roads in their lands, and this is a duty no lord or daimyo would ignore. However, it is very expensive both cash and labor-wise, so most clans do only what they are required to and no more. Along the borders, many roads fail to meet Imperial standards, which Great Clan representatives are always quick to assure the surveyors is merely temporary, due to bandits or weather and not willful neglect. Travel times will vary wildly even along the same route just based on weather, and maps aren't generally super accurate. The Imperial cartographers do their best, but their technology, the terrain and time constraints all conspire to make accurate measurement very difficult. Worse, some suspect that the bureaucrats have deliberately hidden things on the maps, leaving villages unmarked or displaying shortcuts where there are none, in order to protect or harm political allies or rivals. However, officially, all Imperial maps are approved by the infallible Emperor, and pointing out any inaccuracy is rude to the point of possibly being fatal. If something is not an official map, better to pretend it doesnt exist. To deal with these issues, local lords often have their magistrates and spies make detailed, proprietary maps of their provinces, which are kept carefully hidden from Imperial officials to avoid implying that the official maps could be lacking. Roads are damaged by usage, requiring repairs, requiring money. This is handled by the issuance of travel passes, which are received in exchange for donations to the upkeep of the road system being used. Shrines, temples, inns and other businesses may issue tsuko-tegata to common peasants traveling for business, pilgrims and even some samurai in times of peace. The issuers might be responsible for road maintenance or may pay the fees to the local lord. A tsuko-tegata, literally 'passage wooden pass', is a reusable wooden tablet inscribed with information, sealed in red by the issuer. No laws govern their use, and no one is required to accept them. Their authority extends only as far as a magistrate recognizes the issuer's seal and approves. Most samurai instead use a passport or travel papers from their lord or those lords of the lands they pass through. Emerald Magistrates, certain Imperial bureaucrats, clan champions and family daimyo all have authority to issue travel papers across territories of many clans. Clan magistrates, provincial daimyo and governors may only issue more limited travel passes for specific locations or purposes (though they have total freedom to give passes for within their own lands, of course). It is no surprise that many greedy lords or magistrates make quite a profit or trade many favors in exchange for travel papers. Travel papers are proof of identity, describe your outfit and appearance and weapons, and specify where you're coming from and going to. Every time you pass through a checkpoint, your pass is signed or stamped to track your progress and to ensure they can only be used once. Toll stations are often checkpoints and usually have a way station or inn nearby. The frequency of checkpoints and patrols depends on the local lord's desires and resources. In practice, travel papers are sometimes a political tool. A daimyo that wants to keep a guest from returning home may withhold return papers, often by referring a samurai to a subordinate that can't be found or who will just assure them the papers will be ready "soon." Horse hooves damage roads more, so their use requires special, more expensive travel passes, which most clans only issue a limited number of per year. The use of travel papers and tsuko-tegata are most enforced along major roads that show up on Imperial maps. Peasant tracks are usually too poorly maintained and dangerous for magistrates to police, especially without local guides that know the paths and how not to get lost on them. Finding a trustworthy guide can be difficult sometimes, as bandits may pose as guides for a chance to ambush travelers. Many merchants and travelers that must leave the Emperor's Road hire ronin to protect them when they do. The kawa, rivers, of the Empire are natural highways in their own right, carrying both trade and armies. When the weather is good, boat travel is faster than any road, and so many trade hubs sit on the rivers, as do many cities. Rivers give water and fish as well as travel, and many heimin make their living on them. River travel depends heavily on the season, weather and the whims of the kami. It is also harder to do while avoiding way stations and checkpoints than if you went inland, and can be vulnerable to blockades or attack from the banks. However, there's often little choice. Some rivers are too fast or dangerous for boating, and these serve as natural boundaries. Rapids can extend for miles, leaving little but to march for hours in search of safe crossing. Fordable shallows are of vital strategic importance, and usually fortified on one or both sides. Most bridges are simple, narrow wooden things that have room for no more than two or three people to walk abreast, and often have high tolls. The Dragon are known for their great suspension bridges in the mountains, though, which hang over thousand foot drops. Notable bridges include the great Tidal Landbridge that connects the lands of Crane and Crab, one of the great natural wonders. It crosses the mouth of Earthquake Fish Bay, exposed only at low tide. Control of it has been contested for centuries, for it is a vital shortcut, and both clans maintain garrisons on their end of the landbridge, officially for the registration of travelers. In 715, the Hida garrison was attacked by Shadowlands forces and was saved only by the intervention of Daidoji Masashigi, commander of the Crane forces over the bridge. He died fighting on the landbridge as the tide came in, and the Crab have erected a shrine in his honor. In the Isles of Spice and Silk, the Mantis grow living bridges in the tropical forests, which can take years to develop via vines planted on either side of a ravine or river that are encouraged to grow together. Their construction is usually done by monks, who view the task as a form of meditation and honoring certain earth kami. All Rokugani rivers are home to one or more powerful water kami, and so having a shugenja on board makes journeys often safer and faster. A weak or angry water kami's part of a river may be prone to shifting sandbars or drying up in droughts, and a fire kami may enjoy churning up rapids or an air kami may cause visions to appear in waterfall spray. The river spirits have had great influence militarily, as well. In a river battle, flat-bottomed boats fight over narrow space, trying to pin each other for boarding. After an enemy is boarded, fighting happens hand to hand. In these battles, shugenja can use the kami of the river to shift currents quickly for maneuvering, raise sandbars to pin the foe or call forth waves that can capsize boats entirely. Next time: Papers, Please
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 23:07
|
|
|
By popular demand posted:The only game I'd play in L5R is BURN IT ALL DOWN I enjoy it the same way I enjoy games focused on medieval Europe - that is to say, it's far enough away from us historically and distinct enough from our modern context that I'm interested in exploring Feudal Japan But Fantasy (And Parts Of China) as a thing, even though it is a monstrously unjust and unfair society.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 23:09
|
|
|
Didn't Rokugan get invaded by not-Rome in the older editions or the card game or something?
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 23:17
|
|
|
wiegieman posted:Didn't Rokugan get invaded by not-Rome in the older editions or the card game or something?, It was a threat that I don’t recall if it ever actually materialized. It probably did. They also invaded India and killed nearly everyone living there in a really weird and kinda racist angle.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 23:18
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:They also invaded India and killed nearly everyone living there in a really weird and kinda racist angle. As far as I can recall, the actual murder was done by Kali-Ma (which is its own sort of representation issue, mind) with her servants, and after they fail to invade Rokugan, Rokugan travels there and finds the land mostly cleaned out of human life, and decides to colonize. Which raises ethical quandaries, to be sure, but not quite on that level.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2019 23:39
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:As far as I can recall, the actual murder was done by Kali-Ma (which is its own sort of representation issue, mind) with her servants, and after they fail to invade Rokugan, Rokugan travels there and finds the land mostly cleaned out of human life, and decides to colonize. My understanding was that the entire plot arc was not particularly well liked by the TCG players for many reasons, including the representational and ethical ones but also just because it's so unrelated to anything to do with anything that had been previously established in the setting that it raised a lot of "What does this have to do with anything?" questioning.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 00:12
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:Wait so, Deadlands has loving aliens? This seems like a strange thing to just breeze over in a side quest rather than something that's a major plot point. Evil Mastermind posted:The third game of the original line (Lost Colony) took place on an alien planet, complete with a native species that were pretty much just Native Americans In Space. Yes. There are also other "supernatural" life forms not created by the Reckoners. The rattlers for example, are a very primordial life form on Earth which recently awakened. Although not called out by name in the Last Sons, the "overlord" aliens are revealed to be the S'suth, flying saucers and all. One of the Reloaded adventures, The Land Beyond the Busted Doorframe, involves meeting them in a crashed ship in the Hunting Grounds. I do not think that they appear in Hell on Earth or Lost Colony, as I'm not as familiar with those setting lines. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Jan 31, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 01:59
|
|
|
So despite living through the 90's RPG scene my only knowledge of L5R is flipping through a d20 version when I was 14. Is there not a not-China? Or is Rokugan supposed to also be a not-China? Why did they change the name of the clan from Ki-rin (hahaha) to "Unicorn"? Like you knew the more accurate term and just left it in as a weird in joke? Are they represented by a kirin or a like Western unicorn in fiction? Did really no one speak even any Japanese? My Japanese is some hot garbage and I'm still basically playing a drinking game counting the syllables that can't happen. (Looking at you all the "tu"s in the middle of names!) I'm guessing I'm correct in my assumption of "This was made by some weebs in the 90's before looking poo poo up was trivial but now we're stuck with it so we're just gonna keep rolling with it"? So many weird decisions.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 03:36
|
|
|
Xiahou Dun posted:So despite living through the 90's RPG scene my only knowledge of L5R is flipping through a d20 version when I was 14. The original edition of the CCG has the sexy samurai cavalry ladies belong to the 'Otaku' family.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 03:40
|
|
|
The Unicorn name change is because they wandered around outside the Empire and got sick of explaining what a Kirin was to gaijin, iirc.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 03:47
|
|
|
Xiahou Dun posted:I'm guessing I'm correct in my assumption of "This was made by some weebs in the 90's before looking poo poo up was trivial but now we're stuck with it so we're just gonna keep rolling with it"?
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 03:48
|
|
|
Xiahou Dun posted:Is there not a not-China? Or is Rokugan supposed to also be a not-China? Rokugan is geographically China but culturally Japan. Yes, this is as silly as you think Xiahou Dun posted:Why did they change the name of the clan from Ki-rin (hahaha) to "Unicorn"? Like you knew the more accurate term and just left it in as a weird in joke? Are they represented by a kirin or a like Western unicorn in fiction? This, on the other hand, has a more logical reason. The Ki-Rin clan spent ages out in the Middle East in contact with westerners and are HEAVILY westernized, to the point where some of them do stuff like wear full european style plate on occasion. They picked up the Unicorn name at some point during this and the rest of the clans use it now because there's still a level where they don't really acknowledge the Unicorn as the same as the Ki-rin who around previously. Xiahou Dun posted:Did really no one speak even any Japanese? My Japanese is some hot garbage and I'm still basically playing a drinking game counting the syllables that can't happen. (Looking at you all the "tu"s in the middle of names!) 100% correct, yes. They've made some changes because AEG blundered into some names with actual negative connotations, but beyond that it's kept roughly the same, PROBABLY because it'd lead to annoying inconsistencies in the card game.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 03:50
|
|
|
 The Last Sons Plot Point Campaign, Part 2 5. Prime Cuts This Plot Point begins whenever the party starts looking around for Jordrava’s burial ground. As one of the largest cities in the Disputed Territories, the PCs have several means of investigatory leads with their own skill checks. The Assayer’s Office and Town Hall can be accessed via Persuasion or by a lawman with jurisdiction in the area, while the Dodge City Times’ back catalogs are publically accessible but in disarray requiring some Investigation. Local Native Americans can point the party in the right direction, but require a Persuasion on top of a Streetwise roll if nobody in the party is of indigenous ancestry. All successful leads point to the Boot Hill graveyard in town being built atop an Indian Burial Ground. Boot Hill itself is an overpopulated cemetery, with some caskets buried right on top of others. Few remnants of the original inhabitants remain. While looking around a group of Buffalo Hunters armed with Sharps Big 50 rifles will attempt to ambush the party; they’ve been eyeing the PCs since they arrived in town and seek to murder them and loot their corpses for beer money. What I’d Change: One can surmise that being in a graveyard you’ll have lots of cover, but Sharps rifles only hold one shot. Unless the party has long-range attacks themselves, they’d have to take cover as they get closer to the hunters. Only half of the enemies will fire, alternating between one group reloading while the others provide support. If the PCs are having a tough time in the fight an Agent and a Texas Ranger, Mr. Pederson and Major “Bigfoot” Wallace respectively, will come in to help them. If not then the odd pair will be encountered after combat. Although their organizations are enemies, they’re allied out of convenience in the Disputed Territories. They’ll mention how they’re not the only group poking around Boot Hill and offer to take their conversation somewhere private. If the PCs follow up they’ll learn that the other searchers were Native Americans with raven tattoos, one of whom was captured but resisted interrogation before seemingly disappearing out of his jail cell. Wallace and Pederson know little about the Order of the Raven, but found a likely hideout of theirs on one of their confiscated sheepskin maps. Naturally said NPCs cannot come with the party on this raid, citing not wanting to blow their cover and worry that the Ravenites are “waiting for them to tip their hand.” You know, having a shootout with buffalo hunters in a cemetery isn’t exactly subtle, either. The Ravenites are holed up in the cellar of a slaughterhouse, whose employees are unaware of their subterranean occupants. The Ravenites outnumber the PCs 2 to 1 and are led by a shaman called Wicked Bear. Their number will attempt to flee if the fight turns against them to report to their False Raven superior. The shaman has a map marked with an X on a particular place in Boot Hill. What I’d Change: The cellar is a small, enclosed place with little in the way of environment. As it is guarded by one Inactive* sentry confident in their hideout, it is very possible that a party may take out the lone guard and lob some dynamite or a Blast/Burst spell into the place. To make things a bit tougher and more exciting I’d have the Ravenites spread out in other out of the way locations in the slaughterhouse. *This is terminology for stealth rules in Savage Worlds, which back in the first Ravenite fight and with Dusky Jewel I see cited quite a bit more often than in the Flood. Said map leads to a huge stone which can be pushed away by a group or one really strong PC. It leads into subterranean warrens full of ghouls, ravenous undead who can see in the dark and will make Disarm attempts against anyone carrying a light source. Fighting in the dark is pretty debilitating in Savage Worlds, imposing a -4 penalty on any rolls which require sight. The tunnels have no maps and require either physical marks or relevant skill rolls at -2 to not get lost and thus ambushed more. The “boss” of this area is the Ghoul King, a very large and fat specimen of his species whose lair contains Jordrava’s medicine rock amidst the pile of bones. Jordrava’s Medicine Rock is a very powerful Relic. It provides the Arcane Resistance Edge (+2 Toughness vs magic attacks) to anyone who carries it. If said carrier is a Shaman, it can provide 10 Power Points which recharge at a rate of 1 point per hour in urban population centers or half that time in the wilderness. Having the Totem Spirit (Buffalo) Edge doubles the recovery rate for both, and additional Power Points can be recovered by pleading to the spirits with Tribal Medicine in exchange for a Fatigue level. A party Shaman in the Last Sons can become a veritable spellslinger with this, and is rather thematic for the adventure to boot. The two government agents will not only let the PCs take the medicine rock with them, Agent Pederson will be more open from now on. He’ll reveal that “he works for the Union” and mention that the captured Ravenite was in possession of a very old but razor sharp tomahawk which could slice through metal. His organization shipped it off to a research facility in Denver, Colorado. He doubts the Agency will hand it over, “but you’re welcome to give it a try.” What I’d Change: In my Flood campaign I used RPGnet’s Dead South alternate-alternate-history model, meaning that the state of Bleeding Kansas would be purely due to the Great Rail Wars and not Confederate-Union proxy fighting. Instead of Agency and Texas Ranger NPCs I’d probably use a Ghost Dancer contact of my own creation. Even though Pederson’s tight-lipped the Agency is an extension of the US government, which Native and Native Sympathizer PCs would not be very trusting of thanks to the joint occupation of Deadwood between Col. Manning’s soldiers and Custer’s irregulars. Motivation-wise I could see the Agency not wanting their country and the Sioux Nations to plunge into war: especially given the higher-ups know about the Reckoning, and Manning’s defiance of orders is definitely illegal in a military court. But given that James A Garfield will win the election in a landslide very soon and declare war on the Sioux Nations with widespread public support, I cannot see the Agency openly defying the very administration which is writing their paychecks. Finally, the clandestine meeting location the PCs talk with the Agent and Ranger is a dime novel publishing house. I’d put fictionalized accounts of parties from prior campaigns for sale there.  6. The Ghost Returns Like Plot Point 5, this one does not trigger until the PCs follow Agent Pederson’s directions and go snooping around the Nevada Land Basin Office that is a front for the Supernatural Research Facility. The entire neighborhood around the area has businesses which are fronts run by Agents so as to have “hiding in plain sight” security. The PCs will have an opportunity to look around the place, and possibly sneak into the back rooms via lockpicking or absconding with an employee’s key. They won’t get very far before a dozen Agents disguised as ordinary townsfolk will confront the party and ask why they’re so interested in the land office. Mentioning the Agency in any way will cause one of them to “check upstairs” and leave the other eleven to keep watch on the party. After a tense few moments he’ll return and...grant them entry! It turns out that the Agency’s in a bit of a pickle: their Administrator for this region, Hattie Lawton, has her hands full with her forces helping Union Blue fend off Black River rail warriors. The Ghost, the highest-ranking member of the Agency, was to arrive in Denver by train to help the beleaguered Administrator...before said train was hijacked by some outlaws. Hattie not only has Jordrava’s tomahawk in her possession, she’s willing to give it to the PCs if they help her out with this little problem. She will not say what the problem is until they agree, and will only say that the train has valuable cargo the Agency needs and not who or what. She’ll even grant them an autogyro and pilot to catch up to the train before it reaches the town of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The following encounter is an action-combat scene where the PCs must either riskily land the autogyro or leap off of it. The train is moving uphill so it’s slower than usual, but at a bit of an incline. The hijackers in question are a mixture of outlaws and former rail warriors hired by Mordecai Whateley. Said practitioner of the Lovecraftian arts rightly figured that the well-guarded yet small train had valuable cargo. Mordecai’s outlaws use various generic stats from the Marshal’s Handbook (rail warriors, outlaws, superior gunman and martial artist), but the head honcho is a huckster with Improved Hip Shooting, Marksman, and a single action revolver to make him deadly with a side-arm when fanning the hammer. Half of his powers center around buffing: Aim and Boost/lower Trait, while Fear and Teleport can help put distance between him and the PCs. Fun Fact: The Whateley clan of Lovecraftian origin exists as a family of vile sorcerers in the world of Deadlands. They have members all across the American continent and their bloodline has a knack for being adept with black magic. As for any hostages...the only one here is Coot Jenkins, one of the metaplot NPCs who is a grizzled old prospector that knows quite a bit about the Reckoning. His specialty is in helping Harrowed regain self-control from their possessing manitous, and he’s insistent on opening up a nearby wooden box. Said box holds the “precious cargo,” which is a bound, gagged, and handcuffed corpse bearing an eerie resemblance to a certain US President:  Coot will remove the gag and force-feed the now-awake and angry Harrowed some of his patented elixir to subdue the dominant manitou, causing the original spirit to regain his sense of self. The now-grateful man will introduce himself as Andrew Lane, the owner of Union Blue. Any mention of resemblance to the Great Emancipator will earn a chuckle: “I get that a lot. But I don’t believe I bear that much resemblance to the man.” Good ol’ Abe is willing to repay the PCs’ rescuing of him, willing to make use of the Agency’s resources in the process. Asking him about Raven and/or his Order will explain how one of their strongholds is in Adobe Walls within the Texas Panhandle. Fun Fact: I take it some explanation is in order. In the world of Deadlands, John Wilkes Booth’s assassination attempt was half-successful. He certainly ensured that President Lincoln was dead, but he didn’t stay that way for long when the man came back Harrowed with a manitou spirit riding co-pilot. Naturally such a famous face could not maintain a low profile by himself for long, so he ended up back in the US government’s employ. His “civilian” identity was Andrew Lane, the owner of Union Blue railroad company, while he also acted as the Agency’s leader codenamed the Ghost. Unfortunately his manitou finds bureaucracy boring and every so often does its best to wrest control. One of Lincoln’s possessed episodes caused the Agency to bind him down and ship him out to Denver, both to use the Star Chamber to “put the right pilot in charge” and to help the beleaguered Colorado branch with some direct administration. Hattie Lawton is a woman of her word and hands over the tomahawk once the train ends back up in Denver. Jordrava’s Tomahawk is a relic, specifically a two-handed melee weapon which deals the user’s Strength die + 2d8 damage. It is virtually unbreakable, and when carried on the owner’s person grants a +2 on Fighting rolls against anybody directly empowered by the Reckoners. Siad category is rather vague and broad, but includes all Black Magicians and the four Servitors. Most monsters and manitous gain their powers from the Hunting Grounds and do not count unless they know of and made a conscious decision to serve the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. What I’d Change: So a thing I noticed with this campaign is that while the PCs fight the Order of the Raven heavily, the adventure goes out its way to avoid encounters with US or Confederate soldiers or their spy agencies. President Garfield’s election is only ever an indirect background element at most and not referenced directly in the adventure. Although I do not if the historical Garfield was notable for any anti-indigenous sentiments in comparison to the already prejudiced time period, I figured that if I ran this adventure I’d alter things quite a bit. First off, I’d have Presidential Candidate James Garfield visiting Denver on the last weeks of the campaign trail, wanting to show that he’s not afraid of going into the frontier settlements “on the frontlines of Indian Country.” He’d also have Jordrava’s tomahawk on his person, obtained from the Agency and used as a rhetorical rallying symbol of him “claiming the savages’ most precious artifact.” He’d have Agency bodyguards and Denver’s streets will be more crowded than usual. The PCs’ job will be to find a way to retrieve the tomahawk. I’d also make Garfield a Harrowed. He is aware of the supernatural, and even has an inkling of a raven-themed Order stirring up the fires of war. But he has no reservations against ordering the US to battle if he wins because 1.) the loss against the Sioux Nations is a pretty big symbolic loss in the American Indian Wars; 2.) he can still act the part of a hero swooping in to defend the good settlers of Deadwood “besieged by Indian tyranny;” 3.) the ghost rock veins in the Black Hills are a mother lode of treasure, and figures that they can pay for losses from the war; 4.) he believes that President Grant’s corruption contributed to the US Army losing against the “primitive savages” from misappropriated funds, and fears a domino effect of similar losses if Grant wins another term.  7. Lodges o’ the Last Sons The Agency may be the best intelligence gatherers in the Union, but the Order of the Raven is a worthy contender west of the Mississippi. At this point Raven is now directly aware of the PCs’ exploits, suspects that they’re tied to Jordrava, and knows they’re headed to Adobe Walls. Thus he arranges a special squad of assassins to take out both of his foes in one fell swoop. Adobe Walls was once a trading post which saw pitched battles between white settlers and a joint war party of Comanche and Cheyenne braves. In 1874 it became a deserted ruin and Battlefield Site* many believe is haunted. Tales of evil spirits roaming its land mean that only Raven’s followers spend any time around there. The PCs will encounter the latter here outnumbered 3 to 1, along with possible random encounters with walking dead and manitou or kachina spirits. The Ravenites’ have a note in Spanish written by the Esteemed Son to return to the Serpent Mound when the moon is full. This note was intentionally planted to lure the party, and indirectly Jordrava, to the Mound in the first place. *as detailed in Marshal’s Section. The PCs can also encounter a group of Comanche braves lead by Quanah Parker, a warleader who can tell the party that he spotted Raven’s forces around said Mound and that the place’s binding rituals hold a great beast in slumber known as the Thing That Devours Tribes. His 16-strong forces are willing to escort the PCs within sight of the Serpent Mound, but will not accompany them. Wasted opportunity for a medium-size battle. Come on, this Plot Point Campaign’s themed around War! Fun Fact: Quanah Parker was a famed leader of the Comanche nation who resisted United States’ efforts to push his people onto reservations. The hunting of buffalo was also a deliberate attempt to starve out the Comanche and other tribes, which resulted in an attack on Adobe Walls where buffalo hide merchants congregated. The Comanche would eventually surrender and settle onto reservations, although Parker continued to lead them and became rich through various financial investments. He also helped found the Native American Church Movement, one of the largest indigenous religions in the United States. The Ravenites at Serpent Mound consist of 8 shamans with the “Esteemed” Last Son as their leader. They are conducting a ritual to free the sleeping beast, which is an ancient carcajou (supernatural wolverine-like monster) the size of an African bull elephant. When the PCs engage the Ravenites in combat, Jordrava decides that the time has come to take the fight directly to the Order of the Raven: Boxed Text posted:A piercing screech rings from the night sky, and everyone looks up to see a large, powerful eagle flapping its wings and descending out of the darkness. The bird settles onto the mound and in the blink of an eye assumes its true form—Jordrava. With a single movement of the Old One’s hand, one of the Ravenites clutches his chest, struggles to breathe, and falls dead. “Your work is finished here,” says Jordrava. This entire ritual was centered around not only weakening the Serpent Mound’s bonds, it also involved summoning spirits specifically chosen for their ability to weaken Jordrava’s Eagle totem. This is a fine way of saying that there’s nothing the PCs can do to save the Old One from his monumentally stupid decision. The mega-carcajou will join the battle, and it’s a pretty tough customer. It has a Strength and Fighting both at 1d12+2, the highest one can ordinarily get a skill or trait in Savage Worlds. Its Toughness is also the highest we’ve seen so far in this Plot Point Campaign, ranked at 18. Furthermore its bite deals its Strength plus 1d10, and its claws do a lesser 1d8 but penetrate up to 2 points of Armor. Furthermore, it is so horrifying that it can make an Intimidation check as a free action at the beginning of combat as well as being immune to fear effects itself. Magic attacks deal half damage which combined with its 18 Toughness would render it immune to most such abilities barring lucky exploding dice. Its major weakness is against snake bites and powers with snake motifs, which deal double damage to it. Although the monster is known as the Thing That Devours Tribes to the Comanche, it is known to the grizzled mountain men settlers as Hungry Annie and that’s the name the adventure uses for its stat block. I personally think the first name sounds cooler and more appropriate, if a bit longer. Due to the Power of Plot, Jordrava will be able to live long enough to talk to the PCs. He tells the party that they must head back to the Sioux Nations and warn them of Sitting Bull’s treachery by speaking to Crazy Horse, and afterwards join the Ghost Dance shamans at Medicine Wheel during the summer solstice. He will then die with a smile on his face, confident that the PCs will succeed where he failed. Speaking of which, the Last Son has a note written in Sioux on his person, signed by Sitting Bull. It is basically instructions to perform a ritual at the Serpent Mound to kill Jordrava from orders of the Hooded One. He will mention that an attack on Deadwood is imminent and for the Ravenites to head back north once their job here is done: quote:We have received word from the Hooded One. Draw them to Serpent Mound and Jordrava will follow. Then the Thing That Devours Tribes will see to it that no one stands in our way. The note is listed first, but chances are most parties will go to Jordrava first, so him talking about Sitting Bull’s treachery will come out of left field. What I’d Change: First off I’d not have Jordrava act so stupidly. I’d instead have him covertly appear to the party in Adobe Walls in a clever disguise, and offer to lend them his aid directly now that they got his relics back. He’d be controlled as a Wild Card Ally and give the players a chance to demonstrate his great powers so as not let his stat block go to waste. I’d also have Quanah Parker’s warband join the PCs in the assault on the Serpent Mound, and buff up the Ravenite’s numbers to compensate. And depending on the overall strength of my party, I’d have Raven himself be there. Jordrava would recognize the real man when he sees him from a fake, and figures that the stakes are high enough to strike. The reason I’d consider doing this is that ordinarily the PCs never meet the real Raven in this Plot Point Campaign, instead being part of an optional post-game Savage Tale. Additionally Raven must be killed twice, the second time in a specific way using a specific weapon, in order to end his reign. I’ll get into more detail in the Savage Tales entry, but this “first encounter” will serve as a way to make the rematch feel not a waste. With a fellow mega-shaman Jordrava on their side, the PCs’ odds should be better. I’d also have the Thing That Devours Tribes be on the cusp of awakening, and for Jordrava to mention that he must seal the great evil back into the mound. The mega-carcajou’s form would be an extension of its manifested spirit so as to give off the impression that a far worse version lurks just beneath the surface. I’d turn the Old One’s tactical error into a desperate sacrifice to run up to the “maw” of the mound and seal the creature in, giving it his all just like when he sealed the Reckoners all those years ago. At this point the real Raven will do everything in his power to kill the Old One. If this happens, then the PCs have a more personal reason for revenge now. If not then the last of Jordrava’s power has been expended, making him lose his spells permanently. 8. Last Stand on Bear Butte No image for this one, sorry.  This Plot Point happens when the PCs make the long trail back to the Sioux Nations and likely complete more than a few Savage Tales along the way. Due to the Law of Metaplot this adventure is expected to take place between May and June of 1881, around half a year since James A Garfield won the Union Presidential election and three months since he officially took up office. Things are not looking well for the Sioux Nations. Just about every big nation and faction are gearing up to get involved. Dr. Darius Hellstromme, ever the kindly Mormon with a shared interest against US expansionism, offers to sign a treaty in secret with Sitting Bull to lend his forces to fight alongside the Sioux without setting a single rail upon their lands. Hellstromme twists the wording to use his Hellebore digging machine to create an underground railroad supply line under said lands in order to reach the Black Hills. Meanwhile President Garfield’s first executive action is to order the Army to march upon the Sioux Nations to help defend Deadwood, using Iron Dragon rail lines to ship in troops as part of a last-minute deal with Kang. The Confederacy, for their part, notices the Union’s northern concentration of forces and uses the opportunity to annex parts of Kansas. Many indigenous tribes across the West, concerned about the loss of the Sioux Nations as both a buffer state and a potential domino effect, begin to deploy their own braves to help the Sioux. The town of Deadwood shot up to Fear Level 4, just about every citizen is fully-armed and locked in their own homes, and the soldiers manning the cannons and earthworks surrounding the town are in fear for their lives. They will not let the party inside unless mollified with Persuasion or good role-playing, and is the only time in this Plot Point Campaign where fighting Union soldiers is a distinct possibility. Crazy Horse’s location is nowhere to be found, but Charley Bull can help them out. He’s hiding in his favorite residence, the Langrishe Theater: Charley Bull posted:Listen to me and try to understand. Custer’s men are mustering in the streets. Thousands of my people are gathering. When they are finished there won’t be a single white man left alive in Deadwood. The clanking, screaming machines of Wasatch march across the Black Hills, eager to fight for the Sioux and help themselves to a share of ghost rock. My friends…even the spirits are in hiding. It is too late to turn back this tide. I can’t help but notice that Charley seems to express more fear for the “foolish white men” than casualties among his own people, or the affects of a second war causing his homeland to be annexed by the United States. Maybe he’s wording his fears so as to give a greater impact on the PCs. When going to Bear Butte the PCs have some boxed text to see the thousands of troops convening on Deadwood, reminding us of yet another wasted opportunity for the PCs to break out the Mass Combat Rules. Crazy Horse will find the PCs before they can do the same, giving them one chance to explain themselves. This is resolved via Persuasion, and even showing Sitting Bull’s note merely gives a +2 bonus rather than an auto-success, which can possibly turn into a shootout on a failure. If they win him over, Crazy Horse will realize that Sitting Bull has sold out his people and accompanies the PCs to take justice into their own hands. After some more boxed text of the Deadwood battle below, the PCs and Crazy Horse ride up to where the Sioux Wicasas are supposedly gathering. But said leaders disbanded when Sitting Bull told them of his plans,* causing them fragment in disgust. Now alone, Sitting Bull is accompanied by a bunch of Ravenite warriors, the Order of the Raven’s Thunder Guard, and the Hooded One whose face will be recognized automatically by Native PCs as Raven himself and on a Common Knowledge roll by other PCs.** This is not the real Raven, but one of the false ones taking on his identity, which contradicts the earlier text in the Marshal’s section of how very few people from Raven’s era are still alive and would thus recognize the man himself. Or how this “false Raven” is more famous than others. *but not the secret deal with Kang granting Iron Dragon exclusive mining rights in the Black Hills Statwise the False Raven is a physically powerful Shaman with a healthy heaping of all manner of combat and leadership Edges, along with several melee weapons, a bow, and various buffing spells from armor to healing to shape change. The sole Thunder Guard who fights the PCs (the others are occupied by Crazy Horse’s braves) is a Harrowed with a double-barreled shotgun. Finally, Sitting Bull a Shaman who has more of a leadership focus with more powers than the “warcaster” False Raven, some of which are debilitating like entangle and fear. After defeating Raven’s forces, the PCs are treated to a third bit of boxed text describing the carnage and explosions in the Battle of Deadwood, and finally gives them an opportunity to ride back down and take part...in the form of encounters with various warring factions rather than Mass Combat. Said factions include summoned Earth Warriors, Ravenite and Sioux Warbands, Iron Dragon and Wasatch Rail Warriors...but none of Custer’s forces or Union soldiers, because reasons. Wovoka and the Ghost Dancers will arrive at Bear Butte, happy to hear that the PCs are alive. They have one last great task to stop the war once and for all: accompany them to Medicine Wheel with Jordrava’s relics, and participate in the Great Medicine Dance. What I’d Change: Errrr...a lot, that’s for sure. One, neither in this nor the next Plot Point adventure do you have the opportunity to fight General Armstrong Custer. This is a huge wasted potential in an adventure path ostensibly about securing the autonomy of the Sioux Nations. Secondly, I’d avoid the unfortunate implications of civilians in Deadwood by having most of them already fled along the Iron Dragon Rail lines to be replaced with active-duty soldiers. Thirdly, Sitting Bull would be replaced by a corrupt Wicasa of my own creation. The tribal council will not have been disbanded by the time the PCs find them. In fact, they’ll have an opportunity to present their case of the Ravenites’ corruption, their part in the desecration of the Black Hills, and call upon witnesses of activities in prior adventures such as a Comanche brave present at the Serpent Mound. If the PCs present a good enough case then the legacy of Raven will be tarnished among the Sioux and other tribal leaders present, effectively robbing the Order of much of its support as a pan-Indian movement. I’d probably also include a Mass Combat where the PCs and allied Sioux fight to reclaim the Black Hills from the US and various rail baron factions warring over its ghost rock deposits.  9. The Great Summoning The final encounter in challenging War’s dominion is underway, and takes place several weeks after of the Battle of Deadwood but no later than June 21st for unexplained Laws of Metaplot. The Ghost Dance Movement is gathering its best members across the West at Medicine Wheel, including any shamans, Native leaders, and other figures the PCs may have come across in the campaign. Now that Kang has openly sided with the Ravenites, Hellstromme pulls a doublecross and aids Custer’s troops in the hope that President Garfield will grant Wasatch exclusive rights to the Black Hills ghost rock. Nobody is able to gain a clear advantage as warbands roam the Sioux Nations, pillaging villages for food or torching them out of spite. The Native citizens of the nations are suffering the most, and the death toll rises to Fear Level to 5 in the worst-affected places. The Wicasas loyal to the Ghost Dance and Old Ways congregate north of the Grand River in hopes of holding onto what land they have. But Wovoka spoke to them of his plan at Medicine Wheel, and when the PCs arrive they find a great gathering of Ghost Dancers and their allies. But Custer’s army and Wasatch X-Squad soldiers are in hot pursuit and gathering around the area. The Ghost Dancers begin a ritual lasting for a week, of fasting, praying, dancing, and leaving burnt offerings. The adventure does not explain why the Union and Hellstromme forces don’t bum rush the place. Perhaps there are implied skirmishes being beaten back? But that goes against the rules where an entire war party must participate for the Ghost Dance. This takes a powerful toll on many participants, who all hope to contact the greatest spirits of the land. Wovoka has other plans for the PCs, and near the Dance’s end he rounds up a force of 100 braves and opens up a portal into the Hunting Grounds, mentioning that the legions of manitou and other spirits loyal to Raven amass to fight a war of their own in the spirit world. But before the PCs leave, he gives them one final piece of cryptic advice: quote:One last thing—every army needs a general. I have called to one of your most illustrious ancestor spirits... and he has answered. He awaits you now. Good luck. The PCs and army of braves find themselves in a mirror-world version of Medicine Wheel,, where a giant spoked wheel made of arranged quartz stones glows in the moonlight beneath their feet. To the east the spiritual army of the Reckoner of War approaches, bearing all sorts of monstrous shapes. War himself towers over the infernal army, appearing as a massive ideal warrior riding astride a horse. Every PC knows who this is due to War’s sheer supernatural presence which forces a Guts checks at -6. But as all seems lost, that “illustrious ancestor spirit” Wovoka spoke of appears! quote:The translucent, bloodied ghost of a white man approaches from among the nearby nature spirits, wearing the scorched remains of a Confederate uniform. The apparition salutes you... and strangely, you feel no fright. This is not the first time the Deadlands Plot Point writers preemptively assumed the PC’s race, although this time it’s rather jarring on account that the Last Sons’ beginnings was pushing you towards a Native American party. Also as far as illustrious white ancestors go, Robert E. Lee is hardly an ideal choice for reasons I hope are obvious. But on the plus side, this is the only time in the main Plot Point Campaign we actually see the Mass Combat Rules from Savage Worlds used. Naturally, War’s Legions have the advantage in numbers, while the PCs’ forces include the aforementioned braves, 100 ghostly Confederate soldiers, 100 nature spirits, and General Robert E. Lee acting as Commander with a Knowledge: Battle d12. The PCs’ army has nowhere to retreat, and this is a fight to the death. On the other hand our party has the defensive ground, and any clever plans they come up with to fortify their position grants +2 on their Battle Plan roll. But just like the Battle of Heavenly Park in the Flood, the Mass Combat results have no bearing whatsoever on the plot. After five rounds of said battle the Last Son known as Kills Alone will take a party of Ravenite Braves, manitous, and a greater snake cloud to dash to the top of Medicine Wheel. The PCs need to either kill the Last Son or hold him off for 10 rounds, after which the Ghost Dance ritual (and the Plot Point Campaign proper) is complete: quote:Suddenly the drums go silent. A bright flash illuminates the entire battlefield, followed almost instantly by a great peal of thunder. All the raven spirits fall smoking from the sky, leaving black feathers in their wake. The ground beneath your feet begins to buckle and shake. This is a rather odd downer ending, especially given the effects of the Great Summoning. Basically, what’s happened is that the Ghost Dancers enacted a ritual to cover the entire borders of the Sioux Nations with an anti-technology field. This field is of infinite duration and cannot be dispelled. It does not just affect ghost rock devices, but any form of technology the indigenous people within the Nations did not develop or come into contact with before contact with white settlers. Gunpowder, steam power, and can even wagons and riding saddles cease to function and/or fall apart. This is due to meddling spirits which prevent the items from working and can discriminate on what counts rather than say, all saltpeter magically evaporating from the Sioux Nations. This has some massive geopolitical implications for the Deadland setting. Not only did the United States lose twice against the Sioux, this hampering of their technological advantage causes a new and more reserved attitude towards American colonialism. There is a not unreasonable fear that if the Ghost Dancers can do this, then surely they can do so again in other regions. The Sioux Nations are thus more or less left alone for the entirety of the Deadlands plot line, and the Sioux and Cheyenne within live nomadic lives with bountiful buffalo herds. With Kansas’ annexation, Wasatch and Iron Dragon are the only transcontinental lines which go into the West through Union territory, and both of those rail companies are headquartered in the autonomous lands of California and Deseret. With Union Blue rail lines cutting through a now-Confederate Kansas, it’s safe to say that the North is gonna face some hard times. Furthermore, Hellstromme for once miscalculates and loses big as his underground railway under the Sioux Nations longer works. Compounding this are the loss of his countless soldiers and devices in the war. Oddly the Ravenites are able to erect special totems around Deadwood and along Kang’s rail line to ward off the anti-technology effect. Kang’s business continues running as normal, but his Dusky Jewel mining camp is no longer profitable. Furthermore, President James A. Garfield is assassinated one month after the Great Summoning, and VP Chester A. Arthur is pressured to recognize the Confederate States of America as a free and independent nation. You might have noticed that throughout this Plot Point that the PCs never interact with the real Raven or get a chance to fight him. Well they can in a post-game Savage Tale, but the metaplot assumes that he survives. As for how War’s loss affects the rest of the rail barons, well...  Epilogue: Busted Arrow There is one post-Plot Point adventure that is completely optional, but is inserted as a chance for Legendary rank PCs to strut their stuff. It’s completely disconnected to the overarching war against the Order of the Raven or the Ghost Dance Movement, instead determining the fate of the rail lines in the Disputed Territories. It takes place when the PCs revisit Dodge City. The Rail Baron heads of Black River, Union Blue, Dixie Rails, and Wasatch sent representatives to a neutral meeting ground in the Alamo Saloon to negotiate land rights. But a pair of skinwalker monster assassins employed by Bayou Vermillion are covertly planting bundles of dynamite throughout the place. Whether they’re successful or caught, the various representatives blame the other side of treachery, which spirals into an all-out clash. The battle is overall open-ended, but we get a full-page description of a Steam Tank which can make for a rather deadly vehicle to fight, as well as the Gal With No Name, a harrowed who has a personal vendetta against all rail barons for unknown reasons. She is a wild card* who may aid or hinder the PCs depending on who they’re fighting for. *Both the Savage Worlds mechanic and the thematic kind During the battle there’s some boxed text as several of Hellstromme’s airships get ready to drop ghostfire bombs, but several planes are shot to pieces and land harmlessly. The one plane with an intact Ghostfire Bomb will be the main focus as the rail warriors maneuver to either retrieve or steal it unless the PCs get there first. Whether the bomb’s detonated or taken away safely, this major battle marks the end of what the papers dub Rail War Two. The six companies then settle long-term into their respective areas of influence. But some companies are doomed regardless of the outcome. Union Blue goes bankrupt and is bought out by a New York company by the name of Empire Rails owned by the Freemasons. The official end of the Civil War causes wartime leaders to demand Dixie Rails repay debts the company cannot afford. A group of Texan cattle barons buy up the stock and rename it Lone Star Rail Company. Finally, Hellstromme Industries secures contracts with both the Union and Confederacy for having the first transcontinental railroad, with Iron Dragon the only competitor that has reached the West Coat. In spite of the losses from the Great Summoning he has two streams of cash to fund his own projects back in Deseret. What I’d Change: For the Great Summoning, I’d probably not use thunderbirds. This is a sample size of one, but I once spoke with an Ojibwe man and learned that for his tribe the portrayal of the Thunderbird in fiction is frowned upon. Basically it boils down to concerns of outsiders writing sacred figures inaccurately or without appropriate knowledge and respect for the source material. I realize that a lot of things in Deadlands in general and likely this book may also qualify, but I’d operate based on what I know. Instead I’d have the Great Summoning manifest as a spontaneous eruption of all the ghost rock veins in the Black Hills, clear as day for the various fighting forces to see. This will thus rob the white settlers and US Army’s economic incentive, and be a means of securing longer-term peace for the Sioux and Cheyenne. I’d also replace Robert E. Lee with some other famed warleader based on the PC’s ancestry. I’d also make it so that Kang’s Iron Dragon operations no longer function and that the Ravenites cannot build said totems. This will not only further cement Hellstromme’s supremacy as a rail baron, it would also be a long-term resolution of Kang’s downfall from a previous Plot Point Campaign I ran, the Flood. Thoughts So Far: The Last Son’s second half could be summed up as missed opportunities and strange narrative choices. The investigation for the Medicine Rock in Dodge City was fun, although the Agency mission felt little more than an excuse for metaplot NPC cameos. Jordrava’s sacrifice comes out of nowhere and feels wildly out of character for the normally cautious survivor. The major war in the Sioux Nations is like the Flood’s Battle of Lost Angels, but longer-lasting and worse on account that the Last Sons is literally themed around War! As I read Wovoka’s “surprise ally” I began to think that the Last Sons was rewritten sometime during the creative process. I get a sense that one vision wanted a Native American Braveheart, an all-Indian party fighting against colonialism and the Ravenite traitors who just want to watch the world burn. This is more apparent during the first half, what with the restricted travel outside Deadwood, the gaining of Native American allies from the Ghost Dance Movement, and travel in the spirit world. But then there’s the other vision which takes root during Dodge City, wanting a broader “war is hell for everyone” in its unwillingness to cast any human faction besides the Ravenites as bad guys. The pro-Union Agency as recurring allies, and the overall reluctance to have PCs fight Union soldiers or Custer’s forces feels way too jarring. You know that something’s wrong where a campaign sourcebook tells you to make characters who are “Friends to the Indians” but you end up killing more Indians than invading Union forces. The heavy amount of Savage Tales in Kansas, the Ghost Dance Movement’s relative inactivity save at the beginning and end, along with the rail wars epilogue, make it seem that the second authorial vision won out. Join us next time as we cover the Last Sons’ many, many Savage Tales!
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 03:52
|
|
|
Huh. Okay. So it's like 7th Sea but no one knew anything about the countries involved besides samurai movies, and now FFG is furiously spackling over that as best as they can? I'm also guessing Korea is sadly forgotten? Also I thought the Unicorn were supposed to be not-Mongols? Was I wrong? (Not that any of this is wrong. I've created dumber settings. I just think it's hilarious and amazing and might run it for my colleagues who do Asian history just to see their faces.) Is the attached system any good? But Fu Leng as the only Chinese name in a game where Japan is all of China is...uh... Highly problematic. And he represents the dark evil things from the South, you know, like Nanjing. Uh.  That might have needed an edit. Just saying.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 03:58
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 04:05
|
|
|
The Ujik are the Mongols, the Yobanjin are...kind of the Ainu if the Ainu rode giant hawks. E: FFG is doing their best but there’s so much that is hard to fix, really. This is the first edition we’ve really learned what, like, daily life is like normally. Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Jan 31, 2019 |
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 04:07
|
|
|
Xiahou Dun posted:Huh. Okay. - Yep. FFG is trying to make things more respectful but there's a lot of just dumb white people writing ~serious samurai drama~ with zero knowledge of any of those words. No Korea sadly. - Kinda. The Ujik are the not-Mongols but yes the Unicorns did heavily interact with them in their travel and brought a lot of that stuff back. Not full on Mongolians but they have respect for it while trying to hold a more permanent life. -The system is good yea, it works well, and FFG is refining the system the best it's been in my (and my group's) opinion. -Lol fuckin yea man there's some other more directly Chinese inspired things (like mentioned before Rokugan is kinda a mishmash of MOSTLY Japan with some China splashed in since it wants to be both samurai drama times and wuxia poo poo) but there's a grip of time where Fu Leng is just kinda The Evil Chinaman because of aforementioned dumbass white people writing the original storyline
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 04:19
|
|
|
Jesus loving Christ Deadlands. The Flood was kinda nice. I dug the flow of that. This was just weird and bad and more in service of metaplot than anything else. I mean like, egregiously so by Deadlands standards.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 04:46
|
|
|
I really didn't get any feel that War was in here messing with stuff besides his cultists just being involved. Like, if the Last Sons were a generic group of magic baddies and not a specifically Reckoner-backed group, does it change the adventure at all? Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 04:57
|
|
|
Hostile V posted:Jesus loving Christ Deadlands. The Flood was kinda nice. I dug the flow of that. This was just weird and bad and more in service of metaplot than anything else. I mean like, egregiously so by Deadlands standards. wiegieman posted:I really didn't get any feel that War was in here messing with stuff besides his cultists just being involved. Like, if the Last Sons were a generic group of magic baddies and not a specifically Reckoner-backed group, does it change the adventure at all? Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention. You're both not wrong. The adventure tells rather than shows, and a fair portion of the main Plot Points are the heroes following one trail to another based on what some NPC is telling them to do. The Ravenites when they appear are just there to shoot at, and the party doesn't get much opportunities to delve into their rationale or why their faction is appealing to many disaffected indigenous people. The Flood at least played up the influence of Grimme's cult casts on the lands. The mutilation of steers at Big M Ranch, the spirit in the crashed Chinese junk, and the outrageous price hikes made for a stronger feel of Famine. You also got to have a proper showdown with the Reverend at the end, too. And yeah, War not having some equivalent faction among the Union and Confederacy feels weird. Like he's banking it all on Native Americans? That's part of why I was tooling with the idea of a Harrowed Garfield who'd represent the "white Raven" as it were.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 05:20
|
|
|
The original L5R CCG sets had a lot more Western fantasy elements, some of which remained and some of which went away - spells like Summon Faeries went away entirely, while the Wyrm Riders were relegated to the hinterlands of the setting. And so you have goblins, trolls, ogres, very much in a recognizable D&D sense that stuck around. As for why the Unicorn are the Unicorn - you'd have to ask Matt Wilson (now owner of Privateer Press), who based the clans around "auspicious animals" and did the clan color schemes in the early days. It's worth noting early on that the Unicorn's gimmicks were going to be magic, wealth, and mustaches. Nothing about them being foreigners, nothing about them using horses, that would come through in the early sets and as the mythology was written somewhat after-the-fact. Matt was big into wanting to do more straightforward fantasy stuff at the time, and some of that probably got folded in early on. And yeah, a lot of ignorance was involved early on. Rokugan itself is a corruption of "ryokugyoku", i.e. "green stone" or "emerald"... though more popularly these days the word would just be "emerarudo" as best I know. You can thank Ryan Dancey directly for that one.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 05:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 10:15 |
|
|
I'm trying to figure out what the adventure could do to sell the influence of War besides throwing lots of really difficult diplomacy tests at players and failing. "Everybody is on edge" is the sort of thing you expect in a area with elevated border friction, but how do you sell people being supernaturally on edge?
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2019 05:25
|
|