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Alien Rope Burn posted:But yeah, I think the Shadow runs pretty counter to the initial pitch of the game, but it's hardly the only element that does. Granted, almost every time they devise a major antagonist group early on (Shadowlands, Bloodspeakers, Shadow, Kolat) they have a tone of being an implacable force that no PC can upend, but the Shadow is a clear winner in that it basically has no rules you can use to oppose it reasonably. It can just throw dice at you until you lose. "Hey, I'm in your dreams, roll until dead." In the case of the Shadowlands in particular, while PCs aren't likely to go and kill Fu Leng on their own we are shown meaningful victories over the Shadowlands. The Crab have lost territory to them, but they have also gained it back even if the victory was not perfect (the Kuni Wastes) and continue beating back Hell on Earth with gumption, muscle and funky war engines. A natural game pitch after Way of the Crab and Book of the Shadowlands (and Bearers of Jade, when we get to it) is "are your PCs hardcore enough to gather an army of badasses and finally recover the Hiruma lands" and it's not out of the question that they can do it. IIRC, the Hiruma lands are in fact restored later on in the metaplot. The Bloodspeakers tend to be localized sources of misery with the big spook of Iuchiban being released in the background but also you have the Clans repeatedly teaming up to take him and his hordes of skellingtons down. The Kolat are... well, the loving Kolat, admittedly. But as you say, there's no meaningful opposition PCs can present against the Shadow.
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Sep 14, 2016 02:10
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Yeah, the Hiruma eventually retake their old citadel and cleanse their lands of the taint.
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Sep 14, 2016 02:13
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Traveller posted:A natural game pitch after Way of the Crab and Book of the Shadowlands (and Bearers of Jade, when we get to it) is "are your PCs hardcore enough to gather an army of badasses and finally recover the Hiruma lands" and it's not out of the question that they can do it. Well. Bearers of Jade has a bit of a Way of Shadow tone to it. It's not as bad, but it's very much "one moment of weakness could erase the empire". But then, there's a reason why big ol' chunks of it get retconned later on.
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Sep 14, 2016 02:49
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Kavak posted:New game: Stand names for Godlike characters! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzzl7Lvx3O4 OTOH I'm a big fan of a British Talent who should be named Don't Fear The Reaper. God drat it you people are going to get me back into anime. By the by, there was a guy with the exact same powers as Cien in Alan Moore's excellent rewrite of Supreme. (He took a lousy ripoff of Superman that Rob Liefeld created for Image comics, and made him a loving ode to the history of Superman and Captain Marvel.) 
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Sep 14, 2016 03:03
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Alien Rope Burn posted:The Shadow: it's spooky and you lose. Did they name the Darkness 月 子 ?
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Sep 14, 2016 03:16
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They named it Akodo.
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Sep 14, 2016 03:22
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Anything I have to say about the Lying Shadow has already been said, so let's move onto my final update: Planescape: Planes of Chaos - Monster Supplement  Abyssal Lords are unique Tanar’ri of incredible power, usually controlling an entire layer of The Abyss. Abyssal Lords are better able to hold back their tempers than your typical Tanar’ri, and can plot and scheme as well as any Baatezu. The Monster Supplement for Planes of Chaos has two Abyssal Lords: Graz’zt (43,000 xp) and Pazrael (38,000 xp). Graz’zt is a tall humanoid Lord with six fingers on each hand, and Pazrael is a bird dude. Both have a full list of base attributes in their entries. Graz’zt’s combat abilities are geared towards spellcasting, while Pazrael’s are meant for melee combat. There’s a description of their followers and resources,which is basically a summary of their realm’s entries in DM’s booklet. Finally it talks about their long term goals. Graz’zt has several schemes on the Prime Material, including fathering the demigod Iuz from the Greyhawk setting, and is more interested in messing with other Abyssal Lords than participating in the Blood War. In contrast, Pazrael doesn’t have much of anything going on except being wary that Graz’zt is trying to take over his layer.  Asrai (120 - 420 xp) are water nymphs that live in Beastlands, Arborea and Ysgard. Evil aquatic creatures and Slaadi hunt them because they’re dicks. They can use hypnotic pattern in self defense. Can’t say that I find them all that interesting.  We’ve heard a lot about the Bacchae (270 xp). The number appearing is 8d8. They can tear away items if they succeed on an attack roll by 4 or more (their THAC0 is 19, which is about +1 base attack in later editions), but there’s no rule to determine what items get torn away. Items that are torn away must make a saving throw versus crushing blow or be torn to shreds, and this save must be rolled twice. Bacchae can go into a blood frenzy, which gives them +2 to damage and attack and +1 to initiative. Bacchae are immune to enchantment and charm spells, and can shadow walk as a group. Overall they seem like a pain in the rear end to fight. Alternatively, adventurers can join the Bacchae in their revelry, but risk becoming Bacchae themselves. It takes level 6 spells and higher to change PCs back.   Chaos Beasts (2,000 xp + 1,000 per additional HD) do not have any particular form. Chaos Beasts inflict a condition called Corporeal Instability. Any time another creature contacts the flesh of a Chaos Beast with its own, it must make a Save vs Death Magic. This includes any attacks by the Chaos Beast and even attacks on it by melee weapons (though these get a bonus to the saving throw). Chaos Instability has numerous effects that can be summarized with “roll a new character.”  So who wants more fishmalk monsters? Nobody? Well too bad, meet the Chaos Imp (175 xp), who have a brief fiction where they screw over a Mercykiller. They can meld with non-living objects and can change their form to anything else as long as it’s non-magical. Magic items target by imps get a saving throw based on the bonus they confer or powers they have) Also they can talk while in this form. Chaos Imps seek to escape from Limbo, and once they think they’ve left, they play pranks, like turning weapons into party favors just as combat begins, because that’s so hilarious   The trolls of Ysgard are known as Fensir (xp varies, 35 for young to 2,000 for lvl 12 mages). They are more intelligent and cultured than normal D&D trolls. The monster entry is mostly about their lifestyle, and it’s actually pretty interesting, if poorly organized. I wouldn’t be surprised if this entry was originally from a Dragon Magazine article. I’d linger over them, but we have nine more entries to go  The entry for the Howler (975 xp) is broken up by an insane bubber trying to find meaning in their baying. Because it’s the 90s and gently caress formatting! They are dog-like creatures native to Pandemonium that can be tamed and mounted, as the picture shows. In combat, they can charge for an initial combat bonus, and can stick opponents with quills that impose an attack penalty until removed (which takes 1d6 rounds). When a Howler howls, it immediately forces a check on the Madness rules, although this doesn’t move the madness past Stage 3 since it isn’t as strong as Pandemonium’s winds (which doesn’t make any sense since the last step is the character learning to cope with the noise, not descend deeper into madness).  Lillendi (9,000 xp) are half angel, half snake. Their top half can be male or female, but I’ve only ever seen them depicted as naked chicks. Go figure. Lillend are native to Ysgard, but can be found in Arborea, Limbo and the Prime Material. They’re mostly found around the Gates of the Moon and act as servants to various Moon Deities. have the abilities of a 7th level bard along with a number of spell-like ability (including Otto’s Irresistible Dance 1/day). Lillend have a bunch of immunities, including all enchantment/charm spells. Physically, they get a tail constrict attack and have rules for picking up and dropping enemies, even though I’m sure rules for falling damage are in the 2nd edition DMG. There are rules for Lillendi over-eating. Yep.  Another creepy monster from Pandemonium, the Murska (1,400 xp). Murska are large carnivorous beetles that not only wear the flesh of their last kill, but also absorbs part of its intelligence, including mannerisms and memories. If it’s last prey was sapient, a Murska can become a very dangerous predator. Their pincer attacks for 2d12 and holds a victim, doing 2d6 on subsequent rounds. Murska cannot be charmed or dominated, and are immune to gas attacks (not that those are effective on Pandemonium). They take half damage from fire, but suffer a -2 penalty for saves against cold attacks.  Oread (420 xp, or 10,000 xp for Snowhair) are the guardian spirits of mountains, serving a similar role that dryads do in forests. They are found in Arborea, Beastlands and Ysgard Oread have a song that has an extra potent charm effect on anyone that hears it (spell save at -3). Aside from these servants, Oreads befriend mountain creatures to fight on their behalf. Besides their song, most of an Oread’s magic abilities are for escaping combat. The Snowhair are an elder variant of the Oread that protects an entire mountain range. Snowhair have a bunch more HD, additional spells powers, and can petrify with a touch. A group of seven Snowhairs is said to be the guardian spirit of Mount Olympus itself.   Ratatosks (175 - 650 xp) are intelligent, humanoid flying squirrels that live on the branches of Yggdrasil. They attack in groups, and can use a dive to attack with its front and back claws for double damage. While gliding, Ratatosk can dodge missiles by rolling their current hit points or less on a 1d20. Ratatosk can fight with weapons. Ratatosk packs are lead by an alpha male and female that are bigger than their kin (they get an extra HD and do more damage). These leaders are called Fireholders, as they care for the pack’s single firepot. Ratatosks can also become priests of Yggdrasil and can reach 7th level. Ratatosk worship Yggdrasil as a god, and have their own legends surrounding it and tell every other mythology to go stuff it. These are definitely my favorite new creatures.  There are two new types of Tanar’ri in the Monster Supplement. The first one is the Armanite (2,000, 7,000, and 14,000 xp), a lesser Tanar’ri that resemble undead centaurs with bull horns. Armanite act as mobile shock troops in the Blood War. They can fight with weapons or charge with their horns. Once per day, Armanite can gallop into the sky for an hour. Standard Armanite can charge their ranged weapons with electricity, adding 2d8 electrical damage. Armanite pack leaders are known as Kneecht, and can add this damage to its melee attacks as well. Above Kneecht are Konsul, who can also cast an 11d6 lightning bolt 3/day and can become 8th level mages or 5th level priests. Armanite have the standard Tanar’ri spell powers immunities and resistances, but suffer 3d6 damage from holy water and 1d6 damage from the splash. Armanite packs are often selected to undertake special missions for Abyssal Lords.  Goristro (23,000 xp) are custom designed to be servants of Abyssal Lords-big enough to act as siege engines, enough detection magic to be bodyguards, but too dumb to do anything else. Goristroi get two attacks for 6d4+6 each, and can make a stamping attack that does 5d8 damage to everything within 6 feet. A Goristro has 20 HD, and gets +6 hp for each dice. A Goristro’s hp is pretty implicitly it’s meat - sorry theironjef - since a Goristro with more hit points is not only taller but needs stronger than normal magical weapons to hit. Goristro usually have a means for their master to directly control them. Without direct command or supervision, a Goristro will just wander off and break stuff.  Also known as the Abyssal Bat, Varrangion are intelligent bat-like creatures native to The Abyss. They come in six Roman numeral types, with types I through IV being lesser (2,000 xp) and type V and VI are greater (6,000 xp). The difference between the lesser types is the type of breath weapon they have. Lesser Varrangion are vulnerable to sunlight and light-based spells. The type V Varrangion can go beserk and have spell abilities, resistances and immunities that allow it to fly up to an adventurer’s face and rip it off, while type VI Varrangion can cast spells as a 9th level wizard and even use wands. Both greater and lesser Varrangion have their own custom treasure table.  The Viper Tree (420 to 7,000 xp) is a tree with snakes in place of branches. They are most common in Graz’zt’s realm, but can be found in Carceri and the Grey Wastes too. Viper Trees have between 2 and 9 HD, and get one attack per HD. Each attack has a powerful venom that has -3 on poison save checks. A failed save reduces dexterity by 4 permanently and immobilizes for 48 hours. On a success, the victim loses 4 dex for 48 hours. Viper Trees are immune to cold, venom and acid attacks, but take double damage from fire. If attacked from range, Viper Trees can detach its branches. These die after an hour, but have the same hp as their parent (even though it had only a portion of its hp while attached). Viper Trees will attack Baatezu armies, but allow Tanar’ri to freely pass. For whatever reason, the Harmonium somehow polled Viper Trees to find out what they like to eat. It’s an amusing entry (“Only 1 in 10 Viper Trees was able to overwhelm the Harmonium Questioner”) I think someone mixed up their factions. This seems more like something the Fraternity of Order would do. Hardhead would just torch Viper Trees without a second thought. And that conclude Planes of Chaos. What I do next I’ll discuss in a separate post.
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Sep 14, 2016 03:43
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Traveller posted:In the case of the Shadowlands in particular, while PCs aren't likely to go and kill Fu Leng on their own we are shown meaningful victories over the Shadowlands. The Crab have lost territory to them, but they have also gained it back even if the victory was not perfect (the Kuni Wastes) and continue beating back Hell on Earth with gumption, muscle and funky war engines. A natural game pitch after Way of the Crab and Book of the Shadowlands (and Bearers of Jade, when we get to it) is "are your PCs hardcore enough to gather an army of badasses and finally recover the Hiruma lands" and it's not out of the question that they can do it. IIRC, the Hiruma lands are in fact restored later on in the metaplot. The Bloodspeakers tend to be localized sources of misery with the big spook of Iuchiban being released in the background but also you have the Clans repeatedly teaming up to take him and his hordes of skellingtons down. The Kolat are... well, the loving Kolat, admittedly. But as you say, there's no meaningful opposition PCs can present against the Shadow. Regarding Iuchiban, will you be doing the Tomb adventure? The funniest thing to me about Iuchiban is how absolutely incompetent he is. The canonical introduction to him is his right hand man getting fed up that he has hosed up SO MANY TIMES and trying to strike out on his own. Iuchiban is powerful and dangerous as hell, but not actually good at planning or anything long-term. And they know it.
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Sep 14, 2016 03:56
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I have several different ideas about what I want to do next, and so I thought I might as well ask the thread what they'd be most interested in seeing. I could continue with Planescape, which itself has a ton of supplements. The product that came out after Planes of Chaos was Well of Worlds, a collection of short adventures involving Planescape (some moreso than others). After that are two big adventures, In the Abyss and The Deva Spark. The next setting box set is Planes of Laws. Finally I can just skip all of that and go on to In the Cage: A guide to Sigil Besides Planescape books, one book for 2nd Edition that I want to review is The Book of Artifacts, which I was reminded of after reading oriongates review of Psionic Artifacts of Athas. In addition to some truely bizarre items, it presents rules for creating magic items, which in 2nd Edition was as convoluted as everything else. Then there is Spark and its setting supplement Sig: the City Between. I had a chance to play a demo of the game at GenCon with the game's author, Jason Pitre. Sig is Jason's version of Sigil for his game, and it's a pretty neat homage. Kinda like Freedom Planet but without the cringy dialog. Finally unrelated to Planescape or D&D is Paranoia: High Programmers, because you can never have enough Paranoia. SirPhoebos fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Sep 14, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 04:03
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Please do the Book of Artifacts. It was, accidentally, the first RPG book I ever owned.
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Sep 14, 2016 04:06
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Thanks for everyone who answered my question about Castlemourn. And those amazing puns  I'm also enjoying the Godbound and Godlike reviews. Godbound in particular seems to have enough unique mechanics going on that it's not as stuck-in-the-mud as most OSR games. The Cleave, Fray Dice, skill check, Effort, and Wealth mechanics in particular are all quite cool.
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Sep 14, 2016 04:09
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MollyMetroid posted:Regarding Iuchiban, will you be doing the Tomb adventure? I wasn't planning to. I meant to skip all the "adventure" books. Feel free to take it away though!
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Sep 14, 2016 04:16
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I would if I had a copy of it. That one's...hard to find.
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Sep 14, 2016 04:22
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PoptartsNinja posted:Did they name the Darkness 月 子 ? I get it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaILTs-_1z4
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Sep 14, 2016 04:33
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I don't remember Planes of Law being particularly thrilling, though it'd probably be best to showcase it sometime. The Book of Artifacts is... gently caress. It's like someone took the huge list of artifacts from 1E, and gave them the Monstrous Compendium treatment, exploding a cue card's worth of detail into pages worth, all for stuff you probably don't want your PCs getting their hands on anyway. Do eet.
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Sep 14, 2016 04:36
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Grnegsnspm posted:
Humbug Scoolbus posted:Goddamn that is a horrible treatment of a really great game.
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Sep 14, 2016 05:12
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Goddamn that is a horrible treatment of a really great game. You know, I actually ended up liking it a little more during character construction, which had a few too many moving parts but did allow for interesting customization. Then again, I still stand by feeling like the game tried a little too hard for hard sci-fi and ended up being Haven: Planet of Water, where there wasn't much actually going on involving the cool setting and you were supposed to just play near future cops and robbers.
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Sep 14, 2016 06:09
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I'm so happy someone's covering Godbound. To me, at least, it feels like something like the culmination of OSR and storygame sensibilities; OSR mechanics and character building buttressing Fate-style traits and imaginative powers. Also, I'm happy that we get to talk about Words. Oh, goodness, the Words.
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Sep 14, 2016 07:19
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The sample talents for Godlike are AWESOME, and I think they help to illustrate why they haven't hugely upset history. Also Traveller: Thank you for the L5R writeup. I've honestly always wanted to know more about the game and to get a perspective on it from someone who wasn't a hopeless fanboy for it.
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Sep 14, 2016 08:40
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Yeah, I read some of the freebie pdf but balked at the OSR mechanics -- this is doing a good job of selling me on Godbound despite that.
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Sep 14, 2016 08:40
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PurpleXVI posted:The sample talents for Godlike are AWESOME, and I think they help to illustrate why they haven't hugely upset history. Yeah, that sample stuff has sold me. I've got to pick this game up.
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Sep 14, 2016 13:42
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I'm glad someone did!
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Sep 14, 2016 16:16
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Falconier111 posted:I'm so happy someone's covering Godbound. To me, at least, it feels like something like the culmination of OSR and storygame sensibilities; OSR mechanics and character building buttressing Fate-style traits and imaginative powers. Never mess with the Bow. potatocubed posted:Yeah, I read some of the freebie pdf but balked at the OSR mechanics -- this is doing a good job of selling me on Godbound despite that. If I had to guess, I'd say one of Crawford's design philosophies is "Just because I go OSR doesn't mean I can't do something new with it".
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Sep 14, 2016 17:38
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I admit that I like some Raggi adventures, specifically The God That Crawls and Better Than Any Man, but any enthusiasm I had for F+Fing them died when I read Death Love Doom. gently caress that edgy motherfucker. I am probably just gonna finish Return to the Tomb of Horrors at some point, which I had forgotten about completely.
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Sep 14, 2016 19:24
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:I admit that I like some Raggi adventures, specifically The God That Crawls and Better Than Any Man, but any enthusiasm I had for F+Fing them died when I read Death Love Doom. gently caress that edgy motherfucker. I am probably just gonna finish Return to the Tomb of Horrors at some point, which I had forgotten about completely.   
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Sep 14, 2016 19:47
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I second those emoticons.
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Sep 14, 2016 20:16
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I third them.
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Sep 14, 2016 21:00
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Halloween Jack posted:Blue Planet is one of those games I took to be a critical darling but never found anyone playing. I leafed through it, and found it to be (no pun intended) kind of dry. Assuming there are a lot of hooks in the GM's guide that aren't in the player's guide, it seems like one of many settings that would be more fun to run in a different system. Probably Fragged Empire because Fragged Empire is really good and has rules for drone combat and publishing scientific research. Well there's a certain lack of "oomph" to it, you know? It might just be that I don't associate Blue Planet with a fun computer RPG the way I did with GURPS Alpha Centauri, it might be a weakness of the setting, it might be that there just wasn't a very deep (heh) vein of ocean/dolphin nerd passion the way there clearly is with some other properties.
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Sep 14, 2016 21:46
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Ok, fine. Return to the TOMB OF HORRORS Part 12: A web is a kind of bridge, if you think about  Here's the link to the archive of previous entries, by the way: http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/dad-lost-my-ipod/return-to-the-tomb-of-horrors/ So. When we last left off... literally years ago... the PCs had just escaped from the insane Dr. Tarr of the Tower of Health, a Moilian hospital. Cyndia the nurse might be with them or might not. Either way, they're really no closer to their goal for the experience. As a reminder:  Tower 7 was the medical tower. Tower 8 is totally hollow, having collapsed centuries ago (it was the mint, if anyone cares) (they don't). So on to Tower 9! Like 8, the interior of 9 has collapsed. There are no floors or furnishings left. Unlike 8, however, it is occupied. By what? What manner of creature could live in a hollow tower trapped between planes? it's spiders The entire interior is filled with webs, starting about ten feet below the entrance. They glow a faint green, so as to be conveniently visible to PCs in the lightless tower (there are no windows). The web appears deserted, but poking it has a 10% chance of summoning a wraith-spider, but even if you do the spider can't or won't leave the web so it's not an immediate danger to PCs. Why bother descending into the web and braving these creatures? Well... Acererak's poem posted:Beneath webs of glowing emerald Yeah, there's a piece of the key here. Probably the second piece, since the brine dragon had the first. The PCs start in section 9.1. 9.2 is the web. A few rules about it, since we're about to climb on: 1) The web is pretty tightly spaced. Gaps are no larger than five feet. Although this is good, because it means you probably won't fall screaming to your death, it's also problematic for fliers hoping to bypass the whole thing. 2) The web is also supernaturally cold, colder even than the surrounding air. Any living creatures touching it-- and this isn't bare-skin only, gloves and boots count-- suffer d4 damage per round and must save vs paralyzation or by paralyzed for d6 rounds (though whether this is a property of the cold or something inherent to the web isn't clear). Walking along the web is probably a bad idea for that reason, and fliers have to be intensely maneuverable to make it. Probably the best bet is to hack through it like foliage, which does work. Unfortunately, this definitely attracts the wraith-spiders, who are not happy about it. There are 13 of them and they arrive within d6 rounds. The spiders are fairly nasty; they have a level-draining bite that also injects Con-draining venom, and require silver or magical weapons to hit. They also have 15% innate magic resistance and immunity to cold, poison and death magic. They're vulnerable to turning, but you should remember that the effects of Acererak's ritual are stronger here than in the Tomb, and that includes making undead harder to turn (they turn as mummies, which, good luck). As a side note, if you die of having your Con dropped to 0, you automatically come back as a wraith-spider with a humanoid head. At the bottom of the web hangs a riddle cube from an especially thick mass of webbing:  It's black, with red etchings, and of course that's a winter-wight (remember them?) wearing a ring of universal movement standing on the bottom. It is smart enough to hide on the underside of the cube and ambush PCs. It will also call the spiders for help and use its ring to pursue the PCs even if they run. The bottom of the cube has a riddle engraved into it with three plaques below it that can be pushed like buttons. The riddle reads: "Many tails have I, or many a beginning. If I fail people sigh; wails mark their passing." The three plaques depict a might oak tree with roots reaching down into the soil, a cat with hissing snake-headed tails, and a frayed rope. The answer is, of course, rope, and pressing that plaque... does nothing visible, except make a click sound. Exactly the same with either of the others. If you press any other plaques after the first, nothing happens; it takes 24 hours to "reset" and accept a new choice. However, if you pressed the correct one, one of three portcullises at Area 16 raises. So, good. You can also cut the rope and drop the cube into nothingness, but in 33 days some of Acererak's demon servants go and grab it and put it back. Area 10 is a shattered bridge-- it still spans the abyss, but is dangerously structurally compromised. 10% chance of causing a crumble, which requires a dex check at -4 or over you go. Look out! Area 11 is a weak bridge. It looks normal, but the magic preserving it is imperfect and the keystone has crumbled to dust. When you reach the midpoint-- and here I should note that the bridge is 110 feet long-- a segment of stone drops away from the middle with a loud CRACK! The two halves each collapse backward toward their respective tower. Anyone within 10' of a tower entrance can check Dex to run back inside. Anyone else-- such as, say, the person who triggered the collapse-- has to make a dex check at minus ten to grab hold, then a Strength check at -2 to hold on as the bridge impacts the tower. If you fail either, down you go. If you survived and are now clinging to a collapsed stone bridge... well, too bad, because a murder of negative fundamentals (those bat things, and yes, that's the correct collective noun) was roosting under the bridge and now swarms out to attack the luckless PCs clinging on by their fingertips. It's -35% to climb up, which means that without skills you have a 5% chance to climb up, and it takes one round of climbing per 10 feet out you were on the bridge to reach an archway. You can't climb while defending yourself from fundamentals. After d10+4 rounds, the last remnants of the bridge fall away into darkness. Realistically, you pretty much need to be able to fly to get out of this one. Tower 12 was the home of the Moilian Trader's Consortium and is now empty. Tower 13 has stuff!  This is the Tower of the Forsaken One, a tower that once housed the Orcus-worshipping clergy of Moil. They were the lawmakers in this chaotic city, and it was their cruel and arbitrary decrees that drove the population to rebel. They were the ones that called down the retribution of Orcus on the people of Moil, but I bet this isn't what they were hoping would happen! This tower is also inhabited by a spider, or at least a spider-adjacent creature. It's a darkweaver, a strange creature from one of the Planescape monstrous compendiums, and its web forms a maze of darkness the PCs must penetrate. Also, there's a real maze. Acererak likes mazes. Note that there are no windows above or below the one surviving level to allow access; that would be too easy. 13.1 is the entranceway. Unlike most of Moil's towers, this one has a surviving door of granite with a big Orcus-head etched on it. It is a nasty trap, but since at the time this adventure takes place Orcus is dead and powerless, it does nothing. Wiping frost from the door reveals a message: "Ware the weaver in her lair- D." Desatysso barely escaped this tower with his life and etched this warning in, and it should reassure PCs they're on the right track. 13.2 is a split where PCs can go straight or rightwards. Vision here is heavily impeded by the darkweaver's web. It is, in fact, 1/2 normal, even magical light or spells allowing darkvision. The strands of the web are partially made of shadow and recoil from light, but they are not solid enough to impede your progress. Travel 10 feet into the gloom, however, and things change: now the strands do not shy away from the light, but actively try to prevent your escape. Trying at this point to return to the entrance requires a saving throw vs. spell, and even if successful, you only retreat at half speed; failing a save means you must go deeper into the maze. A light spell produces no illumination but destroys a 10-foot cube of web, while continuous light fares only slightly better, destroying d6 such cubes. Very powerful light spells, like sunray, destroy 2d6 cubes. 13.3 is a dead end (the web allows you to retreat far enough to get back into the main body of the maze) containing two withered, drained humanoid corpses. Acererak knows that the darkweaver needs to eat and has his demons fetch it mortals every now and again. This is a pair of brothers who managed to flee this far from the darkweaver's lair before being overpowered and each bears one piercing wound (from the darkweaver's proboscis). 13.4 is where the webs start getting really thick and clingy. From here onward, all vision is one-quarter normal, and anyone attempting retreat from this point must save vs. spell or move deeper into the web in their confusion; even successful saves slow you until the darkweaver is slain. 13.5 has a little gap in the web where rests a statue of a man in a flowing robe with a long beard. Two pinpricks of light gleam under the hood, where the statue's eyes would be. You can pry out its gemstone eyes for 50gp each, but the real trick is the hands. They are cupped together as if offering or receiving something, and a plaque at the base says in Moilian "Quench the thirst of Golnar, and your reward will be great." Acererak has of course hosed with it; putting any liquid in the hands causes the statue to raise them to its mouth as if to drink, then to blow into its cupped hands, transforming the liquid into 8 map squares worth of poison gas. This is save vs. poison or die stuff, with d10 damage on a successful save, because of course it is. Every liquid has the same results. 13.6 is the darkweaver's lair.  Sup The web is so thick here that PCs must save vs. spell or be held as hold person. Even on a success they are slowed. The area is also as dark as a darkness spell. The darkweaver itself is a nasty foe that has confusion, sleep and suggestion powers, as well as a very good AC and 50% magic resistance. In shadow it can become invisible, make mirror images, teleport, make solid fog, a symbol of despair, shades and other nasty stuff. It can spin one 10' cube of web per turn and can spend multiple turns on the same cube to make it thicker. It has six tentacles and a proboscis. Good news: it is vulnerable to light, and powerful enough light spells not only damage it, they dispel its protection, reducing its AC and Magic Resistance to much more manageable levels. Killing it ends all outstanding slow and hold effects, as well as the omnipresent darkness. Doing so reveals that the ceiling has a lever of dark metal, currently pointing towards "-". The other setting is "+". Next to it is a plaque that says "This is the mechanism you seek. Permanent activation will not only achieve one of your goals, but set in motion events of great magnitude." Setting it to + and then returning it to - makes it light up green, indicating that a portcullis has been raised. Setting it to + and leaving it there makes a click, one round after which the floor, walls and ceiling of the chamber begin to shake wildly. A Wisdom check allows one PC to set the lever back, otherwise poo poo gets real. It's a Dex check every round to stay on your feet, with a full round and another Dex check to get up if you fall. Failing by 10 or more does d4 damage from falling debris. After nine rounds (the game notes that a PC with a movement rate of 12 who begins running immediately takes less than five rounds along the quickest route to escape), the whole tower crumbles into the abyss of the negative energy plane, along with anyone inside it. Good job. Next time: The Tower of Test! DAD LOST MY IPOD fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Sep 14, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 22:02
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Halloween Jack posted:Blue Planet is one of those games I took to be a critical darling but never found anyone playing. I leafed through it, and found it to be (no pun intended) kind of dry. Assuming there are a lot of hooks in the GM's guide that aren't in the player's guide, it seems like one of many settings that would be more fun to run in a different system. Probably Fragged Empire because Fragged Empire is really good and has rules for drone combat and publishing scientific research. I've run it multiple times. First was a GEO Marshals versus the Russian Mob. Second was a exploration looking for the crashed and lost Cousteau colony ship. Third was an industrial espionage campaign against the Gendiver corporation. That last one had a PC that was playing an uplifted Beluga (from the Ancient Echoes supplement) as the Mastermind/Planner.
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Sep 15, 2016 00:51
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:Return to the Return of the Tomb of Horrors Yessss!
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Sep 15, 2016 01:32
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I get the impression of the real issue with Blue Planet is that there's not that much to do with the water other than provide a slightly different environment, I mean, there's some things, but it always felt to me a lot like Cyberpunk in a swimming pool. Having it take place in a swimming pool is different but I'm not sure what it adds to the game.
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Sep 15, 2016 03:39
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Cyberpunk in a swimming pool. yo I love seapunk
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Sep 15, 2016 03:41
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Pod Six is jerks.
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Sep 15, 2016 03:41
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Lynx Winters posted:yo I love seapunk Huh, that certainly is a real thing. Nothing to do with Blue Planet, tho!
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Sep 15, 2016 04:05
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Hostile V posted:Pod Six is jerks. Total suck pod
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Sep 15, 2016 04:21
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I get the impression of the real issue with Blue Planet is that there's not that much to do with the water other than provide a slightly different environment, I mean, there's some things, but it always felt to me a lot like Cyberpunk in a swimming pool. Having it take place in a swimming pool is different but I'm not sure what it adds to the game.
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Sep 15, 2016 05:14
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I always just think "Has there ever been a water level in a game that I have enjoyed the most" and the answer is usually "no". Being in water is good fun, but it's also a real arse and a half if you want to actually do anything. Being on boats is different, but the sea itself never seems like the most fun place to be in if you want to do something. Not least because violence underwater is rather hard to do.
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Sep 15, 2016 07:01
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I always want to point to Mario 64 as an example of good water levels, but then I take off the rose colored glasses and realize that as good as it was at the time it was still a 64 game and controlled kind of like rear end.
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Sep 15, 2016 09:37
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The ocean is awesome. It's a terrifying environment with strange creatures and real-life Leviathans and Cthulhus and stuff. What was that Warren Ellis' written videogame about it? With submarines? You can have barbarian cultures and high-tech sea pods and stuff. Even Waterworld was fun. Mega Man X, Shovel Knight, and rear end Creed: Black Flag had good water levels. Plus all those cool ocean exploration games!
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Sep 15, 2016 10:06
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