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Wraeththu is awesome. I'm glad it exists. It's an example of what is, AFAIK, an increasingly rare strain of game--where somebody takes a homebrew they've been sitting on for a long time, that is a more-or-less universal system, and crams some licensed property into it. (The Great War of Magellan, ripped from obscurity by System Mastery, shows all the signs of being the same.) As for the license itself, Wraeththu are vampiric in a number of ways, most importantly because they are part of the subgenre that Anne Rice created. What I find jarring is that Wraeththu doubles down on the theme that is problematic in True Blood--where vampires are analogues for gay people, but also an Illuminati conspiracy of psycho killers. Wraeththu are literally a mutant Queer virus that will abduct you and force you to be Queer. It's a Chuck Tingle premise treated with utmost seriousness by a yaoi fanficcer.
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Oct 5, 2017 23:34
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Kurieg posted:We've run Pathfinder a few times with my playgroup, and we've kept the "Wizard runs away with the game while everyone else watches" in check by making sure the guy who wants to break the game over his knee and minmax isn't the guy behind the reigns of the full caster. Usually by their own volition. The game is more fun when everyone's having fun and we've got a guy who just likes blowing poo poo up with fireballs. Yeah. In my group the guy playing the wizard also just wants to blast stuff, and the DM plays enemy casters with an eye to making sure things don't get too rocket-taggy. On the other hand, the guy playing the druid is the kind of guy who does research and plays to win, and he pretty much wrecks poo poo when his turn comes around. Still, he's only one person (except when he's being half a dozen cyclopes, a kami, and a giant elemental) so he can't take the game over completely.
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Oct 5, 2017 23:36
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Did "I Am Zombie" ever actually get finished? I remember something about Mark ReinDotHagan and kickstarter issues.
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Oct 5, 2017 23:37
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Halloween Jack posted:My understanding is that when you do a Move, your stat simply determines how many options you get to pick. This is less staid than it may sound, since the relevant "stat" is always in flux based on stuff like how much Blood you have/spend, the quality of the Feeding Ground, if the fellow vamp you're dealing with owes you Debts, and so on. The other mechanics replacing dice are Debt, which are tokens you can spend to influence people (just like strings in MH) and Status, where whenever vampires interact socially, you figure out which of you is higher on the social ladder and that one will just win any argument outright... unless shenanigans take place. So as a player you have to make shenanigans happen in order to stand up to your social betters.
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Oct 5, 2017 23:40
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There's that pretty awful Fate/Stay Night Unisystem hack, I guess.
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Oct 6, 2017 01:17
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wiegieman posted:What is with these people, though? Are they all just houseruling everything, or playing all caster parties, or do they really like only half the party being important? I'm having a blast playing a human soldier. 
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Oct 6, 2017 03:48
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:I'm having a blast playing a human soldier. I don't mean to come across as telling you that you're having fun wrong, I'm not, I just don't get the draw. Whatever works for your table I guess.
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Oct 6, 2017 03:52
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I really wish I'd gotten further in reviewing Myriad Song because I feel like comparing it to Starfinder would be really productive.
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Oct 6, 2017 04:08
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wiegieman posted:What is with these people, though? Are they all just houseruling everything, or playing all caster parties, or do they really like only half the party being important? 3e/Pathfinder is a perfectly playable game, and a lot of what we've come to regard as "broken" doesn't even really "break" until at least level 5 and up. We tend to look down on it because our standards are better than "literally isn't offensive and the rules are not beyond human ken", but for a lot of people, that's more than good enough for them.
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Oct 6, 2017 07:06
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Leraika posted:There's that pretty awful Fate/Stay Night Unisystem hack, I guess.
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Oct 6, 2017 07:22
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:I'm having a blast playing a human soldier. 3E and Pathfinder are perfectly playable, with the right players, houseruling and party composition they can even be fun. The issue's just that they're "dangerous" for new players because unless the GM knows the system well enough to adjust for the issues(caster supremacy and etc.) with house rules and good GM'ing, or simply by warning new players what the dangers are, you easily end up with characters that are way below power compared to others. And even for a good GM, keeping the game fun for everyone in that sort of situation can be difficult.
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Oct 6, 2017 08:51
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The problem with Pathfinder is that the rules are easy to bog down in and don't really make it any easier to run any particular kind of story. They don't really add anything for all the complexity and system mastery annoyance. That said, for levels 1-9, the last time I ran PF (years ago) what mattered more to my players was 'I'm an Inquisitor, so I get to make a cool speech and pronounce judgment when this fight starts' or 'I'm a Bard but I can fluff it as a sephardic mystic and we can kidnap a guy while retreating under cover of flashbangs and a biblical rain of frogs.' E: Thinking on it, I think the key to that game was every PC being a half caster (Inquisitor, Alchemist, Bard, with NPC Fighters and such filling them out when they needed 'em) and none of them knowing the system at all, so no-one bothered too much with optimization. Also, we just allowed retraining if someone found they were never using a feat. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 12:30 on Oct 6, 2017 |
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Oct 6, 2017 12:22
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gradenko_2000 posted:3e/Pathfinder is a perfectly playable game, and a lot of what we've come to regard as "broken" doesn't even really "break" until at least level 5 and up. Also a lot of the design problems with game systems aren't exposed to the players at all until they suddenly explode. So GMs (should) naturally have a more pronounced sense of what good design looks like and players don't really have to care.
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Oct 6, 2017 15:21
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 Starfinger Core Rules Part #10: "If some guy just walks in off the street and says, 'I want a rocket launcher!', most people are going to say, we don't think you're rocket launcher-ready." Owen K.C. Stephens, Starfinger Design Lead, GenCon Q&A Transcript posted:You can have a .38. Going onward with weapons, some have special properties. Some notable ones new to Starfinger include:
 We also get descriptions of all these crazy weapons, such as:
Now there's attempts to explain why one type of weapon is better than another from time to time, and sometimes they make sense, sometimes they don't. Why does a dimensional slice longsword do so much damage? Well, it's surrounded by a "blade-shaped aura". Oh. That explains... not much... So, weapons can be made from special materials, because overcoming Damage Reduction is still a thing, just like in Dungeons & Digits 3.5. Presumably there are space werewolves and star demons to fight! So, we have the usual - adamantine, cold iron, and silver, and you can make melee weapons out of them or ammo. A literal reading of the rules implies you can also make adamantine lasers or cold iron sonic weapons by making them out of the right materials, but I get the impression that's not intended.  We also have "Weapon Fusions" which are the new form of weapon enchantment. Yes, because working out weapons wasn't complicated enough. They're supposed to be magical mods you plug in like Final Fantasy 7's materia but are hard to remove, and it takes half the cost of the original fusion to move it from one weapon to another. Exactly what you're paying for is unclear; maybe the fusion comes with a credstick reader to take the transfer charge itself? There are also "Fusion Seals" which can be more easily moved between weapons at a surcharge. However, Weapon Fusions and Fusion Seals have an item level they're rated for, and can't be placed on a weapon of a higher level... because... that's what it says in the rules. So if you have a 12th level holy Fusion Seal, you can put it on a yellow star plasma pistol but not a white star plasma pistol, because the cost of Fusions is based entirely on what weapons they can affect. Did I mention this weapon system can be highly arbitrary? So, if you know magic weapons from d20 games, most of these will seem familiar. You've got your aligned boosts (anarchic, holy, etc.), your elemental types (corrosive, flaming, etc.), and general effects (ghost killer, dispelling, etc.). Many don't even add direct boosts - aligned weapons just count as aligned, elemental weapons do elemental damage, while others add actual effects. Some have minimum levels they can be purchased at - vorpal is tops at level 10, which is weird because it all it does is grant the severe wound effect, which some weapons get by level 6. But, you know. It's arbitrary! Next: Make sure you button down that shirt before you step into deep space. Alien Rope Burn fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Oct 6, 2017 |
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Oct 6, 2017 15:35
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Does going to full auto require you to aim at multiple targets? Like you can't just hold your gun at one guy and fire the clip at that guy?
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Oct 6, 2017 15:44
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Alien Rope Burn posted:We also have "Weapon Fusions" which are the new form of weapon enchantment. Yes, because working out weapons wasn't complicated enough. They're supposed to be magical mods you plug in like Final Fantasy 7's materia but are hard to remove, and it takes half the cost of the original fusion to move it from one weapon to another. Exactly what you're paying for is unclear; maybe the fusion comes with a credstick reader to take the transfer charge itself? There are also "Fusion Seals" which can be more easily moved between weapons at a surcharge. However, Weapon Fusions and Fusion Seals have an item level they're rated for, and can't be placed on a weapon of a higher level... because... that's what it says in the rules. So if you have a 12th level holy Fusion Seal, you can put it on a yellow star plasma pistol but not a white star plasma pistol, because the cost of Fusions is based entirely on what weapons they can affect.
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Oct 6, 2017 15:48
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Comrade Gorbash posted:It's a real shame they didn't go whole hog and literally make it a DRM issue, because that's actually kind of a fun idea. "You can pay 1/2 and transfer it all legal like, or you can jailbreak and move it for less/free/pay time instead of cash/whatever but in most places that's illegal." "Buy the +2 AP extension for your rifle, only 150 gems! Gems can only be purchased in sets of 17 for 10 credits each."
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Oct 6, 2017 15:53
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Mors Rattus posted:Does going to full auto require you to aim at multiple targets? Like you can't just hold your gun at one guy and fire the clip at that guy? Technically you could, but there'd be no point to it. If you go full-auto and your template only targets one person, it still targets that one person. However, it doesn't do any extra damage, requires a full attack (edited the post to note that), can't score crits, and eats up extra ammo. So yeah, firing at a single target on automatic is actively worse and less deadly than taking a single shot, I realize.
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Oct 6, 2017 15:59
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Has any RPG company ever sold DLC-like cards with extra rules? I remember just jokes from KODT.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:01
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Technically you could, but there'd be no point to it. If you go full-auto and your template only targets one person, it still targets that one person. However, it doesn't do any extra damage, requires a full attack (edited the post to note that), can't score crits, and eats up extra ammo. It's nice to know that firing an entire clip of bullets into someone can only do extra damage if you do it over a long period of time. I assume this is because Starfinger characters have I-frames.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:03
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Mors Rattus posted:Does going to full auto require you to aim at multiple targets? Like you can't just hold your gun at one guy and fire the clip at that guy? Sir, SIR, it is called a magazine
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Oct 6, 2017 16:03
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Has any RPG company ever sold DLC-like cards with extra rules? As much as it's beloved in retrospect, isn't that Gamma World 7th Edition? I mean, it's just extra crunch IIRC, but it's as close as we've come. Granted, if you're just talking about statblocks, that could go back to some of the collectible cards for AD&D, but I think a lot of that was already in books in one form or another. But Gamma World is probably the purest interpretation of that notion.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:06
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Has any RPG company ever sold DLC-like cards with extra rules? Yes. They're called "sourcebooks."
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Oct 6, 2017 16:08
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gradenko_2000 posted:Sir, SIR, it is called a magazine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_fmN45GAh4
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Oct 6, 2017 16:10
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To be fair, Starfinger does call them magazines. You have to buy them off the rack, though, you can't get a subscription.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:16
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Sorry Im stuck at the initial quote because if you have enough money and your checks clear nobody gives a poo poo what you buy barring possibly an ICBM and nuclear warhead combo. poo poo, you can walk into a flordia gun store today and assuming you have cash on hand you can walk out with literally everything in it and all that will happen is the gunstore owner will close early for the day.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:39
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Barudak posted:Sorry Im stuck at the initial quote because if you have enough money and your checks clear nobody gives a poo poo what you buy barring possibly an ICBM and nuclear warhead combo. This is American capitalism, the owner would make the clerk to stay until close so they can take down future orders and field complaints from annoyed customers who can't buy bullets.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:41
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Why does d&d seem to break down way more thoroughly whenever guns show up? Incorporating guns always seems to mess with it especially.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:46
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Night10194 posted:Why does d&d seem to break down way more thoroughly whenever guns show up? Incorporating guns always seems to mess with it especially. Because was D&D was originally about medieval castle sieges so guns are like trying to fit a round peg into a square hole? This is especially true when you start talking about "realism" as it relates to guns.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:48
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Barudak posted:Sorry Im stuck at the initial quote because if you have enough money and your checks clear nobody gives a poo poo what you buy barring possibly an ICBM and nuclear warhead combo. I'll just spoil out at this point that nearly all equipment is leveled. Not just weapons and armor. Work that poo poo out.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:53
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Literally just replace the name "bow" with "gun" and that solves every problem.
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Oct 6, 2017 16:54
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I refuse to figure out why someone wont sell you a +2 shirt if you have the money. Serf posted:Literally just replace the name "bow" with "gun" and that solves every problem. Yeah but thats not realistic, thats just mechanically and narratively sound.
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Oct 6, 2017 17:00
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Night10194 posted:Why does d&d seem to break down way more thoroughly whenever guns show up? Incorporating guns always seems to mess with it especially.  Anyways they always try to model a bunch of firearm physics and mechanics in a game built around melee combat, but make it so you can still be effective at melee combat. Also the designers often don't actually know much about how firearms work so they get those physics and mechanics wrong anyways.
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Oct 6, 2017 17:00
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Questions to anyone who might know: * Did the Living Steel and Aliens games from Leading Edge Games attempt to model/include melee combat? Phoenix Command separated the gun rules and the melee rules, and even acknowledged that they'd occur at completely different scales, so I was wondering if they tried to "merge" them for the settings-based games. * The System Mastery guys mentioned that the Aliens game was only a specific license for the Aliens movie specifically? What's the difference between that and a different (more broad?) license?
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Oct 6, 2017 17:06
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Cant use ant EU material like comic books, the marines manual, etc.
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Oct 6, 2017 17:07
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Pathfinder had a bunch of packs of cards you could buy with stuff like crit effects, didn't it?
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Oct 6, 2017 17:10
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Barudak posted:Cant use ant EU material like comic books, the marines manual, etc. There's an ... Aliens Expanded Universe? Is this a particularly deep rabbit hole?
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Oct 6, 2017 17:11
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gradenko_2000 posted:There's an ... Aliens Expanded Universe? Is this a particularly deep rabbit hole?
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Oct 6, 2017 17:16
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Leraika posted:Pathfinder had a bunch of packs of cards you could buy with stuff like crit effects, didn't it? DnD4 had cards during the tail end of its life (I think they started during the 'Essentials period). I remember having a few when playing in Encounters.
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Oct 6, 2017 17:16
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gradenko_2000 posted:There's an ... Aliens Expanded Universe? Is this a particularly deep rabbit hole? Well, if you follow it all the way down you end up in the Predator EU, and that place is a mess.
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Oct 6, 2017 17:19
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