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Howdy folks, don't you pay me no mind I'm just a humble superhuman demigod that could easily reshape human civilisation. *leans back in a comfy chair for the next 50-100 years*
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Nov 11, 2018 00:18
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By popular demand posted:Howdy folks, don't you pay me no mind I'm just a humble superhuman demigod that could easily reshape human civilisation. Honestly, if he'd stuck to that it would probably have gone better.
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Nov 11, 2018 00:19
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 Chapter Five: The Kingdoms of Salt and Steel  Our past few chapters covered nations with explicitly supernatural means of leadership. Nuria Natal’s god-kings, the Dominion’s elemental rulers, and Kush’s archmage lich and the demonic forces pulling the kingdom’s strings. The nations along the Southland’s western coast depart from this; although no stranger to their own wonders, their rulers are mortal. Magically proficient mortals who may have a divine spark, but the four kingdoms of this chapter are run by humanoids, for humanoids. Sebbek Sobor This dwarven-majority country claims descent from the refugees of Haldaheim, a marvellous city brought low by the Green Walker’s ascendance. The refugees fled into the land between Lignas and Narumbeki, and struck a deal with the latter group to provide weapons and armor in exchange for land. Sebbek Sobor’s government is balanced between a pair of elders from each city and the Conclave of Brotherhoods, the latter of which are comprised of noble, clan, and guild leaders. Both groups have checks and balances to temper the other’s power, and neither side is stranger to ambushes and feuds to get some resolution passed. The Brotherhoods representing various artisanry disciplines are the most powerful, while the martial Brotherhood of the Axe provides much of the country’s armed forces. Sebbek Sobor’s world-famous crafting is not solely to the credit of dwarves. The Brotherhood of Embers creates pacts with bound elementals to provide their labor in exchange for tasks, items the elemental likes, and in some rare cases the freedom to roam Midgard to a limited degree. Given the natures of elementals, this results in more than a few angry farmers complaining about damaged crops, but the Conclave hems and haws given how vital the elementals are in powering forges, wind and water-driven devices, and other such technology. Sebbek Sobor’s most popular location for foreigners are the Trade Tents, temporary marketplaces which spring up during the summer months. Coins are not accepted as a viable method of exchange, with all business done via bartering physical goods from metalwork to magical items. We also touch on the dwarven practice of golem-making: although such constructs are primarily used as wardens and sentinels in cities and trade routes, the Brotherhood of the Chisel treats their work as an art form, giving elegant and stylish yet functional forms to their creations. Golemwrights are constantly pursuing new methods of innovation and aesthetics, motivated to stand out among an already-gifted pack. Lignas, Land of Serpent Scholars  This tropical rainforest kingdom still stands as a center of lore and trade since its founding, although it is not the most hospitable to visitors. Lignas’ capital is the same name as the country and is ruled by a theocratic dictatorship: the Coil of Memory is a public religious spy agency which pursues intelligence and mysteries of the world as a means of divining existence. But this knowledge is not free, for its membership grants access of religious lore based on seniority. It is believed that the Coil’s heart is dedicated to moon worship where members are “gifted” with transformation into monstrous lamia. Divine Spark: Its aristocratic head has a tradition where one can only ascend to the throne by assassinating the previous ruler. This is because the first queen of Lignas betrayed and killed her own titan ruler, absorbing the spark for herself. The nature of the spark is that only ritual assassination transfers its powers to a successor. Spirits of past rulers are bound to their skulls and serve the current queen, Mwato Yaav, as advisors. The city of Lignas proper contains one of the last preserved remnants of Glorious Umboso’s architecture. Huge cyclopean walls and structures of stone bend and curve in impossible ways as though they were liquid streams frozen in motion. Numerous smaller human structures and dwellings surround these walls. Canals, aqueducts, and barges serve to manage riverbound travel and feed its fertile farms. The mighty Selwheyha River cuts through the metropolis all the way to the sea, but boatmen never travel that far due to legends and tales of a vicious sea monster living at the end. One of Lignas’ two notable locations includes the Tower of the Scaled Fellowship, the headquarters of the Coil of Memory. Libraries, laboratories, classrooms, and vaults brim with jealously hoarded power. Layers of magical, architectural, and physical security make it one of the hardest places in the Southlands to break into, but the repository of magical spells and secrets makes it a tempting target nonetheless. The other location is the Scroll Market within the city’s outer slums. A network of shadowy doorways and magical huts designed to disappear at the first sign of trouble serve as a black market for untested and smuggled magical contraband of the Coil of Memory’s scribes. Untested alchemical concoctions are also for sale, to varying levels of quality. Merchants and customers alike are expected to arrive masked for anonymity. Kingdom of Morreg, Land of the Ancestors  One could claim that every inch of Morreg’s countless hills and valleys are being monitored, and it would not be far from the truth. Its tiered, stonework cities and towns contain numerous multi-level excavated rock structures connected by open-air bridges spanning deep trenches. Aside from this architectural uniqueness, the day-to-day operation of settlements appears normal on the surface. But the Morregi have a radically different sense of privacy than most foreigners, for unrestricted use of divination dominates daily life. Auguries are cast before most activities to ensure the favor of the fates, while some citizens scry on their neighbors to keep tabs on them. The reason for this is that the government encourages its citizens to be abreast of their surroundings and on the lookout for threats in the name of national security. Some of Morreg’s elite forces even preemptively interfere against individuals and communities beyond their lands in a Minority Report fashion, their state seers predicting future dangers before they arise. Or so the kingdom claims. Morreg’s government is ruled by a hereditary king known as the High Saaxir as well as 100 officials known as the Mhondoros Council. While technically elected, the Council members are appointed after a complex divinatory process, leading Morregi to believe that their rulers are destined for their roles. But the Council has its own political factions who have mutually conflicting agendas. Currently the major policy on the minds of the heads of state is preparing for war with Lignas. Divine Spark: The High Saaxir holds the spark of the titan Amhara in a bejeweled orb. Said spark grants the king the ability to create Living Reliquaries, although it is believed that one who absorbs it directly into their body will gain unlimited oracular abilities. Although it is a rumor rather than a mechanical ability set in stone, the book suggests the ability to cast all divination spells at will is a possibility. Besides the potential insanity that would come from unlimited knowledge, there is a difficulty in stealing something when Morreg’s greatest seers already predicted your plan in action. The other notable feature of Morreg is the practice of creating Living Reliquaries known as “ruuxa.” Morregi culture reveres the wisdom of the dead in the belief that they can see things the living cannot; the most valued citizens are chosen for the honor of becoming ruuxa. At the moment of death, the candidate’s skull is removed, their spirit bound to it, and placed into the carved recesses of one of the many obelisks dotting the countryside. They can converse with passing citizens and also strengthen the power of divination spells: this manifests as granting +1 Caster Level on spells of said school cast within the nation’s borders, or +2 (non-stacking) to those cast within 60 feet of an obelisk. Morreg’s capital, Akxuum, holds the Gray Tower. Here wizards and oracles are taught the arts of combat divination and the powers of arcane archery. There is also a black market which sells magical items that protect against divination spells; its location moves regularly to evade the reach of the authorities. Narumbeki, Shield of the South  Within the vast grasslands northeast of Lignas and southwest of Kush lies one of the Southlands’ mightiest warrior societies. In the era of Glorious Umboso the titan Mwari pitted Narumbeki’s ancestors against simulated armies of other titans for recreational sport. After said empire’s fall the Narumbeki scattered among the savannahs as a warrior culture. The tribes united into a more organized fashion as a counter to Morreg’s ascendance and became experts at organized large-scale warfare. Narumbeki society is highly militarized and analogous to Fantasy Counterpart Zulus. At age six a child is trained in the Legions as a messenger and apprenticed in combat at age twelve. Their society is semi-nomadic, with most settlements being a series of enclosures surrounded by thorn-decorated fences and muddy palisades known as kraal. Larger towns and cities are known as akanda, serving as the headquarters of individual Legion organizations. One of the current campaigns of Narumbeki is keeping the Green Walker’s influence from spreading to the plains, and there are always at least 3 Legions maintaining the border with fire and spell. The literal scorched earth tactics christened the Narumbeki-Kush border the Burning Fields. The Narumbeki Legions proper are organized into hierarchical regiments, with a logistical command structure where smaller forces comprise larger formations. For example, a squad is made of 6 soldiers, while 12 squads form a shield, all the way up to an impi of 864 warriors. Their base ranks have armor and shields made from zebra-hide and spears for melee combat. Beyond foot soldiers the twelve Legions are divided into four groups of three. The Fire Legions use arrows and a unique alchemical poison known as naphtha to soften enemy ranks; the Wind Legions are the fastest warriors capable of traveling great distances; the Stone Legions focus on defensive maneuvering; while the Imbangala are a cavalry supplement of sorcerers who mastered magic to domesticate zebras. Zebras both in real life and in the Southlands are too ornery to be broken like normal horses. These “cavalry casters” know the secret to their domestication and these sorcerers are capable of using a wide variety of spells beyond their discipline, yet another set of mysteries outsiders have not yet solved. Every Legion pays homage to the High Warlord, or Mukani, who settles affairs on a national scale and coordinates military campaigns requiring the alliance of multiple tribes. The current Mukani is Ebo Adashe, whose recent decisions have caused doubt, from expelling Lignan ambassadors on charges of spying to breaking treaties with the gnolls of Dabu. The reality of the situation is that Ebo has been infected by the Green Walker’s spores and is a puppet to a vine lord. Divine Spark: Each Mukani passes down Mwari’s spark to the next in line. The spark grants the ability to imbue sorcerers with spells outside their normal tradition. Anyone who has the spark would have total access to the spell lists of every class, but will be hunted to the ends of the world by the Legions if they are not first burned alive in an outpouring of raw magic. Perilous Sites The Kingdoms of Salt and Steel may have a surplus of well-defended bastions from Narumbeki warbands to Morregi diviners, but it is no stranger to swathes of dangerous territory. The most notable are the temple ruins of Ankrhimari, home to a naga lich known as the Whisperer of Shadows. He is currently excavating the place in search of an artifact known as the Black Crown of Veles, said to grant dominion over the dragonkin races. It is said that Veles the World-Serpent himself created at least three such crowns to allow the “hairy races” some degree of protection from his favorite children. There is also the Dunhumadzi, the largest mountain in the western portion of the continent containing a rumored titan stellar observatory; the shadowy Ezana’s Stone in Morreg’s southern border home to a mage silhouette who answers questions posed by visitors, albeit at the price of only giving answers he believes will cause the most misery possible; the Lost Diamond Caverns home to a clan of crystalline demons; and the Stone Bird Grove, whose eponymous statues come to life to guard a rumored treasure against intruders. Character Options of the Kingdoms  The player-facing options of this chapter are more numerous than the previous chapters. Starting off we have five new archetypes. The Arcane Sculptor (Summoner) trades in their eidolon for the ability to build and maintain animated objects or clockwork creatures. The Cavalry Caster (Sorcerer) trades their bloodline arcana and bloodline spells for the ability to learn a small number (1 spell every odd level) from another class list, not have to roll concentration checks for riding, and gain some mounted combat related features such as being able to summon a supernatural mount or gaining bonuses on ranged touch attacks when you make a mounted charge. The Deep Explorer (Rogue) is the prototypical underground explorer who gains favored enemy against aberrations in place of trap sense, the ability to make a single spelunking-related skill roll (Climb, Heal, Survival, Swim) on behalf of all allies within 30 feet in place of uncanny dodge, and a bonus on Perception and Dungeoneering Knowledge checks equal to half their rogue level in place of improved uncanny dodge. The Jali (Bard) are patriotic Morregi who can read the threads of fate in battle via the use of combat divination. They can learn any sorcerer/wizard spell with a swift or immediate casting time, and they may spend a round of bardic performance to grant a one-use swift/immediate spell they know to every ally within 90 feet as long as they maintain performance. Finally, the unimaginatively-named Tunnel Fighter (Fighter) are dwarves who join organizations of underground guards to defend their homes. They gain class features related to close quarters fighting, replacing their bravery bonus with an equal bonus on Acrobatics and Escape Artist checks, the ability to perform attacks of opportunity against those who try to grapple them no matter the circumstance, fight without penalty when squeezing or sharing a space with another tunnel fighter, flank as long as they and an ally are engaged in melee with the same creature, and a burrow speed of 5 feet at 11th level. Next up we have a few new feats: a pair of item creation feats known as Master Sculptor (create constructs even if you’re not a spellcaster) and Master Carver (put 1/day spell-like ability hieroglyphic symbols on constructs) are neat, but the feat with great potential is Foresight Alacrity which allows you to perform up to two swift and two immediate actions per turn. This is really great, potentially overpowered even, if you are making use of the Path of War sourcebook or similar reaction-based classes and abilities. The only trade-off is that you suffer a -2 penalty on all rolls for that round, and the penalty increases by 1 for every consecutive round you use this feat’s benefits. In a section all on their own, Tactical Feats are associated with the Narumbeki Legions. They are akin to teamwork feats in that they impart benefits for the whole party. They have a base Legion Training feat, and most have a hefty +8 Base Attack Bonus requirement, but they are overall pretty good. For example, the base Legion Training grants you a +2 bonus to your Combat Maneuver Defense; but you can also elect to have a +1 bonus and share the other half with all allies within 30 feet. If two or more characters have this feat, they can stack the “shared bonuses” on each other but the maximum amount is limited by said recipient’s character level. This really simulates the “coordinated Zulu Warrior” feel of soldiers who are greater than the sum of their parts in that every other Tactical feat has more or less the same share-based fractional mechanics. The Tactical Step feat can grant a bonus 5 foot step, Accurate Thrust grants a base +2 on attack rolls with piercing weapons and can be split akin to Legion Training, Legion’s Fortification grants 20% chance to negate critical hits or sneak attack damage, and Legion’s Balm grants fast healing 5! The rest of the section pre-magic has miscellaneous information, including the ability to teach new tricks to serpent-based creatures with Handle Animal, the dwarven-brewed naphtha alchemical admixture which is a poison that deals fire damage and can be detonated in large quantities, new poisons from Lignas and stats for war zebras (like horses but gain concealment when among others of their kind in close quarters), and a host of new African-themed familiars from lemurs to scarab beetles.  The Magic of the Kingdoms includes a host of cool new items and spells. We have magic items such as an Eggshell mask which can perform a suggestion spell as a gaze attack twice per day, a Narumbeki Mudzimu Figurine which can detect thoughts for hostile intent and transform into a stone giant to attack said threat, and rituals and incantations such as the ability to conjure Venomous Rain of Retribution to deal poisonous fire damage on a wide area, or Bind the Unwilling Adviser which is used by Lignas’ queens to bind spirits of the departed to your service along with all their non-physical skills and knowledge. We have new generic spells, which are alternate versions of more conventional spells: Blood Pact calls an outsider to make a deal and you gain their damage reduction and vulnerabilities in addition to their service; Swarmshape Summon spells are like Summon Monster, but they summon monsters two levels lower on the latter spell chart who burst into swarms should they be “killed;” and Vipershot imbues your arrows with the ability to turn into vipers after they hit a target. But the lion’s share of new spells are in a section of their own: the fabled Morregi art of Combat Divination! I should note that this is one of my favorite mechanics from the Southlands, both in concept and rules and how it covers a traditional weakness of the spell school in Dungeons & Dragons. You see, conventional divination spells are limited in use when the din of battle starts; the most iconic spells either require maintenance (detect magic and clairvoyance) or have long casting times (augury and clairvoyance). Combat divination spells are swift or immediate actions which allow the user to foresee enemy actions and movements in an “I saw that coming” style of foresight. They can be learned by many classes, even the less-arcane types such as bards and rangers get a few! I won’t list all of them, but some of the cooler ones include Anticipate Attack ( take a 5 foot step to avoid an attack if you get out of its reach/AoE), Anticipate Arcana (gain Spell Resistance against an oncoming hostile spell), Distraction Cascade (cause an enemy to become flat-footed against an ally’s incoming attack on a failed Will save), Scry Ambush (can be cast during a surprise round to act normally and not be flat-footed) and Targeting Foreknowledge (cast after you make a successful attack but before damage, granting you +2d6 bonus damage and increase the critical multiplier by x1). Thoughts So Far: The four countries were relatively brief in length, but I did not mind that as much on account that they more than made up for it with cool fluff and new mechanics. The divine sparks are starting to make more frequent appearances now, and just about every nation has its own tricks and local traditions to make PCs from that region stand out. Morreg has potentially the greatest difficulty in adventuring opportunity, as the huge amount of divination-capable citizens requires some unorthodox thinking by Game Masters to implement. The new archetypes and feats were overall stellar choices. I really liked seeing “team player” focused mechanics pop up, from the Deep Explorer’s rolls for the whole party to the Narumbeki Legion feats and the Jali bard’s ability to grant limited spell use to allies. Join us next time as we sail along the eastern Corsair Coast, visiting exotic isles and clashing sword and spell with pirates, slavers, and sealed demons!
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Nov 11, 2018 06:00
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Libertad! posted:Lignas, Land of Serpent Scholars So, I'm pretty sure the city is meant to be Great Zimbabwe, especially given the river with sea serpents (a reference to the Nyami Nyami of the Zambezi, I think?) and the 'curving and cyclopean' walls of the city. Also the lush farmland. Zimbabwe's not generally forested but frankly I'm basically onboard with Lignas, snakes are good and Zimbabwe is cool. In general the Southlands seems like a really good resource, if you specifically want to run Fantasy Africa-analogue in D&D's particular register. edit: also if fire is the most effective weapon against the Green Walker, they must burn the weed a lot in Kush Joe Slowboat fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Nov 11, 2018 |
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Nov 11, 2018 06:28
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More Aberrant time. Chapter 3: Traits We start with the Natures again, remember that they work differently now. Now they’re the way you regain Willpower and a somewhat unpleasant way you’ll start acting if you have completely run out of Willpower. The Natures aren’t all the same as Adventure’s (since they’re trying by their Nature examples to push a different sort of game) but the list of that game should give you an idea how these work so I’m not going to type out all of them again. We get to Allegiances next, there are quite a few in this. You don’t get a free Background point anymore, and some of them actually require you to take a few points in some Backgrounds. Speaking of, let’s skip right through the dull Attribute and Ability descriptions to Backgrounds. Allies: Allies are friends, and this is a bit stronger than the Adventure version. Allies are allowed to be as strong as a starting character and as you get more dots you can have fewer but even stronger allies. Just remember these aren’t bonus characters you control, they’re friends who sometimes won’t have time to help or sometimes want your help. Attunement: A totally new Background, this allows objects or even people to be charged with your Quantum signature. Anything so-charged is undamaged by your powers as long as it remains in contact with you. So, for example, at the highest level a Human Torch style character could attune someone and then pick them up and fly off with them while on fire without injuring them. Backing: Your ranking in an organization. You’re generally required to take a bit for your Allegiance, with the notable exception of the Teragen (they don’t really have a formal organization to speak of, so Backing would be more appropriate for one of their smaller groups that’s a bit more tight-knit). Cipher: Works just the same as in Adventure, your data trails are hard to track and each dot is an extra difficulty to know poo poo about you. Contacts: Contacts are the same as in Adventure, associates you have a give and take relationship with. They’re not friends but they are helpful. Dormancy: This allows you to temporarily shut down your Nova powers in order to avoid detection (Novas release Quantum energy at all times that can be detected). While Dormant there is an extra difficulty to detect you, but you can’t use any Nova abilities. You get to temporarily eliminate a dot of Taint for every Dormancy dot you have, which can hide your Aberrations. If you’ve got at least 4 dots, you actually have two separate distinct forms: one human and one Nova. With 5 dots they don’t even have the same fingerprints or anything, you’d need genetic tests to prove you were the same person as the Nova. Eufiber: This represents a living colony of Eufiber, secreted by Anibal Buendia. It’s really loving useful. First of all, it can change its form and color at a whim, turning into just about any sort of clothes you could want. It can ‘store’ one Quantum point per dot in its structure, which both lets you recover and use those if you really need them and provides you with one Bashing and Lethal soak per stored point (in other words a 5 dot Eufiber colony is potentially crazy armor). Finally, it counts as part of your body for your powers. Followers: You don’t get as many of these as you would have in Adventure, and they’re mostly going to be Extras. Influence: How popular and well-known you are. In the mass-media world of Aberrant being a celebrity is rather stronger than it was in Adventure, though there’s still no precise systems for it. Mentor: This can be potentially more powerful than it was in Adventure, since assistance with training your Nova powers is in high demand and if a notable character is your Mentor (and if you take a high dot one you SHOULD do that) you also get some inroads in whatever organzations they are part of. Node: Another new Background, this controls how fast you can spend and regenerate Quantum Points. Bigger is not necessarily better, though, and past the second point of the Background you get an automatic permanent Taint for each point. You can also use Node to try and detect sources of Quantum power like a Nova. Resources: How much money you have access to. Novas are often eventually quite rich, but if you don’t have the Background you’re not there yet. We move on to Willpower, there’s some new uses for it. First of all, if you want to resist a mental Aberration you need to spend Willpower. You’ll often need to spend Willpower to fight the effects of mental powers. Finally, it lets you Max a quantum power (we’ll talk about this later). If you don’t have any Willpower, as noted, you start acting according to your Nature until you recover at least one. The nice thing is, of course, you should have plenty of chances since you’re doing what you need to regain it at all times. Now to talk about Quantum. First of all, no matter your Taint it starts becoming increasingly obvious you’re not a normal human as your Quantum goes up. At some level you look just as unnatural just by being perfect as hell, after all. Most powers have some Quantum scaling and all have a minimum Quantum rating to use. Your Quantum Points are also based on your Quantum rating, remember it’s 20 + twice Quantum. There’s a few ways to recover Quantum points. Resting recovers two per hour, with sleep giving you four. Your Node Background adds to the rate at a 1:1 basis. If you’re in a real bind, it’s possible to sacrifice a health level for two Quantum points. They also note that it’s somewhat visible if you’re running low on Quantum. Now we discuss Maxing powers, which is a bit odd honestly since we haven’t even seen what powers do. You spend a Willpower, and a point of Quantum for each die you want to roll (up to your Quantum rating) to boost the power. It lets you do things like add automatic success, extra damage dice, increased duration or area (even adding area of effect to things that don’t normally), and as a last resort you can also Max to increase your Soak for a turn even if that doesn’t make any drat sense. Power Maxing is essentially the Stunt for this game, and people are encouraged to be over the top in describing the outcome. If you botch the roll to Max or the power you Maxed, that’s really bad and you’re going to get some Temporary Taint for it. We’ll see what that means next! Taint comes in Permanent and Temporary flavors. There are three ways to gain the Permanent version. Just having too much Quantum or Node is good for it, as we’ve seen. Buying cheap powers as Tainted is another. The third ties into our Temporary Taint, if you get ten of that you get a Permanent point. The first way we can get a Temporary Taint is to botch a Max attempt. If we really gently caress up, it’s suggested that as many as three Temporary Taint could be awarded but just stick with one. You can enhance your rate of Quantum point recovery if you want by rolling Stamina + Node at a difficulty of the number of points you want above normal. If you fail the roll, though, take a Temporary Taint. There’s sometimes other ways too, but these are the main ones. Losing Temporary Taint is kinda hard. You have to either be dorm’d down or limit your powers to half strength for an entire story or month of downtime, and you’re not allowed to botch any power rolls during that time. If you do, spend a Willpower and roll Willpower (they suggest difficulty equal to your Temporary Taint pool but that’s kinda bullshit, it’s hard enough to get rid of this poo poo). Success gets rid of a Temporary Taint, exceptional success two, but a botch gives you a Permanent Taint. Don’t botch. There’s officially no way to remove Permanent Taint according to Utopia (though they’d like one). The Teragen do have one, and Utopia wouldn’t like it. We’ll talk about that in their book. You get your first Aberration at Taint 4, and get an extra one for each Permanent Taint after that. You get increasing social penalties with baselines as your Taint rises. You also lose a die from your Willpower dice pool to resist any mental disorders you have, which is wherein everything goes to poo poo in the end. They give some guidelines for Aberrations, some of them have actual effects and some don’t. The more Taint you have, the more extreme the Aberrations you get will be. Generally an Aberration is going to fit conceptually with the manifestation of your powers, as your body tries to turn into something that better channels them. Next time, we’ll talk about Mega-Attributes. They’re really loving strong.
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Nov 11, 2018 17:26
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Feinne posted:Psions from Trinity on the other hand are channeling much less direct power through themselves to do what they do, and are working within the bounds of how the universe is 'supposed' to work to a much greater extent, so it's a lot safer. And even then there's a bunch of people super uncomfortable with them just on the very idea things might turn out the same way as with the Aberrants (there's no reason it should, and in the long term Psions will probably just be the 'normal' humanity because they're a way more stable evolutionary branch than Aberrants). Apparently the problem was that while most psions channel otherdimensional energy into the material world, their powers transport matter through otherdimensional space, which is some Event Horizon poo poo and very bad.
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Nov 12, 2018 04:07
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You're conflating two groups. The 'porters were the Upeo wa Macho, and they did not go nuts. They vanished, entirely, after the purge of the Chitra Bhanu--the other group you probably are thinking of. The Chibs were the Quantakinetics, those using psionics to manipulate quantum, which is the stuff that powers the Novas. The Doyen, unlike with the rest of their Proxies, did not allow the experiment of the Quantakinetics to be managed by a mere human, and possessed the Chib Proxy for the remainder of their life after they unlocked the talent. Once they decided that they had learned enough about the manipulation of quantum via psionics, they terminated every one of the Chitra Bhanu, because leaving any alive would be too dangerous to their own existence. (Quantum and Psionic energies interfere with each other and counter one another, and since the Doyen are purely psionic energy, there's too many risks involved with the existence of quantakinetics--in fact it was the Novas who originally drew the Doyen's attention to humanity.) Anyway, after seeing that, the Upeo all used their ability and jumped to an exasolar planet they'd discovered that had been colonized by novas who hadn't gone evil. Then they eventually re-established contact with Earth during the metaplot. They weren't crazy or dealing with deep elder gods; they were just terrified.
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Nov 12, 2018 04:36
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The talk about Trinity is cool and all but can we maybe wait until the review gets to that game first?
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Nov 12, 2018 07:19
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Alright let’s bust this right open, it’s time for more Aberrant and this time we’ve got Mega-Attributes, the first sort of Quantum boost we can buy. A Mega-Attribute for each normal Attribute exists, and they have five levels as well. You need to both have at least one less Quantum than the level of any Mega-Attribute you buy and at least as many dots in the real version of the Attribute. You’re allowed to buy Megas as Tainted, though if you do and get an Aberration you should make the Aberration ‘fit’ with the Attribute. So what’s a Mega-Attribute do? Well, first of all, they make our rolls using the corresponding Attribute much easier. Each dot lets us do one off two things for a given roll: 1) We can just roll them as dice. If we do that, make sure they’re visually distinct because if a Mega-Die comes up 7-9 we get two successes, and a natural 10 gives us three. And remember, we still choose a descriptor for Attributes that are at least 4 which lets us 10-again, and nothing says we can’t 10-again Mega-Dice. I’d rule you can, honestly, the whole point is that you can do ridiculous poo poo. 2) If the Difficulty of the roll is above standard, you can forego some of your Mega-Dice to reduce the difficulty on a 1:1 basis. A more reliable way to make a ridiculous roll easy. You’re allowed to mix and match those two, and change them turn to turn (which will apply to multiple actions if you take them). Mega-Attributes also come with Enhancements, special bonuses that you get for them. You get one for free just for taking a given Mega, but additional Enhancements on it or multiple copies of the same one cost extra. Using a Mega-Attribute never costs Quantum points but Enhancements often do. If two Novas are competing head to head in resisted roll and one has a higher rating in the corresponding Mega-Attribute than the other, they AUTOMATICALLY win unless the character with the lower rating spends a Willpower point. In this case, you don’t roll your normal Attribute at all, only your Mega. If you want to compete with someone who has a Mega-Attribute without one, you need to have a rating of 5 in the regular version of the Attribute. You have to spend a Willpower each turn (as opposed to for the scene for the above contest) and you only get to roll one die against the Mega-Attribute. If you tie, you ignore the Megas entirely and roll your base Attribute against each other (So a Mega-Strong 1 character with only 1 real Strength will probably lose to someone with the same Mega level but 5 real Strength). This is ONLY for direct Attribute vs Attribute resisted actions, keep in mind. Mega-Strength and Enhancements: So, Mega-Strength is a unique Mega-Attribute. Instead of the benefits listed above, you roll as normal but get five automatic successes on most Strength/Might rolls and 5 automatic damage successes in close combat for each dot. You can lift increasingly ridiculous amounts of weight (eventually 100 tons at 5) with the note that Mega-Strong characters unconsciously exert quantum fields that keep objects together and otherwise negate the physical impossibilities of that feat. I’m not a fan of the extra damage successes especially, they’re a big reason why damage scales way faster than defenses in this game and I feel like you could cut them down to like 2 per level and it’d still be an amazing option. Crush: You’re able to focus your blows to be truly lethal using your Mega-Strength. Spend a Quantum point and focus for a turn. Your next Brawl or Martial Arts attack inflicts Lethal instead of Bashing damage. Okay being real this Enhancement is poo poo. You spend a whole QP and an action on it, when you could take Claws for comparable NP/EXP costs and just get it for every attack you ever make. Only take this if you really don’t feel any of the others and don’t care to take Claws. Shockwave: You can strike the ground to generate area of effect attacks. Roll your Mega-Strength dice as a bashing pool to targets on the ground within a (M-S x 10 meters) radius. It doesn’t make it clear if you get your Mega bonus on this damage but I’d say no honestly. Everyone in the radius also has to roll Strength at +3 to stay on their feet (that’s the real power of this to me). The ground DOES take your full Mega-Strength attack, so make sure this won’t cause you some problems. You can do this once per turn, and it doesn’t say it costs Quantum. This one’s a lot more fun and flavorful. Lifter: You can lift even more super gross amounts of weight. You spend quantum points, and each one doubles the amount you can lift for one scene or ‘feat of strength’. This lets you do fun silly things and thus is always amusing. Not really ‘strong’ per se, though. Quantum Leap: This turns you into Scott Bakula. No, I’m sorry, different one. This lets you make crazy huge jumps. When you roll to Jump, your max distances are either twice your Mega-Strength KILOMETERS horizontally or half a kilometer times your Mega-Strength KILOMETERS vertically per success you roll. They point out this is essentially uncontrolled flight unless you have some other power that would let you alter your trajectory, and if you can’t see as far as you’re jumping obviously you have no idea what you’ll be landing in. You can also use this to dodge attacks you normally couldn’t by making huge jumps, always nice. I like this one a lot, gives you something kind of unique. Thunderclap: This is similar to Shockwave, but it’s a shockwave in the air instead of the ground. It does similar damage to targets in a similar radius, but it only affects appropriately brittle targets such as humans, windows, and other things you’d expect to be breakable. Again, once per turn. Much safer to use than Shockwave but it doesn’t let you get some extra benefit out of wanting to break the ground. Mega-Dexterity and Enhancements: Mega-Dexterity gets added to your Initiative, run, and sprint scores. If you have Mega-Dexterity and the other person doesn’t, when you share Initiative you get to go before them. If someone wants to delay an action to interrupt yours, you roll Dexterity against them to try and act before them anyway. Accuracy: You can aim like crazy, as the name suggests. You get three more dice to any attempt to hit any target with an attack as long as that attack doesn’t use the Brawl skill. Three dice is three dice, it’s boring but super powerful. Enhanced Movement: You move faster than normal, by a large margin. You multiply your movement rates by 1+Mega-Dexterity for one turn (if you spend one quantum point) or a scene if you spend three. This stacks with and applies after the Hypermovement power we’ll see in the Powers section. There’s no benefit beyond being super fast but that can be its own benefit. Fast Tasks: What it says on the tin. You can do things in less than half the time a normal person woud take. Trivial tasks take only a few seconds, and more difficult ones still happen amazingly fast. You still need to be able to do the thing you want to do. This can also turn some extended rolls into simple ones. Good but non-combat and can be tricky to find good uses for. Flexibility: You’re very flexible, again just as it says. You have limited ability to contort and stretch your body letting you stretch your limbs up to two meters per Mega-Dexterity dot and fit through any opening your fist could pass through. You can take this multiple times to increase the effect. Good but if you want to be Mr. Fantastic there’s a Power that works better. Physical Prodigy: You’re amazing at athletics of all sorts. Lets you add three bonus dice to things like Athletics, dancing, noncombat active things basically. Kinda meh, hard to find times it’ll really be great and it’s up against some good Enhancements. Catfooted: You’re very stealthy. This is Accuracy or Physical Prodigy, but for Stealth. You can also roll Dexterity to leave no footprints. Good if stealth is your thing, otherwise meh. Rapid Strike: This is the Flash-style rapid punches, sans any idea of having crazy vibrating punches (you’d want to take Claw to model that). It’s still good, though, you add your Mega-Dexterity to your punch and kick damage dice pools. I mean it’s not bullshit like Mega-Strength but it’s still good. Mega-Stamina and Enhancements: Mega-Stamina has some strange scaling, I need to talk about the levels one by one: 1) Triple healing rates. Reduce your wound penalties by one step. You get an extra Bashing and Lethal soak. 2) Quadruple healing rates. Reduce would penalties by two steps. Two extra Bashing soak, one Lethal soak, and one extra “Bruised” damage level. 3) Five times normal healing rate. Your Base Resistance and Endurance are 4 instead of 3. Reduce wound penalties by three. Three extra Bashing soak, two extra Lethal soak, and an extra “Bruised” health level. 4) Six times normal healing rate, Resistance and Endurance base 4. Reduce wound penalties by four. Four extra Bashing soak, two extra Lethal, two extra “Bruised” health levels. 5) Seven times faster healing, base Resistance and Endurance are 5. Wound penalties are now reduced by five. Five extra Bashing soak, 3 extra Lethal soak, three extra “Bruised” health levels. It’s both very strong and kind of weak compared to the scaling of damage, honestly. It’s tricky to say whether this needs buffed or some of the damage sources need nerfed, though. Adaptability: You’re able to survive adverse environments that would kill lesser creatures. As long as you have at least one Quantum point in your body, you don’t need to eat, sleep, or breathe. Heat, cold, even the vacuum of space are no problem for you. Normal poisons and diseases don’t affect you, and against ones that can you get six extra soak/Resistance dice. It’s normally automatic and free, but especially adverse conditions may require you to spend Quantum by the scene or even by the turn. This doesn’t work at all against things like fire generated by Novas, only natural environmental conditions. This is one of many really strong Enhancements here, it can cut off a whole lot of really embarrassing ways to die. Durability: You’re able to shrug off attacks relying on kinetic energy. If such an attack hits you and inflicts Lethal damage, spend a Quantum point and roll Mega-Stamina against a standard difficulty. If you succeed, convert the damage to Bashing and soak as that. Doesn’t work against energy but the strongest hits of damage you’ll take will be kinetic, so getting extra soak against them is never bad. Goes really well with some of the other Enhancements. Hardbody: You’re unbelievably durable. If you spend a quantum point when struck, you can soak Aggravated damage as Lethal. Soaking Agg hits is normally entirely impossible so this is a pretty unique bonus and super worth taking. Regeneration: It does what it says on the label. You spend Quantum points (up to your Mega-Stamina per turn) and heal Bashing and Lethal levels you’ve taken on an one for one basis. You can also regrow lost limbs, though this takes a lot of time. You can’t Regenerate Aggravated damage, so watch that. Still, again, really strong. Resiliency: You’re even more durable than normal. Double the normal soak bonuses your Mega-Stamina would provide. Synergizes well with, well, most of the rest of this. This is one of the ones where you might really want to grab a lot of the Enhancements, they go together like chocolate and peanut butter and ALSO go well with powers like Armor. At least until the far future, where Psions can pull out some poo poo that doesn’t care at all how tough you are because that doesn’t stop someone deleting that you are supposed to have arms from reality. I’m going to split this up, still six more Megas to discuss and they’ve all got lots of interesting stuff.
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Nov 12, 2018 15:22
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In the d20 version, Megas are just '+Quantum to this stat', which as you might imagine is useful but significantly less impressive. Still get the Enhancements, though, and they're still handy. If, again, less impressive.
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Nov 12, 2018 15:44
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...there was a d20 version? why
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Nov 12, 2018 15:48
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Mors Rattus posted:...there was a d20 version? It's actually the only version I've played! My GM at the time loved both comic books and 3.5 and so, you know. I've run it, too! It's as terrible as you'd imagine! One of those games that taught me that just because you're having a good time writing a story for friends doesn't mean the system is good. E: Also, it was the early 2000s. There was a d20 version of EVERYTHING. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Nov 12, 2018 |
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Nov 12, 2018 15:49
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Mors Rattus posted:...there was a d20 version?
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Nov 12, 2018 17:04
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It's actually kind of amazing how much the d20 version changes the tone and tenor of the setting. A d20 version Nova is like a shittier version of a d20 Wizard who is also a reasonably good fighter (usually), rather than the godbreakingly powerful superhumans who are making humankind irrelevant they're meant to be. It makes the Novas' hype ring sort of hollow and genuinely alters how stories will play out simply because the mechanics are lovely at emulating what they're supposed to.
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Nov 12, 2018 17:09
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Tibalt posted:I should run a contest. New avatar or plats to whoever reviews the least D20 appropriate or most poorly executed conversion, or something. Let's nip this one right in the bud: 
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Nov 12, 2018 17:10
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PTSD and overloaded, underfunded veteran aid agencies included?
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Nov 12, 2018 17:13
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GimpInBlack posted:Let's nip this one right in the bud: The D20 Book of Erotic Fantasy is a perennial contender, too. Also, that Black Tokyo garbage. One weird, terrible bit of early shovelware was "Crushed! The Doomed Kitty Adventures D20", an incredibly halfassed adaptation of an furry sex webcomic.
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Nov 12, 2018 17:18
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Night10194 posted:It's actually kind of amazing how much the d20 version changes the tone and tenor of the setting. A d20 version Nova is like a shittier version of a d20 Wizard who is also a reasonably good fighter (usually), rather than the godbreakingly powerful superhumans who are making humankind irrelevant they're meant to be. It makes the Novas' hype ring sort of hollow and genuinely alters how stories will play out simply because the mechanics are lovely at emulating what they're supposed to. Yeah it's one of the things WW got right in matching their systems to their tone, Mega-Attributes are WAY better than just extra dots in the regular Attribute could ever be and very much sell the fiction as to the ridiculous bullshit you can pull off with them.
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Nov 12, 2018 17:55
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FMguru posted:Wasn't there a D20 setting that was a near-future America riven by pro-life and pro-choice terrorists, written as a thumpingly off-key satire by one of the industry's biggest self-publishing hacks? That would get my vote for worst D20.
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Nov 12, 2018 18:14
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And it's by the same person who did Tokyo Black, to give you an idea of what content to expect.
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Nov 12, 2018 18:22
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Nov 12, 2018 18:25
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I was going to suggest The Authority d20, but I've already been beaten.
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Nov 12, 2018 18:50
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there was the old testament d20 setting conversion that featured mechanics and systems that didn't even work. it's not on the same discomfort level as somebody's personal snuff-fiction-turned-RPG, but to me it's funnier because d20 itself is such a braindead resolution mechanic, and yet somebody still managed to implement their house rules so badly that the actual classes and rules in the game didn't work. also there were like 4 different versions of jesus in another poorly conceived d20 supplement? and also someone tried to turn the GOP presidential candidates from 2008 (or 12?) into d20 villains? IIRC libertad! reviewed both of those on an older iteration of FAF and they're in the inkless archive
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Nov 12, 2018 20:36
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 Aleph Units To me, ALEPH has always felt like two armies mushed into one. You’ve got the computer police, and you’ve got the Spess Marines side of things. I understand why they both exist, and I think there’s interesting bits in each side of things. I also think people who run vanilla ALEPH are crazy. Mostly, prior to the recent rules update, I suspect vanilla players were really playing an ersatz Operations Subsection, which is to say vanilla but without using many of the Greek units. But now there’s an actual official sectorial, with fireteams and everything. So, mostly I don’t get why you’d play vanilla these days. If you’re a vanilla ALEPH player reading this, please do let me know what’s up. Anyway, as a result I’m going to break this part up into the two sectorial armies. I think Ops is way more interesting, but folks seem to like the GI Joe mystique, so Steel Phalanx will be saved for later. As mentioned, Operations is relatively new as a fully-rulesed-up thing. I’ll probably refer to them as Vedic a few times, because that was the fan name for them before they got an official moniker. The lore dude at CB haaates it when you call the army “Vedic,” so all the more reason to do so. OS is an army that runs off weird tricks and high-capability models. I wouldn’t quite call them a wholly elite-focused faction, partially because they do have some mooks to take for a larger order pool, and also because I’m contrasting them with Steel Phalanx, the elite-est bunch of nerds in the game.   New and old Dakini tacbots Dakinis are the standard Operations foot soldier. On first glance, they’re kind of crummy, but they do get a 6-4 MOV and Mimetism, so they’re at a -3 to be hit without anti-camo tech. The trick is not to use them as solo units, but as a supported fireteam. Stack a whole bunch of them together for fireteam bonuses, and then pair them up with a hacker or an Apsara to buff them. The only specialist type this team of robots gets is a paramedic, funnily enough. Combined Army Unidrons are a little better in terms of raw ability and loadouts, but you can boost Dakinis to higher levels, if that’s how you wanna do. Dakinis are named for the servants of Kali, flesh-eating female spirits. These Dakinis don’t have a personality, nor do they eat, but they are treated as fancy but disposable proxies for humans, so the squishy biologicals don’t have to put their lives on the line. Not to be confused with the other proxies later in this writeup.  Garuda are Dakinis, but with a jetpack.  Apsaras don’t have fluff or models yet. They do have a new rule, Ghost: Jumper level Z. The Apsara can lend its stats to remotes in a fireteam, either the whole thing during the active turn or just one model on the reactive turn. The remote then replaces its Close Combat, Ballistic Skill and Willpower values with that of the Apsara. While this won’t stack with supportware buffs from hackers, it’s still pretty good if you’re going remote-heavy in your army list. The Apsara can do this anywhere on the board, as long as the remotes in question are in the same combat group, so it makes the most sense to post her somewhere in your back field out of the line of fire. The good news is that she can still ARO to stuff that walks into her field of view; there are other similar but less technically-advanced troopers who are fully immersed in their remote piloting, so they just have to eat it if someone shotguns them in the back while they’re driving. You can jump into Dakinis, the Rudras gunbot (a deadlier version of the standard remote), and a Samekh missile launcher drone.  Samekh, over on the right The Samekh is mostly a standard missile launcher robot. It’s notable here because it’s part of the proliferation of the Wildcard rule, which is pretty new. A Wildcard Fire Team Option model can join any fireteam in its army. For instance, prior to the rules update, Dakinis could party up with other Dakinis, and that was it. Now they can sub out one of their number for a big missile launcher bro. This is a lot of what I meant in the Tohaa update, where their thing - unique fireteam combinations - is getting spread around to the other factions, making them less special.  Danavas hackers are the counterparts to the Nomad Interventors. They’re quite good at hacking, they get special snowflake hacking abilities, and they have a means of extending their repeater coverage. They also don’t give you a lieutenant option to use that crazy-high WIP, and they die a lot easier to hacking attacks due to their lackluster BTS value. Mostly, I’ve included them because the fluff literally calls them the Gestapo of the ALEPH internet, and goes on to describe how if you’re guilty of thought-crime they’ll find you no matter where you run. Remember, citizen, ALEPH is your friend.  ALEPH’s answer to Dr. Worm, and a frequent guest-star in Imperial Service lists, the Sophotect is a combo doctor-engineer with access to helper bots. She’s also a 6-4 MOV model with No Wound Incapacitation, so she’s kind of got two HP. Sophotects are great. They also have a magical nanotech device, like Dr. Worm, and apparently will kill people if they try to tamper with it. Nice bedside manner.  The Shukra never asked for this. They’re called “Shukra consultants,” but they’re straight-up secret police. Shukras have Chain of Command, so if your LT gets greased, they immediately take over the army and you don’t enter the Loss of Lieutenant state. They’ve got biometric visor, the equipment you need to see through Impersonation. They also have a brand-new skill, Counterintelligence. You start with four Command Tokens at the beginning of the game. Among many other functions I’m intentionally glossing over, they can be used to mess with your opponent’s resources. Typically, you can spend one token at the start of the game to either strip two orders from your opponent’s pool, or limit their own use of Command Tokens to one this turn. Counterintelligence reduces these effects, dropping it to either one order removed or allowing the use of two tokens. It’s nice to have, especially in certain missions that really need to burn command tokens. It’s not the end of the world to have or not have, however. Shukra can mean “ludic” or “bright,” or it can also refer to a specific advisor of the Asuras. That’ll be relevant shortly.  Deva functionaries are your standard ALEPH incarnation in the flesh, or whatever approximates flesh in an artificial body. Most of the other human-looking units in the faction are iterations of this chassis. Devas themselves are solidly okay stats-wise, apart from really high WIP, and they have a load of great toys. Notable among them are a hacker, a combination light machinegun and MSV kit for taking care of camo units, a sensor option to reveal camo and hidden deployment units on multiple loadouts, and the Devabot options, where you get a synchronized friend with a heavy flamethrower. Devas have multiple LT options, which isn’t a bad choice, but not the most optimal in this particular sectorial. They’re pretty solid generalists with some mildly interesting fireteam options. Devas are ALEPH’s own caretakers, tending to its systems and minding the security of the body as a whole, as well as liasing with other entities. Devas, as seen above, come in a wide variety of shapes and colors; sometimes they’re purple and have robot parts sprouting from them, sometimes they’re fleshy and just possessed of bad fashion choices. I like to paint mine with a flatter skin tone than normal, and give them a coat of satin finish, so they look subtly off, instead of rocking up to the table with the smurf brigade. They’re noted as being less friendly than the spokeperson Aspects, since they’ve got business to take care of. The Neoterran Capitaline Army, the elite PanO sectorial, can also select Devas in their army.   Dasyu, Naga Dasyus are the big brother to Nagas; with TO camo infiltration and No Wound Incapacitation. Nagas have to get by with regular camo infilitration and Dogged, so that they get a second chance to eat a bullet, then automatically drop dead at the end of the turn they activated their skill. They both die really, really quickly, which is a shame, because they’re quite pricey. I’d take Dasyus for my specialist infilitrators, and Nagas if I wanted to kill things with camo units. The fluff calls out Dasyus as having a group of unnamed, unknown killers in their midst, used for ALEPH’s assassination missions. This seems weird, since they’re all made by a computer and pushed out by a factory. Nagas, meanwhile, have been hanging out on Paradiso and fighting alongside other armies; the Aconticimento sectorial of PanO gets to bring them along. All Dasyus are sculpted like they have severe back problems, for reasons unknown.  Speaking of things that Aconticimento can take, there’s Dart. Dart’s an odd creature for a multitude of reasons. First, she’s a special character limited to Operations and Aconticmento. Second, right now she’s only available as a limited-edition release from Gen Con, although there’s another sculpt coming at some point in the indefinite future. She’s a cross-over character from Aristeia, CB’s other game. Fluff-wise, Aristeia is your standard future blood sport. Nothing hugely earth-shattering there. As a board game, it plays a little like a simplified version of Infinity, with a faster pace and only four models to a team. It’s actually pretty fun; if you can find a demo game, give it a whirl. A few characters have, prior to the release of the board game, been portrayed as players of the possibly-legal-possibly-not sport. Dart’s the first one that’s been outright backported to Infinity. Her Aristeia model is to scale with Infinity products, but it’s on a larger base, which is sort of a big deal for silhouette values.  Anyway, Dart exists to murder the hell out of things with poisonous bow and arrow, which she does fairly well. She’s a hyper-wealthy heiress to a biotech firm, and is basically doing the Most Dangerous Game thing, on camera for millions of fans.  If you want to look like a stylish extra from Ghost in the Shell while you shoot things, pick Yadus. Yadu troopers are medium infantry that still move 4-4, with solid stats at a reasonable price. They get some cool gimmicks. They can roll in packs of three as a fireteam, or substitute one of their members for that Rudras gunbot I mentioned for more firepower. You can opt to take a Yadu with Number Two, which is like Chain of Command for fireteams instead of your entire army. Most enticing is the HMG profile, which has the NCO special rule. NCO lets you spend your Lieutenant’s LT order as someone else, without revealing who your LT is. This lets your vulnerable Deva or Shukra LT hang out in safety while you get to spend an extra order on something with a big beat stick. Thumbs up on Yadu. They have a character version, Shakti, who’s an upgraded version, pretty much like what you’d expect. Elite troops, fearful shadow, yadda yadda Yadu.  If it weren’t for the presence of the Greeks, the Asura would be the unquestioned powerhouse unit for ALEPH. In Operations, no contest. They have exceedingly high stats across the board, including armor and BTS values comparable to light TAGs, as well as defacto 3 wounds. They’re great hackers, they have great killing equipment, they can see through camo with MSV3, and they have a bevy of reliable LT options. Downside is, you’re shelling out a quarter of your army points for one model. They actually got even better with the release of Vedic, since they got a new rule and fireteam options. Your Asura can step lively with a backup pair of Devas or Yadus for extra firepower and to drag some specialists along. Asuras can opt to take Lieutenant Level 2, which is new to the game; this provides two LT orders in addition to the regular order they generate. One model with three personal orders and a heavy weapon is nothing to sneeze at. Super-elite fluff, etc. I’d be more worried about seeing one of these rumble up on me than most TAGs in the game, really.  I picked the old picture of the Marut because I wanted to show off its ridiculous bunny ears and four arms, which the newer photography just doesn’t do. ALEPH’s response to the Avatar. Almost verbatim, even - the Marut and the Avatar have the same stats, barring the Marut’s slightly lower WIP and cost. “Slightly” here still means WIP 15, which is as good as anything else but the Avatar. The Marut gets equipment to see through the Avatar’s optical camo effect, but doesn’t have the Sepsitor to possess people. It’s beastly. Maruts are made by PanO, then carefully erased from any digital records. They get the latest in alien-derived technology, and no evidence of their existence has so far been uncovered by the other factions. It’s easy to hide something that big when you’re already the Internet.  Big guys are Mk. 4s, regular guys are Mk. 5s  Mk. 1s with no hats, Mk. 2 with the rifle, Mk. 3 with the big hair and the machine gun  Netrods Posthuman proxies draw more tears than perhaps any other ALEPH unit. It’s not unreasonable - they’re extremely weird. First, Netrods. Netrods are like the Ikadrons from Combined Army. They paradrop in onto the table, they provide an order, and they’re sitting ducks otherwise. At four points a pop, you would be well-advised to take some. OS actually gets fewer Netrods than the other ALEPH armies. So you’ve got your Netrod, a beacon that’s supposed to amplify the local AI’s processing substrate, improve communication, all that stuff. The Proxies run off of these things. Proxies are very, very cheap for what they do. And they’re quite difficult to eradicate, because if you kill the body of one of them, they’re not necessarily dead. When you take a Proxy, you have to take at least two, and no more than three. You must also take only one of each type of Proxy, so you could have a Mark 1, a Mark 3, and a Mark 4, for instance, or a Mk. 2 and a Mk. 5. All three proxies generate one order - that’s total, not each. See, a posthuman is a human personality that’s been taken to ALEPH’s bosom and uploaded into the cloud. At this point, it’s more data than lifeform. Occasionally they deign to sock-puppet a body and move about in the physical realm. Therefore, each deployed team of Proxies is actually one being. This has rules consequences. For starters, each Proxy team deploys as if it were one unit. This is great to keep in reserve, when you drop a heavy infantry rocket launcher and a forward infiltrating specialist and a hidden deployment assassin as one “model.” Each proxy becomes active when you spend an order on it; its unoccupied bodies can only ARO with a very limited set of responses. When your posthuman’s bodies are all killed or isolated, if you’ve got a Netrod that’s still kicking, its personality retreats there, and continues to provide an order on top of whatever the Netrod generates. CB seems to think the proxy rules are an imposition, rather than a major advantage. Therefore the proxy profiles, which taken in a vacuum are solid, are wildly undercosted compared to similar profiles in other armies. Ferinstance, the Proxy Mk 4, the heavy weapons guy, is 25 points and 2 SWC tops. That’s half or less than similar models in PanO and Yu Jing, and Nomad players would murder someone to get a heavy infantry profile like that at nearly any price point. Mk. 1s come in doctor, engineer, and hacker variants, with mimetism and no wound incap. They’re not great gun fighters, but they’re surprisingly tough for ten frigging points for a WIP 15 specialist. Mk. 2s are TO camo infiltrators, and they’re mostly meant to harm other players, rather than to accomplish objectives for you. The sniper rifle variant that can hidden deploy is a perennial favorite of ALEPH players the world round. Mk. 3s are a bit of the odd synthetic out, since they’re lighter than other heavy infantry, and are pretty much just built to carry a close-in machine gun. They do move very quickly, however. Possibly the easiest profile to ignore. Mk. 4s are that high-class heavy infantry I mentioned. The rocket launcher version is kinda ridiculous even by the standards of proxies, as it also comes with multiple other weapons to compensate for the rocket’s longer optimal ranges. Mk. 5s are forward-deploying fast medium infantry, and if you take one, you’ll take the forward observer specialist. The other guy has a kind of light sniper rifle and can ignore cover, but you’ve got better options for that field. Becoming a posthuman is about the highest honor you can get in the Human Sphere. It’s basically double-immortality and a confirmation that you’re a good and interesting person, worthy of the direct attentions of ALEPH. Giving that kind of motivated personality infinite power and the backing of the untouchable supercomputer that runs everything surely can’t go awry. Next, Steel Phalanx.
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Nov 12, 2018 21:22
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Man, Aleph just seems like the coolest part of Infinity. Which, well, good on it.
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Nov 12, 2018 22:09
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I am glad the bumbling computer nerd god who writes real life posthuman fanficition characters into being is cool.
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Nov 12, 2018 22:12
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FMguru posted:Wasn't there a D20 setting that was a near-future America riven by pro-life and pro-choice terrorists, written as a thumpingly off-key satire by one of the industry's biggest self-publishing hacks? That would get my vote for worst D20. Otherverse: America, the metaplot is that it's basically all just another theater of battle in the interstellar war for the control of a giant, parsecs-long space penis from another dimension.
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Nov 12, 2018 22:17
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I forgot about the cosmic penis
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Nov 12, 2018 22:21
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PurpleXVI posted:Otherverse: America, the metaplot is that it's basically all just another theater of battle in the interstellar war for the control of a giant, parsecs-long space penis from another dimension. did the setting with the actual space penis ever get reviewed? I could have sworn it did but I can't find it anywhere.
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Nov 12, 2018 23:13
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Why is there a cosmic space penis in the first place?
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Nov 12, 2018 23:20
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would you make a game about a regular size one? no, it'd be ridiculous.
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Nov 12, 2018 23:23
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OvermanXAN posted:Man, Aleph just seems like the coolest part of Infinity. Which, well, good on it. Certainly they have my favorite unit in the game, the Asura with Spitfire. It's not inexpensive by any means, but is a wonderful little fire base.
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Nov 12, 2018 23:27
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PurpleXVI posted:a giant, parsecs-long space penis from another dimension.
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Nov 13, 2018 00:01
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Bieeanshee posted:I was going to suggest The Authority d20, but I've already been beaten. Wasn't that a M&M spin-off? Or was it a Silver Age Sentinels D20 spin off?
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Nov 13, 2018 00:05
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Another thing that helps explain why Aberrant isn't as good as Trinity and Adventure! is that it had a different team, while both T and A! and a lot of overlap.
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Nov 13, 2018 00:12
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 At last! I found the Phallus space
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Nov 13, 2018 00:18
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Night10194 posted:One of the weird things is because of how insanely powerful Novas are, a 'standard' RPG party of 3-6 is enough to invade France or something if they aren't met by other Nova resistance. FMguru posted:Wasn't there a D20 setting that was a near-future America riven by pro-life and pro-choice terrorists, written as a thumpingly off-key satire by one of the industry's biggest self-publishing hacks? That would get my vote for worst D20. Granted, the D20 system contributes to the stultifying banality of evil in all the Black Tokyo stuff. Just ploddingly, laboriously statting out exactly how much a +5 demon dick does to a baby's orifices or whatever. Testament D20 strikes me as perhaps the most ill-conceived D20 product because the subject matter is just so completely unsuited to the system. But I think the most pointless D20 conversion has got to be BESM D20. I mean, it's a universal system converted to a different universal system. Nobody ever made GURPS Unisystem or whatever.
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Nov 13, 2018 00:45
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Halloween Jack posted:I think I need to review Wild Talents: Progenitor. The theme and intended campaign model are about changing the course of history, and there's every expectation that you may be playing people with powers like "create an island nation from nothing" or "psychically assassinate anyone on Earth."
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Nov 13, 2018 01:05
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Halloween Jack posted:I think I need to review Wild Talents: Progenitor. Yes, yes you do.
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Nov 13, 2018 01:14
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grassy gnoll posted:
Excuse me, these are tactbots, the politest fighting force in the galaxy.
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Nov 13, 2018 01:19
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