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Adnachiel posted:[*]Die für Immer Königin – The remains of the magical forces that backed the Nazis during World War II, led by Ingrid Frieze. Allies with the Followers of Echidna and want to use her awakening as a cover for their taking over the world. Based in Germany near Reinhexxen because of course it is. Google Translate says their name is “The for Everqueen”. megane fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Apr 18, 2016 |
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Apr 18, 2016 20:32
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gourdcaptain posted:And yet the Exalted 3e books for all that care, still littered with rules ambiguity and the natural language issues. Exalted 3e rules text just drags for me trying to sort through all the fluff in the charms... And then I miss the fluff that's actually rules text. White Wolf / Onyx Path really really need to do the thing where you write 1) paragraph of fluff, 2) blank line, 3) dry formal rules text. Preferably with the fluff in italics or another font or something. They love giving this huge block of text about how your sword totally looks like a sweet-rear end dragon made of lightning slicing through a block of ice as you shout about retribution or something... and then mentioning offhandedly somewhere in the middle that they don't get to apply their Parry DV to it. Above and beyond the confusion of whether things are rules or fluff (when it says my fury is "unquenchable," are they being poetic, or does that mean I'm actually immune to effects that would quench it?), it also makes it super hard to reference things quickly.
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Apr 22, 2016 18:32
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Cythereal posted:"But what gives you the right to hunt us?"
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Apr 26, 2016 20:16
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BinaryDoubts posted:Would just like to thank Nifara for their awesome Spellbound Kingdoms writeup, which got me to pick up the book. After reading through the whole thing, I'm happy to say it holds up - it's a little clunky in places, the warrior class is boring as ever, and there's some little rules niggles that arise from the conversational tone, but on the whole - it's really loving cool. You can tell there's a lot of heart put into it. I'd love to see a v2 that's a little more streamlined with some prettier layout (you can really tell all the sheets were put together with Word's drawing tools...) but doubt that'll ever happen. Free Sword Great Weapon Swashbuckler Double circles mean M, red means (r), squares are balancing moves. I think it's a lot easier to read that way. This game could be vastly improved with the judicious application of an editor and a layout person, IMO.
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May 3, 2016 06:52
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Mors Rattus posted:Mage: the Awakening, 2nd Edition(Honestly? I'd think that impassioned murder wouldn't be as bad as premeditated murder, but Mage disagrees.)
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May 7, 2016 00:22
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Well, if I'm reading the system correctly, that's probably because hitting anything past difficult is enormously unlikely without huge numbers of dice and/or very large bonuses. "Difficult" requires you to roll 15 on one (exploding) die. That means you have to roll a 6, roll another 6 on the explosion, and then roll a 3 or higher on that explosion. That's a 1/54 chance per die; for a 50% chance of hitting that check, you need to roll 37 dice. To hit "amazing" at 20, you need three sixes in a row, and then a 2 or higher, giving you a one in 259.2 chance per die. Phenomenal, by the way? That's 5 sixes in a row, a one in 7776 chance. Good luck. megane fucked around with this message at 21:28 on May 10, 2016 |
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May 10, 2016 21:20
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FMguru posted:- Often, little explanation of what your characters are supposed to DO - Very few, if any, definitively statted-out threats / monsters / whatever. Those that are provided are often just random things included for flavor reasons, instead of having any sort of "power curve." - Large numbers of skills, most of which will have little to no impact on a real campaign (painting), but a few of which are vital to combat (dodging), thus encouraging you to dump all your points into the latter. e: f;b
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May 12, 2016 00:21
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Beast really seems to suffer from that weird thing where it seems like they designed the whole game in their heads and never actually sat down and played the drat thing. I dunno about everyone else, but when I play TRPGs it's mostly the whole group going off to confront some problem or complete some goal. Beast seems to expect you to spend the whole time doing the supernatural equivalent of finding lunch. Notice how in Vampire, vampires have to drink blood, but it's almost like a side thing -- a lot of the actual game is about the Camarilla and the Sabbat and generally interacting with other vampires and dealing with politics and whatever. Where is that for Beast? The telltale sign is in all the "play examples" -- every one is just "[player name]'s Beast is being a dick to [NPC name]." The old lady choking the frat boy, for instance. Is this really the core experience we're going for? One player filling up her hunger bar? Where are the other players while she's doing this? Notice that the rules for gaining Satiety just flatout assume that the Beast did the deed solo, and that it's some kind of deep personal experience for him. And that all the powers you get are for terrorizing mortals (and/or being better than every other splat, but whatever). Does a session of Beast consist of each individual player rolling to notice that Mr. Racket doesn't change the lint trap after using the communal dryer, and then spending the whole session planning to light the guy on fire in retribution?
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Aug 17, 2016 18:37
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Barudak posted:Precinct of Darkness Claw & Order: Spectral Victims Unit
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Oct 1, 2016 21:08
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Doresh posted:But in Gnollish, Acererak is spelled with two K! These are great and I really really hope this is a game about hunting down Beasts etc. and then teaching them the meaning of friendship via magical rainbow heart beams.
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Oct 3, 2016 15:06
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Doresh posted:Does this game also have an Otaku Genki? Or a Hikikomori Hentai? It certainly does now in my headcanon. There's also Shiba Himitsu. Shiba Himitsu's role in the story is that -- to the PCs' shock -- he has a dangerous secret. Himitsu literally just means 'secret.' L5R names are silly.
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Oct 17, 2016 16:28
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Kavak posted:VASCU plot hook ahoy! "Mr. Darius, we have evidence to suggest that, despite appearances, you are in fact a nonliving spiritual entity, between three and seven thousand years old, and that you have acquired the clandestine personal services of approximately 280 religious followers, who refer to themselves as... hm... 'the Cult of Everlasting Night?' Can you confirm these facts?" "YOU DARE QUESTION THE IMMORTAL SERVANT OF HEAVEN? I HAVE SEEN EMPIRES RISE AND FALL; A MORTAL SUCH AS YOU CAN DO NOTHING TO THREATEN ME." "Well, that's very nice, sir, but you see, under article 27 subsection 4 of the Jameson Act, religious organizations over one hundred members in size are required to register with the IRS, using form 965 stroke B, which must be countersigned by a notary public and on display at local government offices for at least six months prior to..."
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Oct 19, 2016 16:32
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Ratoslov posted:Nah, anti-bards compose and perform multi-day atonal musical compositions that are only recognizable as music to those of exceedingly rarified tastes and other anti-bards. John Cage?
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Nov 7, 2016 11:59
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Where the heck does the "you can only level up after a full night's sleep" thing come from? Is there something completely game-breaking about having people level up in the daytime or what? I feel like most of the weird rules that D&D has came from just like, this one argument Gary Gygax had with one player this one time, and Gary was like "no gently caress you you have to sleep to level up" and now it's an Incontrovertible Law of the Universe that every heartbreaker includes out of "realism."
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Nov 30, 2016 21:14
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You can also easily impart 20 Joules of energy by gently slapping the corpse in the face. In Middenarde it's not significantly harder to wake the dead than it is to wake somebody who's asleep.
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Dec 1, 2016 07:19
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Evil Mastermind posted:Haven't recent editions of Shadowrun reduced netrunning to a single roll or two to break into a system? I thought that happened a while back. To some degree, yes, to other degrees, no. It's still very much a thing for the decker to say "well, I need to do X on the matrix" and for that to be 40 minutes of him rolling dice while the other players do nothing, because he has to jump grids, break into a host, sneak around, find a file, examine it for a data bomb, remove the bomb, crack it, copy it, and maybe do several rounds of combat in the process. And that's assuming he doesn't run into any problems (which he might), he never has to jack out and try again (which he probably will), and he doesn't dick around stealing paydata and causing trouble purely out of spite (which he absolutely will). Obviously the GM can cut back to other PCs along the way, but all of the above poo poo occurs over the course of like 10 seconds real time, and can probably be done at 3AM from a parked van, if not from the decker's bathroom. Shadowrun has done a few things to mitigate this; for instance, hacking is easier if you have physical proximity (so that it makes sense to drag the decker into combat), and there are some limited ways for non-deckers to assist in the matrix. But it's definitely still a problem. Personally, I think a major step towards a fix would be to require physical proximity; you can communicate across the globe, of course, but <insert technobabble here> so obviously the only way to crack into a system and do illegal stuff now is to be within bluetooth range of the target. Of course, that only upgrades him from the Netrunner Problem to the normal Rogue Problem, but it's a start.
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Dec 2, 2016 05:14
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"Detect Evil" is literally just a Geiger counter.
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Dec 2, 2016 19:32
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Really, spiders are great paladin mascots. Patient, diligent, observant, hunting flies and vermin. Gonna play a paladin who wears crazy spikey black armor with spider designs all over it, and constantly has to explain to people that no, really, they're very misunderstood animals, here, have a pamphlet
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Dec 3, 2016 07:19
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Spiderfist Island posted:3.5 Pact Magic still is super cool even a decade on. So much interesting fluff, all for one mediocre 3.5 class nobody will ever play.
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Jan 7, 2017 23:37
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Well like 99% of Beast material is just "Beasts do (horrible thing). This is good. Heroes do (reasonable thing). This is evil."
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Jan 22, 2017 02:45
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The part I don't understand about this, or indeed pretty much any, published adventure is: did the authors just forget that their players have stats and skills and items and poo poo? What if my character is a sewer-dwelling mutant from St. Louis who knows every loving inch of these tunnels like the back of my hand; do I still get lost because my buddy can't make the roll? What if my character is an expert chopper pilot and I decide to fly the helicopter instead of Hal? I guess I crash with no roll, because the adventure can't continue unless we crash on this specific rooftop! Hell, when Plot-Important NPC is monologuing, I pull out my sniper rifle and shoot him in the face. No? I can't? Why not? And of course, that's all not to mention the idea of the players having a shred of agency or foresight. We need to find out why our allies in St. Louis haven't made it here. We picked up some injured bikers who informed us that St. Louis is swarming with tens of thousands of crazy super-undead. "Uh, okay, job's done I guess. Let's go back." What is the GM supposed to do at that point? "Nope, you don't, because the book says you continue onwards"? I just can't see how any group could actually play through this whole book. Every group I've ever been a part of would have been miles off the rails halfway through Chapter 1.
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Jan 28, 2017 23:32
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Ratoslov posted:The 'Beasts Teach Lessons' thing is really good for one thing, though, and that's inspiring awesome pre-murder one-liners for Hunters.  : "I-I was only trying to kill you to teach you a lesson!!" : "Don't worry. I got the Cliff's Notes." (drops Beast off a cliff)
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Feb 10, 2017 15:35
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Cease to Hope posted:it's almost like "simulationist" is a term made up by a known (if talented) flake with no clear definition other than "games which aren't dogs in the vineyard" "Attempting to make the game rules reflect real-world physics, or at least the designer's warped idea of what real-world physics are, especially in pedantic and ineffectual ways." People can misapply it but that doesn't make it unclear.
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Mar 26, 2017 03:00
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13th Age makes me think of a packrat trying to clean out his garage. You know this box of old oven mitts is junk, you know it, but you just... can't bring yourself to throw it out. What if you need those oven mitts some day?? I'll throw out this broken bicycle pump instead, then I'll have space to keep the oven mitt box.
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Mar 26, 2017 20:00
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Night10194 posted:Every single I Dunno Make Something Up feat or power is something that didn't need to be a feat or power, just a normal function of gameplay with a GM. One of the examples straight up admits this. "Everyone should be able to do these, but here's a feat you can take if you, uh, want to, I guess."
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Mar 27, 2017 23:40
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Count Chocula posted:The Secret Language better just be 'Malkovich Malkovich? Malkovich!' I have been to a world that no man should see! e: Being John Malkavian
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Mar 31, 2017 17:01
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"Varies by individual" is the best part of that chart. We've got detailed statistics on how male humans are innately humbler than females, but vice versa for half elves. But man, if you want to know how well greater demons swim, it depends on the individual, buddy.
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Apr 6, 2017 14:16
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Count Chocula posted:What's that meta as hell Tom Stoppard play that takes the piss out of Agatha Christie mysteries? I saw it performed and it was really fun. After Magritte maybe? e: No, it's The Real Inspector Hound, I'd forgotten that one megane fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Apr 9, 2017 |
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Apr 9, 2017 03:06
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Barudak posted:Now Im just imaging a game where magic is painfully detailed and consistent and subject to multiple checks just for weak effects while physical activities like "jump" have no checks, the mechanism at work seems totally lost on the author, and it outclass all the magical options many times over. Jump School: athletics (mobility); Level: rogue 4, fighter 4, ranger 4 PERFORMING Performance Time: 1 standard action Muscles: L EFFECT Range: long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level) Target: you and touched objects or other touched willing creatures Duration: instantaneous Saving Throw: none and Fort negates (object); Athletics Resistance: no and yes (object) DESCRIPTION You instantly transfer yourself from your current location to any other spot within range. You always arrive at exactly the spot desired – whether by simply visualizing the area or by stating direction. After using this exploit, you can’t take any other actions until your next turn. You can bring along objects as long as their weight doesn’t exceed your maximum load. You may also bring one additional willing Medium or smaller creature (carrying gear or objects up to its maximum load) or its equivalent per three athlete levels. A Large creature counts as two Medium creatures, a Huge creature counts as two Large creatures, and so forth. All creatures to be transported must be in contact with one another, and at least one of those creatures must be in contact with you. If you arrive in a place that is already occupied by a solid body, you and each creature traveling with you take 1d6 points of damage and are shunted to a random open space on a suitable surface within 100 feet of the intended location.
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Apr 11, 2017 03:54
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Dragons have good Str and a breath weapon, but -3 to Naming Stuff Without Sounding Stupid.
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Apr 18, 2017 20:05
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Probably "lack of creativity" is also a factor. We have evil elves, and they're distinguished from other elves by being black-skinned and living underground. Clearly we need an evil version of [GNOMES], and they'll be distinguished from other [GNOMES] by, uhhhhhh... Repeat ad nauseum.
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Apr 19, 2017 19:23
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I was trying to figure out what bugged me as I wrote through this and- it's a group of women almost entirely defined by their relationships to guys. I guess it's trying to be progressive, but it's just kind of weird and vaguely uncomfortable, like Earth-715. I wonder if Rifts -- it of the ten thousand source books -- even passes the Bechdel Test. For a setting crammed with every crazy thing imaginable from across a hundred universes there sure aren't a whole lot of women. v That's a good question. Maybe "there are two female characters (example PCs, NPCs, etc.) with stated backstories/motivations etc. that are about each other, rather than about men." There are these twin juicers above, who would've worked fine... but no, they needed a history where they were kidnapped by a man, because ???? Of course the Bechdel Test itself isn't really about specific movies, it's just kind of a statistical thought experiment about movies in general: "Consider how many movies fail this. Why is that?" Tons of cool, inclusive RPGs would fail the thing I described above, and that doesn't imply there's anything wrong with them. The thing is, I dunno if I can name a single one that passes it. Breakfast Cult maybe? Night Witches? megane fucked around with this message at 01:18 on Apr 25, 2017 |
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Apr 25, 2017 00:48
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Cease to Hope posted:Sanity Score is all three mental stats added together. If this reaches zero - and you will stop having a functioning character long before it reaches zero - you are more or less permanently afflicted with Insanity, the spell from Pathfinder Core. What does that spell? It's the same as the Confusion spell, only permanent. Okay, what does Confusion do? It inflicts the confused condition! Why couldn't they just say going to zero sanity inflicts the confused condition permanently?
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May 10, 2017 05:46
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Really the shocking part is that it isn't 2d6 x 5 months.
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May 18, 2017 23:29
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Uh, it's real simple, guys; you just start a fire, use the fire to boil water into steam, then use the steam pressure to turn a bunch of fans, which counteracts the heat from the fire. DUH. 
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Jun 12, 2017 22:59
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I have no idea who the person who wrote it is supposed to be, but Epyllion is pretty weak design-wise. It manages to miss basically all the good things about PbtA, replacing them with several gallons of weapons-grade fanfiction. One of the reasons why AW and MH are so great is that everything in them, including in particular the list of MC moves and agendas, is tuned towards producing a particular theme. AW's themes are 1) the ubiquity and inevitability of violence and 2) what we're willing to do to survive in times of scarcity. So every single solitary thing in AW is about violence or scarcity or both.* Epyllion's playbooks and moves, however, are all super-generic. The themes are supposed to be... conflict between the old and the young, and mumble mumble corruption darkness I guess? The Power of Friendship? How are those served by the Crafter, or by any of its moves? It has a move about repairing broken machinery. Why? Outside of that, good PbtA systems have built-in tension within the group. AW playbooks all need something, and their needs clash. The Hardholder wants peace and protection for her hold, but the Gunlugger wants battles and chaos so he can do his thing and get paid -- remember that the Hardholder's lifestyle is paid for as long as her hold is safe, but the Gunlugger has to shell out cash every session to eat. An AW group can go an entire session without the MC having to introduce outside conflict of any kind, because the mechanics themselves push players to make poo poo happen on their own. Where is that in Epyllion? Every example they give involves some older dragon giving the group a job, or something bad/weird happening and the group acting to stop/understand it. If you, the MC, aren't throwing fights at him, why should your slightly checked-out buddy playing the Warrior do anything but wait? * A couple of the extended playbooks for 1E stray out of these themes, and those are easily the weakest among them in my estimation. megane fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Jun 26, 2017 |
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Jun 26, 2017 20:15
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I have yet to see one single solitary thing in, what, 50 Rifts books that made me want to play it even a little. How do you write 50,000,000 words about a sci-fi future where all realities collide and have it come out so bland? I mean, the New West is apparently half the size of modern America and consists of nothing but:
People ride horses! There's a 13 + 2d4% chance any given person might own a hat! Wow! megane fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 22:54
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Keep in mind, it specifically noted that you also lose purity by experiencing other cultures. That means that even having a friendly conversation with someone of another race actively harms your soul. Imagine how this would work in-game: "By sharing a cup of borscht with Victor, you have sullied your perfect Native American spirit with the White Man's culture, and your totem animal abandons you. Erase that +5% bonus to Identify Plants and Fungi from your sheet!" I used to have some sympathy for Siembieda; his mechanics are terrible, but being bad at game design is not a moral failing. But this is a whole other thing. gently caress you, Siembieda.
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Jul 29, 2017 15:31
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I know Shadowrun at least has a specific action for suppressing fire. I forget the exact mechanics but it gives your target penalties to do stuff. As with everything in SR it's overcomplicated and less effective than just murdering them directly, but whatever. In general I would do something like this: You can suppress a target with your gun as an action; if you make an attack using full-auto, you suppress the target for free (even if you miss). If you're suppressed, you have to make some sort of fear/willpower/whatever roll to leave cover, and if you do, the one suppressing you gets a free, clean shot at you. You can shoot without leaving cover, but take a big penalty. I wonder if anyone's made a system that has tactical considerations like this without it being a grid-and-minis thing. For instance, you don't have to plot out exactly where in the room there's cover; instead, players can roll Find Cover (If you succeed, you get to cover. Roll well and you get Heavy Cover) or Flank (If you succeed, you move in such a way that you get to ignore your target's cover) etc. Armored Commander handles it that way, but I can't think of a TRPG that does.
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Jul 30, 2017 04:51
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Glagha posted:I do enjoy the 2E picture of a dude busting a door down by flexing at it but i remind everyone that one of his hands is fuckin backwards. That way he doesn't take offhand penalties, see.
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Aug 1, 2017 00:00
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