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8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Midjack posted:

For what it's worth, Area 51 (at Groom Lake, and presumably what they're referring to here) is about 900 miles from Roswell, NM. The closest big city to Groom Lake is in fact Las Vegas. The two sites are related in UFO mythology but not geographically.

They probably meant Rachel, NV which is the closest thing you could generously call a town.

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8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

MonsieurChoc posted:

...One of them is a western RPG called Aces and Eights. A quick scan shows it to be a weird mess with lots of random parts in characters creation and advancement (something I've come to strongly hate) and an alternate history where the South won (although unlike Deadlands they're still slavers and their economy is poo poo). I'm curious if anyone ever ran the drat thing or if there ever was a deeper look at it. Seems like something that would fit in a System Mastery episode.

I ended up with a copy of the faux-leather bound edition of the game because the guy who ran the FLGS at the time was a moron, ordered it on accident, and after it sat on the shelf for months I offered to buy it at cost and he said yes.

It's obtuse as gently caress and it took playing in a demo game at Gen Con for my friends and I to understand it enough to decide that it wasn't worth playing. It was also the only book I've ever sold to Half Priced Books and made money on.

The shot clock thing was kinda cool.

8one6 fucked around with this message at 09:01 on Jul 3, 2016

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Midjack posted:

So was there some wizard poo poo going down to make all these things happen in comparatively rapid succession? Or do the authors just hate nuclear energy?

Shadowrun was published in 1989

Chernobyl was 1986.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Alien Rope Burn posted:

The colloquial definition is usually a game produced by somebody who's only played one (or a few) games and so develops a game that's has some new idea they've had that will change gaming as we know it!... except if they'd played other games, they'd know "D&D without classes" ain't a new notion. Or alternately, they have some idea that's generally kind of cool tacked onto a bunch of outdated or flawed mechanics.
...

About a decade or so ago a friend and I were going to totally blow the collective minds of the RPG community with a game we were developing. Long (and boring) story short we had managed to reinvent GURPS only with a Shadowrun dice pool (using d12's) and only discovered what we had done when we hit a design snag and decided to look at some other games to see how they had solved the issue.

It was quietly shelved after discovering we weren't brilliant trailblazers.

In my defense I'd only played 3.5 at that point.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Asimo posted:

Gamma World 7e begs to differ. :colbert:

Gamma World 7e was fantastic and they should have made more.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

I was the biggest Paizo fanboy for the longest time after Pathfinder came out but... Horror, in a d20 game?

I mean, I can see how that would be horrible but I can't imagine trying to even do Abbott & Costello meet the Mummy style horror, let alone Mountains of Madness stuff.

Maybe d20 Call of Duty meen the Mummy.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Barudak posted:

So like, statistically, I could kill a good 20%+ of people worldwide by stabbing Keanu Reeves.

Fun fact for your familialcide spell use: 1 in 200 men are direct descendants of Genghis Khan.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Alien Rope Burn posted:

Having been reading up on my Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser lately, I have to wonder if the Skaven are basically pulled from The Swords of Lankhmar, which is about an invasion of the city by ratmen from below. The similarities are notable, but it's hard to find anything more than just supposition on the matter.

Everything in Warhammer Fantasy made a lot more sense (to me at least) when someone I know pointed out that they were the European distributor for D&D and the European publisher of Call of Cthulhu back in the day and and WHF was them deciding that they didn't want to pay the license fees for those anymore.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

theironjef posted:

Man, so Strike! is virtually ideal for me to map Blimpleggers on to, but it's like so easy that I'm wondering what the point would even be, anyone could do it if they wanted to with no information at all besides "There's blimps and it's currently the era of prohibition for potions."

Just because you can boil down an entire setting into an elevator pitch doesn't mean that it's not worth doing or that it won't be fun. "Lord of the Rings but you're transients who will kill for the promise of wealth" has sold millions of books. "Capitalism and racism blow goats and you're half robot" won't ever stop being fun.

Or like gradenko_2000 said...

gradenko_2000 posted:

I guarantee anyone who opened up a recruitment thread with nothing more than "There's blimps and it's currently the era of prohibition for potions." is going to get sign-ups.

I eagerly await the Kickstarter.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

The GW lawyers, as part of the suit, tried to claim trademark on arrows, roman numerals, and the human skull.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

JcDent posted:

What is MAD?
...

Multiple Ability Dependency

It's when you want more than one high stat. A wizard, for example, can get away with just a high Int, but a fighter wants a high Str, a high Dex, and a decent Con. Monks have always sucked because the only stat they didn't need to be decent to high was Cha because they still hit with Str or Dex, still needed Con for hit points, need Wis for their monk powers, and had poo poo for skill points so wanted a non-negative Int score.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

I could swear someone did a review of Mutant: Year Zero but I'm not seeing it on Inklesspen's archive. Am I misremembering that?

8one6 fucked around with this message at 11:56 on Oct 2, 2017

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Two pages back but...

Young Freud posted:

I like the idea that Navy UDT and perhaps the Navy SEALs are all descendents of Innsmouth, when America weaponized the Deep Ones during WW2.

... "Yeah, they're Deep Ones, but they're A-Mer-ican Deep Ones!"

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

My favorite VtM story was a game I watched at an FLGS where the GM didn't give a gently caress about the game and was goaded into running by the players, who were trying to keep it a very serious game for very serious drama. So far as I know it only lasted the two sessions.

The GM set up a mysterious new power player in the shadows of the city, and after a few IRL hours of investigating the players finally discovered it was a sapient ATM who just bribed people into doing what it wanted.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

I would suggest the evil flaying knife might come in handy, but then I just imagine my old CoC GM steepling his his fingers and asking if I'm really suggesting fighting a forest with a knife.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

JackMann posted:

Oh, plenty of stuff in Doom 2016 is dumb, it's just intentionally dumb. "Hey, guys, let's go run around in the hell dimension to see if we can use it for power. Can't possibly go wrong!"

Some of the best moments are where the Doom Marine silently reacts to the stupid poo poo he's hearing.

The fact that the NPCs in the game are trying to relay the standard video game plot and the Doom Marine is having loving none of it is the best thing* about the game.

*Second best, behind the running and gunning.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Nessus posted:

One big obstacle to using tanks to destroy the Mythos creatures would be that I don't think there were tanks in that period.
...

The first use of tanks on the battlefield was the use of British Mark I tanks at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (part of the Battle of the Somme) on 15 September 1916

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Kavak posted:

Everything past Belgrade sucks and should be solved by cats. Fenalik? Investigators are given big bundles of garlic by friendly strays and warned of his assault by two stowaway cats chasing each other shrieking down the passenger car at 2 in the morning. Brothers of the Skin? Cat swarms of Istanbul.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Traditional Games > FATAL & Friends 2018: Cat swarms of Istanbul

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Wikipedia Brown posted:

...
The section on the 23rd century sets a nostalgic tone in going over the accomplishments of Kirk and co., and it addresses the contrast between the Wild West of the Original Series and the more measured approach of "modern" Starfleet.

...

My friend Dayton helped put together a bunch of stuff for the game so this part isn't a surprise at all. Somewhere in the middle of the book is a half page sidebar for the part of the Trek setting he and his writing partner set a bunch of their Trek books in.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Eclipse Phase is my favorite game I'll never get to play because none of my friends have any interest in running it and their only interest in playing it is just the surface level "action movie but with robots and talking apes" parts.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Edit: nm

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Tibalt posted:

I do kinda want to play in a game where "A Wizard, A Space Marine, and two different versions of cat men go on a quest to throw the One Ring into The Dark Sun" now.

No, not Torg.

No, not Rifts.

No, not D&D 2e.

It's called GURPS and if I were still in high school I'd run the hell out of that campaign.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

If there aren't rules for playing Necrons (perhaps wearing cowboy hats) who join your group because they hate Tyranids that much then why bother. :-p

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

I get it. I really do. D20 broke my brain for a long time. Once you realize that what you really want to play is GURPS with the cinematic options you'll be happier.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Halloween Jack posted:

It's goddamn hilarious that someone finally made a RPG all about dealing seriously with time travel, and the method turns out to just be "keep a meticulous journal of everything your character does and get Punishment Points from the GM when you gently caress up."

that poo poo is why the Continuum episode of Game Mastery is still my favorite. I'm still not convinced that anyone has ever actually played Continuum as written.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Speleothing posted:

Yo dudes, let's skip having Glorantha lorechat for the eighth time and go strait to mechanics before you get bogged down and distracted by minutiae (again)

Night10194 posted:

Runequest has mechanics?

They keep printing Glorantha stuff and this thread keeps covering the lore over and over again. I'll summarize:

something... something...
gently caress with the ducks
DON'T gently caress WITH THE DUCKS
something... something...
reenact myths
something... something...
Rules I guess...

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Halloween Jack posted:

Wasn't there a Greyhawk NPC who dual-wielded wands that were actually pistols? A time-traveler from the Old West or something?

Murlynd (the one who invented Murlynd's Spoon). He was one of the first PCs for Gary's home game. For as much poo poo people attribute to "St. Gary" he pretty much let people do what they wanted in the games he ran.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Nessus posted:

You wouldn't download sleep, would you?

Oh if loving only!

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Since my only experience with UA are the F&F write ups I have to ask if it's actually any fun at all to play? Because everything I read about it sounds like the opposite of what I'd want to deal with in a game. (admittedly that could just be my taste in games.)

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

There was almost a Spelljammer VHS game.
Also I liked the Spelljammer novel line, but I once painted a necron army sunshine yellow, so I'm no real measure of quality.
(The novels were alright. Basic D&D party RPG tie-in fantasy stuff but in Spelljammer. The first one does basically start by having a Spelljammer crash into the main character's farm and meeting a Giff.)

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Prism posted:

...
Less than you'd think, according to one of the sidebars, which says that 'the plane of gravity is very low in the ship, in some cases almost on line with the keel itself', though generally this isn't backed up by art. And presumably if you're keeping nothing but boxes at the lowest level, it doesn't matter much if some of them press upward against others pressing downward, though a sudden drop would be an issue.

Regardless, this isn't even mentioned in the section on cargo space or outfitting, even just to say 'the inside of a ship counts as on top for purposes of gravity', or at least I can't find it on a quick skim. I may have forgotten. It's been a while.

When I was running Spelljammer I basically ruled the gravity plane as matching the keel on most ships to avoid having to think too hard about it. The gravity bisecting the ship is a cool idea for ships designed for that in mind but the majority of the ships in the setting are just fantasy ocean sailing vessels.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Replace the spelljammer helm with a magical guitar, have the bard literally spelljam through the aether.

I can't remember if Bardic helms were in the core box or a later book but they were totally a thing.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

psudonym55 posted:

It's a perfectly ordinary chicken that leads to a set of pretty tedious fetch/npc interaction quests. An old man has a bit of purple cloth but the get the cloth from him you need to
get a pie but to get the pie you need to do something else and so on and so forth. Which leads to investigating a suicide and then suddenly vampires!

Or you can not investigate anything and sit in the stocks until the vampires attack.

Ha! I remember playing through that. My party got super lucky and actually managed to defeat the vampire. My elf Archer ended up with the vampire's black blade (and was totally going to have it destroyed the next time they were at a temple and wasn't saving it because it's a magic loving sword with a totally nothing of a curse attached to it.)

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Night10194 posted:

How many more Rifts books are there?

So, so many...

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Night10194 posted:

Sometimes I think Warpstone only seems rare to surfaceworlders because the rats get-get all of it first.

So their doing the surface a service since warpstone mutates the gently caress out of everything.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Nessus posted:

Four words for you buddy:

Ratcoin: backed by rats.

A warpstone powered bitratcoin mining rig works by un-mining the ratcoin in other Skaven's wallets.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Big Mad Drongo posted:

Rifts is utterly fascinating, because it's somehow the longest-running Saturday morning cartoon ever despite not actually being a Saturday morning cartoon.

Rifts feels like a saturday morning cartoon crossover that just never ended. All these often contradictory things/people/places all existing at the same time together like the cartoon all stars decided to just not leave after they convinced that kid to not do drugs.

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

deathbagel posted:

Wait. There are positive FATAL & Friends reviews? I only read the RIFTS ones so I would never have known!

F&F has 6 types of reviews
1)Rifts reviews (as Alien Rope Burn will never not have Rifts books to review)
2)Incomplete reviews
3)Hilarious reviews of absolute garbage
4) "Let me :filez: that for you"
5) Reviews of books bad enough that just "dumpster fire" isn't enough to describe how bad they are.
6) Positive reviews of stuff

8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Barudak posted:

Italicized Proper Nouns and their cousin The Glo'tal Stop

the apostrophe-laden backstory is a staple of fantasy fiction.

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8one6
May 20, 2012

When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

Angry Salami posted:

What the hell kind of loser would own a car in a world with teleportation as an option? "Oh, hey, I could arrive at my destination instantaneously, but I'd feel more free if I sat in a vehicle for several hours instead."

Teleportation will always be the superior form of transit.

Unless jetpacks are available.

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