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Halloween Jack posted:The thing for me is, unless you're really glossing over a lot of intricately detailed setting in your review, I don't see a lot to salvage. It's pretty basic, and not even the first "All superheroes come from government super-science" I've seen. The idea of superheroes "breeding true" is an interesting one, but not one that they seem to develop much. I feel like I could not only run this premise in a better system, but make up a better alternate history without much effort. What I see is that someone set out to make this game, and that's what I'd be trying to salvage. It's my inner editor: see what the author was trying to say and help them say that, but better. Digging around in AMP, the main theme I think they were going for was a game about the first superheroes and the world coming to terms with that -- a theme which is completely unsupported by the game as it stands -- and if I was going to write my own 'rise of the heroes' game I'd build it around the reactions of people (groups, like the police or the public in general, and individuals, like 'your mother') to what you do. (God knows, comics has a rich vein of this just ready for mining.) Grab the mechanics from, say, Chronicles of Darkness, for that familiar base; slap on a superhero power hack and some new conditions to reflect the specific problems that assail people trying to find a balance between their normal lives and being able to fart earthquakes; and you're halfway to something workable already.
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Jun 14, 2016 22:52
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When a Demon forms a pact with a mortal, do they have to provide the promised odds and ends themselves, or do the various Merits just... 'appear' out of nowhere?
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Jun 24, 2016 18:43
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Halloween Jack posted:The Empire of Japan uses English puns to name its super-soldier corps. Is it wrong of me to think that if that pun was in Japanese it'd be vaguely plausible?
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Jun 27, 2016 17:18
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Hostile V posted:Cast of Characters[/b][list] Nice to see I'm not the only one who names my example players in alphabetical order.
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Jul 1, 2016 10:45
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Nice way to start a page though.
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Jul 7, 2016 15:53
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Hostile V posted:Alright, it's the game Corporation, another one of those games I heard about years ago and looked into recently. Unlike Brave New World, it's pretty good in my opinion. Wait, this one? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_(role_playing_game) I've had a copy of that sitting on my shelf for... God, ten years or so. It never grabbed me at the time, but I'd be eager to hear what you have to say about it.
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Aug 3, 2016 23:06
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Glazius posted:The bumper song is obviously appropriate, but I was wondering if you knew that there actually was a Mesopotamians RPG. A two-pager, part of the Indie Mixtape series. There's also the Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia campaign setting (kind of thing?) for D&D 3.5, from Necromancer Games.
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Aug 4, 2016 20:44
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I'm going to hold off on judging the game because I don't know anything about it, but I'm going to judge the gently caress out of that press release.Good God posted:It’s not for everyone, but for those of you who want something deep, lush, and intelligent, it’s what you’ve always been waiting for. You know what's "deep, lush, and intelligent"? A loving triffid, that's what. If this press release had a face I would punch it.
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Aug 7, 2016 23:03
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You beat me to it! But yeah, Cryptomancer looks all kinds of neat. I'm not a huge fan of the authorial voice but it's got enough cool stuff in what I've read so far that I'm willing to let it slide.
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Aug 8, 2016 09:04
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Traveller posted:
...and that's what cemented the Unicorn as my favourite clan. Forget the horses, I'm here for the ability to completely derail cunning Scorpion plots by being a barbarian lout.
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Aug 21, 2016 11:06
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The second letter, to the Scorpion daimyo of the era, reveals that the emissary was hung, drawn and quartered by the Unicorn. Which presented both a leverage and a hindrance to the Scorpion: they don't realize the Scorpion's power or the implications of this event in the Rokugani courts - or maybe they do, and they don't care.
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I have dim memories of them screwing with your potions as well.
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Aug 22, 2016 08:06
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Clearly the next step is to ride a horse on another horse.
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Aug 22, 2016 12:47
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gradenko_2000 posted:That's why you need to use the to-hit adjustments based on weapon vs armor class chart: I love how useless the sap and the whip are against anyone even slightly armoured.
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Aug 24, 2016 15:26
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Mors Rattus posted:I do think that if you want to play L5R, it's kind of dumb to actively try to end-run around the culture; this is mostly from later edition stuff, though, where the culture is made into something more interesting and...somewhat less stupid. Certainly less sexist. Yeah, I've been thinking about this myself recently (this writeup is striking samurai-shaped sparks in my brain) and in the end it just comes down to properly communicating what the game is about. If I ran L5R it would definitely be a game about individuals versus their own hosed up society, so an individual who doesn't interact with that society just isn't a suitable player character. If you were running something more like the Seven Samurai, where a rag-tag group of samurai must put aside their differences to defend a village... well, I think rear end-scratching tetsubo-man would fit right in there. Would make a pretty good character, even, next to equally stereotypical samurai from the other clans.
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Aug 25, 2016 22:54
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I detect the hand of the Shadow, in that she seems to be aging backwards.
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Aug 26, 2016 14:57
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Hostile V posted:Yeah there's no doubt in my mind that there are a bunch of Dwarves who are like "I never really studied ethics in university, is the thing" who constantly feed people into the chipper to keep their flaming trainwreck of a civilization going through inflation and murder. There's a lot to like about this game.
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Aug 31, 2016 07:00
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Traveller posted:The heritage tables follow, of course. Instead of having only one BAD EVENTS table, the bad events are spread across all the other tables. The Shamed Ancestor table is still there, though it bears noting that there aren't "haha, you're a lovely ronin now" events. Just the chance to start with the Forsaken or Deathseeker disadvantages for no points, or a lot of Black Sheep results. Also their Fortune Table rolls cost 3 CP instead of 4, and you have a chance to get a cat so like why aren't you buying yourself a cat right now. Given the Lion's penchant for terrible harsh childhoods that border on abuse, I was mildly disappointed that none of the Lion fortune tables contained 'you failed your gempukku and your mother killed you for it -- make a new character' or something similar.
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Aug 31, 2016 22:16
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Night10194 posted:I suppose that would be in character for Wick: Make the guys who are supposed to be the banners for the culture as it exists (Crane and Lions) obviously insufferable pricks. I think all the clans are pretty much insufferable pricks, at least as stereotyped and written up in their clan books. The more I read of this F&F the more I think that the art of playing a character in L5R is taking the basic stereotype and dialling it back several notches: a Matsu who is fierce and short tempered, but also a loving parent who's sent their only child off to be raised by another clan as an act of kindness; a Crab who stands at the wall and writes achingly beautiful poems; a Crane who loves to make ridiculous double entendres all the time, daring other people to notice them... that sort of thing.
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Sep 1, 2016 00:07
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BinaryDoubts posted:I can only imagine the moment you try and bring up missing ammo during a “dramatically appropriate” situation is the exact moment your players begin describing collecting arrows after every fight to make sure they never get caught empty-quivered again. I'm reminded of the One Last Shot stunt from Spirit of the Century -- where you can declare yourself to have 'one last shot', get a hefty bonus to your attack, but then you really are out of ammo.
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Sep 2, 2016 19:56
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Legend is a really popular name for roleplaying games, huh?
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Sep 5, 2016 15:36
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Yeah, I read some of the freebie pdf but balked at the OSR mechanics -- this is doing a good job of selling me on Godbound despite that.
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Sep 14, 2016 08:40
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I've not read this one, but it takes place underwater so maybe it'll be interesting to people? Fate Worlds: Deep Dark Blue
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Sep 15, 2016 14:46
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:I really like Blue Planet and actually built a Beluga Missionary for the Church of Whalesong Mysticism in the old archived build characters for games thread https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3609987&userid=135246#post426295653 . The 2e game system (Synergy) works reliably and is nothing special, but is leaps and bounds ahead of the 1e system. That was such a good thread.
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Sep 18, 2016 22:30
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Rigged Death Trap posted:So what happened in the 3e transition that caused spellcaster superiority? A whole bunch of little changes, I forget the details of. Stuff like haste no longer aging the subject by a year every time it was cast; making it harder to interrupt spellcasting ('cast defensively'); metamagic feats; more hp for wizards; more powerful control options for wizards... just loads of little odds and ends that added up.
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Sep 19, 2016 10:01
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When you crow about how good it is being a beast, roll +power. On a 7-9 the MC adds another Hero threat to their roster. On a 10+ they add three.
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Sep 30, 2016 14:44
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Doresh posted:His name is Linkin Ball. And since he's a construct, his wounds they will not heal.
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Oct 9, 2016 20:12
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loving up the Lifeweb is capital-B Bad because it's one of the best ways to wake up a Memory 0/Sekhem 10 mummy, and that generally spells disaster for you and everyone near you. I'd love to see a Beast try the 'no worries, I'm your friend!' thing on a mindless automaton that only speaks Ancient Irem, has physical stats as high as they go, and can summon meteor strikes. It's no 'rip the disguise off a Demon' but it'd probably still be good for a laugh.
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Oct 13, 2016 10:10
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Rand Brittain posted:Mummy has a lot of incredible writing but nobody really bothered to work it together into a sensible, gameable whole. That was my overwhelming impression running it. There's loads of cool bits and pieces in there, but they're just slapped together with no real guiding vision or concept or understanding of how the game works. Initiative, especially. There's at least two places where powers add dice to initiative, which is not how initiative has ever worked in WoD.
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Oct 19, 2016 08:58
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I think the problem TFV would face with mummies is that a) a mummy is extremely difficult to put down even once and b) they can do unspeakable amounts of collateral damage in the attempt. Meteor showers, earthquakes, blasting people into pillars of salt, zombie plagues... All in all, you're better just working out what they want and giving it to them so they go back to sleep.
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Oct 19, 2016 19:41
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Alien Rope Burn posted:More words by Brad Ashley, our zombie apocalypse Erin Tarn, spouting more redundant nonsense, but then we get numbers: That's only 95%. Where are the other 5%? What aren't you telling us, Brad?
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Oct 27, 2016 11:10
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Serf posted:Your Godbound write-up has convinced me to buy the game. Really well-done stuff, keep it up! Me too. It's amazing and I love it and I have no idea when I'm ever going to get the time to run it.
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Oct 27, 2016 11:55
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Kurieg posted:And then you can either eat him or unbind his spirit, thus denying him his ultimate revenge. That little [devour soul] dialogue option is about the only thing I liked about MotB.
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Nov 7, 2016 23:57
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Doresh posted:And that's it, folks. I hope you had as much fun as I did. I did, thank you! To the point where I'm now a proud Godbound owner and casting about for a way to play it with people.
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Nov 9, 2016 20:11
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PurpleXVI posted:I'd also like to note that "Heft," the skill for increasing carrying capacity, is non-combat, so with enough personal ranks in it, and enough birds to train, you could create, say, a flying fortress, or an airship. Or just get carried everywhere by your trained blacksmith birds. 
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Dec 1, 2016 09:33
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PurpleXVI posted:So, you know, gently caress it. Think of the fastest medieval method of travel you can, a bunch of fast horses, sailing ships, or, hell, the 250 years ahead we can go with Anachronism. What was the fastest method of travel invented in the year 1700? Then tell me how many Trailblazers we'd need to propel that method of travel past the speed of sound, or light, or some other arbitrary absurd barrier. How about escape velocity? Assuming a nice slow stroll of 3 mph (converted to 4.8 kph) and an increase of +25% with each Trailblazer, a group of 41 people would clock 45,138 kph -- which is 12.5 km/s, which is just slightly faster than the 11.2 km/s required to achieve escape velocity at sea level. I did some sums with some super-fast 1700s ships too but it only dropped the group size down to ~32. It's probably easier to grab another 10 Trailblazers than it is to buy a ship, so.
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Dec 1, 2016 12:02
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How much of the material from Blood & Smoke is in VtR 2e? More precisely, if I wanted to run a strix-based VtR 2e game, I know I'd need the Chronicles rulebook and VtR 2e... would I also need B&S? Would it be helpful?
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Dec 19, 2016 23:23
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SirPhoebos posted:From what I've gathered there were two ways to do oWoD: This is why I bounced so hard off Requiem to start with -- I always played Masquerade as 'superheroes with fangs and drat the people who tell me that's bad' and as far as I can tell Requiem was written to poo poo comprehensively on anyone who tried that. But then I learned to engage with Requiem on its own terms, and now I'm quite fond of it.
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Dec 21, 2016 00:08
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Night10194 posted:She gets mentioned briefly in the Lahmian section, but, uh... A little late to this particular party but my least favourite thing about Genevieve is how the author copied her straight into Anno Dracula without even slightly trying to hide it. Same name, same sire, same backstory... like a straight-up copy-paste job. It was just such low-effort bullshit that I gave up pretty much the moment she was introduced. (And I'd been a Kim Newman/Jack Yeovil fan up to that point. I love his Dark Future novels, and I enjoyed Drachenfels a lot too.)
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Jan 19, 2017 16:56
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An interesting thing about the soul eater is that, if you look at her through Beast's putative lens of 'Beasts are marginalised people' she's a proper villain: her main power is the ability to strip away the social support networks that are so vital to the marginalised and isolate them even further. But the fact that Beasts are awful and their 'social support network' in this case is made up of other supernaturals who are weirdly compelled to love them despite the Beast ruining their life makes it seem like a weapon of beautiful poetic justice instead.
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Feb 6, 2017 20:29
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Simian_Prime posted:Question: Considering the current trainwreck involving Zac S and nuWW/Paradox, would it be good or bad timing to start a review of A Red and Pleasant Land? Remember thst if you say anything even remotely positive about it, he'll quote-mine you for endorsements.
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Feb 20, 2017 08:17
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