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JcDent posted:a) No My friend got a hardcover edition of Degenesis for her birthday. I only had time to skim the books but I distinctly remember Poland being the fur-boots-and-axes barbarians in the setting. I've got to give it to them, though: those two tomes definitely have a spot on top three prettiest RPG books I ever held in my hands. They're just so neat
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Jul 22, 2017 17:26
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:
That's how I treat them in my group. "Yes Anne, you can be a Space Marine. Just remember that Bernadetta will still be adressed as "Battle Brother" as a traditional honorific. Also to avoid confusion since she looks exactly like her squadmates who started as boys. Yes, that includes the five-inch, braided mustache." Or that's how I would treat them if anyone in my group was seriously interested in playing a fleshy killbot whose only non-war hobbies are pushups, prayer, and oiling their bolter. e: Inescapable Duck posted:the Imperium's standard doctrine is pretty egalitarian, at least in the more 'standard' Imperial culture Also that. Everybody's got the equal and irrevocable right to die for the Emperor. RedSnapper fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Aug 3, 2017 |
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Aug 3, 2017 08:27
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MJ12 posted:SOMEHOW IT TURNS OUT THAT WHEN WOMEN GO THROUGH THE PROCESS INSTEAD OF TURNING INTO GIANT SLABS OF ARMOR THEY TURN INTO PERFECT WAIFUS WITH HOURGLASS FIGURES AND ANIME EYES "You see, they have more efficient muscles due to higher iron content in their blood (that's also how they get perpetually rose-red lips) and most of their muscles accumulate in the breasts. That's only rational."
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Aug 3, 2017 09:31
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JcDent posted:
What is it with Germans and throwing explosive projectiles at my country?  To think about it - don't the Teutonic-looking, Having read 120 days of Sodom, I knew where they were going as soon as I saw the names. "Four amoral assholes and their torture pit" can probably get you some decent plot hooks, but naming the said assholes after the book's Btw, didn't Blangis notice he's sharing the name and main character traits with the Duke? Didn't they notice that their 'pal' Curval is the same person as in the book (well, minus the extremely poor hygiene and a perchant for passive sodomy)? I mean, I'd get freaked out if I saw myself and a bunch of guys I met last night in a 500 year old book.
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Aug 4, 2017 13:09
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Loxbourne posted:See, if I absolutely had to rescue this concept (perhaps terrorists have my loved ones at gunpoint and are demanding I GM for them) this would be a good place to start. Have the Creepmeisters alter pre-existing hologames to make their magical realms, then let the PCs discover console commands or reset switches. As soon as one of the Lords of Wank drops their trousers, open fire with the venom cannons. Welp, I'm sold. This Shanghai thing would be much more bareable if you could team up with, say, Geralt of Rivia and BJB. Actually, it'd be even better if you then dropped the Shanghai part and just went to save New Vegas from the Burning Legion. Possibly with the aid of Bretonian knights you met in Total War. Hell, now I kind of want to run it. Just in a different setting.
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Aug 8, 2017 13:10
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Night10194 posted:The Deep City, or Glubograd, was built ages ago by dwarf allies of the city and then promptly lost to the ages. The area beneath the town's citadel is full of vast catacombs, constructed on the order of Z'ra Zoltan, one of the city's past leaders. He believed that with sufficient engineering and aid from the dwarfs, shelters could be built that could protect thousands of people even if the city's walls fell and a siege or sack lasted for years. To that end, he asked his personal Ice Witch assistant, Walpurga, to research how they could replicate the sun down below in order to farm and grow crops, in case of needing to live there for extended times. Legend has it that she succeeded, and that down in the true Deeps of the city there are catacombs with sun and food and water, but that she also discovered some kind of strange and terrible power deep at the heart of the stone beneath the city. Something that made sure all maps to this 'True Deep' were destroyed, both in the Great War and before it. No-one knows what might really be waiting down beneath the salt-soaked crags, in those blackened arcades of antiquity... And if that isn't an adventure hook, what the hell is? Back in the dark, forgotten era of 1st ed. when the gods of Order were still a thing, wasn't Praag where Arianka was (supposedly) imprisoned? Fake edit, after a quick googling: yes, yes it was!
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Sep 18, 2017 17:45
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JcDent posted:Also, oh my God, Satanis is the worst poo poo. I like how the first scenario (you know, the one that's supposed to introduce new players to the setting) starts with the PCs loving off to present day Earth. Really shows the autor's faith in the system. I hate how, because of this thing, I now want to somehow add GWAR to my ongoing Mage game..
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Dec 12, 2017 17:26
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drat. I decided to do a writeup of a Polish game some time ago and I'm actually near halfway through it. I was torn between Monastyr and Neuroshima and boy am I glad I picked the former.. e: now that I mentioned it there's probably no point waiting till the end so I'll  it in a day or so
RedSnapper fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Jan 5, 2018 |
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Jan 5, 2018 09:38
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 How about for another system that’s never been (and will likely never be) transladed into English? Between a pretty-good-yet-flawed setting and premise, a bit of chart bloat, utterly unwieldy combat rules and complete obscurity (even in its home country of Poland) Monastyr seems like a perfect fit for the Thread. So, what is this.. Monastyr? Monastyr is a dark fantasy role-playing game set in a fantasy not! XVI-century Europe, surrounded by barely civilized, pagan kingdoms and hordes of devil-worshipping barbarians. So, it’s exactly as our XVI-century Europe (as seen by XVI-century Europeans) but with more wizards. Monastyr (or monaster) is also the word for monastery in Orthodox and Greek Catholic church. That has nothing to do with the game. I mean, the game has a not! Catholic Church so there obviously are monasteries and true, you could make an analogy between the game’s Dominium (a Holy Roman Empire-sque confederation of kingdoms) and ‘a walled place of seclusion/isolation’ but the point of this overly long sentence is that the name seems tacked on like they just needed a seriously sounding, marketable word. The game itself was published in 2004 by Wydawnictwo Portal (Portal Publishing House – currently Portal Games), with little hype and even lesser sales numbers. It still managed to squeeze out two editions (second a being basically ‘revised’ with a hard cover, better quality paper, cleaned out misprints, and a few extra illustrations of varying quality), one nationbook describing the kingdom of Nordia, and four adventure modules. Okay, what can I do in this game? In Monastyr you get to play as a human, middle-aged, white aristocrat, just like you always wanted. The game expects you to play a person in their fourties, one of the few remaining Men of Honor (or Women – girls do exist in this game and the Dominium’s society is surprisingly egalitarian with regards to gender) out to redeem some past mistake. Probably by killing elves. It’s by no mean the only way to play and there’s even an entire half-page dedicated to making your character a (gasp) young person but the game makes it pretty clear that it wants to be a musketeer mid-life crisis simulator. You got me at ‘killing elves’. Do continue. Let’s do it then. One last note before I start, though: Since Monastyr hasn’t been translated to English, all book quotes will be translated by my humble self. Just be warned. The book itself is 260 pages of high quality paper, densely-packed and bound in hardcover and is likely one of the prettiest RPG books I’ve seen this side of Degenesis. The pictures I post throughout this review will be either scans from the revised edition or cut outs from a bit low-ish quality pdf of the first ed. I don’t really want to risk pressing the physical book onto a scanner too much – especially since it belongs to my GM… First look at the world quote:The World is at war. Both here in the kingdoms that make up the Dominium and in the pagan lands of Valdor, kings and princes wage their wars. They fight for every inch of land, every road, every field, every foot of the coastline. Every winter people die in all parts of the world, every spring some ruler musters his armies for a new conflict, every summer, every autumn… All year round the air resounds with the roar of cannons, stampedes of warhorses, noise of battles. The past Nearly all fluff parts of the book – and even some of the rules – are written in-character from the perspective of a minor nobleman. “NPCs narrating their own world” method of writing is quite popular in Polish RPGs (Neuroshima, currently reviewed by Tevery Best uses a similar shtick) but I probably won’t stick to the formula outside of quotes. The priests say that before man came to be, the world belonged to a race of powerful beings called Rodians, living in harmony with the Creator. But in time they came to the attention of jealous demons that lurked in the darkness under the world. The demons corrupted Rodians and made them turn away from the Creator and, in turn, He abandoned and left them at the demons’ mercy. Now all that’s left of the Rodians are stories and ruins – particularly of the Cathedrals they erected in a desperate attempt to return into Creator’s grace. According to the church, humans are direct descendants and pale shadows of the fallen Rodians – although, every now and then, there comes a madman of a heretic claiming human descent from some lowly deviria (which is a blanket term covering the soulless beings, ranging from animals, through orcs and elves, to demons). After the fall of Rodians mankind fell into thrall of demons (sometimes literally ruling over human lands as feudal overlords) until one day, in a mountainous land to the east, the Prophet was born. He was able to rediscover the faith in the Creator and, with the power of prayer (and the power of arms), liberate the first human kingdoms. Centuries later the disparate kingdoms signed The Pact, uniting mankind under the dual rule of the Pope and the Emperor creating The Dominium  The interesting byproduct of this game's obscurity is that this writeup will likely triple the number of Monastyr-related pictures available on the internet The Pact, originally signed by seven kings, now unifies a whole bunch of kingdoms, princedoms and fiefdoms into what is known as The Dominium. Between the Emperor in the northeastern realm of Kord and the Pope in Kartina, to the northwest, the Dominium covers most of the (unnamed) continent. Little is known of the world outside of it: the eastern and northern lands are pagan kingdoms, falling one by one before the armies of Kord, southern mountains mark the near literal end of the world – only icy wastes lie beyond. It is to the north and west where the true danger comes from. Beyond the Ocean lies Valdor – a confederation of pagans, elves, dwarves and orcs – connected to the Dominium by a narrow stripe of land. There you can still see dragons and dark wizards (there is no other kind of wizard) and what’s even worse – humans, still slaved to magic, blind to the light of Karianism (which is the name of the Dominium’s religion) and in a dire need of a liberating crusade. quote:Here, in the Dominium lies the cradle of progress. Here sciences flourish. Untempted by magic, we use our minds and talents to move our culture forward. In Valdor you won’t find muskets, cannons of grand cathedrals. And here you won’t find magic, the Church will protect you from monsters, demons and all else that hides beyond the sea. Agaria Agaria has the dubious honor of serving as the Dominium’s borderland with Valdor. It’s the place where all crusades came to a standstill and is now ravaged by constant raids, counter-raids, brigands and foraging parties. We’ll have a closer look at that place when we get to character creation, as it’s one of possible starting nationalities. Several generations of constant conflict made the Agars grim and humorless folk, a predisposition which is pushed even further by having as their other neighbor… Kara The country founded by Templars and ruled solely by the Inquisition. In a world where devotion and religious fervor are praised, Kara manages to take it to new, terrifying heights in a constant war on heresy, spiritual corruption and bodily comforts. It is pretty much a cross between the Monastyr’s Taliban and all stereotypes about the Spanish Inquisition. It is also, like Agaria, one of the suggested starting countries so let’s not waste words on them here. The Pope Residing in a small land of Kartina, the Pope is the head of Dominium’s only religion and likely the most powerful man in the world. The religion itself, Karianism, is based on the teachings of the Prophet and scriptures deciphered from the walls of ancient Rodian Cathedrals. The faithful are supposed to live modest and moral lives (the definition of “modest and moral” varies depending on region and social class) and abhor magic. Those who achieve sainthood will ascend to heaven to become one with, well, The One. Others will be reborn into the next generation or (in case of the truly wicked) cast into darkness to the mercy of demons. Current Pope, Magnus V, is widely considered one of the greatest minds of the generation, keeping together the various factions of the Church, the squabbling kingdoms of the Dominium, supporting Kord’s northern expansion, waging a sea war against Valdor (and supporting the land war in Agaria), founding universities and centres of learning… And he still somehow finds the time for his personal scientific study of magnetism, because why the hell not? Kord It’s kind of a big deal. After overthrowing the previous great power that was Dor, Kord became the seat of the Dominium’s emperor and the most powerful of its realms. Under the rule of Wolfgang de Calanthe, Kord is the greatest centre of trade, science and art. To the northeast Kord wages constant wars of conquest, razing pagan kingdoms one after another, returning their peoples to the True Faith and adding their lands to the realm. Kord is also available as a starting nationality so we’ll obviously mention them again. The Darkness It is a constant part of the world. We’ve already mentioned the pagans, elves and other monstrosities that dwell outside the Dominium, but demonic forces within are still present. Dark forces hide in remote woods and underground tunnels and caves. But still worse are the forces that every day try to lure good people astray. quote:Have you ever had a moment of weakness? Felt fear? Considered a lie of a betrayal? You must have. You have, therefore, met the Darkness, my lord.. The Future quote:We are in the year 1575 and the Dominium is at the brink of the greatest war since it became united. To the west the Claw Peninsula is on fire from conflicts between the kingdoms, to the north Kord is a step from taking over Doria, whose people are preparing to take action that can only end in tragedy. Doria will disappear from the maps while just a century ago it was an unparalleled power. A first look at game mechanics Pick an attribute (usually in 5-20 range) and skill (they go 1-8) and roll 3d20, deduct your skill value from one of the dice. Every roll below or equal to the attribute is a success, two successes pass the test (or three if the required skill is at zero) Here the game helpfully informs us that any fractions you encounter during character creation / play are to be rounded up. And yes, there will be fractions.. Next episode – character creation. RedSnapper fucked around with this message at 11:59 on Jan 12, 2018 |
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Jan 12, 2018 11:54
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Lichtenstein posted:Hoo boy, wasn't this (mechanically) Neuroshima reskinned for gothic horror? From what I remember of Neuroshima's rules - yes, but with more self-contradicting combat.
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Jan 12, 2018 12:01
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Welcome to Monastyr: Part 2 - Character creation. Before we get to picking nationality, profession and attributes, our friend, the narrator has a couple of words: quote:We’re amongst the last, you know that. Wherever you look you’ll see intrigue and betrayal. Every value displaced by that of coin – stronger than friendship, dignity, decency.. What was once important is now an object of mockery. Those are lousy times, times the times of merchants and politicians and, to tell the truth, I doubt that our days are to ever return.  Someone give this guy a musketeer hat and we’ll have the narrator The Great Losers That’s the PCs. That’s you. You used to have it all – fame, fortune, career, you name it. And you blew it. Weather you shamed yourself with cowardice, let your pride get the better of you, gambled away your family estate, or just called the cardinal a dick, your once promising future took a sudden nosedive. Now you’re in/nearing your forties, and you’ve spent the last decade or two wondering “What if?” In Monastyr you get to play one of the last Good Men. Men (or Women) of Honor as the narrator calls them. Stubborn relics of another, more honest age. It’s a rotten age we have now – those drat kids care nothing for honor and virtue, all they think about is gold and debauchery.  From now on I’ll just use this instead of the picSooner or later you’ll receive The Letter. You’ll discover, for example, that your friend has been unjustly sentenced and is awaiting execution or that your brother’s estate got taken by the Inquisition. quote:What will you do with that letter? Burn it? You’re not making your mistake twice. You won’t turn back when fate offers you another chance. You’ll get up and go right the wrongs of your past. (…) You have more experience than a regiment of youths, more courage and grit than all of them combined. And finally you have the will to prove to the whole lousy world that the men of honor are not all gone. Character Creation, step 1 (of 10): Nationality We begin by picking the place of our birth. We can choose between ten countries described in this chapter or choose one of the minor powers (covered in the rear end end of the book). The game notes at this point that you’re supposed to play as an aristocrat and most of the national stereotypes you’ll see below pertain to aristocrats rather than commoners. Each country comes with two +1 modifiers to your attributes (The game has 8 attributes: Brawn, Agility, Wits, Perception, Credibility, Tenacity, Composure and Faith. The game also doesn’t actually list the attributes before step 4 of character creation) and a choice between two national traits. And that’s the point where those of you reading Tevery Best’s Neuroshima writeup start to see certain.. similarities. Yeah, both games were made by the same people and it shows. For example, we get the same mechanic that allows you to sell your traits and stats for money (and also buy stats when we get to that point. Monastyr calls this The Retouch The Retouch posted:The Dominium is much more than those ten countries and nations mentioned below. I assure you, you can find dozens of equally beautiful lands. To come from them is less of a splendor, those countries mean less on the Dominium’s map, and their people are less famed in history. I will reward your inconvenience. Forget about your nationality and I will give you, my Lord, 1000 Kordins and throw in documents proving you hail from any land you choose – save for the ten mentioned in this chapter. A QUICK ASIDE Monastyr has two sets of fighting mechanics. I’ll elaborate on them where we get there but here’s a quick primer so I don’t have to rant on them every time they become relevant: Mechanic 1 – simplified: you and your opponent roll 3d20 (don’t show your roll to the opponent) against your fencing skill, pick and reveal one die to decide initiative (the highest one wins), the guy with the initiative attacks by revealing one of the remaining dice and the defender reveals one of his own: if the attacker’s die is a success and the defender’s a miss he scores a hit, the other way around-defender takes initiative, all other cases-the attacker missed. Not that hard – the important part is you want to roll LOW for your hit dice and high for the initiative die in the first round. Mechanic 2 – True Clash™: roll 3d20 (this time in the open), pick your initiative die.. and now you turn over your character sheet to where you wrote down all fourteen of the Fencing Actions that you calculated at character creation – the attacker picks one of the attack actions, the defender one of the defensive ones (like parry or parry II), add the action score to the chosen roll, the HIGHER result wins the round. Two sets of (bad at best) combat rules with success conditions that are polar opposites in the same game wouldn’t even be that bad – but all the combat-related traits, skills and abilities are written only with the True Clash™ in mind. So.. yeah. OK, let’s get back to it Each nation gets a half page of description in this chapter (that's where the quotes come from). Later, in the 'World' chapter we get WAY more in-depth, but that's what we get for now: Kord  Kord nation description posted:There is no greater honor in this world than being born Kordish. +1 Tenacity, +1 Credibility Traits: Pride– three times per game, when testing credibility, tenacity and composure (once for each attribute) you can reroll the highest dice - handy; Charisma – advancing social ties (which is one of the things you can do with xp – more on that when the right time comes) costs 20% less – a bit less handy, provided you even want to bother yourself with the retainer mechanic. Most people don’t; Cynasia  Cynasia nation description posted:Your life is a theatre. +1 Wits, +1 Credibility Traits: Education – during character creation you get extra 20 points to buy additional skills (on top of 20 skill points everybody gets). You can’t use these points to raise any of those skills above 3. Yes, it’s broken as hell. Cynasian mind – you raise your skills for 20% less xp. Yep, it’s at least as broken as the other. Ragada  Ragada nation description posted:A Ragadan is born a murderer(…) it’s hard to be your friend +1 Composure, +1 Agility Traits: Clash – every light wound you inflict in a clash becomes a heavy wound. Works with every melee weapon, including your fists. Absolutely deadly or pretty useful, depending on how you interpret the wonky wording (the word ‘clash’ is at different points used to describe fighting at the closest distance, a turn of combat AND the fight itself). Also it has no use outside the True Clash™ advanced combat rules but that will be a recurring thing… Ragadan distrust – people trying to influence your Ragadan PC get a -4 to all authority and Credibility tests. I don't know how that’s really useful for a player character but at least you can try to talk Ragadan NPCs out of fighting to check if they have the other one. Agaria  Agaria nation description posted:There’s not a man in the Dominium dumb enough to try and ambush an Agar. +1 Agility, +1 Perception Traits: Experience – half of your highest fighting skill (usually rapier fencing) is the base for any other melee weapon skill. Knowledge of magic – an equivalent of a 5 point skill when you try to discern and predict magical effects, identify magic items, and even speak the language of orcs and know their customs; should be called “knowledge of Valdor,” really. Kara  Kara nation description posted:Karans have no questions, no doubts, they don’t try to understand. They just believe. +1 Faith, +1 Brawn Traits: Aura of faith – you get a +4 to your Faith when resisting magic. Nifty when you try praying away an incoming fireball. Passion – in combat, you get to ignore wound penalties until they sum up (down?) to -5. You feel the full effect as soon as you get to -6 or once the combat ends. Matra  Matra nation description posted:I’d rather cross a Ragadan then your Lady  +1 Credibility, +1 Wits Traits: Shadow and silence – you get a 4 point hide skill (that you can improve with xp later on). You can only use it in a city but it allows you to sneak all Proper_and_Ladylike  Assassinate – you can approach someone in a public situation and, having passed a Credibility/Bluff check, stab them with a dagger (for extra damage) or a poison needle or something. Failed check means the target got suspicious but you can still try a regular attack. Bardania  Bardania nation description posted:Is there a better proof they never rose above a bunch of brigands? +1 Perception, +1 Tenacity Traits: Bardan valor – when testing courage you get to reroll one die per test. Musketeer –reloading a firearm you takes half as much time (from the default of 10 turns for pistols and 15 for rifles) Nordia  Nordia nation description posted:However, first and foremost, you are cursed +1 Composure, +1 Faith Traits: Regenerate – your wounds heal twice as fast as those of a regular human, leaving no scars. Critical wounds don’t permanently lower attributes. Exorcism – you get a power to expel demons equal to a Minor Prayer (more on that when we get to magic) Gord  Gord nation description posted:They’ve been standing there for years and still they do not yield. +1 Brawn, +1 Tenacity Traits: Unbreakable – whenever you’re wounded you automatically beat the roll to check if you pass out. Gordian sight – you’re better at seeing in darkness. That’s it. Doria  Doria nation description posted:Doria is falling. +1 Brawn, +1 Credibility Traits: Shadow of Dor – a +3 bonus to your general knowledge skill. Chivalric custom – as long as you behave accordingly to the Ways_of_Old_Dor™ you don’t get negative modifiers to etiquette rolls. Yay Seriously, I’m willing to give thiss game a pass for many things but their handling of Doria and Matra is just disappointing. I mean, Matran traits aren’t exactly what I’d chose for a faction that’s supposed to be all erudites and socialites but at least they’re useful. Keeping with the traditions of F&F, I will be making a character based on thread’s votes. So pick a country. The lucky winner will receive a full translation of its character creation page (together with the abilities’ flavor text), and later on, when we get to history and geography, a full transcript of that (which in Kord’s case is over ten pages so please go for something else, ok?) Next time in Monastyr –professions!
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Jan 16, 2018 15:20
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Night10194 posted:Look, I understand the rapier is the weapon of the gentleman. I fenced. You do not need 14 fencing actions in your RPG. To be honest they're not all fencing actions. There's 4 movement actions (1 offensive and 3 defensive), 4 defensive actions, and 5 offensive. And yes, they're only for the rapier and you need a separate set of actions for, say, a sword.
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Jan 16, 2018 17:07
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marshmallow creep posted:What happens when you have a rapier and the other guy has, say, a poleax? How granular is the fencing and warfare? Same mechanic, different skill names.
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Jan 16, 2018 23:34
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 Welcome to Monastyr: Part 3 - Character creation: professions Last time on Monastyr we found out about the nations of the  Ages ago Ragada was the richest and strongest country on the Claw Peninsula but the civil war that broke out nearly two centuries ago turned it into a ruin. Nowadays it is a land of misery and famine, riddled with plagues and unrelenting conflict. Each year hate grows deeper into the people’s hearts. Nowadays nobody even thinks of peace or forgiveness. All that counts is destroying the enemy. Madness? Yes, it is. Everyone who hails from these lands is mad. Mad and ruthless. A Ragadan is born a murderer. This place grows no other crops. Look to yourself, my lord, how you hold your pistol and your dagger. Then unsheathe your rapier and show me somebody from outside Ragada with such a weapon. In Agaria? Yes, perhaps there.. But their life is a constant struggle against elves and orcs.. Alongside Agars, Ragadans count as the most dangerous people in the world. If an elf was to fear someone, it would fear you, would it not? Could you handle an elf, my lord? Two hundred years of civil war turned you all into killers. Today Ragada is infamous throughout the Dominium for her rancors – people you can hire for any task, from murder to kidnapping. Those people have no moral qualms, they forgot what a conscience is long ago. The war destroyed that nation, ripped them of their values, dignity and honor. All that’s left is hate and distrust. Ragadans are reclusive and cold. You’re not liked in the Dominium and it’s hard to wonder why, when one looks at you. There’s no warmth in you, no smile on your face and the look in your eyes brings a shiver down one’s spine. It is hard to be your friend. I believe those were the last words our Narrator ever spoke. Traits: Clash – every light wound you inflict in a clash becomes a heavy wound. Works with every melee weapon, including your fists. Absolutely deadly or pretty useful, depending on how you interpret the wonky wording (the word ‘clash’ is at different points used to describe fighting at the closest distance, a turn of combat AND the fight itself). Also it has no use outside the True Clash™ advanced combat rules but that will be a recurring thing… Ragadan distrust – people trying to influence your Ragadan PC get a -4 to all authority and Credibility tests. I don't know how that’s really useful for a player character but at least you can try to talk Ragadan NPCs out of fighting to check if they have the other one. A handful of notes: As we will learn in latter chapters, rapiers used in different countries have their own distinct quirks like Ragadan rapiers being shorter and wider to better facilitate fighting in city alleys and indoors. There’s no mechanical differences, thank The Maker, but it’s a nice touch. By the way, the answer to the elf question is: no, elves are absolutely deadly in one on one combat. And finally, after reading that country description, how hard would it be to think of a national trait to replace that with the distrust with something that’s not completely useless for a PC? A bonus against fear, some additional combat feat.. just take the last paragraph and fashion some ‘eyes of a killer’ thing that gives you an intimidation bonus! Seriously.. OK, I’ve vented, I feel better, now back to our regular programing: Character creation, step 2/10 – Profession We get to choose between nine professions which, like nationalities, allow us to pick between two abilities each. Each profession comes with a minimum attribute requirement – since we won’t be rolling for attributes until step 4 (which should fit in the next update) the game suggests to note that number down for later. In other news – there’s no gender requirements for any of the jobs. All Dominium armies allow for female soldiers and its (hereditary) clergy is also equal opportunity. If none of the professions suit our taste the game encourages us to make one up, complete with a brand new ability you work out with the GM. If you can’t think of any (or just don’t like to choice you get) there’s always: The Retouch posted:They say stories about exemplary people, inquisitors that make a man’s blood run cold with a glance, officers that inspire with a word… people who seem like they came out of a book or a legend. Tell me that you’re an ordinary man. Still an officer, but not as brilliant as others; a soldier, but not the best in the Dominium. Renounce your ability, be a regular priest, a regular soldier, just a historian, without all those seemingly inhuman skills and I’ll reward you right away! Here’s 2000 Kordins to use as you please in the chapters to follow. The nine professions themselves are grouped into three categories, mirroring three sons of The Prophet (pics come from the 1st ed pdf – save for the quality issues, they’re the same as in the revised): Martial posted:You were to become a general – that was your parents, and especially your father’s, dream. How better to bring honor to your family then with great deeds in battle? That’s what your father did, as did his father and all your ancestors. Thus you received the best education your family could provide, letters of recommendation, and finally, their advice for the road, your fathers firm handshake and your mother’s wishes of good luck. Officer:  Required: Composure 12+ You were an officer in your country’s army. Maybe you still are – locked in a dead-end position and outranked by men ten years your junior. Whatever the case – your career might be dead but you’re still kicking and capable. Abilities: Command – in combat you may roll Credibility/Authority to take command of every friendly NPC whose Cred is lower than yours. Until the end of combat you, rather than GM, control their actions. You might need to repeat the roll with a -3 modifier if your NPCs start dying or visibly losing. Watch and learn – upon entering combat you decide the initiative, instead of rolling for it. If two opposing characters have the ability, it cancels out and initiative is resolved as usual. Soldier:  Required: Brawn 12+ Not everyone was born to lead. Most people in an army are just your regular grunts and so were you. Abilities: I’ll hold them off, sir! – when fighting multiple foes you get and extra die for defensive actions only. Soldier’s lot – in combat you roll an extra d10 in addition to 3d20. You can then substitute your lowest d20 roll for the d10. It won’t likely give you a success but can lower a chance of total failure. Scout:  Required: Perception 12+ Scouts have the most ungrateful job - all inconvenience and danger and none of the glory. On the other hand, they’re the only people in an army that have something resembling freedom. Abilities: Off the beaten path – you’re not slowed down when travelling through rough terrain (forests, mountains) and your perception rolls get no penalties for haste. One of us – you get along with commoners. Unless they’re hostile, they’ll be willing to provide you with all the useful information. When in doubt weather this should work automatically, treat it as a +5 Information Gathering skill. Clergy posted:As the firstborn should follow Beocjan’s path, so should the second son follow Saolom. Thus, as your brother left home, for war and an officer’s career, you turned to the clergy. There’s little glory and splendor, even less chance of medals and acclaim, but much work, toil, study and prayer. Priest:  Required: Faith 12+ Anointed as a priest of the Karian faith, you preach the word of the Prophet to the masses and office religious ceremonies. As a Karian priest you’ve not vowed celibacy, you can (and should) marry and have children to whom you’ll leave your church. Abilities: Reinforce faith – when rolling for faith every PC and friendly NPC can declare to rely on your attribute. You make the one roll for all of them and they pass or fail with you. Blessing of the One – when you fail a test your life depended on you can reroll it (with the same modifiers) as a faith test. Doesn’t work in combat. Monk:  Required: Wits 12+ Numerous monastic orders are tasked with preserving knowledge. Not the least part of that is translating ancient writings of the Rodians and studying the Cathedrals they left behind. Most monks lead a very ascetic way of life as a way of staving off the demons who seem to have a particular taste in scholars. Abilities: Wisdom – Pick three academic skills (ex. Law, mathematics, medicine, philosophy etc.). Set one of them at 6, one at 4 and one at 2. Travelling scholar – you get no penalties for fatigue, hunger or lack of sleep until they accumulate to -6. Inquisitor:  Required: Credibility 12+ Nobody’s really thrilled to see an Inquisitor arrive to town. While decidedly less psychotic than their counterparts in other fantasy RPGs they still get the bad rep for burning people’s relatives. The Inquisitor’s choice of abilities has a peculiar good cop/ bad cop vibe: Abilities: Respect – all actions taken directly against you have a -2 penalty. Works in combat Innocent soul – when interrogating a person with a lesser social status and smaller Credibility score you can roll your Cred against their Composure to sweet-talk them into a Bond of 4 (we’ll talk Bonds and Allies when we get to them) for as long as you need to. You can have only one such Bond Courtier posted:So what is the role of the third son? History tells us the fates are least kind to him. He needs to care for himself, forge his own destiny… Emissary:  Required: Credibility 12+ You’re a diplomat. It’s your job to know who is who on a foreign court, to know people and to know who they know. Abilities: Even the King himself – you have no trouble getting passage to important people. Guards, courtiers and other diplomats see you’re exactly where you belong. If the GM’s in doubt the skill automatically applies to the situation and calls for a roll, you get +5 to the appropriate skill. Net of contacts – you get extra 3000 Kordins to purchase Allies and Retainers, you’re not restricted to the maximum of 4 like other PCs, and you get to improve Bonds for 20% less xp. Artist:  Required: None A poet, a painter or a minstrel – or any other you can think of – your best creative years are likely long passed but you can still live off past glory. Abilities: Opens all doors – similarly to the Emissary’s first ability, you can get anywhere they’d let in an artist and get +5 to your Bluff and Etiquette skills if contested. Harmless – if you don’t actively participate in combat and call no attention to yourself by other actions, you’re left alone. Won’t save you from being captured, though. Spy:  Required: Wits 12+ You’re perfectly ordinary diplomat/ trader who never dabbles in any unsavory things. Moving along. Abilities: Bribe – you can steer a conversation into a talk of a bribe in such a way, that even if the target doesn’t take it, they won’t feel insulted or alarmed in any way. There’s no explanation how that’s supposed to work mechanically. Invisible – With a bit of makeup and dress-up you can pretend to be anyone from a lowly servant to a foreign courtier. When your cover is put into doubt you get +5 to related Bluff check. That’s it for the professions. Again with the abilities – some of them seem really half-assed (all three courtiers get different versions of the same ability), some of them oscillating between useless and overpowered, depending on how you interpret the combat rules. So – What is our profession? Character creation, step 3/10 – Memoirs Before we wrap this post up, we’ve still got time and room left for one more step. This step is a set of questions grouped into six broad categories: Where you’re from, what do you look like, what kind of a man you are, what do you think about the Dominium, what’s your attitude towards magic and what motivates you. I’ll transcribe a part of one so you have the idea. quote:[b] What do you think of the Dominium?[b] quote:…devote a couple of minutes to these questions to help yourself roleplay your character. It’s a good idea to write them down and attach to your character sheet … Next time – we get into our primary and secondary attributes. RedSnapper fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Jan 28, 2018 |
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Jan 28, 2018 13:00
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See, I had some personal GM fears recently about getting overattached to a NPC. You know the drill, you make a character, like the concept so you flesh them out a little more.. and before you know it you treat the NPC as if it was your character and not something destined to get their brains blown out in the finale. And now I know, however badly I fare as a GM, at least I've never used my underage, likely abuse victim, foot fetish waifu (that's surrounded by horny 40-year-olds) in a game while screaming at my players: "LOOK AT HER, YOU FUCKERS! ISN'T SHE, LIKE, TOTALLY COOL?!? LOOK AT HER!!" So at least there's this low I'm not reaching, which is nice.
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Feb 14, 2018 15:25
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Battle Mad Ronin posted:
My one wish is that when we finally get a decent movie/TV adaptation of Norse mythology it will do justice to the scene where Thor murders a score of Jotuns, while dressed in a wedding gown ...or that time when he went fishing and accidentaly caught the Midgaard Serpent. In general, sometime (most of the time) Norse mythology reads like something made up by a bunch of drunk guys trying to one-up each other's stories on a long, boring winter evening..
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Mar 29, 2018 10:58
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Night10194 posted:
I GM'd Rogue Trader once and this was my players' line of thought from the get go. Anything that couldn't be solved by a threat of orbital bombardment was solved by actual orbital bombardment. And whenever things were too sensitive for mass drivers they just sent in a strike group. In effect, each player ended up with two characters: the regular RT crew for fancy balls and chats with the Inquisitor/ Arbites, and the poor sods that got sent into all those derelict spaceships and Necron ruins. The latter team was paid in tomatoes and strawberries form the ship's arboretum..
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Apr 10, 2018 18:00
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Yeah, RT is a fun idea but the execution is profoundly stupid.
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Apr 10, 2018 18:13
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JcDent posted:Pollen I might be repeating myself but.. I find it funny how this German-made game has most of Poland populated by big, dumb barbarians and Joe Slowboat posted:I think my main issue with Degenesis, beyond the iffy descriptions and my inability to put together what one is supposed to do in the setting, is that it's in love with more and weirder complexity for its own sake. Also, this was my general reflection when I (tried to) read the book. It's like all the parts were somehow unable to create a whole.
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May 8, 2018 09:00
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Night10194 posted:Has there ever been a Corruption system in an RPG that genuinely improved the game? I can't think of any. Kult?
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Jun 23, 2018 13:31
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That's still quite a bit of extra weight on the shoulders - doubly so with the counterweight. That dude is in for some serious backaches if he doesn't get them already.
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Jul 8, 2018 06:14
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Full disclosure. I love Kult. It's one of my favorite settings in all of RPG (stay with me!) I first got into the CCG in high school because the esthetics appealed to the depressive, satanist edgelord that I was at 16 and somehow it stayed with me into adulthood. I spent an unreasonable amount of time the now dead, aptly named, Last Cycle forums - a place for people who talked about the game more than they actually played it, where you could read an entire treatise on the nature of Archons from a guy who couldn't recall an actual rule from the game with a gun to his head and where a sentence like: PurpleXVI posted:[...]Let's say, that yes, humans were space war criminals once. And let's say that yes, the Demiurge did flimflam us[...] was considered to contain at least three bold assumptions (humans as plural, Demirge even existing and being a separate being from human(s), humans being evil and the entire gamebook not being a part of Lictor propaganda). In short, I have terrible blind spot as far as Kult is concerned... But drat, talk about the inverse of maturing with its audience.. Night10194 posted:The sad thing is I can think of a lot I could do with the premise That's why the sollution is to just trim off the excess parts and keep what you want. It can be a bit like wading through poo poo in search of gems but, looking back to my time on the LC, half of the forum activity was exactly that..
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Jul 26, 2018 15:13
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Night10194 posted:At that point, why bother saying you're a fan of Kult? Why not say 'I'm a fan of the one sentence elevator pitch of Kult, then wrote my own urban horror setting around it?' Yeah, you're probably right. I'm just glad I decided not to support them at kickstarter. I expected it to go the route of Unknown Armies and would've been pretty annoyed at discovering I paid for Fatal.
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Jul 26, 2018 17:57
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Zereth posted:I mean, at this point are you even still talking about the game? That bolded part was just a forum joke. JcDent posted:WH should have stayed FB and expanded on the non-Asian nations instead of going AoS to give Sigmarines and Undersea Dark Eldar. Oh God, yes. Do we even get any info on those lands, aside from seeing Cathay, Nippon an Ind on the worldmap?
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Jul 27, 2018 08:42
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PurpleXVI posted:Kult PurpleXVI posted:Then you get addicted to secretly loving the poop demon until you die. I swear I'm not making this garbage up and I will loving quote it if I have to. I'll take screenshots.  PurpleXVI posted:Like, yeah, there were gross "let's abuse our way to enlightenment"-conspiracies, but there were also like... more imaginative and, frankly, more believable cults in it. All in all it seems like the weird disjointed mess that was the original Kult went WAY offroad. Maybe I wasn't playing it right because I can't recall ever using the sex stuff in any of my games? I mean, I DID get one PC magically pregnant (shortly after that the PLAYER revealed that she's actually expecting and we had to have a serious talk) but 90% of the time I stick to the regular "you wake up dead" stuff.
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Jul 28, 2018 22:23
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Ok, it might be the heat, it might be the beer, but this thing here is just hilarious
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Jul 28, 2018 22:50
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Reading UA makes me want to grab the Kult authors by the head and rub their faces in the book screaming "See? This is what you were supposed to make!"
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Jul 29, 2018 06:18
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re: Kult drat. This here almost makes me retroactively dislike the games I GM'd. So - they didn't repair any of the self-contradictory fluff, didn't fill any of the plotholes and silliness of the original, they didn't fix the magic, they didn't rework the mental balance into someting that makes sense, they just sprinkled bodily fluids all over the game and garnished it with severed dicks. Serve lukewarm, in a bowl made out of a diembodied rear end in a top hat. Yes, I mad. Joe Slowboat posted:Vistas of emptiness with alien angels floating high above, as you sift through the ruins for gnostic understanding, in the hopes of reawakening Humanity, and perhaps redeeming us. Something quieter and less edgy, about cosmic sin and the graveyards of the apocalypse, which all their static cyclopean art implies (and all their actual writing denies). This. This sentence calms me down, thank you.
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Jul 31, 2018 07:28
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Ghost Leviathan posted:I remember that Blanks/Pariahs are still a major feature of 40k (Gunner Jurgen being the most famous one, and that one type of Assassin) and apparently they're ranked on the same Greek alphabet scale as Psykers; with Pi/Rho being around the human baseline, psykers ascend to Alpha and blanks descend to Omega. More powerful Blanks can be almost Psykers inverted, from the sound of it. Yep. This goes from guys have close to no soul, and make other people slightly miffed by their presence all the way to "THIS MAN IS THE VOID AND IT'S LOOKING AT ME, AAAHH!". The latter category makes DAEMONS recoil in horror. e: The Culexus Assasins, as they're called, sit firmly in the latter category. They don't just lack a soul - they can shoot their soullessness out of their eyes and kill Elf wizards with it. RedSnapper fucked around with this message at 09:24 on Aug 2, 2018 |
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Aug 2, 2018 09:19
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Man, WFRP 1st ed was my first and only RPG for the first few years of gaming. I still hold that, for all its faults, the 1st ed. is the best gamebook ever published, a benchmark by which I judge all other books, and yes, I am fully willing to die on that hill  I GMd The Enemy Within all the way to The Power Behind the Throne (or Grey Eminence, as the superior Polish title was) at which point the holidays ended all our group members left for college in different cities. We'd actually finish the campaign but at one point the PCs found an old, rickety boat and we spent about a month building up their river trading enterprise (which actually segued nicely into The Death on Reik).
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Sep 10, 2018 13:22
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PurpleXVI posted:Chaos badstuff I dunno, I actually like the fact that ANYONE can fall prey to Chaos. No matter how pure, brave or pious you are, you will still pray to Shallya and Rhea that your child isn't born with tentacles, and you can still wake up one day and discover an extra set of eyes on your arms.. It works with showing Chaos as this prevalent force of not-nature and makes it a more menacing force than any roided up maniac going "KHORNESKULLSWARRRGLEBARF!"
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Sep 10, 2018 13:48
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PurpleXVI posted:The thing is that in like... a story, if we're just reading a story, it may be engaging or interesting reading about people trying to mitigate or avoid this random chance of bad hellstuff that screws them and their lives up. But in a game, that's less engaging, because it's a mechanic/world aspect that we can't use for anything except going in a huge wide circle around it. What makes for a good story to watch/read and what makes for a good story to play aren't always the same. Agreed. But my point is that those things do set a proper 'mood' for the setting and can be a source of interesting NPCs, story hooks and background details. And it's not like I'm planning to have my players randomly sprouting new body parts. Not unless they do something profoundly stupid like praying to daemons or rubbing thmselves with warpstone. Or if I can get a 'mutant outcasts' campaign idea past the player who is deathly allergic to Warhammer after playing with too many "Lol, you get raped by thirty goblins" GMs.
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Sep 10, 2018 14:26
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Battle Mad Ronin posted:Warhammer’s inane use of random bits of German was kept around in the new edition You're saying it like it's a bad thing.. And Kugelschrieber is a character that goes all the way to one of the first ed scenario packs (The Restless Dead IIRC). He's a mad inventor from a time when Warhammer setting had a sense of humor. We actually played the scenario - one of the players ended up with a foldable glider that, despite something like a 50% failure chance, ended up saving his life on four different occasions. Absolutely nothing wrong with that
RedSnapper fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Sep 11, 2018 |
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Sep 11, 2018 20:00
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If a priest of Ranald makes a solemn oath to his god - is it a sin if he keeps it or if he doesn't?
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Sep 12, 2018 06:20
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:I imagine this has probably been posted before in this very thread, but the Owlbear, along with a lot of other classic D&D monsters, was basically Gygax's table's interpretation of these beautifully lovely plastic toys: drat, I had a set like that as a kid. Or at least a version of it. I distinctly remember it included bullette, rust monster, pterodactyl and the two legged armadillo. No owlbear though.
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Oct 8, 2018 15:05
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DNA Cowboys posted:What stops people from shaking the bottle city, filling it with water, or using it in a traveling jug band? My hypothetical players need to know. Scale. As you pour the water in, it scales down and creates a small puddle on some backward street. If you pour another portion in, it splashes a local master assasin and ruins his brand new silken tunic..
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Nov 19, 2018 12:46
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All the mummy talk seems tailor made to fit my Bretonian campaign. Because I now finally have my antagonist/ ally to help/ hinder the group in taking down a necrarch who thinks he's Drachenfels. The group, by the by, consists of an Ulrican knight, a road warden, two barrels of gunpowder (they get to be their own character), a wood elf of the not-crazy variety and a high elf who's totally not racist (she has human friends, you see).
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Feb 28, 2019 18:44
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Night10194 posted:Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Old World Bestiary I'm actually reading the Bestiary along the writeup. I don't know why, because I already read the Bestiary - but what the hell, it's a great book (and a great writeup). Re: Elves- I'm planning for all kinds of intra-elven racism and culture shock for when they get to actually meet the Asrai starting with "You Ulthuani are not Real Elves" and ending with "You mean you guys don't steal imperial children and offer them to the forest spirits? What the hell is wrong with you?" I'm hoping to squeeze in an oblivious Bretonian knight NPC, who absolutely refuses to believe that the Fey are actual elves, and to talk the fifth player into rolling a Kislevite Ice Witch for extra culture shock and more misunderstandings. I might be rambling about it but I'm actually pretty hyped about the campaign because A- that's the first time in YEARS I get to GM WFRP (and I hold a lot of sentiment towards the system - my frirst three years of gaming were exclusively Warhammer) and B- the first part of the campaign actually managed to 'cure' the H-Elf player of her Warhammer trauma (her introduction to the setting was a GM with a tendency to go "Lol, you get raped by 100 goblins" which made her detest fantasy RPGs in general and Warhammer in particular for the next decade).
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Feb 28, 2019 19:52
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JcDent posted:YOU CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT KINDS OF GUNS-BLAZING, MONOMOLECURAL KNIFE-EDGE CYBER ADVENTURES ARE BORN FROM Pilot (dirigible) SKILL! Pilot (Vect. Thrust Vehicle) is no joke. We've had three characters die from the lack of it (one in the hovercar and two right under it).
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Mar 1, 2019 12:13
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JcDent posted:Yes, but dirgible With that at least the poor sods on the ground would've had enough time to run away and not get crushed. Then they'd have the chance to die in the explosion with the rest of the group! (at 120% mortality it was a pretty lethal campaign. Not quite Vampire levels, but still)
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Mar 1, 2019 13:23
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