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Animorphs is also a good one for sci-fi where all the aliens have radically different body plans to humans, and species are so different that comparison is difficult. Humans do have the misfortune of falling into 'perfect host' as far as Yeerks are concerned.
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Apr 21, 2021 06:37
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Animorphs is also a good one for sci-fi where all the aliens have radically different body plans to humans, and species are so different that comparison is difficult. Right. Of the main 4 intelligent alien species in Animorphs, the only one at all similar in body form to humans are the Hork-Bajir, who are basically 7 foot tall bipedal dinosaurs. The Yeerks are sluglike, the Taxxons have a radial body plan and look like giant centipedes, and the Andalites have four legs and two arms, basically looking like a the deer version of a centaur (along with a long tail with a sharp blade on the end) And in the Animorphs, the thing that makes humans (and Earth generally) unique is that we're prolific. Most planets with intelligent life have populations that number in the millions instead of Earth's billions, and the biosphere on Earth in general is more diverse (and more dangerous) than other worlds.
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Apr 21, 2021 06:52
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Tibalt posted:But then again, maybe not! Elephants seem to be intelligent but don't seem to be moving towards sapience.
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Apr 21, 2021 06:58
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Tibalt posted:Oh, sure - a quadruped with some sort of manipulator (a six-limbed centaur or a more advance version of the elephant's trunk, maybe?) would have the necessary limbs and social structure, or if you're willing to be more flexible, an octopus would work. And like you pointed out, even with a humanoid form you could get some pretty significant differences in how that species operates. But then again, maybe not! Elephants seem to be intelligent but don't seem to be moving towards sapience. An advantage of our body plan is also that we're relatively easy to fit into equipment. A spacesuit or hazard suit for an octopus, or a space slug, or a space centaur, is gonna end up getting more complex than one for a human, they'd need to basically be self-contained little spacecraft in a lot of cases. Then there's also the issue that if you go into space, you need to be relatively functional in zero/micro-G. A human? Yes. Octopus? Probably. Some sort of mega-corvid? Possibly. A centaur? lol, that would probably be one hell of a shitshow.
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Apr 21, 2021 08:53
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PurpleXVI posted:An advantage of our body plan is also that we're relatively easy to fit into equipment. A spacesuit or hazard suit for an octopus, or a space slug, or a space centaur, is gonna end up getting more complex than one for a human, they'd need to basically be self-contained little spacecraft in a lot of cases. Then there's also the issue that if you go into space, you need to be relatively functional in zero/micro-G. A human? Yes. Octopus? Probably. Some sort of mega-corvid? Possibly. A centaur? lol, that would probably be one hell of a shitshow. We are also looking at a situation that's already adjusted for human needs ( as far as possible) since current spaceships are built by humans. But yeah maybe a regular centaur wouldn't work, a but a cat or snake centaur might fare better, since the have different body structure/attributes.
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Apr 21, 2021 09:06
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Cats in zero-G (aboard the vomit comet) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9XtK6R1QAk
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Apr 21, 2021 09:22
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PurpleXVI posted:An advantage of our body plan is also that we're relatively easy to fit into equipment. A spacesuit or hazard suit for an octopus, or a space slug, or a space centaur, is gonna end up getting more complex than one for a human, they'd need to basically be self-contained little spacecraft in a lot of cases. Then there's also the issue that if you go into space, you need to be relatively functional in zero/micro-G. A human? Yes. Octopus? Probably. Some sort of mega-corvid? Possibly. A centaur? lol, that would probably be one hell of a shitshow. It is true that mass and, with it, consumption of materials would be a large subtle impact on space travel... and perhaps on the overall creativity of the civilization-at-large.
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Apr 21, 2021 10:41
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Another issue would be what energy sources would be available, how quickly they'd be able to transition from easily harvestable renewables, to easily harvestable non-renewables, and so on. Not even counting energy technologies and sources that have no earth-analouge. Instead of a steam engine, their ancient greek equivilents came up with a thorium reactor and now that animal sinew ballista is about to fire something the size of a telephone pole at a significant fraction of c
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Apr 21, 2021 13:02
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Epicurius posted:And in the Animorphs, the thing that makes humans (and Earth generally) unique is that we're prolific. Most planets with intelligent life have populations that number in the millions instead of Earth's billions, and the biosphere on Earth in general is more diverse (and more dangerous) than other worlds.
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Apr 21, 2021 13:13
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Ronwayne posted:Another issue would be what energy sources would be available, how quickly they'd be able to transition from easily harvestable renewables, to easily harvestable non-renewables, and so on. Not even counting energy technologies and sources that have no earth-analouge. I had fun with this in the Star Trek Online LP, positing that Klingon technological development proceeded wildly differently than it did on Earth because by all indications in Trek, Qo'noS is a very geologically young world. So I began with the assumption that this was a planet without fossil fuels, the time and environments necessary for coal or petroleum to form never happened here. So I did a little in-setting history outline about a Klingon industrial age powered by geothermal energy and built around the intense and widespread volcanic activity of this very young planet.
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Apr 21, 2021 13:40
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Cythereal posted:I had fun with this in the Star Trek Online LP, positing that Klingon technological development proceeded wildly differently than it did on Earth because by all indications in Trek, Qo'noS is a very geologically young world. So I began with the assumption that this was a planet without fossil fuels, the time and environments necessary for coal or petroleum to form never happened here. So I did a little in-setting history outline about a Klingon industrial age powered by geothermal energy and built around the intense and widespread volcanic activity of this very young planet. Remember, it's canon that the Klingons got a leg up by getting uplifted by other aliens who wanted to use them as soldiers. Or am I thinking of the Kzinti?
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Apr 21, 2021 14:23
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Fivemarks posted:Remember, it's canon that the Klingons got a leg up by getting uplifted by other aliens who wanted to use them as soldiers. Or am I thinking of the Kzinti? That was a thing in the Star Trek EU in the TOS era. What's canon is that Qo'noS was invaded during Earth's Middle Ages by an alien race called the Hur'q, who eventually left after stealing a lot of Klingon cultural artifacts. The Klingons getting a tech boost from aliens, either by being uplifted or in the aftermath of an alien invasion, has never actually been a thing in any canon sources.
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Apr 21, 2021 14:28
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 Part 6: Archetypes, again.  Turncoats are defectors from the Empire, and in that they’re similar to Heirs. Where they diverge is that where Heirs passively benefitted from the Empire’s hegemony, Turncoats actively contributed to it, their mandatory Dread mood reflecting their fearsome reputations. The choice between moods is then either Charm, for the charismatic, unrepentant assholes who just happen to be on the side of the heroes, or Burdens, for those contending with the magnitude of their misdeeds. Both ways to play require a certain willingness to ham it out: in my experience, Turncoats are hard to ignore and actively drive the plot along.  Their Cores help with fleshing out their pasts, with the Old Friend in particular being a major source of the plot-shaping I was mentioning. Not included in the screenshot is It’s an Older Code, Sir, letting the Turncoat use their old credentials to gain access somewhere. As the Turncoat progresses in their Advances, their rebellion against the Empire becomes more and more overt, as does the contrast between their current ideals and their past actions. They also have a very clear manipulation and scheming theme, further playing into the dissonance between their goals and their means.  Turncoats get two Quest Highs, A Weapon to Surpass... , letting them improve the Airship by stealing a secret superweapon the Empire is developing, and This Night, a climactic last confrontation with their Old Friend, ending in either reconciliation or death, with different mechanical rewards for the two outcomes.  Turncoats are a very interesting archetype, playing with the scope of the Empire’s misdeeds and what, exactly, is unforgivable. They also are, and again I speak from personal experience, a fun challenge to GM for, with a very varied repertoire of ways to influence and manipulate NPCs that can and will blindside you at least once.  The final archetype, the Pet are the obligatory weird mascot creature, with all the requisite mysterious powers and cryptic alienness this entails, mechanically represented by their requisite Enigma mood. The choice between Idealism and Dread marks the difference between a cute mascot and a fierce-looking monster, but in both cases the Pet is generally the party member that brings some levity to the story. That is, until you delve into their mysterious past, if you so choose.  The cores are fairly self-explanatory, putting them firmly in the “weird creature” side of things, something the advances build upon. This dovetails with the Pet’s other theme, which is their personhood and individuality: they get to Refresh when someone respects them as a fellow sapient entity, which is a nice contrast to their growing arsenal of exotic and weird tricks.  The Pet’s Quest High, Behold, My True Form, has them embarking on a journey towards their place of origin, where they can undergo a final metamorphosis to a stronger, more complete form.  In the end, the Pet is an archetype that forces the player into seeing things from a different perspective and to come up with unexpected solutions to the various situations they might encounter. It’s both a way to inject levity into a game and on the other side of the coin, to grapple with the meaning of identity and personhood. Next time: Extra advances
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Apr 21, 2021 15:18
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kommy5 posted:While on this digression, I don't suppose anyone might recommend military sci-fi that is not... fascist adjacent? I absolutely adore the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. I don't suppose you know anything like that? Military sci-fi that actually likes liberalism, democracy, and/or humanism? You might want to look through the "MilSF That Doesn't Suck" tab of James Davis Nicoll's review site -- there are some quite good books there.
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Apr 21, 2021 15:27
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Epicurius posted:So, as somebody who's doing a read along of Animorphs in the Book Barn (Stop by, we have fun), I think it does. It's a series about a guerilla war against alien invaders, and some common themes in the series are the physical and psychological cost of war on the combatants and the the question of what actions are morally permissible to stop the enemy. Yeah, it's probably milsf, but it's the good kind. That actually considers the cost of war, and the moral weight of the enemy. It's definitely not a gunporn military wank, and the resistance movement is a nightmare not a dream
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Apr 21, 2021 16:49
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Thirsty Sword Lesbians: Okay, we’re going to get two more Playbooks down today, the Nature Witch and Scoundrel. The Nature Witch: The Nature Witch is deeply connected with her environment, but not so much with people. Their central conflict revolves around the growth that their explorations will require from them and those who love them. The Nature Witch is always Spiritual, and then has either higher Heart but lower Wit or Higher Grace but lower Daring. The Nature Witch has a special mechanic called Curiosity. You have a list of Trials in the playbook, a bunch of new experiences for your Nature Witch to try. You choose four, and whenever you complete one of those you cross it off and either mark XP, clear a Condition, or take a String on someone involved. Then when you complete all four of those, reflect on what you’ve learned then choose four more. If you complete the entire list, choose the ones that meant most to you and evolve into a new form of life inspired by the experiences. You can take this opportunity to adopt a new playbook or retire, or just stay a Nature Witch without any further Trials. Playbook Moves: Start with Wild Friends and two more. Wild Friends: You can speak with animals and plants and may Influence them with Strings just like other NPCs. If you’re near your home or any other place you’ve spent a long time your friends are always nearby when you want them to be. This is fun and flavorful, you’re more at home with animals and this covers that. It’s heavily going to be a narrative thing but that’s a lot of Moves. Awaken the Wild: When you aare in a safe position and attempt to commune with a place or non-sentient creature, roll +Spirit. You always get to choose from the below list, but on a Mixed Beat you’ll get the normal success with a cost or hard choice. +You cleanse it of hurt, corruption, or sickness. +You alter its behavior, ecosystem, or atmosphere to one you choose. +You make it dangerous to a certain person or creature, or a type of person or creature. If you attempt this while rushed or distressed to the point of having three or more Conditions, it’ll work as above in the short term but then the place or creature will fall dead and barren. Super love this, incredibly versatile and narratively potent. As with Wild Friends, this is again more narrative than mechanized. That said, this is a narrative game and giving you options that would not normally exist is super useful. Familiar: You have a cute animal as your loyal familiar. You can perceive the world through its senses whenever you choose and communicate with it at any distance. Choose one basic move. When it helps you with that move or Emotional Support you take +1 to the roll. This is really great, +1 to two types of rolls (including the obviously awesome Emotional Support) and a bunch of other upside and also you have a cute animal friend. Very strong, very flavorful, and unlike the previous two there’s some clear mechanics as well. I Ship It: When you want to make a match between two other people and talk up one to the other, roll +Heart. On a 10+, you may give one of them a String on the other. On a 7-9, the listener also gets to take a String on you or give the other person a String on you. Anyone involved may mark XP if they become Smitten with anyone else involved, including the Witch (maximum 1 XP per PC). This is a pretty fun one, it makes you a big fan of everyone else’s characters while emphasizing that you’re kind of a naïve outsider to the whole thing. The Magic of Love: When you’re Smitten with someone and proudly extol the power of love, either of you may spend a String on the other to gain the use of one of their playbook moves for one scene. This owns hard, it’s super powerful and versatile and gives you an excuse to ramble on about the power of love and if that’s not appealing in and of itself why are you playing the Nature Witch? Nature’s Touch: When you touch someone and let the power of the natural world flow into them, roll +Spirit. On a 10+ choose two from below, on a 7-9 choose one. +They may give you a String on them to clear a Condition. +They gain the ability to speak with plants and animals for the rest of the scene. +They must answer one of the Figure Out a Person questions of your choice or else they take a Condition. This is amazing, I love it. The healing part is obviously great, especially since it gets around situations where someone’s not going to be willing to open up to you but you need to get a Condition cleared. The second mode is a fun narrative thing, of course. The third mode gives you an interesting social offensive option, especially when supported by either friends or having taken some other books’ moves. Force someone to just blurt out something that would let you trigger conditional social Moves or take a Condition, which weaker NPCs really don’t have as an option. In addition, the following applies: Love Conquers All: When you become Smitten with someone, your question to answer is “What is a clear challenge to being with them that you’re over-looking because of your naivete?” Clear-Hearted Inisght: Your combat options for Figure Out a Person are “What makes you feel loved?” and “What do you hope for the future?” So they emphasize in the last bit that your moves often put you out of the spotlight, between I Ship It focusing it on others and Nature’s Touch letting you clear Conditions without even talking. That doesn’t mean you have to stay out of it of course. The Trials aren’t necessarily things your character is consciously trying to get into, but they are signals of things you as the player are interested in exploring. They also have some discussion of running the Nature Witch as a Techno Witch in high-tech settings, and mention that later on in the book there’s some discussion of how to frame this if you don’t have magic in your setting. The Scoundrel: The Scoundrel is a lady of action and flirtation. Their central conflict lies in the urge to explore new horizons versus committing to purpose or security. The Scoundrel is always Daring, and is either Graceful but not Witty or Witty but lacking in Heart. The Scoundrel’s got a special rule, Living in the Moment. It asks you to answer why you’re so fickle, with the idea that it should be something you can grow past to give your character an emotional story arc. You don’t need to do this at character creation, and it’s not necessary that your character know it themselves. You also get an exclusive Move: Heat of the Moment: When you taunt someone into doing something they want to do but find unwise, roll +Daring. The results change depending on whether they’re an NPC or PC. NPC: On a 10+, they’ll do it in exchange for a small concession or reassurance. On a 7-9, they either create an opportunity for you and your allies or give you a String. PC: On a 10+ they mark XP if they do it, and must take a Condition if they don’t. On a 7-9 you choose one of those, either they mark XP if they do it or take a Condition if they don’t. If you aren’t already Smitten with them, you may choose to treat a 7-9 result as a 10+ by choosing to become Smitten with the target. So this is really fun, you get a Move that lets you influence without a String or just using Figure Them Out and roleplaying. It’s more limited of course because you need an idea what they want to do but often that’ll be somewhat obvious. And of course you could Figure Them Out to set it up. Big fan. Playbook Moves: Start with Lust at First Sight and Shiny and New, then choose two more. Lust at First Sight: When you become Smitten with someone you barely know, declare your undying love and give them a String on you. Lose your Smitten status with anyone who has no Strings on you. Take +1 forward to any act you think might impress your new interest. Shiny and New: When you give or receive Emotional Support in an intimate moment with someone new, you each mark XP or clear a Condition. This is a pretty interesting one, because it’s heavily encouraging you to give Support to NPCs once you’ve run out of PCs. When you’ve got a target you’re pretty good at removing your own Conditions, which is always strong. Better to Seek Forgiveness: When you apologize to someone for your outrageous conduct and put yourself at their mercy, roll +Daring. On any success you find out what it will take for them to forgive you. On a 10+, you both gain a String on each other and they can forgive you for each of you to clear a Condition (I think this happens at whatever point they forgive you whether or not you do the thing they asked). On a 7-9, you actually have to do the thing they asked to get a benefit but if you do you either take Strings on each other or they may clear a Condition. Love this, great String and Condition management tied to an incentive to do the sort of wild poo poo you’re already expected to do is great. I also really like that if your apology is good enough there’s an incentive for them to just forgive you even if you haven’t done the thing they wanted. You loveable scamp you. Fools Rush In: When you vault into a situation without forethought and wind up way over your head, give someone dangerous to you a String, Mark XP, and take +1 forward to Defy Disaster. Further incentive to just do wild poo poo and deal with the consequences later, and this makes you better at it as well. The dangerous person getting a String is potentially even fun, all this is good. Impressive Swordplay: Whenever you roll a 7+ to Fight, you may gain a String on someone who is present and ask their player what it is about you that has impressed or intrigued them. These continue to be amazing and the Scoundrel continues to be great at Strings. That you have a Move that’s just ‘unusually sexy swordfighting’ is majestic. The Main Attraction: When you make a dramatic entrance, roll +Grace. On a 10+ you choose two from below, otherwise just one. +All attention is focused on you for a moment. +You hold the attention of one person for as long as you deliver a dramatic speech. +Take a String on someone present. +You take +1 forward. You get a Move for swinging in on a rope then delivering a dramatic monologue what more do you want. There’s always a mode you’ll benefit from too. One in Every Port: When you return to any town you’ve been to before, name a person with whom you shared intimacy here and say how you left things. If you left on bad terms, mark XP and the GM will tell you something interesting that has changed since you were last here. And now you’ve got a move that potentially generates an unending string of annoyed former one-night stands, the sorts of people you might need to ask for forgiveness. Super love this. Rrrip!: When you take or narrowly evade a physical blow from someone dangerous to you, you may declare that your clothes were damaged and are now practically indecent. For the remainder of the scene, when you roll a 10+ on any move against an NPC, you may declare that they have a crush on you (up to one NPC per roll and subject to GM discretion), and any PC who becomes Smitten with you during the rest of the scene may mark XP. Fun narrative bonuses and incentive to engage with Smitten, and you also get William Shatner levels of your clothes failing. All of this is great stuff. In addition, the following applies: To Love and Lose: When you become Smitten with someone, your question is: “Why would your romance never last?” Repartee: Your special questions for Figuring someone Out in a fight are: “What would make you run away with me?” and “Where did you learn to fight?” They make clear the Scoundrel is a big disaster in the postscript, and also point out they’re pointedly not actually that great at Enticing people with the normal Move because while hot they’re kinda jerks. They also remind you that since the Scoundrel has lots of ways to gently caress with NPC agency through Heat of the Moment that the GM and in general the table should make sure to make their it clear if something’s going on they find a bit yikes. Okay, three more Playbooks, I’ll do them all together. It’ll be a bit longer for next update most likely as a result, but next time we’ll see the Seeker, Spooky Witch, and Trickster.
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Apr 21, 2021 18:33
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kommy5 posted:While on this digression, I don't suppose anyone might recommend military sci-fi that is not... fascist adjacent? I absolutely adore the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. I don't suppose you know anything like that? Military sci-fi that actually likes liberalism, democracy, and/or humanism? The Cry Pilot series is pretty good - mostly based on Earth and not about space battles, but it nails the "oddball squad of friends" thing pretty well without the usual mil-sf fascism (it helps that they're fighting, basically, kaiju instead of another nation/corporation).
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Apr 21, 2021 19:09
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kommy5 posted:While on this digression, I don't suppose anyone might recommend military sci-fi that is not... fascist adjacent? I absolutely adore the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. I don't suppose you know anything like that? Military sci-fi that actually likes liberalism, democracy, and/or humanism? Drake has been recommended, and he's a good author, but he does lean into the "war is an awful experience for everyone involved". It's quite old, but Eric Frank Russell's Wasp is a classic. More military adjacent than military, but it's also anti-fascist adjacent. Comedic sabotage in a totalitarian space empire.
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Apr 21, 2021 19:48
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Froghammer posted:There's an early Animorphs book where a Yeerk takes over a main character and is super frustrated that morphing into a bengal tiger doesn't immediately solve all of his problems vis a vis being lost in the woods. Yeerks these days think that becoming a tiger will solve all their problems, and it's not true.
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Apr 21, 2021 19:54
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Epicurius posted:Yeerks these days think that becoming a tiger will solve all their problems, and it's not true. Ya gotta turn into a giant snake, I'm telling you.
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Apr 21, 2021 20:17
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Ya gotta turn into a giant snake, I'm telling you. No, that was the Taxxons
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Apr 21, 2021 20:36
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90s Cringe Rock posted:Ya gotta turn into a giant snake, I'm telling you. Even James Earl Jones understood this wasn't about efficacy, it was about style.
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Apr 21, 2021 20:40
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Night10194 posted:Even James Earl Jones understood this wasn't about efficacy, it was about style. Well, and it was a sex thing.
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Apr 21, 2021 21:07
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  Note: So as an unrelated aside I heard from a reader that the poetic text boxes in the various opening chapter pages aren’t from the Beowulf poem proper. I’m unsure of their origin or if they were made wholesale for the book. I still find them enjoyably thematic, but I’d be interested in hearing from more experienced voices about this one way or the other. This relatively short chapter details a rather vital aspect of Beowulf’s campaign rules: the loyal allies, hired help, and unlikely team-ups forming a “secondary party” for the otherwise lone Hero. Followers are a special kind of NPC with their own rules: they add +0 to all d20 rolls (although they can gain advantage/disadvantage), they don’t have AC or Hit Points and instead of suffering damage they suffer death saving throws as appropriate to their gift/burden/context-specific environmental feature, and in combat they roll initiative as a group in what is known as the Follower Turn. In combat and other round-by-round tense situations the Hero can Activate a Follower during the Follower Turn as well as on their own turn as a reaction, which triggers the use of a Gift (and in some cases a Burden first). In a few special cases certain abilities can cause multiple Followers to activate during the same turn. Additionally, some Gifts, Burdens, and other circumstances can cause a Follower to be Spent, meaning that they cannot be Activated again until a long rest is taken or if a special ability or item on the part of the Hero “revives” them. This represents the Follower succumbing to injury, exhaustion, returning to the ship or meadhall, or simply having their big narrative moment and thus fades into the background. At the end of each adventure, Followers have the chance to be improved, and the player may make a number of choices up to the Hero’s proficiency bonus:* give one Follower a new temporary Gift, transform a temporary gift into a permanent one, or make a Burden temporary. Temporary Gifts and Burdens will be removed from play after completion of the next adventure unless made permanent, and the player cannot choose a temporary Gift to become Permanent as part of the same “level up” phase. *but gain an additional choice if they act as the game’s scribe in writing a detailed account of a Follower’s story between adventures, which will be covered later in this post.  Followers otherwise don’t have any other Skills/Proficiencies/etc beyond these rules besides some suggested GM Fiat of granting advantage to the Hero for certain situations. The Hero can have a maximum number of Followers equal to twice their proficiency bonus plus their Charisma modifier. Recruiting above this limit for longer than is reasonable can impose the Malcontent Burden on them all, which causes them to refuse to act on a Natural 1 when activated. Nonhuman Followers can be recruited in rare circumstances, most especially Noble Animals who are otherwise natural beasts possessed of a keen intellect. Simple Warriors are ‘basic’ follower types who can automatically be recruited at any center of civilization and start play with four appropriately martial Gifts. The two remaining Follower types are the broader Potential Followers who can be recruited during an adventure and likelier to have unusual Gifts and Burdens, and Assistants who temporarily join the Hero out of circumstance but may become permanent Followers depending on certain criteria during the course of the adventure. Followers don’t really take damage in combat or are directly targeted by monsters supposedly, as the text notes that they only ever roll death saving throws as the result of their Gifts and Burdens. They can die normally as the result of failed death saving throws, but the player may voluntarily declare a Follower to be Slain rather than killed normally in a dramatically-appropriate ultimate sacrifice, granting bonus Experience representative of the rest of the party reflecting upon their service and experiencing character development as a result. Of course, a Hero who has Followers die under their watch has consequences, such as families demanding wergild and other Followers gaining the Untrusting Burden if too many of their comrades die serving the Hero over the course of play (number equal to the Hero’s level + proficiency bonus). Follower Burdens and Gifts are short, mostly one-sentence entries which convey role-playing and/or mechanics descriptions. There are 23 Burdens and 66 Gifts, which is a great amount for making Followers feel diverse and distinct. Some Gifts (particularly the RP-centric ones) are extra starting Gifts and don’t count towards their total number, while others can only be selected as an initial choice and cannot be gained later. A few represent advanced training and must be gained after going on adventures with the Hero, gained only be gained during specific encounters, or are initially possessed by Potential Followers and Assistants of remarkable skill. For Burdens, about half (11) of them impose disadvantage on a common type of check (Awkward on Charisma checks, Deaf on checks requiring hearing, etc), while some are more reflective of loss of morale and/or negative personality types. Death-Marked is a bit GM Fiat, indicating that someone out there wants the Follower dead and is willing to act on this hatred. In another case, Mute means the Follower cannot (or refuses to) speak. The Envious Burden (which can be gotten if a Follower is paid much less than everyone else) requires a generous payment in shillings at the end of a voyage/adventure or a DC 20 Persuasion check or else they leave the party, while Untrusting forces the Follower to succeed on a DC 10 Wisdom save in order to be activated in dangerous situations. There’s one oddly-placed Burden called Eager where they provide the Hero advantage on recruitment checks (Persuasion checks to recruit new Followers) which sounds more like a Gift. However tis exact text is repeated as a Burden for a sample Follower in the free standalone Hermit’s Sanctuary adventure, so I’m unsure what to make of it. As a recruitment check is the Hero rolling vs a static DC and not a contested roll, this is all the more confusing.  There’s a lot more Gifts which have more mechanical bite to them. There’s a healthy assortment that grant either the Hero or the Follower advantage on some type of roll. But some of the more interesting ones include Bearded Axe (grant the Hero advantage on all attacks rolls for a turn and the target of their attacks cannot benefit from a shield), Engage (every Follower with this Gift is activated to occupy up to 2 opponents per Follower, preventing them from attacking the Hero for up to 3 turns if a sufficient distance away, after which point said Followers must start rolling death saves), Healer (Hero regains half of their Hit Dice), Weapon-Bearer (every Follower with this Gift is activated, dealing 1d6 damage on a hit; Noble Animals deal only 1d4 but have advantage on the rolls), Learned (Old Ways follower is literate in Ogham** and can interpret various clues about the ancient world), Mounted (roll weapon damage dice twice and keep best result against unmounted enemies), Prophetic (Hero rerolls a failed saving throw), Rescue the Hero (every Follower with this gift activates and makes a death saving throw, rescuing the Hero from certain death and allowing them to take a long rest), Scout (make a Stealth check to explore a nearby area, reporting their findings to the Hero on a success), and Shieldwall (every Follower with this Gift protects the hero, allowing the Hero to spend Hit Die to heal if there’s at least 4 shield-bearers including the Hero and can Engage with enemies for up to 1 more round without needing to make death saves). *Legends is a new Intelligence-based skill in Beowulf. It replaces Arcana and History and covers everything from history and politics to folkloric knowledge and the ways of the supernatural. **Ogham is an ancient runic alphabet commonly found on rune-carved surfaces, standing stones, and other ancient edifices of religious and cultural significance  There is one Gift that throws a wrench in the “don’t worry about Followers save for their Gifts and Burdens,” and that’s Meek. A Follower with this Gift won’t be targeted by enemies unless they are the only target within range. That then brings up the inevitable question of whether or not Followers can suffer death saving throws in combat as a result of independent monster attacks, and what value to assign their Armor Class once they’re attacked in such a way. I feel that this Gift was a holdover from an earlier draft. Another Gift that raises more questions than it answers is Quick, where the text states “this Follower can use their own reaction to move anywhere within reason.” So does this mean that Followers have Actions, Bonus Actions, and Reactions of their own? The Follower Turn at the beginning of the chapter indicates that only one Follower can be activated during this Turn (or the PC’s Turn when the Hero spends a reaction) unless a Gift specifies that those with the same tag can act all at once. Finally, there are also Gifts which grant Followers advantages on various saving throws, and not just death saves, which implies that they too can be afflicted with negative Conditions. At the most basic level, Followers aren’t the best combatants offensively. The +0 on attack rolls means that against high-AC opponents they’re only likely to land a lucky blow via overwhelming numbers and gaining Advantage. Most Weapon-Bearers deal a simple 1d6 damage die that doubles on a crit, or 1d4 with Advantage in the case of a Noble Animal’s natural weapons. But there are many Gifts which can make them fight better: Deadly Strike allows the Follower to spend Inspiration to turn a successful hit into a critical hit, Heavy War-Hand makes a Weapon-Bearer deal twice the normal amount of weapon damage dice, Multiple Strikes allows a Follower to make two attacks instead of one, Sneak Attacker deals 1d6 bonus damage like the Rogue class feature of the same name, and Two-Handed Blow turns the d6 damage die into a d8 for human Weapon-Bearers. And finally, the Hunter can grant Advantage on a Nature or Survival check as well as make a 1d6 ranged arrow attack with Advantage against a target within 80 feet. Unlike the Weapon-Bearer Gifts, Hunter does not activate Followers with the same Gift as a group, meaning that you can’t rain down a hail of arrows on one’s foes this way. All of these abilities are pretty nice, but since there are precious few ways to give them straight bonuses on rolls* Followers as individual combatants aren’t really extraordinary. However, as even a Charisma 10 Hero can have as many as four Followers and a Charisma-focused one may have around seven at low Levels, their potential damage can get pretty high. *One exception being the Noble Animal-restricted Animal Wisdom that can add 1d6 to any skill check undertaken by themselves, the Hero, or an ally.  This chapter concerns itself with the structuring of adventures and the types of stuff you’d find in a “DM’s Guide” equivalent sourcebook for Beowulf: Age of Heroes. Much like the poem of the same name, the RPG is very formulaic in the structure of adventures: the Hero learns of a danger, the Hero and their Followers take a voyage/journey to the source of the danger, they visit the meadhall of a community and learn more about the local troubles, the Hero encounters the Monster and makes use of learned knowledge to overcome it, and the day is saved and the Hero’s party is rewarded. Rinse and repeat. A Portent is generated at the start of every adventure, forming the first line of a poem-style description akin to a couplet. Tables of nouns and adjectives are rolled, and results can add Inspiration Tokens to one of three Pools: the Hero Pool, the Follower Pool, or the Monster Pool. There are four tokens available at the start of play, and tokens can be spent from the pool to grant the appropriate character Inspiration (with the Monster Pool being for GM-controlled characters in general). This effectively makes Inspiration a stackable resource rather than a binary “have it/don’t have it” mechanic. Combined with the Alignment Die, this is a good way of having Inspiration come up in play more often and not be so quickly forgotten by GMs and players.  The Voyage is when the Hero, their Followers, and their naval crew set sail on the Whale Road. There are suggestions for land-bound travel, although this section focuses on sea-based affairs. The Voyage generates 1-3 Challenges depending on its length before the vessel reaches its destination. Challenges are akin to random encounters, with tables separated by the type of Challenge, and can range from Followers getting involved in a religious debate, encountering pirates and monsters at sea, or dealing with particularly agreeable or disagreeable weather. Most Challenges are capable of imposing a Gift or Burden on the Ship and/or Followers, making it so that no Voyage is ever uneventful. One particularly notable and deadly Challenge involves a meteor falling from the sky, outright killing a Follower on a failed DC 5 DEX save, but granting them a very nice Gift that is only ever temporary: Sign From Above, granting the Follower advantage on all saving throws.  Meadhalls and Mystery is when the Hero’s vessel makes landfall at the troubled community. There’s a bit of fluff and cultural detail, talking about how most lands have “shore guards” to keep watch of the sea and hail travelers and/or report back to the community in the case of trouble. At the meadhall or social gathering spot, the Hero has the chance to learn more about the Monster and its secrets. Plot-relevant NPCs have Social Stat Blocks, indicating relevant skills to earn their trust, advantage/disadvantage on rolls based on the Hero’s background and actions, potential ‘side-quests’ relevant to the character, and other ways in which Followers can help improve the Hero’s chances of overcoming these social challenges. Beowulf subscribes to the “fail forward” philosophy, where the Hero can still have a direction to be pointed in if a roll fails, but with a price of some kind. For example, an offended NPC may abruptly leave the meadhall, leaving a strategic location unguarded which the Monster and/or other evildoers may take advantage of. Another failed roll may involve a local scribe or runist mentioning that they’re too busy to help and need to excuse themselves to research, which indicates to the Hero that they’re in possession of useful material. Generally speaking, at the very least there should be opportunities for the Hero to learn where the monster lives, its strengths and weaknesses, and how to defeat it. There’s also talk of what kinds of activities people may do at the meadhall based upon their social class and occupation, other popular social gathering spots for the rare community or culture that doesn’t have a meadhall, and ways in which the Hero may find and recruit Noble Animals who typically aren’t the types to loiter in such places.  Exploration is an all-fluff chapter telling the GM how to make the setting feel alive in the description of common terrain and their particular cultural relevance to the native peoples. Being an historical fantasy setting, particular attention is paid to the more supernatural elements as well. The Dark Forest is an all-encompassing term for the vast woodlands further inland, widely recognized as territory belonging to elves, beasts, and unnatural monsters. Northern Europe is open to plenty of stationary bodies of freshwater, along with a wide variety of wetlands from swamps to fens to bogs. Said wetlands became so endemic in Denmark that the Anglo-Saxons left to seek better terrain elsewhere. Long stretches of open land known as heaths and moors are places where nothing taller than heather and wiry grasses grow, and such places are often associated with desolation and lack of shelter. Innumerable islands dot the Whale Road, many uncharted or sparsely settled, which are perfect opportunities for the PC to come upon some otherwise isolated or “undiscovered” community. Although their boundaries didn’t touch the more northern reaches, the Roman Empire made headway in parts of Northern Europe. They long since receded to the eastern Mediterranean where they still hold power, but here the extent of their legacy are crumbling ruins and the few texts in Latin maintained by devotees to the God of the Book. The expansive roads, buildings, walls, and forums hint at a population and technology far in excess of the current era, which have caused the Anglo-Saxons and other indigenous groups to refer to the ancient Romans as “the giants.” The other vaguely-defined human civilization is “the Ancients,” a catch-all term for the cultural remnants of indigenous Europeans who built barrow-mounds, standing stones, and ruins. The works of both the ancients and the giants are known to contain lost knowledge and magical workings, although their lands are often cursed and home to strange Monsters and inhuman guardians ill-understood by most people. They are thus avoided by all save for desperate salvagers and enterprising sorcerers.  The Monster talks about creating the climactic villain of a Beowulf adventure. Although the Hero is likely to fight many lesser foes of supernatural disposition over the course of play, the capital-M Monster is the primary foe responsible for a community’s woes that cannot be felled by simple violence. In the lands of the Whale Road there are various types of commonly-known monsters, although the taxonomic classification by origin and species hasn’t really caught on yet. Most people don’t care how a monster came to be or if it’s related to other kinds of monsters: to most, a monster is a monster. The Monster of an adventure has the Undefeatable Condition, which increases its Challenge Rating by 2, making them seemingly immortal. As such it is not common for the Monster to make an immediate appearance save by cautious and clever use by the GM, instead appearing after a slow build-up of dreadful premonition as the Hero’s party begins to piece together events over time. GM advice is given on how to construct a Monster’s lair, who would know about the Monster’s weakness or how such knowledge may be found, the goals of the Monster, and how to leave behind clues and evidence of its nature and actions. Although it’s covered in the Monster chapter, I feel it necessary to tell it here: ordinary humans, no matter how wicked they may be, cannot be the Monster of a tale. They may serve Monsters or even gain fell powers from them or trafficking in the dark arts, but when a man becomes a Monster this reflects a warping of their own sense of being that they are no longer one of us. Once the Hero has defeated the Monster come Rest and Rewards. For those that use XP tracking, a table of sample rewards are divided into four categories (Monster, lesser Enemies, Meetings, & Investigation), while Achievement Rewards are similar to the Milestone system. In the latter case, gaining 6-7 Achievement Rewards from proper categories over a few adventures propels the Hero to the next level. Rewards, the generation of potential magical items in the monster’s hoard, and payment of crew (being generous in the payment grants the Loyal Crew Gift) are discussed, and Downtime between adventures provides suggestions on things the Hero can do in their spare time: Research that can grant useful information, Recuperation that can end negative Conditions and/or grant advantage vs diseases and poison for 24 hours on the next adventure, training in a new language or tool proficiency, and so on and so forth. This is on top of the actions used for upgrading Followers; Downtime indicates how the Hero self-improves. Player Journal provides player-facing activities to help aid the GM in the creation of the story. Journals are basically creative writing exercises expanding upon a character, place, or event, sometimes retelling what already happened but from a relevant perspective in-character. The Hero Journal can grant bonus XP/Advancement checkmarks, while Follower journals grant a bonus choice for Gift attainment/Burden removal. I recall times where some gaming groups assign a player to be a “campaign scribe” in summarizing events of today’s session, and in exchange get in-game boons for this task. The Player Journal system more or less codifies this as a rule, and is especially appropriate for duet play.  This chapter details the various rewards that can cross a Hero’s path during their adventures. The first section details sample tables and instructions on creating fancy valuable objects pertinent to the era, but the bulk of this section covers loot of the more magical variety. Magical items from the base 5th Edition rules can be imported, but the book has some advice: Heroes may be learned in mystical ways, but they aren’t practitioners of sorcerous arts and so mostly concern themselves with magical items that have straightforward practical effects which don’t require deeply-honed arcane knowledge. Talismans are common magical items primarily designed to be worn in order to avert misfortune or bring good fortune. They have once-per-day abilities which are activated in a certain way (prayer to a god, rubbing it or holding it alofted, swearing an oath, etc) and the effects typically grant Inspiration under a certain condition, turn a critical hit into a normal hit, restore hit points, or grant advantage on a certain skill type for 1 minute after spending Inspiration. Amulets are more powerful and typically have ‘charges’ which refresh every day such as spending inspiration to make a spent Follower unspent, gain Darkvision, or grant advantage on a specific kind of roll. Greater Amulets have always active powers such as breathing underwater, allowing the wearer to jump 3 times their normal distance, resistance vs a specific energy type, advantage on all saving throws, and the like. Magical Weapons and Armour gain static attack/damage/AC bonuses, but they must have some kind of cultural significance or expert craftsmanship per +1 value. For example, pattern welding is a smithing technique which makes a weapon count as magical for purposes of damage resistance/immunity along with the +1 enhancement. Other means of creating/enhancing further +1s include weapons with names that become widely known in song and tale or are gifted via ritual gift-giving for a great service; ones etched with mysterious runes; and weapons found in ancestor graves and barrows (but are typically warded with curses and unliving guardians). There’s also “dwarf made” weapons and armor that in reality reflect any exceptional craftsmanship, and grant bonus damage equal to the wielder’s proficiency or an AC bonus equal to half said proficiency. Finally, there’s a sidebar which gives inspiration for coming up with Old English names for weapons and armour of renown. Healing Treasures represent various herbs, salves, and medicines. They are never for sale and locally produced for times of great need or given as rewards to a Hero. They are rather ho-hum, restoring hit points and removing Conditions and diseases. But in regards to being used on Followers we get more interesting effects: healing items can cause a spent Follower to become unspent, gain a temporary Gift, or have a duration-based Gift last an extra round Treasures of the Book and Hoards of the Old Gods are alignment-specific treasures and take on cultural aesthetics. Christian-style magic items include the bones of saints, engraved crosses, tablets inscribed with the Lord’s Prayer and such, while artifacts of the Old Ways can be more versatile ranging from hammer pendants, rune-engraved antlers, and carved wooden heads in the likeness of a deity. Both types of treasures impart once per day abilities, ranging from turning undead to adding Inspiration Tokens to a Hero/Follower Pool to imposing the stunned condition as an AoE against creatures of an opposing alignment/faith. There do exist “unaligned/neutral” treasures that tend to be merely extraordinary items unconnected to the supernatural, or possessed of powers unknown to both pagans and Christians. The neutral-aligned effects are more down to earth, like gaining advantage on any Intelligence check (particularly in the case of scholarly texts) or adding proficiency bonus to restored Hit Points during a short rest. Magical Animals are the final type of treasure and are different from Noble Animals in that they are less active and only good for a neat trick or two at most. They can scout out areas, provide warnings, grant Inspiration to their owner 1/day, grant advantage on relevant skill checks in which they can be of assistance, or restore Hit Points 1/day via comfort and companionship or “magical spittle.” Gross. Thoughts So Far: Although I have yet to test it out in play, the Follower system seems to have great potential in shoring up a lone PC’s short-comings. Given that the Hero can gain a lot of Followers over time it is approaching more of a “minion” style than that of relatively-equal sidekicks. The Gifts & Burden sub-systems are at once easily understood yet have enough variety in choices, and the use of encounters, being spent, awarding of treasure, and actions undertaken by the Hero during adventures keep Followers from feeling static and unchanging while also requiring canny management in the rest-based encounter system that is D&D 5th Edition. The chapters on Adventure structure and Treasure had some useful material and provided great means of fleshing out the setting, although nothing in the way of being revolutionary. Overall, these chapters are nice additions for the GM in helping run campaigns that feel authentically Beowulfian. Join us next time as we cover the sample adventure in Part 6: the Three Ogre Brothers!
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Apr 22, 2021 00:37
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Red Markets: a Game of Economic Horror Part 16: Combat, the most dangerous game Welcome to a whole lot of fighting. There’s several combat sections, but the first (and the only one actually called Combat) is player-facing rules for combat. It’s, uh… pretty harsh. Baseline assumption is telling: Market forces always win. Don’t dodge a hit and it’s gonna land.  Still nice art spreads occasionally, though molotov and rifle guy are both gonna have really bad times really soon Initiative is straightforward d10, flat for NPCs and with SPD as a bonus for PCs. Individual rounds don’t have a defined length - I don’t really care for games that put it this way, but it works if you want to just “let the narrative flow” or whatever. Every turn, you get a tactic. A planned action like making an attack, moving, making a skill check, etc. These go in straight initiative order. You also get one twitch, which is your defensive reaction for dodging, taking cover, etc. (Yes, this means you can only dodge once per turn normally - don’t get outnumbered.) A few modifiers exist for turning tactics into twitches and vice versa, but for the most part it’s one of each. Freebies, traditional free actions, are… also one per turn, despite some of them not even making sense as a 1/turn limit (“Self-Control tests called for by the Market” - okay, market calls one for you and then someone else prompts something forcing a group-wide check, what happens?). Plus tasks for extended action - a number of successful checks or a number of uninterrupted combat rounds to do it, standard fare. There are a few initiative variant rules included. The simplest and least likely to see a given table is Fog of War - more simply, “reroll initiative every turn”. This adds effectively nothing to any given game and I can’t see anyone using it considering the bookkeeping downsides and difficulty of balance. Last Shall Be First is neat enough - the last initiative slot (PC or NPC) gets shuffled to the top of the next turn’s order and can act twice, meaning low initiative results aren’t the end of the world without having too much more bookkeeping. Wouldn’t use it but can see its appeal. Last Individual Initiative has the Market pair NPCs to PCs and resolve each player’s group down the line. It’s another “interesting, but would never use it” design - it looks and feels like a death spiral in initiative form. Movement is traditional narrative game “handwave it till it works”. Noteworthy here is that the consequences of running out of rations finally shows up - you’re “gassed”. Can’t do any more than slowly walk or barely lift for a round, then recharge up to your Speed. Until you have rations to spend, you stay there as a max, and of course there are rules for starving death, because why wouldn’t there be. Combat and damage is where things start getting spicy. Counter to some of the game’s “we don’t want to be too crunchy, just handwave it some”, Red Markets is one of the few recent games I’ve read that actually still uses hit boxes… and a lot of them. Each limb and your head has 10, torso has 20, and there’s two types of damage to go into them - Stun and Kill. Damage and hit location both come off your dice roll to hit - Black die’s natural result is damage, Red’s is location. The default mapping is no more than 20% chance to any given location, though there’s an alternate hit location chart provided that instead puts 50% of hits into center mass for even more lethality and less leg damage. There’s also a rule for random damage thanks to the side effects of damage calculation - because player rolls run everything in combat, damage gets tilted to specific locations in both directions, so the Market rolling damage randomly each time counteracts that. It also makes the game way more deadly and combat potentially take longer. There’s a full chart for what happens when a given hit location gets filled - Stun generally translates to “blocks making checks or makes them more difficult”, while Kill layers on bleedout (and outright kills you if it’s in the torso or head, of course). Bleeding out is nasty, too - every turn you don’t get first aid, take 1d10 Kill flat from any location, until it stops or you die. Nasty. Healing? Still real weak, just like from NPC doctors - a first aid check gets you your flat d10 of stun boxes back, or half as many kill boxes. Once per location max, not repeatable. Anything beyond that is a doctor. Healthcare’s expensive! A few more boom/bust rules too - permanent hitbox reduction for limbs filled with Kill damage, spending a point of Will to shift head damage to the torso, and spending a point of Will to completely destroy a piece of gear to shift damage off the player. All good, last one is harder to justify but still one I’d use in places. A few “weird damage” types too - car crashes (GM fiat, anywhere from 1d10 stun to one location to straight-up dying instantly), falling (controlled falls are legs only, 2d10 take lower; tumbles are hits to two separate locations, damage still fiat), suffocation (no penalty for your SPD in rounds, then 1d10 stun a turn till torso and head are filled, then kill; stun erases automatically when you can breathe), and poison (basically just bleeding out with a different name). Splitting off the combat maneuvers and NPC rules into their own post for Part 17.
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Apr 22, 2021 04:13
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Kaza42 posted:No, that was the Taxxons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivQ9OU2B5so
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Apr 22, 2021 12:58
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Fivemarks posted:Remember, it's canon that the Klingons got a leg up by getting uplifted by other aliens who wanted to use them as soldiers. Or am I thinking of the Kzinti? Cythereal posted:That was a thing in the Star Trek EU in the TOS era. For the record, I think it was both, as far as the beta canon (as in, not really) sources go; that the Klingons have a backstory suspiciously similar to the Kzinti. (who are potentially also canon to Star Trek, considering TAS) The Taxxons iirc come to mind in that they're all too aware that their evolution has screwed them over compared to other sentient species, to the point where they actively choose to obtain morphing just to lock themselves into boa constrictor form, being closest to their original form but having actually controllable appetites compared to what they're used to.
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Apr 22, 2021 16:38
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Fivemarks posted:Remember, it's canon that the Klingons got a leg up by getting uplifted by other aliens who wanted to use them as soldiers. Or am I thinking of the Kzinti? I think the closest we come to this idea in-canon is Worf talking about how the Klingon religion has no gods because they personally killed them thousands of years ago, and this has been interpreted by fans as a distorted cultural memory of a rebellion against aliens posing as gods. Not like it would be unusual, at least three Earth pantheons were actually aliens.
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Apr 22, 2021 17:22
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tbf boa constrictors have an awesome life, I'd be down to be a boa
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Apr 22, 2021 17:30
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The main thing I remember about locational damage in Red Markets is how frustrating it was - you shot a guy and hit him in the leg, then the next player shot him and hit him in the arm, but because you were damaging separate pools of health neither of those wounds were incapacitating. It's another mechanic that probably works out perfectly from a mathematical perspective, but felt off in actual play. Though if I remember correctly, you could spend Will or some other metacurrency (more ammunition?) to shoot someone in the head instead of the big toe, which was cool (and also useful against Special Infected and other boss monsters).
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Apr 22, 2021 17:38
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mellonbread posted:The main thing I remember about locational damage in Red Markets is how frustrating it was - you shot a guy and hit him in the leg, then the next player shot him and hit him in the arm, but because you were damaging separate pools of health neither of those wounds were incapacitating. It's another mechanic that probably works out perfectly from a mathematical perspective, but felt off in actual play. Though if I remember correctly, you could spend Will or some other metacurrency (more ammunition?) to shoot someone in the head instead of the big toe, which was cool (and also useful against Special Infected and other boss monsters). Called shots, part of the next bit. Spend both your tactic and your twitch for the turn to call the location you're hitting. (E: oh yeah, and you also have to move to the end of initiative AND stay there, AND you have to make a precision check in order to hit with the shot) The heavy limb wounding is called out directly in the random damage alt rule - damage to players favors light torso and head damage, while damage to NPCs favors heavy leg damage (not helped by legs making up 40% of the hit chart on their own!). But yes, "you take the natural result with no modifiers on every single gun" is a major limiter to making wounds count - and yes, I didn't really hit on it, but that's the way it works. Everything takes the natural die result and just applies it as a given damage type. The excessive-damage stuff like Heavy Rifles does so by applying it twice, once as stun and once as kill, and certain melee weapons get modifiers as upgrades (most notably swords and their +3 potential flat damage) but otherwise there's no meaningful damage modifiers. It's... glaring.
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Apr 22, 2021 17:48
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Asterite34 posted:I think the closest we come to this idea in-canon is Worf talking about how the Klingon religion has no gods because they personally killed them thousands of years ago, and this has been interpreted by fans as a distorted cultural memory of a rebellion against aliens posing as gods. Not like it would be unusual, at least three Earth pantheons were actually aliens. Not gonna lie: Klingon Stargate would be radical.
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Apr 22, 2021 19:08
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SkyeAuroline posted:Called shots, part of the next bit. Spend both your tactic and your twitch for the turn to call the location you're hitting. (E: oh yeah, and you also have to move to the end of initiative AND stay there, AND you have to make a precision check in order to hit with the shot)
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Apr 22, 2021 19:12
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Chapter 9: Burn, pt. 1 Degenesis Rebirth Katharsys Chapter 9: Burn  The chapter intro image! You, ugh, might want to get that thing checked out... We interrupt the talk of nanomachines to remind you that the insidious influence of Primer - and not tech bros - is supposed to be the major threat to humanity in the setting. A large part of its insidiousness comes from spreading via  Sepsis Sepsis can make a tick seek a human host just like those shrooms that brain control ants. Spore infestation can spread through various means - tick bites, quote:Their mental resistance is their strongest weapon, though. As long as a human resists mentally, the ether call cannot reach the gossamer growing within him. The Primer cannot activate the Sepsis yet. The battle is not yet lost. Spore Infestation Spore infestation level is tracked on your sheet. Low levels don’t cause any harm - they only make the Mollusk (the Sepsis-laced tissue sample atop the Spitalian spears) convulse. Seeing how Mollusks start reacting at even a single point of infestation, and you can be infected by everything and anything, taking it into any major settlement must make a Splayer vibrate out of existence. Stigma Go over 50% of your infestation scale, and you start getting red markings on your chest, and a Culture (so, you know, Borca, Pollen, etc.) symbol forms from tiny Sepsis hairs (ewww). Remember the chapter image! Carrier of the Seed Once you exceed your infestation scale, you roll PSY+Faith/Willpower (excess points). If you fail, you get one permanent spore infestation point. That is something not even adrenochrome-laced colloidal EX baths can’t cure. This roll happens every time you exceed the scale. No word on whether the excess points have to be tracked, and whether they add to further tests. Better get that EX. Leperos Once you hit 50% of your infestation scale with permanent infestation, you have become a Leperos. Your nose and lungs are full of alien shroom gunk, and you spread Sepsis just by sneezing. The book says “the Primer is fully in control” which may or may not mean that your character is now an NPC. The Spitalians would surely burn you like one. Forbidden Fruit  This pinecone doesn't look that inhalable to me! quote:The fungal bloom has started on the spore field. Cusps rise from the Sepsis blanket, big as two clasped hands, covered in tiny veins. With their paper skin, they resemble wasp nests. But there are no insects inside them. Within them rustles a drug that has taken Europe by storm: Burn. Space mushroom crack comes in weak and potent varieties. The former is found in young spore fields, while the later is harvested in Mother spore fields. Weak is potency 1 while Poten is potency 1D. Yes, the expensive, rare variety can just gently caress you and give you the same high as the trash weed. Administration Normally, a spore field owned by a consortium of five biggest mushroo- oh, it’s about administering burn, not tending to the fields, my bad. To get high, you poke the fragile skin of the burn cusp at one end, drill a hole in the other (I don’t know why poking doesn’t work), and inhale. quote:The amount of spores inhaled exceeds the critical mass to work on humans by just a little. You can then easily dispose of the fragile shell. Of course, sometimes the popo gets the drop on burnheads, so in Named Settlements of Plot Importance, Apocalyptics basically put Burn in wineskins, inflate them, and then you breathe in the air coming out like you were trying to do silly voices with the help of a helium balloon. Sporination A side section! You can get spore infestation by being in or near places of Sepsis activity. You have to make BOD+Toughness (Intensity) test every (interval) or get (1 or 1D) spore infestation. quote:If the roll fails, the Character gets spore infestation points according to the table below. There is no “table below.” It was at the bottom of the preceding page  The table goes from Intensity one, Interval 1/day, 1 infestation “light sporination close to spore field” to intensity ten, interval 1/hour, 1D infestation “spore saturation at the Pollen spore front and in the Earth Chakras.” The best thing is that Parasite on the second lowest tier (intensity 2, the rest is the same as level 1) so if you want a vacation in Paris… Next time: 2 to power of 16 inhale it
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Apr 22, 2021 19:24
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Nessus posted:This seems to do nothing but guarantee massive medical bills, which of course insert commentary here etc. etc. but at a certain point would just become frustrating? Not even necessarily in a way that advances the theme of the games, except in so far as the theme of the game is "the frustrating and corrosive, can't-hardly-win economic situation of the modern day," which handily means that any weird, janky or lousy game design decision can be declared to be On Purpose, potentially with a note of Ah but You See, That's The Point. To a certain extent it does enforce why starting fights in the post apocalypse world is risky - you don't benefit from shooting the other guy in the leg, but you really suffer if he shoots you. Which ultimately depends on whether combat is something that can be avoided through careful decisions and planning, whether circumstances and the game's random encounter system produces encounters that can't be avoided, and the players' tolerance for random poo poo hurting them out of nowhere (in the case of the classic "sniper who you failed to see with a perception test shoots you"). It's one of the reasons why the game has a metacurrency system to hedge against bad outcomes, though it's yet another resource on the character sheet that has to be managed and depleted.
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Apr 22, 2021 19:33
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 This is an introductory adventure scaled for a Hero of 1st to 2nd level. The book suggests running the free Hermit’s Sanctuary adventure first, given that one follows the formula outlined in Part Four more closely, and in such a case the Hero may have leveled up at its completion. Otherwise, a 1st level PC may level up in the middle of the adventure, which is also accounted for. The backdrop for this adventure is that Eotenalond was ruled over by an ogre warlord who slain the rightful human king. He died with three sons and didn’t appoint any of them to be his heir, for they all had positive and negative qualities in equal measure: his oldest was strong but neither brave nor cunning, the middle one brave but neither cunning nor strong, and the youngest was cunning but neither strong nor brave. The ogre king decided to have his now-gone dwarf servant build each of them a weapon, making them immune to immortal harm save for the weapons of each other as long as their respective weapons remain within their care, and that the last one standing shall be the heir. The ogres realized that their father sought to pit them against each other, and slain him; but even so that didn’t encourage any mutual trust, for each brother still feared the day when the others turned against them. So naturally the Ogre Lands became fractious plots of lands engaged in a cold war ruled over by their respective ogre brothers, and the people suffer under their cruel and greedy ways. Enter the Hero, who embarks on a voyage there after a suitable adventure hook and Voyage Challenges. Upon reaching landfall the crew spots a lonely lighthouse amid the storm-wrought shore. Within this safe haven is an impromptu temple to the God of the Book and three figures, a father and two brothers, who can be interacted with as in the Meadhall and Mystery rules to illuminate the PCs further on the ogres. The Hero can also inspect the painted shutters of the chapel to learn of the region’s recent history via illustrations as well as the ogre brothers’ weaknesses upon a high enough Investigation check. The Hero can also learn that the family’s sole daughter ran away and they do not wish to speak of her. After being offered shelter from the torrential weather, the Hero and Followers will wake up to a now-ruined chapel and no trace of the men left behind. Said men were in fact ghosts of the prior human king and his sons. Social stat blocks are provided for the trio, and give good outlines on how the Hero can gain advantage/disadvantage with skill checks, along with the results of information gained based on the degrees of success and failure. Even in cases of failed rolls the Hero can gain something, such as an added token to the Follower/Hero Pool and some information (albeit not the juiciest bits). The adventure is technically a sandbox in that the ogre brothers’ lands can be resolved out of order, but some are closer to the lighthouse and shore than others so they're detailed as such: the Fens of Braegde, the marshlands claimed by the youngest and most cunning ogre of the same name; the Grasslands of Magan, claimed by the strongest and oldest of the brothers; and finally the mountainous Slopes of Bald, claimed by the bravest of the brothers.  The Fens of Braegde are not ideal for farming, so most of its inhabitants make a living harvesting peat that makes for a useful fuel source and raising pigs to dig for tubers. The Hero has the chance to interact with several community figures here, as well as the opportunity to recruit two new Followers depending on their actions: Sverra is a respected peat gatherer who can tell the Hero about Braegde’s tricky ways and the defenses of his crannog, and will join the party if they discover the ogres’ weakness (and is in turn promised a position of power in the new order). The other potential follower is Helge the Fen Witch, who is actually the sole living heir of the last human king and the sister/daughter of which the lighthouse ghosts spoke of. The necklace she wears is the last piece of her family’s jewelry, which Braegde wants in order to legitimize his rule and thus something she refuses to give up. The Hero can learn that she became estranged from her family when they converted to the God of the Book, and she remained a proud adherent of the Old Ways. Braegde lives in a fort supported by stilts over a swampy moat. A bridge is the sole easy means of crossing, although it’s possible to swim up and climb to the roundhouse. To prevent such a scenario the ogre made use of a horse-sized Moat Snake as a carnivorous guardian, which is fed just enough to keep it hungry but not enough that it weakens from starvation. Beyond said monster, Braegde keeps a retinue of 13 guards of unscrupulous character (Bandits led by a Fallen warrior). Braegde is smart enough to know that appearances of honor are important, and will act the part of a magnamious guest if the Hero comes nonviolently to the fort. He hopes to use the bonds of hospitality to get them to feed his moat snake and retrieve Helge’s jewelry which he insists is rightfully his. The adventure offers various means of resolution and planning, but assumes a violent end to Braegde’s rule as the outcome. Sample plans include challenging the ogre to a riddle contest in betting their life or service against a loan of his sword (to be used to fight one of his brothers), or infiltrating the fortress to steal Braegde’s sword and turn it upon the ogre or use against the others. An interesting thing to note about the dwarf-forged ogre weapons. Although they take different forms and damage types, each of them is sized enough to deal 2d8 to 2d10 damage. However they have the Massive burden, meaning any Hero with Strength less than 15 cannot apply their STR bonus to the damage roll for they require all their might just to control the weapon. Additionally the ogres lose the Undefeatable quality when the weapon leaves their own hands, meaning that Followers and other sources of damage can harm them normally when such conditions are met.  The Grasslands of Magan are flatlands whose inhabitants raise and breed herds of horses. Magan has two pressing concerns to his rule beyond his rival brothers: one is the presence of the famed wild horse (and recruitable Noble Animal) Thunderclip who he wishes to claim as a mount of his own. The other is the warrior Ejnar, something of a recent folk hero known only as the Outrider who has been striking out against Magan’s forces and has yet to be caught. Thunderclip only shows up to gallop among the plains on the stormiest of nights, and Magan is plotting to organize a small cavalry of warriors to find and capture the steed which the PCs can take advantage of. The PCs can take hospitality from a local farming family (complete with their own Social Stat Block) to learn the lay of the land and hooks regarding Magan’s plots. Battle with Magan will most likely take place during the Storm Hunt for Thunderclip or at his hall. Unlike Braegde, he has little concern for hospitality and wants nothing to do with the Hero unless he believes they can be used to capture Thunderclip and/or kill the Outrider. Beyond the man himself are an unspecified number of mounted Raiders and his second-in-command is the woman Hjördis, who is as cruel as Magan himself. Like Braegde’s encounter the adventure outlines various tactics and opportunities for the PC to turn things in their favor, from intimidating Hjördis enough that she won’t aid her master in combat, recruiting Thunderclip and/or Ejnar to ambush Magan during the Storm Hunt,* challenging Magan to single combat** or tests of competitive strength in order to earn hospitality or suitable stakes that don’t involve giving up his ogreclub weapon. *drat, I’m getting Twilight Princess flashbacks now. **which neither Magan nor his minions will honor, unless the Hero intimidates them sufficiently during the social encounter or Ejnar and other Followers occupy them to ensure that the duel remains honorable.  The Slopes of Bald detail the last ogre brother who presides over an enclosed mountain fortress. This segment of the adventure is the most straightforward: Bald isn’t one for intrigue, and his local trouble involves a young frost dragon by the name of Grimrik who is a partial convert to the God of the Book after a faithful human by the name of Ingrunn started to read him fascinating tales from the Bible. The PCs can meet Ingrunn in a hut which he retreated to to escape from ‘worldly temptations,’ and his word can help bring Advantage in negotiations with Grimrik in forming an alliance against Bald. Yes, Grimrik can be recruited as a follower. He’s actually quite young for a frost dragon (Medium size) but as a follower he has a nice array of Gifts to boost his melee combat capabilities. The narrative reason as to why he doesn’t use his breath weapon is to avoid friendly fire. Bald’s minions are the Cold Iron Guard, so named for their well-armed, well-armored wargear. They have their own stat blocks rather than using generic human enemies from the following Monsters chapter, as CR ½ humans armed with Great Spears and armor that grants them 17 AC. Bald will show the minimum respect to his guests for ‘hospitality,’ but the cold, dark longhouse and his obsessive running of fingers along his greataxe indicates that he knows why the Hero is here and that their meeting will eventually end in violence. This is only if he’s aware that the party has one or more of his brothers’ weapons. Otherwise a successful Deception/Persuasion check can convince Bald to let the party accompany him on a ‘dragon hunt,’ where he plans to betray and kill the Hero and his Followers...which can also be a means for Ingrunn and/or Grimrik to ambush Bald’s guards or spring to the rescue depending on what is dramatically appropriate. Once all three ogres have been dealt with, the Hero is rewarded by the various communities, but the fun doesn’t end there. Depending on the alliances the Hero made and the promises they gave, the lands may unite into one (most likely under Helge) or become separate kingdoms with varying degrees of cooperativeness. Resolutions for the various lands and potential leadership candidates are given, including Grimrik, who will laugh and automatically turn it down to the relief of everyone as he has little desire to ‘meddle in human squabbles.’ Beyond this we have a list of experience awards for the adventures’ encounters, 3 full-page battlemaps for the respective ogres’ halls, and 7 index cards of all the potentially recruitable Followers for this adventure. Thoughts So Far: This adventure has quite a lot going for it; enough narrative freedom for the Hero to resolve things in various ways, and various investigation/social encounters which can “fail forward” even on less than ideal rolls. The overall plot is straightforward, but the various twists and turns, from the magical horse to a Christian dragon ally, are pleasantly unexpected to the point that I can see this being a rather memorable adventure. One interesting thing to highlight is how the game rules manage to blunt the omnipresent lethality of low-level adventures. The Ogres are some pretty heavy hitters in melee combat, although the higher starting Hit Points, likely high AC, and use of Followers should give even a 1st-level PC enough of a fighting chance. I certainly cannot see this as a suitable 1st or 2nd level adventure for a standard 5e game. Beyond this, there are some concerns to raise: the first is that the simple “kick in the door” style play cannot work given the Undefeatable nature of Monsters in Beowulf, which should be emphasized to new players even if the setting and inspired stories are at their heart ones of glorious battles. The other is that the adventure is non-standard in having 3 capital-M Monsters rather than 1, which if done as a player’s first exposure to Beowulf may make them think most monsters in the game are like this. Join us next time as we finish up this book in Part 7: Monsters and the Appendix!
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Apr 23, 2021 00:21
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I like Beowulf's rules for followers in particular.
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Apr 23, 2021 00:29
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Beowulf is cool save for the 5e taint.
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Apr 23, 2021 05:32
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Chapter 9: Burn, pt. 2 Degenesis Rebirth Katharsys Chapter 9: Burn Intoxication Taking Burn doesn’t get you high - it connects you to the Earth Chakra  :quote:One deep breath and Burn swirls in the lungs. Like blight, it covers the mucosa and sinks in. The spores negotiate the alveolus and reach the brain via the blood stream. The Burner still feels the cusp in his hand, hears its rustling. He closes his eyes. His mind is already soaring like spore vapors. He expands into a cloud of consciousness that turns into an orbit around the mother consciousness, swept along by a vortex of thousands of thoughts—a journey into pure, scintillating divinity. Later, the Burner will report mental fusion, the glowing of the Chakras, transmigration and obsession, balance, a reality of primal knowledge in a giant space of consciousness. Others only Of all the failings of Degenesis’ writing, describing a process in granular detail remains probably the largest. It’s meant to sound cool and gritty, but it always comes off as a detailed breakdown of how babies get delivered by a stork: true, babies exist, but not they don’t materialize via the process you’re describing. As you come down from the Burn high, you disconnect from the hive mind and get back to being a singular person. The Burn chapter is the one place where Marko decided that setting rules aside from fluff would be helpful, though how successful he was at that is another question: quote:RULES: The intoxication lasts (Potency) hours. But that is not always desirable, especially not in battle. The Burner can allow these visions to happen, but he can also suppress them and reduce the intoxication to its physical aspect. It’s cool how the mind-blowing, soul-searing Chakra visions are easier to hold off than a sneeze  . I bet some adventure path will feature a force Burn trip without this simple method of bowing out! Stimulus Aside from the hellacious trip  , Burn provides other benefits, like restoring one Ego point per Potency while also giving you the same amount of spore infestation. You can get more Ego by consuming more.Let’s say you’re the pregen Monitor, the Worst Chronicler. He has 4 Ego and 4 Spore infestation. One potent cusp (1D potency) can send him into a permanent infestation check. The characters I built are all in the 8-10 range, somehow. Maybe I made a mistake. Still, for them, Seeing how damage goes up in this game, this isn’t much of a safety net. You need potent Burn, but that one’s unpredictable, and probably expensive. Well, “luckily,” there are additional benefits to taking Burn, all depending from the region where it was harvested (to prevent cheesing, only the stimulant effect from the last consumed cusp takes effect). Among other descriptors, a table tells you which body chakra is activated by each type, which sure is useful information.  >Bion: the Pollen/Pandora version. It’s a harsh land, so the Burn counteracts the harshness by making you more resistant and less hungry: quote:The Burner shakes off illnesses and poisons like ruin dust. He does not feel cold. He gets the Potency of the Bion as automatic Successes to his resistance rolls. Yeah, I think only the bolded part is supposed to be actual rules, and the rest is just flavor text they couldn’t help but slam in there. Anyways, getting +1S from weak Burn is, ugh, lame. 20 CD for weak, 60 CD for potent. >Glory: the combat Burn from Purgare/Nox. Adds Potency to PSY+Faith/Willpower as automatic successes… wait a minute, if you roll 6 on potency of Glory, but it takes you over your infestation threshold, do you automatically have 6 successes to resist it with? You also get half of the Potency to your Body attribute  , so good luck updating all the calculations. 30/90 - one of the two most expensive varieties! Also, considering what a pain in the rear end spore fields must be to harvest (and the employee turn over), you’d think Burn would be more expensive. >Unity: the French/Soufrance Burn turns you into a hippie. The flavor text has already forgotten the rules about the duration as it says “after about two hours, there is an intense emotion of peace and balance that makes even the most hardened warrior refrain from using violence.”  In effect, the PC will lose all will to fight, exchanging it for the desire to settle everything peacefully. They will only fight if forced, and only until they can flee. For the less asinine effects, you get Potency bonus CHA+Negotianion/Expression - just bonus dice, no auto successes. On top of that, “all negative effects of stress are null and void in the stimulus phase.” These people can’t write.  10/30 - nobody wants to be a hippie  >Muse: the Balkhan/Usud version makes you one with the vibrations and the music of the spheres, maaan.  You get a Potency bonus to INS+Perception/Empathy roll. You can also roll your non-physical skills (INT, INS, CHA, PSY) at the same time as someone else is taking the same test, and give them up to Potency in Successes and Triggers, but you also lose 1 Ego per such Action roll (I assume only for when you do the Vulkan mind meld). 20/60 for the world ending alternative to an acid trip. >Argus: comes from Hybrispania and allows you to see the distant future or near past. Flowery language promising you the world aside, it only gives Potency dice for initiative rolls, and you can’t be surprised. Useful, but none of the fluff text about “not losing yourself in the time stream” is reflected here. The implications of doing some time drug based espionage or whatever are also not discussed, so no trying to dig up resource caches by using Argus to observe someone entering a code into a keypad or something. 30/90 due to actually being useful. >Discordia: this is Discordant burn, harvested from the Fractal Forests. Visually indistinguishable from regular Burn, it will gently caress you up. quote:Still, there are psychoactive spores in the cusps. The members of the Shabath see this as the field trying to sweat out all the madness, an immune reaction. Maybe it works, and the discordant fields get better. However, there is no healing in sight yet; we are talking spans of centuries or millennia here. Well, it’s bad for your writing, that’s for sure. quote:There is no stimulus and no intoxication phase. The user is sucked into an indescribable void: the soul singularity. Many Burners tell of seven marks from the forehead down to the sex burning holes into their bodies and draining them of every emotion, even pain. They drift through nowhere, can only watch the marks bleed out and their energy swirl away into spiral galaxies in the endless blackness. After six hours, the curtain tears, and they fall back to reality. The awakening is painful; the world seems strange and incomprehensible for days afterwards—and disgustingly bright. Some part of them has been lost to the Darkness. No matter the Potency, you roll 1D to select an attribute, and then another 1D: on 1-5, the attribute falls to 1 for 6 hours, while on a 6, it rises to 6. It still costs 60 because ??? Next time: fantastic drugs and where to find them
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Apr 23, 2021 06:07
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Age of Sigmar: Hedonites of Slaanesh Murder Is My Antidrug The Blissbarb Archers are perhaps the most numerous of the Blissbarb cults that form the backbone of Sybarite armies. Few of them remember much about their lives before joining the cult, often characterizing their pasts as a waking dream which feels unreal and unimportant compared to the reality of service to Slaanesh. For them, the pursuit of new experience is the primary goal. However, as the lowest ranking of Slaanesh's martial cultists, they are not permitted to seek the joy of hand-to-hand combat and the experience of pain and pleasure that comes from directly inflicting damage and receiving it. The Blissbarb Archers fight in close combat only when forced to. Instead, their duty is to spread pain and chaos among the enemy with their arrows. Their accuracy is amazing, helped by their heightened senses. While they may be low in rank, Slaanesh blesses the Blissbarb with highly sensitive vision and hearing as a reward for their devotion to killing in his name. The Blissbarb view archery as an art form to be mastered, and their bows are highly decorated and ornamented as well as being functional. The sharp, crescent-shaped prongs on the ends of the bow aren't just for show, however - they're also an emergency weapon, able to cause agonising wounds if jabbed into the enemy when they get close. Perhaps mnre terrible is what happens to those that survive their arrow assault. The Blissbarb always travel in the company of Homunculi, strange creatures drawn to Slaaneshi cults by irresistable compulsion or created for them by Slaaneshi magic. Homunculi travel into battle alongside the Sybarites carrying large censers, which burn with a sickly-sweet incense that is called Blissbrew. Blissbrew's ingredients are horrible and gross, including things like severed heads and sacrificial hearts, and the mixture is used to coat the arrows of the Blissbarb before they fire. Blissbrew functions as a very potent toxin, able to overwhelm even gigantic monsters if applied in sufficient quantity. The Archers celebrate its power as they fight, cheering and shouting in the midst of battle as they dare each other to perform ever more impressive trick shots. Their accuracy allows their arrows to strike in the tiniest gaps in armor, and each strike increases the dose of the poison in the enemy. The poison heightens sensations of pain and panic, leading the enemy into fearful fits as the rest of the Hedonites move in to clean up. The Blissbarb sometimes try to sneak in some help there, wielding shortblades and punch daggers if they think they can get away with sneaking in some indulgence of their desires for pain and sadism. Blissbarb Seekers focus less on pain and more on speed. (Not the drug. Okay, sometimes the drug.) They take their name from their daemonic counterparts, sometimes out of honor and sometimes jealousy, because they too ride the beasts known as Exalted Steeds of Slaanesh. The Seekers are no less accurate than their footslogging companions, able to fire off massive volleys at an impossible pace. They prefer poisons that cause convulsions and seizures, the better to cripple foes and make them break their own bones. They aren't especially patient sorts, af ter all, and believe Slaanesh will reward them for chasing their whims and taking advantage of every moment. (They aren't wrong, really.) Most Seekers are former Blissbarb Archers who nearly died or had some other massively life-changing experience. Afterwards, they feel an urge to get an Exalted Steed, traveling into the Chaos-corrupted wastes of the Mortal Realms and discarding their old personas and ways. They chase after hallucinatory visions, which lead them through the halls of daemons and through war-torn battlefields, making their way to the lost and forgotten corners of the world, where the border between reality and Chaos is thin. Most fail in their journeys, never managing to find these places and losing Slaanesh's favor. Only the most determined make it, willing to drive their bodies on even while starving and broken. These earn the attention of the Exalted Steeds through their self-destructive obsession, which the beasts find beautiful. A Steed that is sufficiently charmed by the cultist will allow itself to be ridden, turning the cultist into a proud Seeker. The Exalted Steeds are greater than those lesser monsters ridden by the Hellstriders, who take the easy route of making a dark pact rather than pursuing their goal with single-minded devotion. Exalted Steeds can persist in the Mortal Realms far longer than most daemons can, for they are empowered by the love and devotion of their riders, who perform dark rituals to honor them and willingly cut themselves to mix their blood with that of the mount. Rider and mount are often practically inseperable, and their bond is as strong as any in the world. It's said that in service of their rider, an Exalted Steed can even outrun the Gryph-chargers of Azyr, spitting foul poison all the while. Where the Blissbarb Archers use Blissbrew, the Blissbarb Seekers coat their arrowheads in the poison produced by the Exalted Steeds, and even a drop can cause horrific pain. Slickblade Seekers are the knights of Slaanesh, warriors that run at the front of Sybarite armies atop their Exalted Steeds. They wield long polearms which they twirl and toss about in fantastic shows, then use to carve into the most vulnerable parts of the foe. They are drawn from the ranks of the Blissbarb Seekers who find that fighting at range no longer satisfies them. They crave the screams of the dying, the feeling of hot blood on their skin and the pulsing adrenaline of close combat. They wear little armor, and what they do wear is chosen to catch the eye - massive crested helms polished to a mirror sheen. They wield large and ornate glaives sharpened to a razor's edge, and their fighting style is fluid, graceful and beautiful. Even when in actual combat, they take the time to show off flourishes and spin their blades, making use of the showmanship in wide, sweeping attacks. Their Steeds work to match them, lashing out with whip-like tongues. The Slickblades are extremely proud, seeing themselves as the royalty of battle. They work hard to outdo anyone that seems to be able to claim that sort of title, and many of their fighting techniques are drawn from those they envy. Their high-speed attacks mimic those of the Myrmidesh cult, while their cleaving swings are drawn from stolen Lumineth techniques. They practice the art of decapitation in a single blow in order to put Khornate warriors to shame, and they revel in the applause of the Blissbarb cultists around them after a kill. They fight to be seen, after all, as well as to fill the censers of Blissbrew with the severed heads needed to produce the stuff.  Next time: Myrmidesh, Symbaresh and Slaangor
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Apr 23, 2021 12:26
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