|
From Hell pt. 1 Degenesis Rebirth Katharsys Chapter 10: From Hell  Fairly certain this guy doesn't appear in the game Ah, yes, we're entering the FORBIDDEN ZONE, the GM-only part that the players should never ever read!  From Hell is Degenesis' bestiary. Yes, the title is obnoxious, does not indicate what the chapter is about, and has nothing to do with Jack the Ripper, but that's not the worst part about it. Luckily, we'll get to it within this post! Rebirth: The Clans quote:The Chroniclers began as a small group of tech freaks who hoped to escape from this world through the Stream; the Judges and the Protectorate each grew from the ideas of one man; Apocalyptics and Jehammedans hail from pre-eschatological ideologies that needed the apocalypse to infect large groups of people. This bit hints at an idea that has recently been growing in my mind: in Degenesis' Great Man Theory, organizations always grow from either a singular founder, or have roots in pre-Eschaton. Very few have origins that are different from that. In any case, as a term, the Clans cover basically any other notable organization (however loosely the term can be applied) that never reached the status of a Cult. quote:Blinded by the light of civilization, they had no idea that the others have been waiting for their chance in the shadows ever since. The fall of Praha is that chance. The Clans rise and are much bigger than the Spotters of the Hellvetics and Judges ever deemed possible. The 21 most well-known and influential Clans are presented here. This is nonsense for many reasons. If anything, the fall of Praha would only be exciting to hairy-assed dirt fuckers with a centuries-old grudge against indoor plumbing. Quite a few groups mentioned later should actually be really worried about what happened. A few are probably incapable of worrying.  But the real kicker, a “gently caress you” to the GM that's bigger than anything the rules inflicted on the players, is this: quote:As opposed to beasts and Psychonauts, game masters will find no stats for Clanners. Even if they seem as grotesquely disfigured as the Usudis or Pandorians, they are still human. They only differ in training, methods, and equipment. No human NPC stats. Nothing.  No hints at building them to match the player level, no variation in dudes an org would have at their disposal, nothing.  It's up to you to determine what the benchmark is supposed to be, what combat stats and equipment they should have – everything. On the other hand, as we saw from the reviews of Degenesis adventures, the developers themselves have no loving clue how to construct combat encounters (or other encounters, really), so the I guess I'm being spared nonsensical statlines that would only make my blood boil.  Well, I know that we'll get stats for Psychonauts, AMSUMOs and animals,  There's also some nonsense about how the Clanner player can use these groups as inspirations, allies, etc., but that's not nearly as interesting as “21 Clans, 0 statlines.” Beasts Hey, did you know that animals exist? They do, you might get to fight them! quote:Some creatures like the Gendos are presented as representatives of the Primal Punk fauna. Game Masters can use them and their stats to create other beasts for their rounds.  Shadow of the Past Neither animals nor clans can match the real stars of the game: the  quote:While Cults, Clans, and beasts shape the present and become part of the daily array of enemies, Sleepers, Marauders, and AMSUMOs send ripples through the power structures of whole regions. Only an experienced and well-equipped Character can beat them. They will never be unimportant enemies by the wayside; when they arise, they take center stage and are the stuff of campaigns. I like the game's insistence that AMSUMOs are a nearly global threat when they have so far been mentioned like five times or so.  Primer Fauna Evil space chakra shroom creates all sorts of small critters, but, ugh, a GM should treat them as an environmental hazard rather than enemies to be fought in combat rounds. In other words, you must be this Gendo to matter. Psychonautics   This Pheromancer Queen was between the FORBIDDEN ZONE and Chapter 10 banner. Once again, Marko is scaring us with fat sex bad. Let's purple it up in this bitch: quote:The Psychonauts embody the terror of the Primer and the nemesis of humankind. They change the world like a force of nature: spore fields reach the surface and generate ring after ring; Pregnoctics fracture time and capture it in the present. Psychonauts may seem bestial, but their motives submit to a collective idea of the rebirth of evolution that knows neither good nor evil, only “fit” or “unfit.” Psychonauts actually have their own motivations, They also always fight to the death, why do you ask?  quote:Human enemies and even Gendos flee when hurt or out of options. Psychonauts always fight to the death. To reiterate, Pheromancers are literal kings ruling over their domains, Prognosticists do time shenanigans helping out the Guerreros in Hybrispania, and I'm sure the singing ones in Balkhan have some plans, but all of them are singularly unwilling to retreat or negotiate, like you would expect from a Biokinetic. That is some good game design there!  The book promises to give us Psychokinetics for all of the regions, and in several varieties as well, the weakest of which “can be vanquished by newbies – but they only foreshadow what's to come!”  Too bad the same consideration wasn't extended to the human NPCs. Human enemies quote:A Game Master has to prepare a lot and watch out for even more. Therefore, if he wants to use a human antagonist or even a whole group of them, he should stick to the basics. First, he should ask himself which function the opponent should have: if he wants to use him in combat, he needs combat stats; if he uses his Skills against the Characters, representing some kind of challenge, he does not need combat stats but does need other relevant Skills. See, it's not like the bad old games that gave poo poo Guard lvl. 1 proficiencies in cutlery – these guys know that combat enemies don't need social stats!  Too bad they didn't even provide a human template for different power levels. Combat Stats Repeats basically the same: the combat char statline already rolls everything together as if unto WFRP 4e: quote:The combat profile only consists of the basics—Initiative, Ego Points, attack Skill, weapon damage, and movement—and is used for non-human enemies; all Skill ratings are already added to their respective Attributes. I think the bolded part was supposed to mean non-player enemies, but I guess this is just a beautiful confluence of incompetence on the writer and translator sides! Weaknesses and Strength  Tribal marginalia is one of the more beautiful features of the book, too bad about the text. quote:Powerful and Big words coming from men who have no idea how to balance an encounter.  Here are the big exciting list of suggested weaknesses: quote:• A Hellvetic sniper only carries a Spotter Harness and is not armed for melee. Weakness #1: shootguy lacks a knife Weakness #2: knife guy lacks a gun Weakness #3: we have a Paler using Scrappper armor and no idea whether starting players having a Trailblazer would be too much Weakness #4: how about 1HP OHK? This is hilariously bad. Reward through battles quote:To smash a children’s Clan in Justitian’s Stukov quarter will get you no more than a pat on the shoulder from the local merchants. PCs were going after RG FS nanobot children acting as a distributed targeting network for an orbital meme missile silo, I'm sure. Anyways, you only get Renown awards for taking out Psychonauts and AMSUMOs. However, if you have Renown 4, you need to kill the highest level mutants and robots to get ahead. Killed a Marauder or destroyed a Clan invasion? gently caress you, we only care about freaks and beeps.  Abberations quote:When you’ve survived Gendo attacks a dozen times, you know how they act and what their weaknesses are. Combat will be predictable and thus boring. Instead of asking yourself “why did I include a dozen Gendo attacks in my campaign,” give the next group discordant or psychonautic effects. Flight Side-section! People don't fight to the death if they have the option. quote:An Usudi is still sure of his victory when he attacks the enemies alone, while a Garganti’s will to fight falters when one of his mammoths dies. Other than that, you can roll a fighter's PSY+Willpower/Faith (so that's another stat you need to add to the line) vs difficulty or run away/surrender. They can be rallied with CHA+Leadership vs. PSY+Willpower/Faith (and using an action), so that's another thing you need to add to the combat statline. There's a table of modifiers, the only interesting part is the negative modifiers that make you stay: being surrounded (-1), hated enemy (-1) and “protection instinct (family)” (-2). Next time: Clans, actually
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2021 19:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 21:23 |
|
|
JcDent posted:From Hell pt. 1 We need to create a game for this image, I propose Edgelord: the Pretentiousness Such a game would probably suck but compared to this poo poo it'd be a joy to play.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2021 20:25
|
|
|
I just imagine the title being said by Doctor Zaius. "Do not go to the forbidden zone foolish human!"
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2021 21:50
|
|
|
My copy of GURPS Myth actually arrived at last, a month late. Once Deermocracy concludes, get ready, because the armies of the Dark will come again into the lands of men as I try to understand what the hell GURPS is and yell about a setting I like.
|
|
#
?
Apr 27, 2021 21:54
|
|
|
Josef bugman posted:I just imagine the title being said by Doctor Zaius. I hear Forbidden Zone and think that weird Danny Elfman movie with Herve Villachez as the king of the underworld.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 01:40
|
|
|
90s Cringe Rock posted:You can't expect Monte Cook to have a human perspective. We're all very small from up there. Really? Exactly how far up there is his own rear end?
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 02:57
|
|
|
Wouldn't the pre-existing Prestidigitation cantrip work for cheating at cards? Why do you need one which specifically only does that?
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 03:16
|
|
|
Zereth posted:Wouldn't the pre-existing Prestidigitation cantrip work for cheating at cards? Why do you need one which specifically only does that? A Rogue player once successfully argued that his slight of hand skill was something that wasn't immediately nerfed by another player bringing in a wizard, and Monte overheard. No Rogues, only Wizards. This is the way of things.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 03:33
|
|
|
By the way, the constant mention of heardstones in the beast review is because Beasts were the first AoS army (IIRC) that was given free terrain (in points, not in money) to bring to the battlefield, and GW seems to think that you get people to buy new models by incessantly mentioning them in the rulebook that introduced them to the point of parody.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 04:50
|
|
|
Also if you're going to have a race of primitive angry goat-men, having them jump out of magic rocks fully-formed neatly solves the "is it ethical to kill goblin children" problem
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 05:03
|
|
|
From Hell pt. 2: Borcan Clans Degenesis Rebirth Primal Punk Chapter 10: From Hell Before we get into the clans, I'm going to institute a tracker: Great Man Clan - founded by a single great man. Legacy Clan - a continuation of a Pre-Eschaton institution. Non-Interactive Clan - no way for players to have a meaningful interaction with them. Not A Clan - only works as a “clan” if you’re willing to argue that “a clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent” applies to stuff like zombies. BORCAN CLANS COCKROACHES – Protectorate, Tech I  This is that Euro sexhaver spice that elevates Degenesis over the prudish puritanical sex-negative elf games of the west. Click for full NSFW (Not Safe For Wyoming) Every time Degenesis writes about Clans getting uppity, they definitely have the Cockroaches in mind. They're basically “human wave: the culture,” and they exemplify some of the worst traits in this chapter: a Clan you basically can't interact with peacefully, extremely one-note culture, terrible writing, dumb sex poo poo. Shattered The Cockroaches got owned to gently caress by Judges – maybe wearing some armor on the torso instead of going out tits a-flapping would have help. The Clan went hiding underground. quote:The young women slept with the dumb but powerful Cockroach Kings, and soon their bellies swelled. The warriors dug new breeding places and gathered meat. The old ones collected lichen, bark, and worms—or were killed if they were weak. In their good years, they had done the same, and they expected no less from their spawn. The Clan had to be strong. Cockroaches also view actual cockroaches as animals of religious significance because they're nothing if not serious about branding. Risen After Praha fell, Cockroaches decided that it's time to rise up, attacking Judge convoys or launching GLA/Nod tunnel attacks into cities, including Justitian: quote:The Judges held back the first wave, suffering heavy losses. But the knowledge that nothing would ever again be as it had been before was harder than the loss of capable shooters and hammer wielders. “Hammer wielders” is mentioned four or five times on this page, feels unnatural every time, is very grating. Photophobic Cockroaches travel via whatever subways, sanitation tunnels, or pipes go underground, which should be hard, considering the cumulative effects of five hundred years of disrepair and an Earth-shattering meteorite impact. Cockroaches retreat when outnumbered, and take friendly corpses to use in rituals and as food. Kings Cockroach classes are traced by blood, which is important for Degenesis' attempt to scare the squares for the third time (once in the lore book, twice on this page) with the same thing again: quote:Especially the kings. They come from a family tree that births misshapen colossi with legendary strength. They are chained and kept in the deepest vaults like animals. Chosen women lie with them for a day to receive a gift of bulk and strength. AM I DISTURBING YOU? Anyways, the kids born from such unions go into the warrior caste... wait, shouldn't they be kings?  The ones of you who have read the Justitian review might be going “wait, how are these moron kings that are chained up like animals outside combat or loving making pacts with Phosphorites?” Well, anything is possible if you’re a lovely writer. :science101: Deranged quote:A swarm of insects doesn’t mind if some of its members are crushed. Others will take their place. And you thought comparing humans to lobsters was bad The enthusiastic human wave is unstoppable, as every cockroach that sees another one die in battle gets 1 Ego point, potentially going over their maximum. Seeing how Ego is the combo of morale and stamina, RAW you could make cockroaches into an amazing underwater fighting force as long as the fight takes place in clear waters. Non-Interactive Clan: 1 Pneumancers – Ramein Region, Tech IV  It is actually very smart to be nearly naked if you're a) a warrior and b) using weapons that rely on scalding steam Guys Who Made AR-15 Their Whole Personality: The Clan Insurrection As far as I can understand, Nullpelia was ruled by Mechans, guarded by Pneumancers, and visited by subjugated Phosphorites. But then Judges got involved, Pneumancers betrayed the Mechans, and now they rule the city, looking for a better, freer tomorrow. A New Beginning Next day after the battle, Pneumancers buried the Mechan temple (and quite a few corpses), but it wasn't as clean a break as you'd expect: quote:They spared the wire and steel statue of the Mechanist and put it onto the hill as headstone. <...> They revived the teachings of the Mechanist, who had once given a motto to his bunker community: to each a full belly, a place by the fire, and a job in the community. The Mechans had corrupted this law; now it was the Pneumancers’ turn to cleanse it from all that was wrong. Yep, Mechan was some sort of bunker commie.  Going further is hard for the Pneumancers, as they're “warriors, not diplomats,” and Nullepellia has some negative memories for many in the wasteland. On the other hand, the warehouses there should still hold “huge amounts of coal, sulfur, cobalt, weapons, and artifacts.” Candor The first things to be restored in the city were the firewalls and mounted bolt and steam cannons; Clans are at the gates, after all. It's the only reason why Protectorate isn't absorbing Nullpellia: they don't need allies that need to be defended (glad to see Pneumancers are OK with allying with people who helped their oppressors). I guess the Judges are OK with leaving all the resources of the city to bug fetishists. Who needs an industrial city full of warriors obsessed with their steam powered rivet guns when you have a hammer and a lovely musket? Rebirth Cartel Scrappers are looting Nullpellia, as I guess Pneumancers don't chase them away? Meanwhile, Apocalyptics are basically enslaving them via vices. quote:A few Pneumancers rise above the chaos, however, war heroes followed by hundreds. They are worshiped because they are a symbol of the transition to freedom and of old strengths. This worship is taking on grotesque features, however. They are courted like gods; the young Pneumancers swear fealty to them almost imploringly. *looks at Judges building Bender the Pharaoh statues for head judges* No, that's totally different! In Combat Pneumancers take “life is pain” to heart and only start suffering Trauma penalties when they get more than 3 points. They also only ever use one weapon: the Pneumo Hammer.  It is, in terms of stats like range and damage, closest to a shotgun (10 damage, 10/30 range), albeit holding 12 ammo, having the dumb “scares animals” rule, taking five minutes of burning coal to get the steam firing mechanism ready, has -2D Handling due to being a heavy weapon, and being Encumbrance 3. It can also be turned into a damage 12 bomb if you’re an idiot. I was wondering whether to give Pneumancers Great Man Clan, but they weren’t founded by one, they just follow his teachings, so nope. Next time: Clan nonsense tracker go up!
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 05:42
|
|
|
Froghammer posted:Also if you're going to have a race of primitive angry goat-men, having them jump out of magic rocks fully-formed neatly solves the "is it ethical to kill goblin children" problem It also solves the procreation issue of Broos while being metal as gently caress.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 05:44
|
|
|
Age of Sigmar: Beasts of Chaos We Are All Herd We'll skip over the timeline because...well, broadly it's pretty much 'Beasts get their asses kicked in the Age of Myth, then ruin poo poo through the Age of Chaos, then a lot of fights happen.' Instead, let's talk about the Greatfrays. There's a lot of them around, each containing anywhere from thousands to millions of Beasts, which form hundreds of beastherds. Greatfrays rarely gather in one location, and often the herds that make them up are spread over enormous areas of territory. Many even spread over multiple realms, maintaining connecting to each other via Chaos-corrupted realmgates. Now, we know that the Beasts feel no loyalty to each other (outside of the dragon ogors, sometimes) - so what ties them together? Well, an alphabeast of alphabeasts. The ruler of each Greatfray is an extremely powerful Beast that enforces their will on the alphabeasts of the beastherds. That's really all it boils down to. The Herdstones of a Greatfray serve to spread its corruptive influence, reshaping the animal and other creatures that live within the domain of the Greatfray. The animals mutate - some just change color or get weird horns, sometimes more dangerous things. Sometimes this means the creatures in a Greatfray's domain grow to look similar, but other times it makes them all look very different from each other. It varies heavily by Greatfray, as they use different rites. It's impossible to know how many Greatfrays exist, because their populations are constantly changing. Large Greatfrays absorb smaller groups, culling the weakest and conquering the strong. When powerful Beasts fight, small groups of them may split off and take a bunch of herds with them, forming new Greatfrays. It's not common for an entire Greatfray to go to war at once. Usually, each beastherd is left to fight as they like, spreading anarchy in their own territory within the greater domain of the Greatfrays. Often these beastherds will not work together for most of the time, even if they are neighbors. At least, not until their enemies seem stretched thin and unable to handle a greater strike. Then, the alphabeasts will come together under their leader to tear apart their victims and spread corruption. The power of a given beastherd in the Greatfray is determined by their strength in battle, their cunning, the size of their defended territory and the number of Herdstones they've got. If a herd seems weak based on any of this, a stronger herd is likely to go after them. Those who seem strong are honored and welcomed, even if they're considered weirdos for any other reason, like being god-worshippers. God-worshipping herds rarely end up in leadership positions, but they exist in many Greatfrays because they're good at fighting.  Let's talk about the big name Greatfrays. Like the Allherd. There has never been a Greatfray bigger or more widespread than the Allherd. They rule over a larger amount of land than all the other Greatfrays combined. The Free Peoples know them by many names - the Anakrine, the Everbeasts, the Brood of the Gorfather. The stories about them all share one trait: they love killing people. A lot. Allherd Beasts are absolutely certain they're the strongest, most vicious of their kind. They are cunning and good at ambush, sure, but their real love is direct battle. They love the scent of the enemy, and it drives them to a frenzy of violence. In hand to hand combat, the Allherd often gives up on any rational thought and just goes into a frenzy of senseless rage. They are practically immune to any fear, even thoughts of self-preservation, until they run out of things to butcher. The return to actual sentience is, in fact, what the Allherd hates most. It hurts. The Allherd is full of self-loathing because they can't exist in a state of perfect, monstrous frenzy at all times. They are driven to fight as much as possible so that they can avoid the state of personhood for as long as possible. You'd think they wouldn't procreate much, given how much they hate being themselves...but you'd be wrong. Their Herdstones are nearly c onstantly birthing new members to throw into battle. They claim to be true descendants of the Gorfather, as they know the alpha progenitor of the Beasts. They believe that he is the canestor of all true Chaos, and they are the truest Chaos. In their vile celebrations, the Bray-Shamans tell stories of the Gorfather's deeds. They talk about how he cut Ghur into pieces and made the first oceans of the realm from bile and blood, that he tore the first Realmgates into reality with his massive horns. The largest, oldest and angriest Allherd warriors sometimes claim to be of the First Sons of the Gorfather, though this is almost never true. The Allherd exists within every realm except Azyr. They probably originate in Ghur, where they are strongest and most numerous, and certainly ancient Herdstones that have their mark exist throughout Ghur on nearly every landmass. Even before the civilizations of other species existed, though, they had spread through the realms. They absorb beastherds often and ruthlessly. It's unclear how many entire Greatfrays they have defeated and incorporated into their numbers, but it's a lot. The only real records of it are the bones that lie in the wild places, marking the sites of old battles between the gors. These battles almost always go in the Allherd's favor, though, forcing their rivals to grovel for their lives. The weakest of a conquered herd are slaughtered and their corpses used to decorate Herdstones, while the strongest are allowed to join the herds. Few refuse, because the Allherd are not slavers. They genuinely welcome their conquered foes into the herd as kin, as long as they seem strong, and it isn't hard for a conquered Beast to rise to power within the Allherd if they have the cunning and power for it. Honestly, though, the power of the Allherd means many beastherds don't even need to be conquered. Herds of marauders join the Greatfray willingly, seeking out battle under the banner of what seems the most powerful group in their savage world. The Allherd accepts these seekers eagerly, but only the most ferocious end up surviving the internal fights to be allowed to bring forth the next generation from the stones. This acceptance keeps the Allherd constantly growing, allowing them to replenish their numbers even when they lose. The herds within it often form deep rivalries, with alphabeasts competing to display dominance and assert themselves in battle as the strongest killers. While they sometimes do just fight each other, equally often they work to perform ever greater acts of desecration against their victims. They burn out shrines and shattter statues, stealing anything of magical power and putting it up on the Herdstones as decoration. The idea of 'sacred' does not exist for the Allherd. They have no more respect for the idols of Chaos than they do anything else. There's a few god-worshipping herds around the fringes of the Allherd, but the vast majority see that kind of beastherd as weak, another tribe to be conquered and absorbed into the true way of Chaos. Sure, the Dark Gods themselves are strong - that can't be dnied. But they're weaker than the Allherd, according to the Allherd. The Allherd is the ultimate expression of Chaos. Next time: The Darkwalkers and the Gavespawn
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 12:34
|
|
|
Justitian: the Righteous Fist, Part 2 Composition: The Protectorate composes about 20 twenty cities, with a bunch of smaller hamlets and villages thrown in. Most trade and governance conveges on Justitian proper. Population is about 3-4 million, census data is somewhat unreliable. Taxes and Expenses: While Justitian itself directly taxes it’s citizenry, its vassal cities must tax their citizens themselves and then forward said taxes onto Justitian if they wish to continue to enjoy their protection. Except sometimes they decide it’s more expedient to cut you loose despite said taxes ostensibly paying for the armies of the Protectorate, like those Scrappers in Gesslen discovered when poo poo hit their fan. Providers (farmers) get benefits, Citizens get deductions, and everyone else is taxed heavily (mostly Clanners and travellers). Dry Riverbeds: Apparently they have good soil and wheat is grown in long strips. Yeah, this warranted a paragraph. You know what didn’t? Human statblocks in the core bestiary. Roads and travel: Most are paved with concrete, and reasonably safe if you’re not on the frontier. Msot people get places by walking. I don’t understand how the tech 3 walrus hunters in briton get around on motorboats and jetskis, and yet the Protectorate can’t even manage any sort of motor transport aside from a couple industrial railways. Travel Speed: We’re told that the average worker or trader can walk around 20 kilometers in a day of travel (8 hours), make that 10km if they’re not on the roads. I’m not sure where Marko got this number from, but I think it might rhyme with bass? If you’re fit and used to walking everywhere like these post-apocalypse folks are, 20 miles per 8 hours is pretty standard, and you can even push 30 if you keep a brisk pace and take no breaks. A mile is 1.60934 kiometers. Raids: Still uncommon in the heartland, but they happen now that the Judges are busy fighting the Clan Wars. They used to be pretty rare after the Protectorate had been pacified in its early days. Laws: Largely based upon what’s been established by the Judiciary, but there’s variation depending on which Cult holds the most sway in a settlement. The Anabaptists hold sway in Linqua, and how they might enforce the laws in different that how Siege must enforce the laws. The Typical Borcan: Is male. Not that it will come as any surprise at this point, but only male pronouns are used in this section, and no attempt is made to describe anything but a male-centric viewpoint. Women in Borca are not mentioned at all. Anyways, they’re illiterate, mostly get their news from taprooms. They put up with the brusque Scrappers because they keep things running, bow before the Judges who rule them, avoid the spooky Chroniclers who ask too many questions, accept the Spitalians and all of their hygiene/medical rules. They fear the Demiurge as the greatest foe of mankind, while telling their children stories of the evil Mother of Ravens. In the same breath they tell their kids stories of the evil African invaders who will come and sell their mother into slavery. When they hear stories about the clan wars, they trust that Archot will fend off the savage hordes, just as he always has. Politics: The Anabaptists and Spitlians used to be pretty tight, but the massacre in Rennes wherein Emissary Yasen executed 600 Spitalians of the Storm Watch has thrown everything for a loop. The Anabaptists claim Yasen acted on his own and they didn’t know poo poo, which is probably true. Still though, the Chroniclers are exploiting the situation to sway the Spitalians to their side (for some reason), and Anabaptists have been denied citizenship papers in recent weeks. The Judges are trying to mediate because they need the Anabaptists to supply troops to Siege, and to feed and water the populace. I brought this up because it’s entirely possible to prevent this outcome in several different ways if you played Black Atlantic For starters, you could shoot Yasen in his dumb fuckin’ face, you might have to shoot a couple of his most promiment lieutenants as well (just to make sure they don’t fill his spot), but that’d probably do the trick. You could betray the Red Pack early and convince the Anabaptists they were Rogues and to spare the rest of the Spitalians. Hell, you could just shoot the arrogant Anubian instead of letting her run away on a horse and make Barringer king, thus averting civil war. Or you could save Oppolus, there’s a million different ways to prevent this, and honestly in a better version of the module I don’t see what actually ends up being canon ever taking place. It’s like the bad ending you get in a game by purposely being lovely or something. However, this world state is now useless to you and this game requires even more work to cludge into a playable state. Yay. The West Born: 476 words used to describe a city on the western frontier that produces lumber and charcoal. Sometimes the Anabaptists and Judges play football matches, there’s no Spitalians here so a Flock has moved in to smuggle burn. This is the kind of stuff I tend to skip when writing these things. Spicafield: Only notable for once being the site of battle where a Pheromancer was killed, they grow a lot of wheat now. I wouldn’t have mentioned it, except they’ve been raided by Pictons who’ve crossed into the Protectorate looking for the Will. Bassham:  Imagine having the tech to build massive concrete walls and gun emplacements, but you're still using muskets. Anyways, they killed a Pheromancer King here and spend about 500 words describing the epic battle between him and 2 npcs. I’d ask why the PCs are always warned away from fighting the big Pyschonauts while NPCs get to have these moments of glory, but I’m pretty sure that I already know the answer. Speaking of that fight though, Bishop Amos thought he’d be the one to slay Markurant, as shown in one of his emanations. Instead, he got thrown 20 meters down and barely survived. He’s jealous of Vincent, his young shieldbearer who got the king by lighting him up with his Spitifre (Interesting enough, a page later he’s said to have taken down Markurant with his bare hands. I didn’t know an ozone grenade and a flamethrower counted as bare-handed). He tried to turn the narrative against Vincent, which worked for a time because the man isn’t politically minded and went to his basic assignment without complaint. Vincent has allies with Cathedral City though, they got him promoted to be the guy who records all of Amos’ emanations, which rankles the Bishop to no end. After that Bassham grew from a small farming village into what you see in the picture. Now the, quarry stone, brew liquor (which is called distillate for some reason), and make small goods like gas masks and survival gear. Despite their size they don’t make much themselves, and depend upon other towns and villages for supplies. In recent months they’ve been dealing with the refugees from Toulon, which has had its own challenges.. ”I wonder how Marko really feels about refugees in Europe” posted:“The three dominant Cults must now work together, establishing intimidation tactics, curfews, checkpoints, and city prohibitions to keep the restless masses at bay… “The refugee tsunami brings Bassham closer and closer to a revolt, with sedentary residents condemning the frivolous admission policy, seeing as they have to now compete for food and employment against an uncountable surge of uprooted people. “Hey fellow Judges and Chroniclers, remember that time we sanctioned an idiotic civil war because a Neolibyian didn’t know how to negotiate? Yeah, me neither. I sure am glad nothing came back to bite us in the rear end.” Next we get a big sidebar on Bishop Amos of Bassham. Apparently, the war on Markurant was launched under his leadership because of his emanations, which had been very accurate in years past. It also turns out that said emanations were entirely fake. What he actually had been doing was visiting the Mother of Ravens and having her read the Tarot for him. She apparently gave him a prophecy in which he’d become as great as the founder of Anabaptism, Bishop Rebus. He’d kill Markurant, and eventually go on to end the Demiurge itself at Parasite. However, there were two wrinkles to his prophecy. The first being that he had to follow it exactly, deviation was out of the question. The second was that an unholy child born of a union between an Anabaptist and a Chronicler would topple all of his works, and eventually end the Anabaptists. He’d have to find this child and kill it first. When he failed to be the one to kill Markurant, he demanded answers from the Wretched Hag. She laughed and asked him if he was sure Markurant was really dead, having seen the corpse himself Amos decided fate was mutable and her Tarot reading was bullshit. He can’t shake the feeling that a kid will come to end him at the Zenith of his power though, and he still wants to know who this kid is. Politics wise the head Judge (Executioner Gorvidal) of the region wants Vincent to seize power from Amos, he’s got all these plans for how the city could be run better, the refugees made use of, and so on. Most of the Anabaptists are just sitting around waiting for another holy war instead of developing Bassham into a proper city. Vincent has been convinced that Judgement Hall would back him, and he knows Cathedral City would too. He just has to get the Spitalians on board. Emissary Yasen has ruined any real chance for the Spitalians to agree to being governed by Anabaptists, but the Judges believe that Vincent must at least be a figurehead to avoid friction with Cathedral City. ”You guys just tried this six months ago, it did not go well” posted:But how should they get rid of Amos? Gorvidal lets his eyes drift across the Sprawl and its countless refugee tents. Civil war, he says.  Poison his food? Shoot him in the head? Draw him out into an ambush and say he got killed by a Pheromancer? Nah, the safest bet is to start a civil war. It’s like starting a forest fire to kill a spider, it’s wildly out of proportion, just as hard to control, and will get an unnecessary amount of people killed. Just, ugh. Mobilis:  A couple centuries ago the first Sleeper cascade rebuilt this coal plant with slave labour. Then they all died at the hands of Cultrin’s armies in the City Wars. Then, 76 years ago the Chroniclers slit the throat of the guy running this coal power plant/surrounding city and took it because he was a dick. Today the Chroniclers run the power plant with ”Facism gently caress yeah” posted:The Protectors don’t shy away from outbursts of violence, but they are not allowed to kill the laborers. The Chroniclers need them to keep the Technodrome supplied with coal. Every man is necessary, although the Chroniclers could care less about civil rights. I know it pales when compared to literal slavery and facism, but I loving cannot stand it when people say “they could care less” when what they mean is “they couldn’t care less.” David Mitchell said it better than I ever could, but gently caress anyone that does this. I don’t think it’s an ESL thing either, Marko is reasonably fluent and he has an English dude who edits for him. I think it’s just poor editing. They’ve got a Hellvetic Battalion stationed there because it’s so important, and the Chroniclers are worried about the possibility of the Anabaptists encircling them. (look at Mobilis on the map). I’m going to use this time to describe why I think the Hellvetics, as written, as really dumb. We’re directly told that the Hellvetic Battalion has enough firepower to bulldoze any other medium-sized settlement in the Protectorate. However, this really isn’t all that true. I did some math, and counted up how many rounds of ammo this battalion would get per month with a standard allotment. It’s 1940 rounds per month. Bassham alone has a little more than twice that in the number of fighters they could call up. Even if every shot was a kill (you could take a least one so long as you wear some armor), they don’t have enough bullets to stop an assault because Marko is dumb and does not understand how automatic weaponry works. For some reason the Hellvetics are given triple-barreled assault rifles with teflon coated bullets (so they fire faster, yet are mechanically no different from standard 5.56 ammo), and yet are told never to use automatic fire, never to waste ammo, and to use their rifles like they’re all sharpshooters. This is not how assault rifles work in a military context. Suppressive fire serves to pin the enemy down, which both allows for easier flanking maneuvers, and more importantly keeps them from shooting back, thus keeping your valuable troops alive. Let’s take Vietnam for example. In terms of small arms, the US spent roughly 50,000 bullets per enemy killed. If we go to the present day, it’s said that the US army shoots roughly 250,000-300,000 rounds per insurgent killed in the “War on Terror.” However, apparently the way to balance the Cult that gets the best gun and nearly the best armor at rank one is to ignore all of that and not give them enough ammo to hunt a loving deer. On, and to add insult to injury it says that the battalion is led by a Corporal, despite virtually every other Hellvetic present being a higher rank. (Corporal is rank 2, most of those stationed are Rank 3 troops like Grenadiers, Sappers, Foragers, etc). The Hellvetics themselves are bored as hell, there’s no enemies around and they rather be fighting at Siege or something. However, recently one of their patrols found a weird magnetic anomaly, and when they dug down they found a mass grave full of bodies, bodies whose bones had cystalized nanties fused to their bones. They have no idea what’s up themselves, but it’s pretty obvious that this is where the Chroniclers dumped Sleepers after feeding them to Aspera. Back to Mobilis. When the Chroniclers took over 76 years ago they found the hidden power line that supplied power to Noret, and cut the thing. Yet, it’s only the Enemoi are abandoning Nortet. That seems a little off, but okay. There’s a railway that supplies the town with coal, which is our first mention of anything resembling motor transport in a world where computer nerds have working supercomputers.  Yep, the reason some Cockroaches Clanners get real big is because they were genetically engineered by Sleepers, same with the other mutations found in the various clans. Sometimes you might find the plans for a combustion engine on a rock, or see a cave mural depicting space travel. The North Sinder: The First Judge is said to have judged his first criminal here, so there’s a bit of a tourist trade for Judge kitsch. A bunch of Palers are nearby, and looking to move into the Stukov desert to find 3 RG bunkers that haven’t activated yet. Oh, and they ship a lot of ice south. That’s all you need to know about Sinder. Newcrest: It’s a Spitalian stronghold, Kranzler (Provost of the Preservers) lives here along with a bunch of other Spitalians and stablehands. The Judges get all of their horses from these stables, the Spitalians keep them healthy with poo poo like antibiotics, and breed them well by essentially applying eugenics to horses. Liqua: The Anabaptists control Liqua and supply a shitload of the Protectorate’s water. It’s nominally independent as it’s ruled by the Anabaptists, but is heavily linked to the Protectorate nonetheless. There’s a bunch of history surrounding the Sleepers who founded it (and were handed over to Argyre later), the Exalters who fled here, and so on, but none of it is all that interesting or relevant to the current age. They pump water across Borca and because of their independence people go here to do stuff like gamble or rake Burn, which is hard in other areas of the Protectorate. Next we get a sidebar on the Memetic Walls, eight pitch-black blocks of perfect future stone or something. People have reported seeing any kinds of weird poo poo connected to Gerome Getrell in them, especially those who have been embossed by Exalt. However, apparently nobody has discovered yet that if you aim an emitter at them in the correct fashion, it opens a visual port to the Minerva Orbiter. No mention of what that might do or what effects it could have on the game if you established a visual link to future Elon Musk. Nobody has figured this out yet because Chroniclers aren’t allowed inside the city. No mention why the equally advanced Halos within the city haven’t figured it out. The Sleeper Prophet Enceph lives here. She’s looking everywhere for some way to solve the riddle of the Memetic Walls, because she wants a sign from Getrell himself. She and her sister Trice have seen Helios’ nuclear assault on thousands of innocents as another sign that it’s time to strike, and maybe their hour of vengeance on the Marauders is at hand. Dog’s End: It’s a salt mine (once again worked by slaves) and a former Sleeper waste disposal site, but the Judges don’t tell anyone that, especially the Spitalians. One day a group of Cartel Scrappers looking for a good find ventured into some old tunnels filled with rusty barrels and weird smells. They were attacked by something, and when they escaped the tunnels one of their number was dead, and the rest “were pale, their lips turning blue, some had lost patches of their hair during sleep while others were covered in blisters, and they were all maddened by hunger.” The Judges quarintend them, but before the Spitalians could get there they descended into a cannibalistic frenzy, nobody survived in that cell. Days later they found a small hole that nobody remembered digging. 13 days ago 2 prisoners went missing and they found a half-chewed jawbone near the hole. Things are tense now, to say the least. If you want to run the Abyss, you set it in Dog’s End apparently. Harm: It’s a big, stinking, factory farm that raises pigs. The Judges agreed to buy all the pork produced when it was founded, but it grew too large and was producing too much pork for the Protectorate to consume, costing the Judges a lot of money due to the contract. Cue a lot of politicking involving sanctions and taxes. Bacon was out for a while when the Judges thought the family that owned it was too rich/had too much influence, and encouraged goat consumption when the Jehammadans moved in. After the sucide bombing, pork is king again. 755 words to say all of that, when basically none of it has any relevance to the game or its players. Carvenis:  It’s a big sulphur mine, run by Scrappers rather than slaves. Some light artifact trade plus precious ores, but mostly sulphur. The Cartel was formed here, what started as a racket to solve a labor shortage and get better prices for their ore became a full-on Scrapper organized crime syndicate. There’s another bit of secret history involved a clan of former Exalters called the Angband dynasty who actually own the mine and were the real engineers that know about minerals, but they’re all inbred and deformed so Bosch (Cartel leader) just locked them away and stole their mineral encyclopedias. They had contracts with the Judiciary, but over time they’ve become so hidden (mostly to hide their deformities) that the Judges kinda forgot about them. If this past was ever dug up, it would be bad news for the Cartel, as the Angbads still have legal title to Carvenis. And then I stumbled upon this little nugget. ”This fuckin’ book” posted:Besides, the relatively short travel-time down to the Righteous Fist allows for seasonal recruitment. Scrappers often arrive for three weeks of work followed by a week off in Tech-Central. The leisure time is necessary to avoid cabin fever. While the night market at the bottom of the Strip Mine, run by an offshoot of the Carrion Birds, brings some moderate forms of entertainment, the whole drat town is depleted of women - except for a bunch of ugly tramps that nobody wants to poke with a poo poo-covered stick. Oftentimes the miners must resort to loving each other to satisfy their cravings and avoid going completely insane I’ma just leave this here and wash my hands of this entry. Next time, the East! Hipster Occultist fucked around with this message at 04:51 on Apr 29, 2021 |
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 13:17
|
|
|
You know, people actually going into a fight would wear thick clothes if nothing else because it might stop a knife or slow something down and you generally don't want to be running around a post-apocalyptic hell nearly barefoot if it's avoidable. Yet over in Degenesis everyone is a bare-chested barbarian hero.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 13:18
|
|
|
Hipster Occultist posted:.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 13:53
|
|
|
Froghammer posted:Also if you're going to have a race of primitive angry goat-men, having them jump out of magic rocks fully-formed neatly solves the "is it ethical to kill goblin children" problem Funnily enough, I feel like that makes them basically Chaos's answer to the Lizardmen.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 14:08
|
|
|
Didn’t think we’d find a game more racist and misogynist than MYFAROG but here we are.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 14:09
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:You know, people actually going into a fight would wear thick clothes if nothing else because it might stop a knife or slow something down and you generally don't want to be running around a post-apocalyptic hell nearly barefoot if it's avoidable. Forget bare-chested, half the time they're not even wearing pants. I'm not really sure why these unorganized, unarmored barbarian hordes are a threat to anything. It seems like a Borcan winter would likely just kill off the hordes not huddling around a volcano. By popular demand posted:And it's not even brought up as some rear end in a top hat's personal opinion does it? Just an objective book info? It's not a npc narrating or anything like that no, aside from the into paragraph for a city nothing is really said in-character. A lot of the writing is really dry and boring, when it's not intensely homophobic/racist/sexist, take your pick.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 14:14
|
|
|
How does a game like Degenesis get such high production values and website design and make it free to play without Kickstarter support or even that large of a fanbase (I’ve never heard of it outside this forum)? Is the designer just some rich fail-son funneling all his trust fund money into this?
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 14:21
|
|
|
Gatto Grigio posted:How does a game like Degenesis get such high production values and website design and make it free to play without Kickstarter support or even that large of a fanbase (I’ve never heard of it outside this forum)? So this has actually been asked before as well heh, but Marko Djurdjevic basically draws and writes everything himself, or at least most of it. He has a bit of help from community volunteers, but it's mostly him. He owns a concept art studio called SIXMOREVODKA, if you're ever played League of Legends or its offshoots any of the static illustrations (like character portraits) are drawn by one of his employees. Marko himself does a lot of covers for Marvel currently, if memory serves. The game itself is published by his company, and it just eats the losses for bandwidth, the website, and whatnot. He doesn't really have to pay people to make it aside from those costs. You can buy ovepriced books and merch directly from them, as well as donate directly.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 14:45
|
|
|
Blue Rose 2e Crime and Punishment Under Deermocracy This is an important section as I believe a fair amount of this has been changed since 1e, and it goes into how they strongly contextualize Sorcery as a matter of intent. Crime is a headliner, because the crime section is where a bad faith reading almost certainly declares Aldis to be 1984 thoughtcrime land. This is because trials in Aldis are supplemented by truthsaying. A psychic can read deeply enough to tell if you're lying without crossing the line into anything Sorcery related; surface feelings, scanning to see if there's that little blip of 'I'm making up a story' or small twitches of anxiety, these things provide relatively effective lie-detecting in a circumstance where they're legally permitted. 'Heart Reading' (basic emotional state reading/empathy magic) can't intrude deeply enough in someone's mind to be Sorcery, consent or no, because it's mostly picking up on signs a person is probably giving off in a mundane sense, just a bit more powerfully. This makes it pretty hard (though very much not impossible) to lie to an Aldin court unless you lie by omission. Evidence is still shown, people still need warrants and cause to be arrested, but when you're put under oath on the stand before a judge, that oath is considerably easier to enforce when the Aldin state has talented truthsayers to watch you for lies. The thing is, and I think the text undersells this, this is not at all infallible! Mechanically you can still beat a Truthsayer on an opposed test and lie to them perfectly fine. Sure, the state readers are pretty good at their job and this works fine most of the time, but it's still completely possible for this system to mess up, and I think that's important. The text's dry tone accidentally obscures a big point of potential drama, and gives the impression this process works 100% every time and that trials are mostly a formality, even as it tells you that both sides have an advocate and there's still evidence, testimony, etc. The text accidentally gives the impression that Aldin justice is a matter of asking someone 'did you do it' and then nailing them if they say no and the truthsayer goes 'lol lies'. My impression from some other bits is that even in a case where someone is lying under oath, there's still plenty to be done to determine if a crime has actually been committed and what kind of sentencing is warranted. This is important because as PCs are likely to be Traveling Nobles or include a few Traveling Nobles in a larger party, matters of justice and trial are probably going to come up considering they're wandering magistrates. There's plenty of room for dramatic trials and finding evidence and nailing powerful people, this specific section just doesn't do much to show it. I had a lot of fun writing an adventure where the heroes had to investigate the Silence, a major crime syndicate mentioned in the "Threats to Aldis" section, and discovered that they operate in part by bribing some of the Truthsayers and in part by training some agents to be able to lie to a reading, because they know the justice system usually works and that makes it easier to get off on critical cases if you glitch the system. And so the heroes had to find an excuse to move the trial venue to a place where a Silence boss didn't have connections he could use to get off on the conspiracy to commit murder charges. If you work with the ideas here more than this section does, you can get fun adventures out of it; the way it's written here ignores other material and gives a mistaken impression that cuts them off. The other thing is Aldin punishment is very light, intentionally so. I'd personally say this is partly because they know their system is still going to convict an innocent person sometimes even with the safeguards; a good way to portray Aldis in general is 'it usually works'. Things usually work out. You, the PCs, are often there in those moments when they don't. The place is generally well meaning and trying to do its best, but no place is perfect. Legal punishment is generally by way of reparation mediated by the courts, possibly accompanied by imprisonment for a maximum of 3 years. Criminals also undergo court ordered counseling with Healers who are trained in a mixture of psychic power and psychology, but critically no alterations are made to someone's mind without extremely direct and informed consent and readings don't go deeper than surface without the informed consent of the criminal in question. This is a critical point; if you don't let someone any deeper, you can do your court-ordered psychotherapy entirely by normal talking cure psychology. It is, in fact, a point of tension between Aldis and Jarzon that the Jarzoni will 'enlighten' criminals and heretics and try to force their reform as opposed to an assisted process of therapy and retraining. There's a little bit of a problem in Aldis generally assuming there's some psychological issue making people antisocial in my read, but for the most part that just seems to be how they think about it. Go to your court mandated therapy, talk to someone about why you did what you did, think it through, maybe get retrained for a new job or something, and you're fine. Similarly, there's generally little stigma for those who have completed a criminal sentence; they're assumed to be better until they commit another crime. Which generally makes repeat offenses rarer. If you can't pay your fines and reparations or your crime merits imprisonment, while imprisoned you do community service labor. You're paid the normal minimum wage for this (Aldis has a minimum wage for urban workers and salaried labor) but 1/3 of your wage is garnished, half the money kept by the state and half going to your victims as restitution. Those who consistently refuse reform and commit more crimes are eventually branded with a cloven hoof and outlawed, strongly encouraged to leave the country. Aldis will not execute a criminal who has surrendered to state power under any circumstances, not since King Valin. It is a deeply held cultural value that they just do not kill prisoners. There's a general sense that the Aldin state tries very hard to leave the concept of vengeance out of criminal justice. The state itself does not believe punishment has deterrent value; the focus is on direct reparation to the injured party and trying to keep the criminal from repeat offenses. They don't really care about 'hurting' the criminal. What's important about all this is that Aldis is extremely not taking people who offend against the law and magically forcing them to see the light. Nor is it deeply psychically interrogating them; truth-saying and heart-reading are non-invasive psychic abilities. Actual invasive psychic abilities are permitted only in consensual situations, and this is both drilled into people from a young age and enforced legally. If someone can prove you probed them deeply or tried to rewrite their emotional state (and with how common psychic abilities are, being something like 10-20% of the entire population, someone is likely to know someone who can help them prove you did this if you're noticed) it is a very serious crime. Attempting to Psychic foreign officials for purposes of espionage is flat illegal because it falls under Sorcery restrictions. The very commonality of psychic powers makes it more difficult to abuse them unseen; there are lots of people in Aldis who can potentially pick up on darker uses of psy and most people are familiar with Arcana even if they can't use it, making it easier for someone to potentially pick up on signs that their thoughts are not their own or that someone knows things they couldn't possibly know without a deep read. So in essence, the crime section accidentally makes things seem a little more authoritarian/detect evil during the bit on trials, while the actual mechanics make clear this is fallible, and the justice system itself is focused on reform and reparation rather than rewriting. Yes, you get counseling as part of committing a crime, but it only goes as deep as you consent to and refusing to consent does not get you legally punished further. It's just an extension of how therapy is done and understood in Aldis. And hey, maybe you really did have anger issues that you never quite realized were a problem and want to take advantage of your court-ordered psychotherapy to treat them. It's potentially a little problematic that they assume anti-social behavior has an underlying mental issue to it, but when your culture had a ton of psychics lying around and a tradition of therapy assisted by it, it's easy to see why they'd assume this and I'm pretty sure plenty of those readings come back with 'no this crime had little to do with this person's mental state after all'. Similarly, something I like to emphasize when running is that the relatively gentle justice system means criminal enemies are likely to surrender to the PCs after putting up a bit of a fight. The bandits you're fighting might not want to be caught, but they also know if the fight's going against them and they drop their sword, the state isn't going to kill them and the worst possible punishment is a mere three years of imprisonment and community service (assuming they haven't transgressed deeply enough to be exiled). Heck, according to the book, this is often why they're bandits; they think the state's weak until they get their teeth kicked in by PCs and then get job training and realize they can make a better living as a baker or something. So yeah, I wish bits of the criminal justice system were handled a little better in the writing because taking the whole book, there's still plenty of room for intrigue, trials, and fun at a Noble's job as a traveling magistrate. And things really aren't as 'thoughtcrime' as some readings would say; I think it's more that it carries forward logically using some of the fantastical elements to construct bits of the society in Aldis. They have a reasonably reliable way to tell when someone is lying, so they use that as part of trial evidence. It isn't the open and shut be all and end all of criminal justice. They have empaths and a tradition of psychotherapy, so they give people counseling as part of the criminal justice system, still keeping to their own rules of consent. It continues the general theme that Aldin society is shaped by its own embrace of the Arcane arts and the common existence of Psychic powers, which makes sense. If those tools exist, they'd be used. And we'll see the actual Thoughtcrime authoritarian contrasts in Kern and Jarzon, as a warning of how things could go. So it's an element I'm satisfied with that could be better conveyed, in part because the prose is still really dry and lacking in the passion or eloquence needed to really emphasize specific points. It's trying to be objective and accidentally failing to convey some of nuance that is clearly there on a close read, which I think is an unfortunate failing of the writing. Next Time: Everything Else About Culture
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 15:12
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Age of Sigmar: Beasts of Chaos If I missed this, I apologize...but what do they eat? Everyone's fighting, there are no "civilians" the only leadership is who is the best killer is. They're nothing but carnivores who would swiftly kill anything in their area. The only things they build are stones that destroy everything nearby.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 16:05
|
|
|
Comstar posted:If I missed this, I apologize...but what do they eat? Everyone's fighting, there are no "civilians" the only leadership is who is the best killer is. They're nothing but carnivores who would swiftly kill anything in their area. The only things they build are stones that destroy everything nearby.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 16:11
|
|
|
It's still strange to me how Warhammer is the gold standard for over-the-top high fantasy, but WFRP is a lot more concerned with realistic touches of the Early Modern period than pretty much any other big-name franchise.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 16:17
|
|
|
Hipster Occultist posted:So this has actually been asked before as well heh, but Marko Djurdjevic basically draws and writes everything himself, or at least most of it. He has a bit of help from community volunteers, but it's mostly him. Yup, this pretty much hits it - it tracked for me at some point when several of the artists' personal ArtStation pages credited Marko specifically for helping with the art alongside all the usual copyright and whatnot - the visual design is so unified because he's 100% stepping in. Other than that, yeah, it's definitely running at a loss and I don't think they really care. Not in a position to go over everything with commentary right now, but one that sticks out - isn't the rationing less "this is combat effective" and more "we haven't been able to make new ammo for Trailblazers, thanks to the specific properties of the cartridge, since we first went in our bunkers and are still running off the national stockpiles 500 years later"? Not all of the mechanics exactly align there (like non-HF rounds being usable in a Trailblazer), but I was under the impression that was the justification used - more ammo would be issued if they could afford to, but the stocks need to last. Plus fixed fortifications manned by Hellvetics would almost certainly have more of an ammo stockpile than what's issued to a Hellvetic traveling solo in the field among other cults' members, no? (e: this would also make more sense if they'd gone a bit more "future tech" with their triple barreled assault rifles - if it was "we can give you five rounds of the fancy polymer-case low-residue rounds out of our stockpile that the gun is meant to take and works best with, you can use standard Bygone stock but the quality is worse and the gun isn't built for it" then it would be an easier sell than just "uhh yeah they're normal rounds we just made slicker with teflon to feed better") There's still a shitload of terrible writing here but I think this is one place that makes some degree of sense, if you squint a little. (Plus the whole thematic reinforcement aspect, but talking plain logic here more than literary devices.) SkyeAuroline fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Apr 28, 2021 |
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 16:32
|
|
|
Comstar posted:If I missed this, I apologize...but what do they eat? Everyone's fighting, there are no "civilians" the only leadership is who is the best killer is. They're nothing but carnivores who would swiftly kill anything in their area. The only things they build are stones that destroy everything nearby. They are the same beasts from Fantasy, so they eat pretty much anything, and they do know how to make wine.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 16:46
|
|
|
SkyeAuroline posted:Yup, this pretty much hits it - it tracked for me at some point when several of the artists' personal ArtStation pages credited Marko specifically for helping with the art alongside all the usual copyright and whatnot - the visual design is so unified because he's 100% stepping in. Other than that, yeah, it's definitely running at a loss and I don't think they really care. I checked and I couldn't find anything about national stockpiles, all it says in Primal Punk is that they don't have mass production facilities and that ammo is rationed based on performance. That to me still implies that they make some bullets, but probably on a small scale. And yeah, a deployed battalion with Foragers would have more ammo than the standard monthly allotment. That all being said, even if we effectively double the ammo and add in all the special weapons like grenades, they still don't have enough ammo to ward off all the Orgastics that would come screaming down their throats if war broke out between the Anabaptists and the Chroniclers. I was mostly ranting about how dumb their whole austerity thing is. It's completely counter-intuitive to how assault rifles are used. It really only exists as a band-aid that's supposed to balance what's easily the best Cult for combat characters, except if you're wealthy enough to buy extra ammo or mod your gun it doesn't even do that. Besides, it shouldn't even be a problem! The Hellvetics have good relations with the Scourgers and the Neolibyians, and they have no problem firing off round after round of 5.56. It seems to me the Hellevtics could easily shore up any ammo shortages by just buying from the Africans, at least until they can acquire the tech to have the Cantons start mass-producing ammo.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 17:22
|
|
|
Add 'basic economics' and 'simple logistics' to the pile of stuff less important to think about than 'rape and some more rape' according to Marko
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 17:57
|
|
|
Gatto Grigio posted:Didn’t think we’d find a game more racist and misogynist than MYFAROG but here we are. Funny thing is, my gaming group chatted about the first adventure book last night to laugh at it, and we concluded that if we ever tried running it, it would probably end with our group saving Nerva (the screeching psychotic mom lady) and her falling in love with a female PC now that she's free of all the Burn and pheromone nonsense as she joins the party from there on out.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 18:04
|
|
|
I'm not against fantasy that doesn't worry about basic economics and logistics, but not in grim settings where scarcity is supposed to be an overriding concern. You don't want to get into Rifts territory where your "post apocalyptic" setting has advanced civilizations building more war material than the American MIC ever did.MonsterEnvy posted:They are the same beasts from Fantasy, so they eat pretty much anything, and they do know how to make wine. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Apr 28, 2021 |
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 18:13
|
|
|
As far as I can tell, they basically just do eat each other and the local Chaos critters and anything else they can get their hands on.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 18:27
|
|
|
Probably eat even nurglites if there's any around, the beasties who can't handle the diseases and expire were obviously weak.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 18:47
|
|
|
I do like how they are ambivalent on the chaos gods as opposed to the more bitter-ex feel of the WHFB beasts
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 18:52
|
|
|
Cythereal posted:Funny thing is, my gaming group chatted about the first adventure book last night to laugh at it, and we concluded that if we ever tried running it, it would probably end with our group saving Nerva (the screeching psychotic mom lady) and her falling in love with a female PC now that she's free of all the Burn and pheromone nonsense as she joins the party from there on out. I figure that if I ever ran it, my PCs would figure out the mystery in like a day and then probably gently caress off to somewhere more interesting. I do like the idea of redeeming Neva and making her something other than a hysterical mom, her art is too good for that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 19:21
|
|
|
If I've learned anything from Marvel movies, it's that every badass woman secretly just wants to be a mom.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 19:29
|
|
|
So in hindsight I'm realizing how weird all this Eris style poo poo is about homophobia when the intended use is a man reading this poo poo to other men.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 19:48
|
|
|
The Chad Jihad posted:I do like how they are ambivalent on the chaos gods as opposed to the more bitter-ex feel of the WHFB beasts Yeah, they are basically written as literal anarchoprimitivists who have decided that the Chaos Gods, while powerful, are still A Society, and therefore bad.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 20:19
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Yeah, they are basically written as literal anarchoprimitivists who have decided that the Chaos Gods, while powerful, are still A Society, and therefore bad.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 20:24
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 24, 2024 21:23 |
|
|
Soulbound's bestiary has a few good words on the beasts.quote:Every creature has a place in the natural order, their relationships ranging from symbiotic to predatory, their niches composing an intricate, delicate communal web. But the Beasts of Chaos abhor order, natural or otherwise, and recognize no distinctions between the hunter and its prey, the sentient and the mindless, or the mortal and the divine. They believe only in the division between the strong and the weak. quote:The forms of the Beasts are myriad, but their beastherds fall into a few general categories. Brayherds look the most Human but hold mortalkind in no less contempt, composed mainly of swift, goat-like Gors who specialise in raids and ambushes. Warherds, on the other hand, include the burly Bullgors and their towering cousins, who need no tactic more sophisticated than a bellowing, head-on assault. Finally, the Dragon Ogors of the Thunderscorn beastherds use their momentum to devastating effect, riding down their enemies with all the swiftness and fury of the storm. quote:Legends from the Age of Myth describe peaceful beastfolk, though few can say whether they still live or even existed at all. Should your party seek Beasts of Chaos as allies, remember that anarchy can take many forms.
|
|
#
?
Apr 28, 2021 21:48
|
|