FATAL & Friends 2020: 61 billion casualties

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Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

I found the old Buck Rogers newspapers comics online a couple years ago! They're... besides the "The Airlords of Han" story arc, actually pretty cool. I'm at least glad that "I didn't sign up for this poo poo!" was actually something people said back in 1929 (though the Mongolian soldier expressing this thought was less profane about it.)

Anyway, my first exposure to Buck Rogers was not the Gil Gerard TV series, but the Genesis game inspired by the XXVc box set, Countdown to Doomsday, which is...

.....well, it's stripped down (either from Genesis cartridge memory constraints, concessions to make gameplay easier, or both), but enjoyable, even if I can exploit bar fights to get the best equipment.

I'm looking forward to the breakdown on where things go Horribly Horribly Wrong (my guess, skills or the Scout class) but this is still one of my favorite games.

As an aside, there are two Buck Rogers RPGs, XXVc and High Adventure Cliffhangers, which was based on the newspaper comics. (It also got only one supplement ever.) I might do a writeup on that, if anyone would be interested in a poorly-selling roleplaying game from the mid-1990s.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2019 04:26

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# ¿ Sep 27, 2023 06:44

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

Overall the variety is interesting- most players will want to be one of the “Human” types because they have the fewest drawbacks, and I do think they maybe go a little overboard with this- even if you want the authenticity of species bred to live in very hazardous environments, breathing apparatus could be made more reliable and not something you have to keep track of.

As an aside, Countdown to Doomsday limits PCs to the "human" races (Terrans, Mercurians, Venusians, Lunarians, and Martians), Martian Desert Runners, and tinkers. Desert Runners don't have to worry about breathing masks in-game, but I'm pretty sure that was a gameplay concession rather than a Gold Box engine limitation.

Oh, and rules as written, Stormriders are (technically) unable to be played as PCs despite the writeup. (No Humans Allowed fixes that handily.)

# ¿ Sep 27, 2019 05:26

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Young Freud posted:

Really just the Gold Box SSI games: one of the best pieces of equipment your party members can get are ECM modules. They don't really say what they do, they just seem like some flavor thing in the SSI games. In the tabletop, they, along with chaff grenades, are meant to reduce the effectiveness of rocket weapons' targeting, like it increases THAC0 of any armor attached to it when rocket pistols and rifles are used against it (I will be corrected, probably). It makes sense in how the game could keep you on your toes tactically: lasers were accurate but damage effected by anti-laser aerosol grenades; rocket small arms were powerful but disrupted by chaff and ECM; projectile weapons like bolters and needlers weren't affected by either, but had lower damage.

But, they don't do this in the SSI games, probably because the engine couldn't do variable THAC0 for various weapons. Instead, anyone with an ECM module cannot be targeted by a rocket pistol or rifle!

So, what would happen is you'd run into classes of enemies like RAM Marines (pay attention, this will be important later) who would be armed exclusively with rocket guns who would be forced into melee combat, so you could deal with large groups of enemies by funneling them into a chokepoint, like an airlock, set up a melee line, and start grenading, use heavy weapons and sniping the mass behind the first line of enemies. Occasionally, you'd have an officer or specialist armed with something else that could pose a threat to your team, but you'd try to get that guy in the first turn and then mop up the rest. No NPC was ever equipped with an ECM module, so these fights tended to be one-sided, although the Combat Robots had them built-in, which could cause some trouble, but you would be likely using a splash damage weapon like grenades and rocket launchers against them.

Now, that's just an exploit, but not the biggest exploit: remember those RAM Marines? You only found them on boarding assaults on RAM ships. So, you could deal with the biggest RAM warship by getting into boarding like faking surrender, murder their RAM Marine contingent, then either capture the bridge or engines and salvage the captured ship. Along with all the looted gear from the enemies in tactical combat, you could get serious credits to outfit your team and ship.

Close enough for Gold Box; in the pen and paper, ECM Modules give you a 50% chance to avoid taking damage from characters with rocket pistols/rifles (this check is, annoyingly, made after the attack roll.) The Battle Armor With Fields is supposed to give you a 75% chance to negate rockets and a 25% chance to negate lasers, but the Genesis version just gives you immunity to rockets (but considering Battle Armor With Fields is still the best armor in the game, it's worth equipping on everyone.) There are dumbfire shells sold to cancel chaff/EM fields, but you take a -2 to-hit penalty when you use them.

This is why the Needle Pistol was the best gun in the Genesis version of Countdown to Doomsday. Chaff grenades negate rockets, aerosol grenades negate lasers, heat guns have a really lovely effective range (and I think some gennies are immune to heat damage), but nothing is immune to getting shot with hair-thin ferrous needles!

Also, my exploit strategy was a little different. I just went to the spaceport on Aurora, started bar fights with RAM soldiers, killed them and looted them of their gear, sold it to the equipment store, and repeated until I had six suits of Battle Armor w/ Fields. (Then I went to New Elysium to repeat the process and get Venusian Laser Pistols, and to Tycho to do this until I could afford the best melee weapon in the game.)

# ¿ Sep 27, 2019 16:27

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

I don't think you can get Buck killed in the Genesis version. Enemies seem to not want to target him (unless he's the only remaining party member) and if he's in a grenade's blast radius, he immediately runs out of the blast.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2019 13:08

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

EDIT: And I just now figured this out after posting, but this is why someone said you can't actually play a Stormrider PC- they're not eligible for ANY of the careers. Oops.

Overall the careers aren’t hugely exciting, but you can see steps have been taken to keep them in balance. It helps that there’s no magic or psionics or Force or whatever, nobody gets access to abilities that fundamentally overwrite the rules of the game world, so it’s all just numbers. The gaps in terms of HP and XP needed to advance are narrower here than in AD&D as well. You’ll notice that I said nothing about saving throws here- those aren’t actually tied to career. My major complaint is the racial restrictions, this really feels like an AD&D legacy, and one that already felt needlessly restrictive. (No Humans Allowed offers an optional rule that dramatically loosens these restrictions.)

Then there’s a section on changing careers. Despite a lot of text it’s… actually pretty simple? As long as you meet the ability score requirements for a new career, you can choose to stop progressing in your current career and start that one instead. You begin at 1st level, but retain your HP and THAC0- you gain HP as normal for your new class, but THAC0 only starts improving again once you reach a level in your new career where it’s better. You lose any special advantages from your old class, but keep your skill ratings. (Though if a medic changes class they can’t improve those skills anymore.) You can only change careers once.

"Someone" here! =p

No Humans Allowed had a chart that showed what carreers a genotype can enter; then they pointed out that Stormriders aren't eligible for any of the careers. The revised chart, thankfully, allows all of the Characters & Combat genotypes to choose any of the classes.

Also, Mars in the 25th Century had a character option that I thought was very interesting (and wish the Gold Box games were able to use it.)

# ¿ Sep 28, 2019 23:46

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Selachian posted:

Besides the problems already noted in the skill system, XXVc suffers from what Call of Cthulhu players would recognize as the "doctor problem." If you want to be an effective Medic or Engineer, you'll find yourself having to spread your points out across a lot of skills, while your Soldier or Scout buddy can pick a couple skills to be good at, dump all her points in them, and work just fine.

Maxwell forgot one small detail: The Medic career skills (Diagnose, Life Suspension Tech, Treat Critical Wounds, Treat Disease, Treat Light Wounds, Treat Poisoning, Treat Serious Wounds, and Treat Stunning/Paralysis) can't be taken as general skills by the other careers. This is bad because if you multiclass out of Medic, you can't increase those eight skills anymore, so I hope you got what you wanted out of the class before you decided "scalpel, monosword, they're both really sharp blades, but monoswords are much better at killing terrines."

On the plus side? A Warrior who can Treat Critical Wounds is a very interesting (and dangerous) character.

(There is a way around this, of course, but that's covered in another book.)

# ¿ Oct 2, 2019 05:57

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

My take on the monosword in Buck Rogers XXVc is that it's just a crystalline blade, and the laser emitter in there just gives it color, like some kind of futuristic neon lighted sculpture you could get at, say, Hot Topic. Except for the "it's a three-foot long monomolecular razor blade with a handle and a cool scabbard" part.

And I think the PC version of Countdown to Doomsday gives you different starter gear; everyone in the Genesis version starts with one laser pistol and one spacesuit. Weirdly enough, hex editing the ROM has references to laser rifles and rocket rifles (which are in the pen and paper game; they do 1d12 and 2d8 damage, respectively) but none seem to be available.

Weirdly, cutlasses are also in the game, and because you never need to worry about power cells or ammo, they're utterly outclassed by monoswords (mostly because Tycho Spaceport sells Lunarian Monoswords, which are +4 to hit and damage. Give that to a Desert Runner who lucked out on his Strength roll and took a few Weapon Specialization (Monoswords) picks, and you've got a warrior that can rip things apart with a couple swings!)

# ¿ Oct 5, 2019 03:00

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Kurieg posted:

The best part about the Omni-weapons is that the engineers (AKA: The tech nerd classes) create a giant flaming disc and swing it backhand, or fabricate a bunch of micro-grenades on their fists and punch with those.

This reminds me of the time one of my friends streamed Countdown to Doomsday a few years ago. He took character ideas from the audience, and named them after their creators. Mine was a human warrior who preferred melee weapons thanks to having a high Strength.

Early in the game, you can get some frag grenades, and he divvied them up as evenly as possible among both warriors in the party. Problem is, he set the game to run combat automatically, and the game picks what it feels is an optimal weapon for each character based on their stats.

So lo and behold, my warrior decided that his frag grenade was an excellent melee weapon, and he charged a terrine and "threw" the grenade at him. As should be expected from such a stupid stunt, Snorb the warrior and the two terrines near him died instantly when the grenade exploded. Not much one can do about taking 4d10 damage at second level!

# ¿ Oct 6, 2019 14:01

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Selachian posted:

IIRC, the bludgeoning rules are the only thing that's not ported more or less wholesale from AD&D 2E. I think Pondsmith just wanted to have rules for those times when the hero clonks a guard over the head to sneak into the villain's base.

I do like that there's a bit in the beginning of the Characters and Combat book about bringing AD&D characters into Buck Rogers if you really wanted to. (I'm a bit skeptical about the claim that the AD&D characters will die horribly if they have to fight XXVc characters.)

# ¿ Oct 8, 2019 02:05

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

He... really named the stereotypical Japanese geishas "Fook Mi" and "Fook Yu?" :cripes:

# ¿ Oct 13, 2019 05:31

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

(Rockets and rocket ship combat)

One weird thing that's never mentioned in the rules is that the rules text implies some weapons take more than one round to reload. None of the ship weapons have a "Rounds to Reload" value in the weapon chart. (Which is fine by me.) I've never really found a reason to buy gyrocannons over beam lasers, though. Beam lasers are cheaper to buy, have the same accuracy and damage, longer range than gyrocannons, and don't need reloading.

Also, I should mention that, if you're being feeling up to it as a ship gunner, you can fire a ship weapon at a human on the ground. They take ten times the weapon's listed damage, so if you're a warrior who lucked out with rolling Constitution and Hit Dice, you might be able to survive getting shot with a beam laser. Once. (The K-cannon does 1000 damage to a humanoid, but that's what happens when you get shot with a rail gun that fires projectiles the size of a city bus.)

# ¿ Oct 13, 2019 23:19

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

As an aside, the whole plot of Countdown to Doomsday was that RAM was working with one of the Sun Kings to turn his Mariposa station into a giant orbital laser to use on Earth.

Like most good RPGs, the game ends with your team blowing up the Doomsday Laser (and the upper decks of Mariposa Three.)

# ¿ Nov 4, 2019 16:12

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

As it happens, in Countdown to Doomsday, your team actually goes to the Venusian lowlands at one point. There is no mention whatsoever about any kind of preparation for the exceedingly-above-human-heat-tolerance heat whatsoever, and your party can be anywhere from three (Genesis version) to six (PC version, party size capped at six people) different genotypes. You'd think that if you had a Venusian PC with you, they'd say "Oh, quick heads up if you haven't been below the Aerostate, it gets a bit warm down below."

But nope. You just pile into the ground car and get into fights against the wildlife like just in the pulp sci-fi serials from the 1930s.

You also get a Lowlander as a temporary party member; unfortunately for you stat-wise, he's a literal baby. Hilariously, in the Genesis version, he still has equipment slots for a weapon and armor, so you can give the baby Lowlander a laser pistol and heavy battle armor, and he can hold his own frighteningly well. He even has his own unique species portrait on his character sheet (I guess so the game doesn't freak out when you look at his stats and it tries to load nothing; for game purposes he's a level 1 Lowlander Warrior.)

# ¿ Nov 14, 2019 04:43

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Nessus posted:

As shown here:

Pretty much that. (Minus the green skin and the laser pistol, of course.)

Then again, considering any character could use any weapon in CtD, players who are crazy enough can give said first-level baby Lowlander a goddamn rocket launcher and let him clear the field for you.

Snorb fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Nov 14, 2019

# ¿ Nov 14, 2019 07:42

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

To be honest, I prefer Coriolis's particular brand of pushing your roll-- you can do it once per roll, no Willpower expenditure required (you don't have those points in that game anyway.) This can be on any roll, from trying to free-climb a rock wall to firing a gauss pistol at slavers to trying to restart your starship's engine in a hurry.

The drawback? The GM gets a Darkness Point for each push. If pushing a roll is described in-universe as the Icons (nine figures worshiped as deities in the star cluster Coriolis takes place in) directly intervening on your character's behalf, the Darkness Point is the Dark Beyond the Stars attempting to balance that. These points get spent on anything from "You pull the trigger and hear a dry *click,* you're out of ammo," to "Hey, that flaw in your spaceship? It's coming up at THE WORST possible time!"

Then again, Coriolis uses a slightly stripped down version of the Year Zero Engine compared to Forbidden Lands.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2019 16:27

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Ratoslov posted:

(Friggin' kenders)

You know, I just remembered that kender were part of the D&D ~~Fifth Edition~~ Next playtest's final packet. Because it was a playtest, they didn't really get too much into the whole "kender are good and pure and if you kick one you're a Lying Liar From Hell Who Lies."

(If it matters, the kender stats were:

* +1 Dexterity and Charisma.
* Small size.
* 25 foot walking speed.
* You are immune to the frightened condition.
* You can taunt an opponent with a Charisma (Performance) vs. Wisdom (Insight) opposed check; if your opponent fails, he must move towards you as much as possible and attack you (with disadvantage.) If he succeeds, he's immune to this for 24 hours.
* If you need a nonmagical item, roll 1d4. It's in your backpack if you roll a 1; otherwise, you can't search for that item again until you spend one day in a town or city.
* You are literate and fluent in Common and Kenderspeak.)

Nothing here about putting the boots to kender or how they don't exactly grasp concepts like "Swiper, no swiping" or "personal property" or "the penalty for theft is cutting off your hand, but if it's your first offense, they usually just cut off a finger or two."

# ¿ Nov 18, 2019 05:13

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Wait a minute. Wait a drat minute.

Xak Tsaroth? The Disks of Miskahal? Was Dragons of Despair responsible for that lovely NES Dungeons & Dragons game?!

# ¿ Dec 4, 2019 01:42

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

Buck Rogers XXVc: The 25th Century

Mambo de La Luna

Just a note on the Lunarian mass drivers: Mass drivers are not given stats in the XXVc box set, but the expanded equipment guide does stat them. They are a rocket or ground installation weapon, the one-mile version of which will ruin your day unless your rocket has a way to take 5,120 damage and not explode. So you can see how Luna manages to deter ~~the PCs~~ RAM and NEO from using Lunarian space as a battlefield!

Not surprisingly, thanks to how vehicle-scale weapons work on humanoid characters, taking a direct hit from a one-mile long mass driver projectile will immediately blow your character into blood pulp (unless, of course, you can somehow survive 51,200 damage.) But that requires one sick mofo of a DM to do that to you.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2019 04:02

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Midjack posted:

Go out like Chewbacca did in the books before the current trilogy!

I dunno, I think you would need an impossible-level Dexterity check to have enough time to shout "MOTHER OF GO--" before getting utterly flattened by the mass driver bolt in this case.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2019 04:13

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

1994 Toyota Celica posted:

This raises a really interesting question for me. How seamlessly could you integrate stuff from the rest of AD&D into the Flash Gordon stuff? It all runs on the same system as Dragonlance at the core, right? And if that's the case how, mechanically, does the magical approach stack up against Flash Gordon future tech? Can AD&D Elminster or one of the Sorcerer Kings from Dark Sun walk into Flash Gordon's solar system and wreck things, or would they get owned by some guy with shiny hair and a rocket pistol?

Direct quote from the Characters and Combat book here:

"Buck Rogers XXVc: Characters & Combat posted:

While it's not impossible to transfer a character from an AD&D game world to the XXVc game universe, we don't recommend trying it. This game uses far more deadly weapons and requires many more skills than the average AD&D game character would have access to. Without the aid of magical armor and weapons-- which don't exist in the nonmagical world of the 25th Century-- a hero from the AD&D game would find himself made short work of by even a moderately skilled warrior of the 25th Century.

To be fair, though, XXVc assumes that said AD&D characters are going to entirely use their weapons, as opposed to having the wizard drop Meteor Swarm on RAM Corporate Headquarters. (XXVc's mum on whether magic will actually work in our solar system if you and the gang decide to take a little trip out of Faerun.)

I'm assuming that my fighter will want to pick up a monosword on this little side trip to this strange realm before we get back to our fantasy campaign!

# ¿ Dec 11, 2019 06:08

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

Buck Rogers XXVc: The 25th Century

The Asteroid Belt: Space Vegas, Baby, Space Vegas!

Psyche is home to some prime ship construction facilities (it’s called the Boatyard); having a ship made there costs at least 50% more than usual, but you get 10%-20% more hit points as a result. (Doesn’t seem like a good deal but I’m not sure.)

Running the math from the ship creation chapter, a 75-ton freighter costs 750,000 credits in your typical "previously-owned, the previous owners took great care of it" condition. This would give you a ship with a 300 HP hull and 7 gun nodes. (I'm not running the math for the sensors, controls, life support, fuel tank, and engine HP because that hull HP is slightly important.)

If you're buying a ship from the Psyche boatyard, that same 75-ton freighter would cost at least 1,125,000 credits for a ship with 330 HP. That's 12,500 credits per additional hit point, and per the rules for buying ships in such great condition, those extra 30 HP are gone forever once they're lost.

A heavy accel gun costs 5,000 credits and does 30 damage to one ship section.

This 75-ton freighter has an Armor Class of 8 (because armor is expensive) and heavy accel guns have a -2 penalty to their attack roll; 1d20 + 6 vs. THAC0 20 is at least a 35% chance (at first level) that you're going to piss away 375,000 credits on one lucky shot from a rail gun. (And of loving course your opponents are going to have more than one gun on their ship...)

Hardly worth it to me!

# ¿ Jan 7, 2020 15:13

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

I just double-checked the solar system map from the Buck Rogers RPG; it only goes as far as Hygeia and Aurora in the asteroid belt as far as mapping things out (though I don't see why you couldn't make a pit stop to the Jovian or Saturnian moons.) This only applies if you want to go off-map and visit the outer planets on purpose. If your rocket runs out of fuel you start drifting through space; this is where you cross your fingers that you come within 33 million miles (one inch on the map) of a planet so you get caught in its gravity well and can signal for help before you ~~make an emergency landing~~ crash and burn. Drift off the map and you're out of gas? Total party kill.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2020 23:24

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

Buck Rogers XXVc: The 25th Century

The first big section is Talking Between Two Worlds. This is all about the nuances of interplanetary communication. There are videophones and radios capable of transmitting between planets, but they’re way more expensive than what most civilians buy. All their signals travel at the speed of light, natch, which means there’s a certain delay between planets.

The distances between planets- and thus the time delays involved- are changing all the time, so there’s a big table for all the distances and times between various bodies in the inner Solar System. Each entry- say, “Earth to Mercury”, “Mercury to Ceres”, etc.- shows the distance and time for the closest approach of the two bodies and the farthest difference between them, and you can use the Solar System Map to work out what number it is. The delay between Earth and Luna is about two seconds, the delay between Mercury and Hygeia is somewhere between 22 and 32 minutes, and the Asteroids themselves have the biggest variance- getting a message from Ceres to Aurora can take as little as 3 minutes or as long as 49. There are no numbers given for the outer worlds, sadly, but you can imagine it’s just plain not practical to hold an actual conversation with someone on Titan. Computers can compensate for small time delays, but the greater the distance the more it’s like a telegraph system than anything else. It’s not as bad as say, the Age of Sail, but it can be a problem. I can imagine this coming up in game in some situations so it’s nice to have the info.

The communication differential between Earth and Mars is a minor plot point in one of the published XXVc adventures; one of RAM's executives threatens you from Earth, and you're able to communicate with her in real time on Mars. If the players notice that shouldn't happen, you can have them make Wisdom checks to realize that if they're on Mars and talking to someone without waiting minutes for a response, the person they're talking to is also on Mars.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2020 03:49

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

(building your own GMO creatures)

This is why I liked No Humans Allowed-- it gave you the bestiary that the core box set sorely lacked. (Plus, it gave you a slew of gennies suitable for PCs to use, and did away with almost all of the species/career restrictions from Characters & Combat.)

# ¿ Mar 12, 2020 22:01

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Dishonored would probably have Star Trek Adventures as its best 2d20 System comparison; both games use "Six skills/attributes, six styles/divisions, roll 2d20 and roll less than or equal to (Skill/Attribute) + (Style/Division) to score a success, extra successes bank Momentum," but it's a little more stripped-down than STA. Focuses work differently; in STA, either a Focus applied to your roll or it didn't, and if it did, a d20 scored two successes if it rolled less than or equal to your Division score (Security for firing a phaser pistol, Conn for flying a runabout between two buildings, Engineering for "adjust matter/antimatter intermix in the warp core and cross your fingers that this thing doesn't explode," and so on.)

I like the idea of Dishonored's Void powers, but I definitely agree they're half-baked. No room for improvement/upgrading them? No Rune costs (despite mentioning Rune costs as a thing?) That definitely needed a second pass through editing/design.

And, uh, if my math's right and I did character creation correctly, your character's finalized attributes are slightly weaker than some of the basic NPCs.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2020 16:06

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

I will regret until my dying day that the one Hunter game I played in, my character...

...well, he wasn't discouraged from taking Incompetent with the Firearms skill, but considering every single character had a pistol and botching a "I blow the vampire's head apart with my M1911" roll is bad news, I went with Incompetent (Law) instead. (And 5 points for Bad Luck because I wanted to, even though the fifth point didn't do anything for me.)

My character was a security guard at a Pepsi plant in Tennessee.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2020 01:20

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

(Gravitol and zero-G degeneration)

The worst part about atrophy induced by zero-G in XXVc? If your Strength drops below 3, you're out of action until you can get planetside. If your Constitution drops that low, every single organ fails and you have two weeks to live unless you can go get replacements transplanted ("bone marrow" counts as an organ, as far as the game rules are concerned.)

I don't believe the rulebook gives you the costs of having your heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and so on replaced.

# ¿ May 19, 2020 12:48

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

Buck Rogers XXVc: The 25th Century
(Despite all this, the Needle Gun is the starter weapon in Countdown to Doomsday and is pretty effective, and I don’t think the magnetic fields or the battery recharge come into play.)

They're the starter weapon in the PC version of Countdown to Doomsday; the Genesis version starts each character out with laser pistols. That said, I think the needle gun is the better weapon; sure, it only does 1d3 damage, but the Genesis version gives it six shots/round, warriors can specialize in them, nothing in the game is immune to them, and grenades/ECM doesn't foul them.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2020 20:38

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Yeah. The lunarian monosword is probably the best melee weapon in the entire game simply because it's +4 to hit/1d10+4 damage/two attacks (and warriors can specialize in them!); the only things keeping it from being the best overall weapon in the game are that it's hideously expensive (32000 credits a sword ain't cheap, considering any character can use them!), and, well, it's a melee weapon with a five-foot reach in an era where guns are king. Lunarian needle guns doing 1d3+4 damage, at six shots per burst, plus three picks of Weapon Specialization: Needle Guns... that's a nice healthy range of 48-60 damage right there*, and I think it's a decent tradeoff for only having about a third of the range of a laser pistol.

Having literally just run the numbers, a Martian Desert Runner with 22 Strength gets +6 to hit/+10 damage with melee weapons; Weapon Specialization: Monoswords (3) and a lunarian monosword is +13 to hit (+6 Strength, +4 Lunarian quality, +3 specialization) and 1d10 + 10 Strength + 4 Lunarian quality + 3 specialization damage; 18-27 damage per swing, at two attacks per round with this sword, 36-54 damage range.

...as much as I talk up the lunarian monosword, I think the next time I play Countdown to Doomsday, I'll stick to the guns.

*Assuming you shoot your target all six times.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2020 07:13

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

Buck Rogers XXVc: The 25th Century

Rocket Launchers fire “smart” explosives as far as 1000 feet. Rockets do 5d10 damage to targets within a 20-foot blast radius, and there’s no indication of any saving throw. However, the Launcher also can only be used once every other round, because the firing chamber needs to cool. The cost is 1000 credits, and the rockets cost 100 credits apiece, but the memories are priceless.

Plasma Throwers work a lot like Grenade Launchers, with a compressed air system, except they launch canisters of explosive, flammable gel which spray plasma over a 25 foot blast radius for 4d10 damage. Again, same rate of fire, and no apparent saving throw. The Plasma Thrower costs 800 credits and its canisters cost 80 credits a piece.

If I remember right, I think PCs and opponents caught in the blast radius of a rocket launcher or plasmathrower get to make a Save vs. Explosions roll to halve damage from these weapons.

There are also no career-based weapons restrictions, so nothing's stopping you from giving your rogue or medic a rocket launcher (besides laser pistols being far more available and far less expensive.) Nothing also stops a warrior from picking three picks of Weapon Specialization: Rocket Launchers so they can do 5d10+3 damage with them... but that's just being silly.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2020 02:47

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

You have to spend a round reloading them, but nothing's stopping you from:

Round 1: Fire rocket launcher.
Round 2: Swap empty rocket launcher for fresh rocket launcher, fire rocket launcher.
Round 3: Swap empty rocket launcher for fresh rocket launcher, fire rocket launcher.
Round 4: The terrines should be thoroughly blown up by now, but reload in case there's stragglers.
Round 5: Give that terrine with 1 HP left a direct hit from a rocket launcher for 5d10 damage.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2020 03:25

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Who could say no to a black magick that enhances a living being's capabilities due to a "gift" from an alien god?

# ¿ Jul 15, 2020 04:10

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

Buck Rogers XXVc: The 25th Century

Armor and Smart Clothing: But Does It Have Bluetooth?

The only smartsuit add-ons in the Genesis version of Countdown to Doomsday were the ECM packs. The stealth pack, security pack, and comm pack aren't in the game (I guess because you don't really need them.) Light body armor isn't in the game either; it just goes Spacesuit > Smartsuit > Heavy Body Armor > Battle Armor > Battle Armor w/ Fields, and the armor seems to be a bit more expensive compared to the pen and paper version.

On the other hand, there's an exploit you can take advantage of to get the entire team equipped with Battle Armor w/ Fields in the Genesis game!

# ¿ Jul 28, 2020 15:40

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Night10194 posted:

An elemental attack in a city should be the hitherto unseen and terrifying Pizza Elemental.

It's like a Decanter of Endless Pizza once you finally manage to contain it! (I see a fellow Quest For Glory fan!)

# ¿ Aug 7, 2020 17:12

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

mellonbread posted:

Does this game strictly limit you to Aliens-like scenarios, or can you do something like The Black Hole or Event Horizon or Saturn 3 with it?

# ¿ Aug 19, 2020 05:14

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

That was Talon, who I think was created specifically for the Countdown to Doomsday duology; I don't think Black Barney's in either game.

Also, interesting to see that Wilma's blonde in her character art. (She's a redhead in the computer games.)

Snorb fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Sep 21, 2020

# ¿ Sep 21, 2020 03:27

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Midjack posted:

Hm. I’m pretty sure his ship is the Free Enterprise at least.

He's definitely not in Countdown to Doomsday. I haven't played Matrix Cubed (and kinda got turned off of it after watching the CRPG Addict get increasingly pissed off at it) so I can't check there.

Huer isn't in the games either, but you get a digital personality named Scot.DOS who pretty much serves the same role. I actually forgot the detail that Huer was a contemporary of Buck's in the XXVc setting; in the newspaper comics (and the other Buck Rogers RPG) he's native to the 25th century like Wilma.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2020 16:06

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Maxwell Lord posted:

Buck Rogers XXVc: The 25th Century

“Killer” Kane (nobody knows what his real given name is, Hell, maybe it is Killer)

The original comics used Cornelius, like you said, so I'd wager his real name is Cornelius. (The other Buck Rogers RPG, High Adventure Cliffhangers, calls him Cornelius "Killer" Kane, but that's based on the comics anyway.)

As an aside, HAC does have what's probably the single silliest/dumbest thing I've ever seen in an RPG. Your team, working for the Orgzones (kinda like NEO, except entirely Earth-based because the game line died before it could get to the starfaring part of the comics) has to meet Kane and give him a specific password. If the PCs are reticent about it, he prompts them twice. If they still don't feel like playing along with the bad guy, he says "I'm sorry. I was expecting a different group of gun-wielding ruffians" before bailing on the PCs (and pissing off their commanding officer.)

(And no, that is not me being sarcastic. That's a direct quote from the book.)

# ¿ Oct 18, 2020 22:51

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

JcDent posted:

what is the least appropriate-to-the-system DnD hack/adaptation you can remember?

Big Eyes Small Mouth d20.

Yes, this was real.

I consider it tied with Cyberpunk 2030 as the worst purchase I've ever made at DexCon.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2020 23:05

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# ¿ Sep 27, 2023 06:44

Snorb: Nov 19, 2010

Killer Kane's ship actually reminds me of the Orgzone Confederation Rocket Cruisers from the Buck Rogers newspaper comic.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2020 04:25

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