Minor game stuff from around the web for commentary...

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hogarth
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Post by hogarth »

mean_liar wrote:I don't know how anyone can justify banning a Monk archetype.
As a GM, I'd have no qualms making changes to Crane Wing, for example. Not because monks don't deserve nice things, but because I think it makes fights more boring.
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Count Arioch the 28th
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Post by Count Arioch the 28th »

Varg Vikernes, formerly of the black metal band Burzum has released an RPG based on neo-nazi beliefs and germanic folklore called MYFAROG. I wonder if this will beat out RaHoWa for shitheadedness in general.

Good luck getting even a pirated copy just yet, he printed 100 of them.
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Post by Username17 »

I wouldn't expect a pirated copy to appear any time soon, Varg has stabbed people to death before for lesser crimes than distributing copies of his stuff without permission or giving him bad reviews. I mean, we are talking about "convicted murderer and alleged arsonist Varg Vikernes," it's a whole other level of fuckery that we don't normally talk about when discussing how such and such a person or idea is bad for the hobby.

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Count Arioch the 28th
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Post by Count Arioch the 28th »

I don't disagree with any of that, but I do say I am curious and if given the chance to see the game in a way that didn't support Varg, I would take a look out of sheer curiosity...
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angelfromanotherpin
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

I looked at a bunch of the online game materials. Impressions below the spoiler.
For the Players:
Character Sheet: On some level, looks like it belongs to a fairly standard fantasy heartbreaker, derived from some flavor of D&D with a layer of extra complexity added. There's a bunch of terms which suggest some basic research into Germanic tribal stuff. I don't recognize the species names and they don't show up anywhere else on google. The first questionable sign is the listing of 'race' separate from 'species.' If there are any other white power elements hidden in the Germanic terms, I don't recognize them.

Skill Sheet: Oh yeah, total generic fantasy heartbreaker. Clearly the game has been brought to a skill-based system. It's weirdly like looking at a RuneQuest or Rolemaster skill sheet if it had been based on 3e. Some strange decisions have been made here: for example 'Social Skills' is one skill, while 'Flute Playing' and 'Lyre Playing' are separate. The language listing includes three different 'Thulean' languages, which plays into extremely discredited Nazi occult ideas of Thule as the homeland of the Aryan peoples.

Combat Sheet: Oh, hello. Lots of excess detail here. Injury and fatigue levels look inspired by Ars Magica. But also with bleeding details that look like Rolemaster or even Riddle of Steel.

Equipment Sheet: Encumbrance is weirdly standardized. Everyone's belt pouch holds 32 oz., everyone's backpack carries 54 lbs, etc. Encumbrance only comes in three levels (light, medium,heavy), but he's expecting you to track piecemeal armor (there's a separate listing for greaves. Greaves!).

Seiðr/Âsatrû Sheet: These have to do with a character's 'Life Stance.' Seiðr is about being a magician,and tracks spells known, spell power,elemental specialty, etc. Âsatrû has to do with being religious and tracks godly favor. Both seem to restrict your 'traditional character roles,' which are probably pseudo-classes. Actually looks pretty flavorful. The weird thing to me is that one of the religious options is Bacchante/Maenad which is... wildly out of place in an otherwise full-Germanic setting. I guess it's some weird thing about making a connection between Germanics and Greeks for white power theories, but I don't know.


For the Myth Master:
Mostly a pile of variously-useful but bland record-keeping sheets. The only thing of note is the Þulêan Calendar, which is a nicely laid-out 13-lunar-month calendar with Germanic month names.
It's not too hard to find people blogging the playtest, though I didn't look at them in any detail. More fun to play detective.
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Count Arioch the 28th
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Post by Count Arioch the 28th »

It kind of makes me sad that there will more than likely never be an RPG based on Germanic myth without Nazis fucking it all up...
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Post by angelfromanotherpin »

I found Fate of the Norns too arcane to finish a sample chargen, but I don't think it has white power jizz on it.
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Longes
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Post by Longes »

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Leress
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Post by Leress »

Longes wrote:Panty Explosion
Wat.
I've mentioned this game several times over the years. Also you are pointing to the old version of the game now it's perfect:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/1 ... on-Perfect
Last edited by Leress on Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Neurosis »

FrankTrollman wrote:I wouldn't expect a pirated copy to appear any time soon, Varg has stabbed people to death before for lesser crimes than distributing copies of his stuff without permission or giving him bad reviews. I mean, we are talking about "convicted murderer and alleged arsonist Varg Vikernes," it's a whole other level of fuckery that we don't normally talk about when discussing how such and such a person or idea is bad for the hobby.

-Username17
I suddenly no longer want to pirate this game. (Please don't fucking stab me to death Mr. Nazi sir.)
Last edited by Neurosis on Fri Nov 14, 2014 2:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by TheFlatline »

This is a disaster in the making. Free world-wide shipping is fucking hilarious.
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Prak
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Post by Prak »

...

I don't much care that Paranoia is being rebooted.

I do care, however, that Mr. Wallis has yet to fucking deliver on Alas Vegas which funded Feb. 28th LAST YEAR, and here he is saying he'll reboot paranoia.

Damnit, Wallis. Finish my 60GBP hardbound Vegas in Hell book first.
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Post by fectin »

Someone has an interesting take on a new Pathfinder setting:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/19 ... f=category

It's caster-only, final destination. One of the impossible problems has always been martial-caster imbalance, this seems like it actually addresses that.

Aside from that, it plays to Pathfinders strengths: six of the nine team members they have assembled are artists.
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Post by OgreBattle »

They got BROM on board, coool. I enjoy his version of Elric and imagine he will be illustrating many sorcerous swordsmen for this book.
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Post by Pedantic »

Fantasy Craft is releasing their big book of magic, only about 3 and a half years late.

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Post by Reynard »

Pedantic wrote:Fantasy Craft is releasing their big book of magic, only about 3 and a half years late.
Don't count on it.
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Prak
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Post by Prak »

OgreBattle wrote:They got BROM on board, coool. I enjoy his version of Elric and imagine he will be illustrating many sorcerous swordsmen for this book.
Sigantium Demonology Major Pledge Level wrote: Everything from "the book" level, and you will also work with Thomas Baxa and our designers to add your very own demon to the world! Your demon will be illustrated in full color and can be either a unique powerful individual demon, and or a specific demonic sub-race (Such as D&D fiend types: Glabrezu, Vrock, etc.) You will also receive an art print of your demon signed by Thomas Baxa himself!
...brb, robbing a convenience store.


But seriously. This looks pretty awesome, if only because it's D&D, and has Brom and Baxa working on it. I mean, it's going to try to do Spell Customization, so it'll probably be ripe for ripping, but it should also be a lot of fun.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Post by Chamomile »

I am eternally taunted by all these "work with creators to add personal touch to the finished product" reward levels that always cost a squillion dollars.
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Prak
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Post by Prak »

I was kind of sad there isn't a "Work with Brom" level, but working with Baxa would be awesome. His art can be odd, but he still has a place in my heart for, knowingly or no, making the 3.5 Ur Priest look like Anton LaVey:

Image
Last edited by Prak on Mon Dec 01, 2014 2:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Post by fectin »

You know, you could probably just commission art from Baxa directly.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
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Prak
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Post by Prak »

Most likely, but I'd rather, if I could afford it, work with him for something to be put in a book.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.

You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Longes
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Post by Longes »

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread ... ric-archer

TL;DR: enworld is crying tears of joy at the ability to make a cleric with a bow using only core d&d5 rules. I have no words.
It is pretty cool that it's possible to make this character in 5Basic! Weirdly enough, the combination was so obvious and intuitive that it was hidden in plain sight. This must be one of the hidden (or not!) strengths of rules-light gaming. Seems likely that we're going to see even more elves using bows this edition. Nothing wrong with that!
You might even see an elf wizard with a bow, at least for a couple of levels. I really like how this edition doesn't feel the need to overly penalize niche concepts.
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erik
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Post by erik »

Heh. I was doing living grey hawk at Gencon one year and a couple reporters were joining a table and had no characters. I helped one of em make a cleric archer (his colleague said he needed no help and made something inferior). I gave him a bit of advice on what he could expect to be capable of, checked on him post game and he was quite pleased.
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ACOS
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Post by ACOS »

It's official - Trapdoor, aka Codename: Morningstar, is jumping to Pathfinder, as per their new kickstarter.
I must say, I find their goal to be quite ambitious - for their sake, they better have generated as much buzz as they think they have.
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Post by name_here »

I can't decide if this is a great idea or is going to ruin RPG books even further as people just dump text into it and let it do their formatting.
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