Messages

46

General Chaos / Re: What Vidja games are you playing?

« on: September 21, 2014, 12:41:17 PM »

I'm having tons of fun with Wasteland 2 as well. I backed it on the Kickstarter because they promised a return to old-school RPGs, and I have not been disappointed. This is coming from a guy who adores Fallout 1 and 2, and thought Fallout 3 was a step back for the franchise.

47

RPGs / Re: The mind control PC thing

« on: September 17, 2014, 03:37:58 PM »

I'm not sure what you mean when you say that it's okay to mind-control a PC through magic. 

48

RPGs / Re: Serious injuries question

« on: September 14, 2014, 05:36:58 PM »

You can't just heal damage with spells and potions in CoC/DG

Well you CAN, but expect it to be horrifying and sanity-draining. 

This is one of the bigger problems with running difficult situations in CoC/DG, PCs are not designed to be heroic characters and are instead very frail.
In your specific case, I would not break their legs, but make them still take that same damage and walk with a limp (just assign a negative modifier to physical actions involving their legs such as climb, dodge, etc.)

As you say, if a person is not able to contribute to the adventure, it pretty much makes for a boring or frustrating game. It's best to avoid falling into those situations (no pun intended) by being a bit more lenient BEFORE the final confrontation, and then not holding back when they face the BBEG.

49

General Chaos / Re: Image Thread

« on: September 05, 2014, 10:27:47 AM »

you better understand all of these references in this comix or u lame

Where's the drunk, unhinged Sabbat jock with three popped collars?

50

RPGs / Re: Lost: A tenative idea for an Eclipse Phase campaign

« on: August 26, 2014, 02:12:06 PM »

I would argue that bioconservative ideas would be part of what they want to impart, especially emphasis on biomorph superiority over synthmorphs. But yeah, that's a great way to put it succinctly.

51

RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder

« on: August 25, 2014, 01:43:54 AM »

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2010/07/01/128170775/a-very-scary-light-show-exploding-h-bombs-in-space

The US military, during the Cold War, decided to detonate atom bombs in space, just to see what would happen.

52

RPGs / Re: I need a CoC game for my camping trip.

« on: August 23, 2014, 02:47:24 PM »

How about one of Caleb's No Security scenarios?

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RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder

« on: August 19, 2014, 08:48:17 PM »

This single image could be a plot hook. Think about it.

54

General Chaos / Re: Image Thread

« on: August 19, 2014, 02:29:04 PM »

55

RPGs / Re: Eclipse Phase

« on: August 18, 2014, 05:19:56 PM »

Sounds like a cool idea! There's not too many details, but I can try and help out with some of your doubts.

Egos not realizing that time has passed since they supposedly arrived (e.g. if they are the 3rd sleeved set, how to trick them into thinking everything is on the level)

The easiest way to do this would be to keep resleeving them on the other side of the gate, I think. This would be unlikely to happen in the gates in the solar system unless the hypercorp has a lot of pull (IE Pathfinder, Direct Action, etc.) or if they are sponsored by even large forces (ex: Firewall, Oversight or Ozma, etc.) It would be easier to resleeve backupos and send them through gates from a gate nexus outside the system, but then again biomorphs are probably a luxury in those places.

 

If it even makes sense that a hypercorp would do this sort of thing to keep it on the DL

Sure. Hypercorps can be as evil as you want them to be most of the time. Even more so if its indentured egos, doing jobs out of desperation and with the promise of riches and their bodies they can call their own. It could also be a test of some sort. Or a way to keep the situation contained by only using a few egos, for example it makes them much easier to hunt down if they defect.

What the hypercorp would plan to do to the egos if they did return (likely kill and restore from backup with claims of great heroism I suspect)

What if they find another gate and they have the controls to operate it? What if when they go back through the gate they end up somewhere else entirely? Or if they get the chance to escape when the hypercorp captures them, perhaps Firewall or a rival hypercorp wants to smuggle them out to get the information they glimpsed in the ruins.

How to structure the settlement as I want to have it be fairly large and abandoned (one of my players likes the idea of atmospheric exploration and investigation which also works well for PbP)

That depends on how big you want the game to be. From experience, I can tell you that PbP tends to drag out a bit so you want to have them get to the action as quick as possible, in which case a single research station would be best.

If gates are isolated enough for something like this to happen (solar system side that is)

Probably not the anarchist gates, because they won't get on well with the hypercorps. The Martian gate could be a safe bet. You can just say that, because the mission is of such a high clearance, not many questions are made about the whole thing.

56

RPGs / Re: Lost: A tenative idea for an Eclipse Phase campaign

« on: August 15, 2014, 03:45:16 PM »

Whoops doublepost.

57

RPGs / Re: Lost: A tenative idea for an Eclipse Phase campaign

« on: August 15, 2014, 03:43:08 PM »

I guess a good question to make is what Cognite wanted to achieve with the Lost. In my mind, they wanted to shape up role models of the Planetary Consortium's society. Probably to educate them to be future hypercorp supervisors, Consortium government officials, scientists, media personalities, and perhaps even Oversight agents. Basically, people who would strengthen the Consortium's influence and be loyal to it. That means that it would have to include slanted knowledge such as:

• Old Earth is to be remembered with much nostalgia, but the Consortium is a better alternative than the old Earth nationalism divides.
• The Fall was a horrible event, the threat of TITANs still lingers and the Consortium must be united against these threats.
• The Planetary Consortium's terraforming initiatives must be continued, to both create habitable worlds and possibly reclaim Earth.
• Socialists and Anarchists are debauched and violent, and are not to be trusted. Hypercapitalism is the only system that works.
• Seed AIs are dangerous, and AGIs should be controlled.
• Uplifts were created by transhumanity and should therefore be grateful to mankind.

I could see it being a boarding school created for rich kids. Creativity could be endorsed, as long as it is on par with the Consortium's beliefs. Multiculturalism and transnationalism would be important ideas to instill, as well as meritocracy and hypercapitalism.

On the ugly side, it would encourage discrimination against AGIs and Uplifts. It would mean that those that turn slightly towards anarchist or socialist thoughts get punished severely. It could make the kids resentful. And since they are growing up in Simulspace, going through adolescence and puberty they would try to rebel against the preconceived system. Probably made worse by imperfect hormonal simulations and their increasing knowledge of them being in a Simulspace.

58

General Chaos / Re: What Vidja games are you playing?

« on: August 12, 2014, 09:21:58 PM »

Hey guys !

I was playing Dark souls recently on my pc. I decided that the 'only winning move is not to play' and uninstalled it after putting 23 hours in it. I finally gave up at the gaping dragon boss. I am sad that i actually payed 20 euros for it. Granted, some things were fun, but it just wasn't worth it for me with all the frustration.

It's completely okay to not like the game. I bounced off it hard after getting to Blighttown. Hell, everyone hates Blighttown.

I did not play the game again for three months, but something of the setting attracted me. So I read up on a noob guide, (never put points into Resistance, spend your souls on weapon upgrades) and took the plunge again with a second character.

While playing, I realized that I still remembered the strategies I used to beat the early bosses, and I made a lot of quick progress through the game.

And then that's where you realize that Dark Souls is a game about knowledge. Every death is supposed to teach you something new about the environment, so that you use that new knowledge and put it to use to achieve the seemingly insurmountable.

So what I'm saying is, if you ever feel like it, do give the game another shot. It is one of the most indepth games out there, and there's ample reasons why it has such a big following.

On that note, just beat Dark Souls and have started Dark Souls II.  Not sure what kind of build I want to run with though....  Recommendations?

Personally I have found Demon's Souls to be my favorite, but it may be a bit of nostalgia of introduction to the "series"....

I had tons of fun with a Strength build with a gigantic anime sword. I also used crossbows to give me a bit of ranged combat ability, but mostly relied on slow heavy swings that deal tons of damage and can hit multiple foes.

Similarly, if you're looking to test your mettle, try a dual-wielding build. It's incredibly viable in Dark Souls 2, so long as you are good at dodging attacks.

The 'easiest' build would probably be a hex user with a big shield on his offhand, but then again it is not that great for PvP unless you learn how to time your spell casting duration and how to lead the hexes through hit-detection lag.

also:

59

General Chaos / Re: What Vidja games are you playing?

« on: August 12, 2014, 12:24:02 PM »

Since Dark Souls was brought up in the newest RPPR podcast episode, I will say that this would be an AMAZING game to see played by the RPPR crew to post on Raillery. By that, I mean one person plays and one or more people commentate.

Yes, I'm serious.

60

Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: The RPPR AP podcast site is now up

« on: August 11, 2014, 05:57:01 PM »

I've heard of something similar done for western RPGs, in that a lot of fantasy novels are actually adapted rewrites of D&D campaigns. I also got pretty excited when I heard that there was a fan translation for Red Dragon, a campaign where a bunch of Japanese anime writers are playing in and been turned to replays. Among the cast is Urobuchi, AKA Urobutcher AKA the guy behind Psycho-Pass and a bunch of other awesome light novels and anime.

So what I'm saying is, I would definitely be interested in such a project. Depending on the price range, I might even be tempted to spend a few money units for it.