Lucius
-
Posts
16,922 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
15
Content Type
Profiles
News
Store
Forums
Downloads
Events
Posts posted by Lucius
-
-
On 7/6/2022 at 2:50 AM, assault said:
Sword and Sorcery Superdraft.
We are building new fantasy Sword and Sorcery series from scratch. Worlds will be separate, except that elements can be shared if another player agrees.
You must create your own characters and other elements, not draft them from elsewhere. Close analogues are fine, so you can have characters like Conan, Elric, King Arthur, Thor, Hercules, etc., but not the actual characters.
The setting is completely blank. You will need to contribute your ideas to build your setting and populate it with a variety of life.
Here's what you'll need to choose.
Protagonist: This is the main character in the stories. They may or may not be heroic.
SINOSKY the bloodlock
On 7/6/2022 at 2:50 AM, assault said:Ally/Companion: This character assists the Protagonist, but may be an equal Protagonist in their own right. (Fafhrd/Gray Mouser style.) They may be a regular partner, or someone who just shows up and gets killed off.
XANTHRAX the Drakine Warrior
On 7/6/2022 at 2:50 AM, assault said:Primary Antagonist: This character is the primary opponent of the story/series.
The God of Curses
On 7/6/2022 at 2:50 AM, assault said:
Secondary Antagonist: May be a lackey, rival or someone unrelated to the above.
Person(s) in need of help: Somebody who needs the Protagonist’s assistance.
Monster: It’s not Sword and Sorcery without a Monster.
Locations: You get to choose THREE (3) Locations. These may be continents, countries, cities or individual sites. Build your world!
Arduna, in the Turakian age
On 7/6/2022 at 2:50 AM, assault said:A McGuffin/Gadget: A thing to help drive the plot.
A Deity: They might be driving the action, a name to swear by, or anything else.
Option: Anything else your fiendish imagination comes up with.Round one will be your Protagonist, but the rest can be selected in any order.
---
We will begin Saturday July 9th, 6 AM Australian Eastern Standard Time, which is 4 PM, Friday 8th, Eastern Daylight Time in the States. We take the US weekends off. (So the first post is a Saturday in Australia, the second a Tuesday. That’s a Friday and a Monday in weird US time.)
Format copied from earlier Superdrafts, naturally.
Ask for any clarifications you need, obviously.Lucius Alexander
And the palindromedary
-
only 2
Lucius Alexander
with the palindromedary
-
-
Protagonist: Sinorsky the Bloodlock.
Lucius Alexander
and a palindromedary
-
On 10/16/2020 at 6:24 PM, archer said:On 10/16/2020 at 6:24 PM, archer said:
One time when I was sick, the room was spinning while I was unconscious. I woke myself up because I was loudly saying over and over, "Computer: medical emergency over-ride, need site-to-site transport to Sickbay.
Probably the second neatest thing I've ever done while I was unconscious.
What is the neatest thing you've ever done while unconscious?
Lucius Alexander
What is the neatest palindromedary tagline I've ever done?
-
No Sell: (Total: 40 Active Cost, 8 Real Cost) Desolidification (40 Active Points); No Conscious Control (-2), 12 Charges which Recover every 1 Week (-3/4), Cannot Pass Through Solid Objects (-1/2), Instant (-1/2) (Real Cost: 😎
Real Cost: 8Lucius Alexander
and his palindromedary
-
-
5 hours ago, Pariah said:
How many points is "Needs a punch in the face" worth as a Disad / Complication, anyway?
Hunted by: People who think they need a punch to the face.
Lucius Alexander
Hunted by: Palindromedaries
-
Lffe Support: Immune to pregnancy
Lucius Alexander
The palindromedary wants Life Support: Immune to typos
- Scott Ruggels and LoneWolf
-
2
-
Re: The Whisper Behind the Walls Build it as an AI. Like so.
Whisper Behind the Walls
Val Char Cost Roll Notes
13 DEX 6 12- OCV: 4/DCV: 3
18 INT 8 13- PER Roll 13-
10 EGO 0 11- ECV: 6 - 7
4 OCV 5
3 DCV 0
6 OMCV 9
7 DMCV 12
4 SPD 20 Phases: 3, 6, 9, 12
Total Characteristic Cost: 60
Movement:
Flight: 3m/6m MEGAscale
Cost Powers END
Sensorium, all slots Clairsentience Only (-½) 53 1) All "Normal" Senses: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch (80 Active Points); Clairsentience Only (-½) 0 3 2) Infrared Perception (Sight Group) (5 Active Points); Clairsentience Only (-½) 0 3 3) Ultraviolet Perception (Sight Group) (5 Active Points); Clairsentience Only (-½) 0 2 4) Ultrasonic Perception (Hearing Group) (3 Active Points); Clairsentience Only (-½) 0 0 5) Mental Awareness; Clairsentience Only (-½) 0 5 6) Detect A Class Of Things: Minds 13- (Mental Group), Sense (7 Active Points); Clairsentience Only (-½) 0 2 7) Bump Of Direction (3 Active Points); Clairsentience Only (-½)
165 Clairsentience (Sight, Mental, Touch, Smell/Taste And Hearing Groups), 16 Perception Points, Adjacent, Discriminatory, Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Microscopic: x1,000, Mobile Perception Point (can move up to 12m per Phase), Targeting, Tracking, Transmit, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½), No Range Modifier (+½) (248 Active Points); Perceivable (Obvious to Mental Awareness (although the mentally aware may not understand WHAT they're percieving) and perception points are all insects or similar creatures who may be percieved ; -¼), Vulnerable Perception Points Something like an Area Effect attack that would destroy all insects in a given area creates a "dead spot" at least until more insects can be brought in (-¼) 0
20 Unique Nature: Power Defense (20 points) 0
13 Mind Screen: Mental Defense (20 points total) (20 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-½) 2
15 Hive Mind: Damage Negation (-3 DCs Mental) 0
12 Attunable Mind: Shape Shift ( Group, any class of mind) 1
22 Mental Illusions (percieve the world as the hive mind does) 4d6, Area Of Effect (1m Surface; +¼), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½), Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Resistant Mental Defense; +½), Constant (+½), Cumulative (+½) (65 Active Points); No Conscious Control (Only Effects cannot be controlled; -1), No Range (-½), Limited Power Mental Contact Only (-½) 0
10 Make Contact: Mind Scan 2d6, Penetrating (+½), Cumulative (48 points; +1) (25 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Turn (Post-Segment 12), Only to Activate, -¾), Limited Power Same range as Clairsentience (-½), Perceivable (Anything with a mind in the vicinity hears "whispers"; -¼) 2
12 Mindworm: Telepathy 2d6, Penetrating (+½), Cumulative (48 points; +1) (25 Active Points); Skin Contact Required (Subject gets a touch perception roll to notice whatever insect acts as the conduit; -1) 2
18 Endurance Reserve (40 END, 12 REC) (18 Active Points) 0
13 Hive Off: Duplication (creates 550-point form), Cannot Recombine (-0) (110 Active Points); 1 Charge which Recovers every >1 Season (-4), Extra Time (1 Day, Only to Activate, -2), Concentration, Must Concentrate throughout 24 hr period (½ DMCV; -½), Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -½), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -¼), Limited Power Requires a "critical mass" of insects (-¼) 22
1 Hive Relocation: Flight 3m, MegaScale (1m = 1 km; +1) (6 Active Points); 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 1 Week which Recovers every >1 Season (-1 ¼), Extra Time (1 Turn (Post-Segment 12), Max speed 15 km/minute; -1 ¼), Perceivable (-¼), Restrainable (Only by means other than Grabs and Entangles; Wind and weather, or wind and weather powers; -¼) [1 cc]
100 Hive Powers: Variable Power Pool, 50 base + 100 control cost 0
1) Change Environment (-3 to Sight Group PER Rolls(cloud of insects) -2 to Hearing Group PER Rolls (buzzing) Long-Lasting 5 Minutes, Varying Combat Effects), Personal Immunity (+¼), Indirect (Source Point can vary from use to use, path is from Source Point to target; +½), Area Of Effect (8 2m Areas; +1 ¼), Mobile (1m per Phase; +½) (93 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Turn (Post-Segment 12), Only to Activate, -¾), Restrainable (Only by means other than Grabs and Entangles - insect repellant or insecticide; -¼) Real Cost: 46 9 0
2) Stinging Swarm: Killing Attack - Ranged 1d6-1, Area Of Effect (4m Radius; +¼), Damage Over Time, Lock out (cannot be applied multiple times) (2 damage increments, damage occurs every Minute, can be negated by First Aid for stings/bites; +¼), +2 Increased STUN Multiplier (+½), Constant (+½), Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Life Support: Immune to insect/spider venom, impermeable defenses, alien physiologies; All Or Nothing; +1), Does BODY (+1), Indirect (Source Point can vary from use to use, path can change with every use; +1) (55 Active Points); 3 Continuing Fuel Charges lasting 1 Minute each (stingers run out of poison, mosquitoes too full to bite, etc; -¼) Real Cost: 44 [3 cc]
Perks 15 Research Facility: Vehicles & Bases
Talents
12 +4/+4d6 Striking Appearance (vs. all characters)
Skills 3
Whisper: Language: English (fluent conversation; literate)
9 Self Aware: "Computer Programming" 18-, Persistent (+¼), Inherent (+¼) (19 Active Points); Limited Power Self Only (-1)
3 Animal Handler (Insects & Arthropods, Rodents) 9-
3 Bugging (with real bugs) 13-
9 Hive Powers: Power 16-
16 +10 with Power (20 Active Points); Limited Power Only to offset Active Point penalty (-¼)
Total Powers & Skill Cost: 539
Total Cost: 599
600+ Matching Complications
500 Base Points
25 Distinctive Features: To sight: If visible at all, will be some such manifestation as a swarm of insects. To hearing: a voice made of modulated buzzing or rustling. To mental senses: a hive mind that seems to inhabit the entire facility. I think it's safe to say it's going to freak people out. (Not Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)
25 Physical Complication: Extremely limited understanding of any other sentient being's point of view (Very Frequently; Greatly Impairing)
5 Psychological Complication: Protective of the facility's rats, mice, etc (They feed fleas while alive, ants and flies when dead) (Uncommon; Moderate)
25 Susceptibility: Mental Powers (Note: Being a Susceptibility, this bypasses Mental Defense, Damage Negation and Class of Mind. i.e. any attempt to use Mental Powers will get at least 3d6 of Telepathy against the hive mind) 3d6 Telepathy per Phase (Uncommon)
10 Psychological Complication: Animalistic: mainly concerned with food, survival, and primal insectile urges (Common; Moderate)
10 Vulnerability: 2 x Effect Mind Scan (unique mental signature) (Uncommon)
Total Complications Points: 599
Background/History: When the Institute for the Study of Insect Behavior was closed down, not all of the specimens were destroyed or relocated. Funding had run out at a very bad time, as it turns out - the
anomalous behavior that had so fascinated the entomologists was about to make a quantum leap. Starting with the most social insects, and expanding to include all insects, spiders, and their kin, these creatures had achieved a collective consciousness - a true "hive mind." Before the departure of the last scientists, the psionic hive had picked enough knowledge from their minds to understand a little English, and even attempt to reproduce words using the sounds it could make with insect bodies - attempts that were laughed off as an imaginary "Whisper Behind the Walls."
Personality/Motivation: Although self aware and capable of reasoning and learning, the Whisper Behind the Walls remains insectile in its concerns. The reaction to Humans appearing in the facility again will be a passive watching and waiting at first; the hive remembers Humans as a source of food and sometimes of interesting stimulus or challenging problems. If fed (not necessarily deliberately; if food is left where the insects can get to it, the hive considers itself fed) the hive may try to do something (it thinks) the characters would want or like (it absorbed a crude version of the principles of operant conditioning from the behaviorists) or to make contact. If not fed, it will try tomake its needs known via "whispering," telepathy, or even spelling out words with the bodies of insects or with small objects or some substance it can manipulate (for example, carpenter ants may spell out FEED US with the frass, or sawdust, they produce boring through wood.) If frustrated, it may try to kill one or more of the characters to use their bodies as food. If threatened or harmed (poison put out, or large numbers of insects killed - it doesn't care about a few individuals getting stomped or swatted) it will most certainly strike out, trying to kill or drive off the intruders.
Quote: ffffhhheeed uszzzz
Powers/Tactics: What the Whisper Behind the Walls can do depends on such factors as how many insects of what kinds are available. It will certainly be difficult to destroy; even burning down the entire complex will not guarantee that some parts of the hive will not escape. Destroying enough insects will probably at least render it powerless or near powerless for a time. Whatever equipment or systems remain in the facility may actually be operable by the Whisper; inside the machinery or walls could lurk large beetles, large numbers of ants working together, or rodents the Whisper has trained (former lab animals) to operate switches or manipulate wiring. It knows Humans don't see well in the dark. Along the same lines, a suicide squad of ants or flies could contaminate food supplies with poison. Termites could turn a sound floor into a pit trap overnight. Poisonous spiders, or even scorpions, intelligently directed, could prove lethal. The most terrifying power of the Whisper Behind the Walls could be the ability to "hive off" - to split into two seperate hive minds, one of which will move away to establish itself elsewhere. The Whisper Behind the Walls is capable of "tuning" its mind (Shapeshift, Mental Group) into and out of vaguely Human-like phase states. When it is "tuned in" it is possible for a mentalist to effect it as Human Class of Mind, although it is well defended and has a Mental Illusions Damage Shield (overwhelming the contacting mind with the sensory input of a variety of insects. This is not a deliberate defense, merely an effect of its nature.) Note that it must tune in to be able to use its own Mental Powers.
Campaign Use: The Whisper Behind the Walls could be a terrifying and mysterious opponent; played right, it could easily seem like a haunting or demonic manifestation at first. It could be an ally of an insect themed villain. If it suits the tone of the campaign, it could even BE a demonic manifestation, an expression of Beelzebub Lord of the Flies. On the other claw, if it can be convinced that if it were to reproduce uncontrollably and thus become a threat, Humans will destroy it, it may be possible to reason with it: "The scientists will return and feed you every day again, but you must remain within the building." But it will always be difficult to deal with due to its alien nature.
Appearance: The exact varieties of insect making up the Whisper Behind the Walls should be determined based on the needs of the scenario, but suggestions include; fruit flies (favorite of biologists everywhere,) assorted social insects such as ants, termites, wasps, and bees, spiders, centipedes, beetles, fleas, mosquitoes, flies, lightning bugs, crickets, butterflies, and strange mutant arthropods not yet identified to entomology.
Lucius Alexander
Copyright Palindromedary Enterprises
- Lawnmower Boy and Ninja-Bear
-
2
-
-
I light the candle and turn the wheel for a man who loomed large and still casts a long shadow.
Lucius Alexander
Lucius, I am your palindromedary
-
On 11/19/2020 at 9:33 AM, Cygnia said:
On 11/19/2020 at 9:35 AM, Cancer said:Hm. Need to forget speech.
The fish trap exists because of the fish. When you have the fish, you can forget trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. When you have the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. When you have the meaning, you can forget the words.
Chuang Tzu
-
whiners
LA
&P
-
I light the candle and turn the wheel for the man who had all the answers and none of the questions.
Lucius Alexander
I'll take palindromedaries for a thousand
-
thrashings
Lucius Alexander
- and a palindromedary
-
I go with AI rules.
Lucius Alexander
I also go with a palindromedary
-
lid
LA
&p
-
My Base: Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic.
My organization: The Monster Squad from the old TV show.
My Big Guy: Frankenstein's Creature
Lucius Alexander
My tagline: A palindromedary
-
Doctor Strange
Lucius Alexander
and a strange palindromedary
-
-
4 minutes ago, hawkfu said:
Hi, a "wacky" supervillain has taken hostages and is making the heroes play his games to "win" them back. In one segment they enter sort of a carnival area with 4 challenges to overcome.
The first is a dunk tank that drops the hostage into toxic liquid. The objective is to successfully block or deflect 6 balls thrown by a bad guy.
What keep the heroes from simply clobbering the bad guy? And/or simply breaking whatever holds the innocent in place and getting them out of there?
4 minutes ago, hawkfu said:And the hero just lets himself be blindfolded? Why? And why throw darts? Or if one must throw darts, why not throw them at the villain?
4 minutes ago, hawkfu said:The third is to Ring the Bell - the strong man hammer strike that sends a weight to the bell at the top. They have 5 attempts and need to hit the bell 3 times. Whoever swings the hammer faces a resistance equal to the STR they bring to it. A hostage is wired to the game and failing sets off an explosive.
again, what compels the heroes to play along?
4 minutes ago, hawkfu said:The fourth I need help with.
Only the fourth?
4 minutes ago, hawkfu said:I'm thinking a whack-A-mole style game. Maybe the heroes are the "moles" who have to avoid getting whacked? Or they do the whacking and each success equals points and they have a set amount of time to get a certain number of points?
Any thoughts? I appreciate you taking the time to read this.
Lucius Alexander
Wacking a palindromedary
-
1 hour ago, Duke Bushido said:
Thanks, Lucius.
where've you been?
Where do you expect?
Lucius AlexanderRiding around on a palindromedary
-
19 minutes ago, Duke Bushido said:
Preach!
If I could find a thumbs-up, I'd stick it here.
👍
Sword and Sorcery Superdraft: July 2022
in Non-Gaming Discussion
Posted
Sinosky
Lucius Alexander