Shadowsoul

Re: Races of Men It's always tricky to differentiate between fantasy races and the cultural baggage which comes with the ethnic distinctions made between different 'races' of humans in the real world. Supposedly Tolkien based his Dwarves on a mixture of the Nordic faerie creatures they were named after and ideas taken from the medieval conception of Jews, (not his own ideas about Jews, I should add). The Dwarves in the Hobbit are a people in exile dreaming of their promised land, they are also believed by humans to be greedy, a trait that medieval Europeans, (and Cartman from South Park), believed Jews to possess. Once you know that kind of thing it can make even an innocent Lord of the Rings themed game a bit fraught. And I'd agree that when you start talking about different flavours of human you stray into even more dangerous ideological waters. Many modern arguments against racism are based on the idea that differences between groups of humans are trivial and unimportant. Statting up the differences goes against that argument somewhat. If you are going to use Howard as a model then you should bear in mind his ideas. Howard wrote a lot about evolution and different races being at different places on the evolutionary ladder. Conan is closer to nature/less evolved than civilised men, which is why they can never match his beast-like strength. Whole races can share a personality type to the extent that Stygians seem to be genetically evil or at least cunning and untrustworthy. Howard actually goes further. The black people in his Conan stories are all animalistic and savage, they are compared to beasts in a far less flattering way than Conan is. Conan has tanned or dark skin, but differentiates himself from the Picts, (Native Americans, I suspect), who are not black or asian, by calling himself and his Hyperborean allies 'white men'. Howard was acting out a bit of a cowboy fantasy here, I think. Conan actually refuses to abandon some pirates that he was planning to kill himself because some Picts are about to catch them and white men don't abandon each other to Picts. On the other hand he is a grudge bearing barbarian and Picts are his blood enemies. So yes, racism is something to worry about and racist ideologies have affected some of the most important works of fantasy ever made. On the other hand. It's a game, man. Slavery, torture, murder and prejudice occur in fictional settings. You don't have to shy away from them. By all means be aware that if you create a black skinned slave race who are genetically stupid then you are going to get some flak, and you'd deserve it. But if one race enslaves another in a setting that doesn't mean that you are condoning slavery any more than playing in Middle Earth means that you are condoning pipeweed. It's how you and your players deal with the issue that matters. What better enemy to fight than an empire which is based on racial purity and the enslavement or destruction of lesser beings, ('koff' Drow 'koff')? I'd enjoy kicking the crap out of them a lot more than I would slaughtering another band of goblins. (In all fairness to Robert E. Howard he did create at least one positive black character. There is a highly intelligent witch doctor in the Solomon Kane tales who seems to be some kind of guardian or champion of good magic).

Re: Magic systems based on science? Hmm. Perhaps using this psuedo-magic requires a brain capable of understanding computer code at an instinctive level. So all mages possess varying levels of a particular kind of computer enhanced autistic savantism.

Re: Golden Age: Past or Present? Thanks Manic Typist. I've edited the dragon flight idea as I realise now that I didn't finish it.

Re: Golden Age: Past or Present? Actually. Here are some Golden Age adventures/campaigns. Wars of the Gods - The brutal elder gods worshipped by the ancient races are being displaced by a new race of deities that favours humanity. But the old gods are powerful and their younger rivals require champions to root out the monsters and titans that lurk in the dark corners of the world and pave the way for a glorious new civilisation. - Ultimately, the PCs' enemies have been working at the behest of a certain god. Now they are powerful enough to take him on directly and his chief rival in the pantheon is willing to give them the opportunities they need to kill an immortal. - (Lifted straight from Dragonlance). The Priest-King, the word of the gods in mortal form, overlord of the golden age and the ultimate expression of Good, has decided that among the people who don't meet his exacting standards of morality are pretty much all the non-human races and possibly even the gods themselves. It is up the the players whether they stand in the path of his all-consuming crusade ... or join it. Children of the Gods - (Stolen from Homer). The world groans beneath the epic feet of the race of Heroes, born from the union of men and gods. So Fate and the Gods conspire to pit the two mightiest kingdoms on earth against each other. Each kingdom can field an immense army of allied soldiers. This will be the war to end all wars. Heroes will fall in bloody ruin and legends will be forged in the terrible crucible of war. - (Stolen from God of War). The gods are your parents. And they are not good ones. It is time to bring justice to the world and work out your daddy issues by taking the fight to Olympus itself. - New gods are chosen from amongst half mortal children seeded in the human population. The PCs have been revealed as such beings. Now they must prove that they are worthy of ascension, ideally by defeating their fellow demigods in war and mighty deeds. - When mortals make mistakes, they make a mess. When gods make a mistake, they make a monster. The party has been recruited to clean up the mistakes of various gods, from transformed mortals to semi-divine abominations. Big enemies - (Taken from the Chronicles of the Raven). This world is one of many and there are creatures which know the paths between them. One such species is the dragon. And unfortunately the mystical powers unleashed by the golden age are as a beacon which has guided a voracious flight of dragons to this planet and now they intend to devastate the entire world and feed on its magic. - The Dark Lord has tried to end the Golden Age too many times already. It is time to corner him and bring him down. - The wonders of the golden age are such that the prince of hell himself has begun to covet them. So he leads an army of demons onto the mortal plane to take those wonders for himself. Exploration - The golden age is wonderful. But it only exists in a limited geographical area. Now is the time for bold explorers to bring the fruits of the golden age to other cultures and civilisations, whether they like it or not. - There is a phrophecy which says that a power lies beyond the known world which overshadows all the miracles of the golden age. Our heroes must set out in search of it. Civil War - The great magical civilisation of epicness has ushered in an age of arcane enlightenment and crushed all enemies. But there is a growing discord between factions of the nobility, who have very different ideas about how the empire should be run. That conflict will inevitably spiral into war. - A new form of magic has been developed e.g. golem-crafting. But its practitioners refuse to bow to the status quo. They must be made to yield, or crushed, so that the golden age can continue undisturbed. Or. A noble house has begun dabbling in dark powers. They have taken the mighty legacy of the age and twisted it to evil ends. They must be destroyed. Inheritance - (Taken from a couple of different fantasy books). The Dark Lord who threatened the world has been defeated. But the heroes did not succeed in destroying the Dark Army. Instead, they inherited it. Now the golden age is a time of wonder and power, but it sure could use a little more justice. Hey, why don't we ... Legacy - A prophecy states that x mighty weapons must be created to be used by the heroes of the future against a mighty evil that has yet to make itself known. Cue the golden age party hunting the father of dragons to use his right fang to make the Spear of Legend and drowning an entire race of goblins in the sea of tears so that their souls can be bound in service to the Shield of Shadows. - The heroes carve out their own kingdom and ensure that it will be protected against all comers. For more ideas. Try looking at D&D source material for epic level characters.

Re: Golden Age: Past or Present? If you haven't read the Malazan book of the Fallen yet, then you might find it good inspiration for a dark yet epic campaign. Beings of incredible power walk the earth in the Malazan Age, but many of them are as helpless against the tides of fate as any mere mortal. Also, in the golden age of epicness, it doesn't matter if you are powerful, because your enemies are powerful too.

Re: Golden Age: Past or Present? It's ironic that I'm running a Post Apocalyptic Fantasy campaign. Because I hate the idea of a world which has already passed its golden age. I want to play in the golden age! Magic fading out of the world and magical races retreating into obscurity is, to me, maudlin and depressing. Progress towards democracy and greater magical powers to unleash upon the world is the way to go. Even in my campaign, which is played out in a broken world, the ultimate message is of hope for a brighter future. Also, the fall means that there is even more magic around to play with.

Ok. Aside from just giving someone Combat Driving, how would you build Car Fu?

Re: Spring Heel Jack Some kind of invisibility maybe, good for leaping out at people. Armour against Energy Attacks. If you breathe fire then hopefully fire doesn't bother you too much. Faeries traditionally have tons of different powers but some of the most popular are - mind control, shapeshifting, curses (drains), transforms and the ability to move between worlds. He might have Clairsentience of some kind as well so he knows who to target. Claws wouldn't go amiss either. Disadvantages for Jack could include madness of some kind or 'alien psychology' since he is a Faerie; it's not that there is something wrong with his mind, he just doesn't think the way a human would.

Re: Spells of Pleasure and Pain One spell which would be really evil would be a Physical Transform which screwed around with the target's pleasure/pain response. These could simply be swapped around, so the character run's screaming from any sexual encounter and straight into any violent encounter they can find, then graduates to sticking their hands in the fire for kicks. Or the pleasure and pain responses could be modified to respond to behaviour. So minions would feel pleasure when carrying out orders and pain if they act in a cowardly or disloyal way. This is a method of controlling slaves used in Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series. A hero could be hit with this power and find themselves feeling pain every time they tried to help people but pleasure when they stole something or acted without mercy etc. I've just remembered the Mord Sith. Can't believe I forgot to mention them before. They are from Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. If you use your magic against a Mord-Sith she will take control of it and use it to inflict hideous pain on you whenever she feels like it. If that wasn't bad enough; Mord-Sith wield rods called Agiels. The merest touch of an Agiel brings unbearable agony, a firm touch causes bleeding. If the Agiel is held over the victim's heart and twisted then the victim dies. Lastly, if the Agiel is inserted in the victim's ear they experience a whole new level of pain and, unless they manage to stay perfectly still, suffer brain damage. I have to say that if there was one fantasy author I had to nominate as the master of pain it would probably be the highly inappropriately named Terry Goodkind.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Not a quote but this thread seems like the appropriate place to post this. Vitus is not a monster, he's a Saint And he has his own !

Re: All ghosts evil? True that. I did play some tabletop Masquerade at one point. My GM for that game told me that one group of Wraiths could come back from the dead, with Vampiric Disciplines. And that was just one of the things they could do.

Re: All ghosts evil? I'm very skeptical about ghosts and the like. One psychological theory/idea which made a lot of sense to me was simply that the human mind is a very suggestible thing and some people, those who report strange sounds, ghostly touches or 'presences' are simply more suggestible than usual. Certain aspects of our environment, darkness, quiet, knowledge of previous 'supernatural' events in that place, etc. serve to set off these minor hallucinations. Evidence for this theory was gathered in a test in which a virtual room was constructed from various famously spooky places such as the underground rooms beneath Edinburgh. Then a group of people who were 'sensitive' to hauntings and the like i.e. they had had spooky feelings and experiences in spooky places, were given headsets that allowed them to explore the virtual room. They got a lot of the same feelings and shocks that they did in real haunted houses. In a similar way, when I was playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines on the PC, there was this one level set in a haunted house. I remember thinking to myself - yeah right, my character is a Vampire, a ghost is not going to bother me. And why would it? This was only a game. I could save anytime I wanted and in fact I don't think my character died once during the whole level. But I still jumped out of my skin at every shock and was pretty glad to finish my mission and get the hell out of there. Of course that doesn't really explain long or involved sightings of ghosts and spectres.

Re: Spells of Pleasure and Pain You're welcome. Also, I just remembered seeing this rather unusual RPG supplement on the Non-Hero Products Message Board. I haven't read it myself, (cross my heart), but it might have a few ideas in it.

Re: Spells of Pleasure and Pain I recently fielded a Vampire Mage who used Pain Magic against my players. (He didn't get the chance to use many spells). I knocked these spells together pretty quickly but you are welcome to them. Pain Magic: Multipower, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points); all slots Gestures (-1/4), Visible (-1/4) Preparation: (Total: 60 Active Cost, 22 Real Cost) +15 EGO (30 Active Points); Limited Power Defensive Only (-1/2), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Visible (-1/4) (Real Cost: 13) plus +15 CON (30 Active Points); Limited Power Only To Avoid Being Stunned (-1), No Figured Characteristics (-1/2), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Visible (-1/4) (Real Cost: 9) Punishment: Killing Attack - Ranged 1d6, Trigger (Activating the Trigger is an Action that takes no time, Trigger resets automatically, immediately after it activates; +1), No Normal Defense (Mental Defence; +1) (45 Active Points); No Range (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Visible (-1/4) Savagery: Killing Attack - Ranged 3d6+1 (50 Active Points); Gestures (-1/4), Visible (-1/4) Agony: Ego Attack 6d6 (60 Active Points); Gestures (-1/4), Visible (-1/4) Pain Lance: Ego Attack 3d6, Does BODY (+1) (60 Active Points); Gestures (-1/4), Visible (-1/4) Interdiction: Force Wall (8 PD/8 ED; 8" long and 4" tall) (60 Active Points); Conditional Power Can Be Walked Through With Succesful Ego Roll (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Visible (-1/4) I imagine that Slaanesh style magic would include some straightforward attacks e.g. Lash of Slaanesh, but also lots of abilities for draining Ego and Int as well as Mind Control and Mental Transforms. Entangles of various sorts also seem to fit. I'd also suggest the Hellraiser films as a source. The Cenobites were supposed to be the ultimate sado-masochists.

Re: All ghosts evil? As many posters have already noted, a ghost does not have to be evil. They may well retain the personalities they had in life and so can be 'good' or 'bad', at least initially. There have been tales, even in the real world, about ghosts that return fo benevolent or neutral reasons. There is a Roman story about the spirit of a young woman that returned to life for no other reason than to make passionate love to a young man who was staying in her parents' house. There are also the many cults of ancestor worship and the belief shared by various cultures that the bonds of kinship are not severed by death. Even modern people often share this belief. However, many real world cultures and fantasy settings hold to the idea that a ghost or spirit is created when something has gone wrong in the natural order, imbalance or the failure of humans to observe the correct rituals or behaviours. Unfinished business is probably the most common modern cliche. There are others. In myth and folklore the classic 'ghost' can be linked to evil spirits, monsters, fairies and demons, depending on the place and circumstances of its origin. The lack of observance of burial rites, being sinful or practicing witchcraft in life, an unclean death or death by suicide, death in childbirth or corruption from the influence of another supernatural creature or power, all can lead to a spirit roaming the earth to plague the living. A restless spirit is usually suffering, because they have been denied or have refused the opportunity to travel to the afterlife. This does not have to be because they are too evil or good to move on or because they left things unfinished, it could be that they cannot reach the afterlife without the proper rites or that they are unable to rest until they have been avenged or their killer has made due reparation. Many of these spirits want to punish those who have wronged them e.g. by failing to bury them on consecrated ground, by not offering recompense to kin or the gods for their untimely death. Moving on to the afterlife is not an all or nothing thing; many cultures believe that there are certain mechanisms, such as the last rites or a couple of coins over the eyes, which must be in place before a soul can reach the afterlife. The spirits striking out at those who have doomed them in this way are acting just like normal people, not really good or evil. In fact the fear of these ghosts caused people to act in a socially responsible way by paying blood debts and carrying out the correct rituals. Other spirits are simply so traumatised by a violent or taboo death e.g. in battle, by drowning or in a state of sin, that they become something mad and monstrous and are driven to share their horror with humanity. It is natural to want revenge on the warrior who killed you, this is not a good act but is not necessarily an evil one either, (or at least not an unusually evil act). Being mad or no longer human also makes morality difficult. Of course many of these spirits become monsters that modern roleplayers would regard as being quite different to classic 'ghosts'. Women who died in childbirth were believed in some cultures to become bloodthirsty spirits, this is one explanation for the Malaysian Penanggalan and the only one for Mexican Ciauteteo. Russian Rusalki were sometimes explained as unbaptised children drowned at birth or sinners or as suicides who seek revenge on all young men, having been jilted by one. And while Banshees were originally regarded as fairies there were later tales about them which claimed that they were the souls of women who were murdered or who died in childbirth. Even European Vampires were in some cases believed to be intangible souls that, through improper burial or a life of evil, seeped out of their coffins and rose to plague the living. That is why it was such a good idea to catch them while they slept, if they were out of the coffin you might not even be able to touch them. So the evil reputation of the restless spirit in real world mythology has been shared out in modern fantasy and rpgs amongst a plethora of different monsters. Some people will equate the classic ghost with such taboo creatures that usurp the natural order or 'the way things should be', but others will see them as distinct from such creatures and wonder what it is that could make them 'evil'. In short. Ghosts have a lot of very nasty cousins with similar origin stories. Ghosts are often associated with taboos such as suicide and murder. Ghosts are usually traumatised, angry, trapped on the mortal plane, or all three. So, ghosts don't have to be evil, particularly in fantasy, but many of the events which result in ghosts are not pleasant and so ghosts, like children who have been abused, have a tendency to lash out at the world. Anyway, where's the satisfaction in laying a happy and benevolent ghost to rest?

Re: Hit Locations He must have had some kind of Regeneration ability which kicked in when he hit negative Body, effectively cancelling out the effects of bleeding. Or maybe he got that Automotan power Does Not Bleed, (actally he does, but not enough to have any effect on him). And he must have had an immensely high Con to stay conscious after losing all his limbs. Maybe he was an Automotan. Just a very angry one. Also "Come back here and get what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!"

Re: Hit Locations As I understand it, being Stunned is not just a matter of being hit in the head and seeing stars or doubling over because you've just had all the air punched out of you. It can also be the few seconds you spend clutching an injured limb while going - "Ow! That hurt you b*****d!" Even if an injury is not fatal it can still take people a while to adjust to the fact that they have a sword through their arm. Adrenaline can make people more resistant to this kind of thing but it is not a cure-all. And you can lose consciousness through being wounded in the arm or leg. Bloodloss, pain and shock can knock you out easily enough. Of course if you want to have a more cinematic game in which proper fighters are not wimpy enough to go down from scratches and minor wounds then by all means adjust the Hit Locations table to suit you. I don't use the bleeding rules in my online game until characters are in negative Body, real heroes don't bleed until they're on the floor. On the other hand if a low level minion or normal loses a limb, (as opposed to just losing the use of the limb), I tend to put them out of the fight or at least make them spend a Phase being Stunned even if they haven't taken enough Stun to justify this. Normal people who lose their arms or legs usually stop fighting and start screaming and/or rolling around on the floor.

Re: Poisons Gradual Effect Limitation + Limited Power - Effects can be reduced by succesful Con Rolls at certain points?

Re: Artwork needed: Cat people. Not a commission, but Googling "cat person" is scar Not sure that you'll find anything better than Aylwin13's stuff, which rocks, but Elfwood is the self proclaimed largest website for fantasy and sci-fi themed art in the world. It is certainly vast and you can find just about anything on it if you look long enough. A few different searches brought these pics up. http://www.elfwood.com/~depthoute3/Feline-Agent.2677811.html http://www.elfwood.com/~sasuga/Triumphant.3556576.html http://www.elfwood.com/~starling/Black-Panther.3252627.html http://www.elfwood.com/~stephie/She-Puma-Mage.3254852.html http://www.elfwood.com/~sinyun/kattar.3224949.html http://www.elfwood.com/~melzayas/Garden-Stroll.3031879.html

Re: Were-courtesan: multiform, magic and true form I see. Well then, by all means let her use magic in her wolfhound Form. She can learn the spells in her human form and hold them in her mind as a wolfhound and release them by howling maybe? Wolf howls are famous for being eerie and uncanny, so why not let them unleash magic? It would be more dramatic than barking, I think, though it is of course up to you. Perhaps, the courtesan form could have magical powers but otherwise be quite pampered, few combat or survival skills. The wolfhound can have all of those. Another way to offset the power levels is to give the wolfhound form the ability to transform others with a bite, but not the humanoid form. Humans aren't brilliant at biting, after all.

Re: Were-courtesan: multiform, magic and true form Have things changed in 6ed then? Because in 5er it didn't matter if the alternate form/s were more powerful than the true form. The only difference between forms was that the true form had to include the cost of the multiform power.

Re: My Elves Are Different! Looking over this post I've realised that 'Dark Elves' in this setting would literally be Elves who have become stuck in a single mindset and so made twisted and mad. Dark Elves are not a race but a condition, which could concievably be cured. So Dark Elves could be crooked and ugly, like the Dokkalfar in Norse mythology; and have an overwhelming obsession, like Dwarves in the D&D 'Dark Sun' setting. If I put my Bone Elves into this setting then they would be considered a whole culture of 'Dark Elves', albeit a culture whose violent insanity is turned towards 'good' ends. I might make their 'twisting' purely mental, however, as I like the idea of beautiful, crusading Elves who happen to be demented savages.

Re: My Elves Are Different! I have been thinking for some time now about a world where Light and Dark are the guiding principles and all races are aligned with one or the other. Light and Dark are not good and evil. But the Elves of this world have tried to make people believe that this is the case. Light and Dark are like Yin and Yang, always fighting but never completely pure. I guess I've been inspired by Janny Wurt's novels, (though I've only read one), and the Light and Dark magic that you sometimes in get in computer games and manga. Anyway. Elves are aligned strongly with Light. Light is a bit like Chaos. It is creation, destruction, motion and energy. Darkness is stability, entropy and matter. (Both principles are paradoxes). Elves do not grow old because their bodies are too charged with Light, they claim that they are actually pure energy which has somehow coalesced into a hardened form that mimics matter. However, if Elves become bored or their culture stagnates they begin to suffer physical and mental symptoms of disease and madness. They must embrace life, change and motion with all their beings or fall into Darkness. This is easier for the Elven peoples than mortals realise; when you plan to live forever there is no great need to cling on to a particular time, place or mindset. Some Elves are true nomads, but others will cheerfully abandon settlements which have existed for centuries. They embrace extreme lifestyles and are the world's ultimate explorers, always searching for new ways to exist. Law, honour and ethics are matters of individual conscience and the consensus of those present, this can lead to utopian societies but often results in the rule of the strong or the most persuasive. Light is naturally more destructive than Darkness and so Elven Light Mages are justly feared for their powers. But Elves make few artefacts or lasting structures. Dealing with Elves is a chancy and frustrating business, when a villain may repent his crimes simply because villainy no longer interests him, or a king might abandon his palace on any given day to choose the life of a penniless wanderer.

Re: My Elves Are Different! Copied from a thread I started a long time ago. 'Old races, new tricks'. My elves are short. My elves have poor standards of hygiene. Copied from 'Pseudo-elf race as monsters' by Ragnarok. My elves are irredeemably evil. Also, from the world of literature. My elves use muskets. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/e/chris-evans/darkness-forged-in-fire.htm I'll let you know if I remember any more

Re: Lostorum - "Steampunk Fantasy in a Savage World" Magic and Steampunk can work well together. Good examples are the Iron Kingdoms setting and Stephen Hunt's Jackelian series. You just have to have the right flavour of magic, either the dark, elegant and gentlemanly arts which Victorian wizards might have practiced or the crazed 'punky' magic which matches the mad power of the mechanical devices it exists alongside. And yes, I like the idea of dinosaur cavalry bombarding enemy armies with triceratops-mounted cannon or clashing with clockwork tanks and steam powered mecha. Because they are actually small lizardmen?