Trip's Life (Recent episodes)
17 September 2017 - Sunday
[ . . . ]
Make a comment!
16 September 2017 - Saturday
I managed to get up at a reasonable hour and go shopping so that I was
back home in time to sign up for games at Big Bad Con when registration opened
at noon. They have an anti-hovering system where you can only sign up for
two events in the first week, then two in the second week, and only then
does it become a free-for-all, but it was a good impetus to not sleep in.
Now I am signed up to play in two games with systems I am interested in Blades in the Dark and
Monsterhearts)
, both on Friday. I am also signed up for ten straight hours of gaming, so
I will need to find some kind of decent portable meal substitute before
then...
Also, since I successfully signed up for games, I went ahead and got
a hotel room, since although commuting back and forth to Walnut Creek
might technically be possible, it would suck massively.
We had to cut anime a little short because Marith has to be at work
at 6:00 tomorrow, and got a slow start on new stuff because we wanted to
catch her up on the important episodes she missed in Roseville, but there
was still some watching.
- Durarara!!x2 3.7: Apologies to the shippers, but can
Shizuo please twist Izaya's head off now?
- Steven Universe 3.15-19: Back to the plot! And Connie!
Durarara by marithlizard (Tue Sep 19 14:06:58 2017)
You have to wonder how an entire steam shovel got shoved off the top of a building there. Badly Dressed Martial Arts Girl certainly couldn't have done it by herself. Also, to me the villainous plan looks a lot less like the claimed "get rid of the monster" than it does "push the monster into finally getting serious". So maybe you'll get your wish!
Re: Durarara by Trip (Tue Sep 19 18:40:30 2017)
It looked to me like whatever was supporting it got broken so it slid off.
We can hope!
Make a comment!
15 September 2017 - Friday
Apparently the meaning someone deciphered
for the neural net spell with the silliest name is something I had
already established as an option for the Wizard, so um something? I'm going
to call it a victory, anyway.
Make a comment!
14 September 2017 - Thursday
Watched a couple more episodes of Little Witch Academia, which
would be better if it were subbed.
While I was trying to think of spells, I found this
list. Death of the sun! Grasping light and
clinging blade! Plant of peace! Crusading
disk!
Make a comment!
13 September 2017 - Wednesday
Today we actually played 13th Age,
although we were quite late getting started and then spent a long time
floundering without a battlemap before getting to the fight (still without
a map). We need more organization, or discipline, or something. Also we
need to not play until 22:30, but at least next week we can start the round
with escalation die 2, and maybe I will remember to have Anwë use her
AoE attack on the ancient orc archer she just stabbed, and the Black, who
just disemboweled her shadow. Not that I will ever roll well enough to hit
anyone.
I'm pretty sure this is a freakish minority opinion, but I still like Dungeon
World better than even simplified D&D4.
Make a comment!
12 September 2017 - Tuesday
Instead of the other various ways I could have frittered my life away,
I finished Stranger Things. It was pretty swell, and leaves
plenty of room for a second season (due out just before Halloween, allegedly).
I'm really not sure about the police chief's approach to things,
though.
Make a comment!
11 September 2017 - Monday
Wow, thunder! And even some visible lightning! Also some rain, which
came down hard while I was walking home but only for a few minutes. As a
computer user I probably shouldn't approve of thunderstorms, but I do
anyway.
From the slowness at work, I deduce that all our customers are on the
East Coast (and thus underwater) or the West Coast (and thus on
fire).
Episode 1.6 of Stranger Things! I think most of the
pieces are on the board (on one side or another) now, which means it's
time for a plot twist.
Besides what people used to D&D and its derivatives think of spells,
I want casters to be able to learn the kinds of things I talked about when
discussing the contributions of knowledge from beyond to human society:
making magic swords, building cyclopean architecture, raising plant
monsters to serve you, converting your friends into a more durable form,
creating accounting systems that infallibly expose embezzlers, etc. This
is tricky, though, because it has to be useful enough to be worth the
character's time, yet not so useful that all characters immediately get
huge bonuses (although this is less of a problem in
DW, where we mock
your puny level-appropriate encounters, and especially in WFDW where we
explicitly mock your puny list of monsters anyway).
Speaking of making things, I am still waffling on whether there should
be alchemy stuff, although possibly only because I want to put in
single-shot black powder alchemical lasers instead of historical guns.
I like them, I'm not sure if they're too weird, the wrong weird,
or perfectly valid weird. (At DW levels of resolution, they're mechanically the same.)
Make a comment!
10 September 2017 - Sunday
In this week's
PAD&D5,
the Heroines of Red Larch managed to get to the big city and buy a few pretty
dresses for Lam (also a couple of magic items) and report to the Legitimate Authorities
about the dragon drama and the new religion and the war against the [SPOILER].
Lam has disquieting dreams about [SPOILER] being cut off, and when she talks to
people in Yartar that it might apply to, it seems to be coming true. Maybe
[SPOILER]'s prophecies of doom were not so off the mark as the Heroines first
assumed!
On their way to report their experiences to Rimardo's patron, the Heroines
are ambushed by the original [SPOILER] of the area, who are extremely annoying
but not uncrushable even when they hide in [SPOILER]. Then Rimardo dumps
his patron, and his soul is sucked into the afterlife so he can study up
and become a cleric of the Crystal Dragon (but he still ranks lower than
the Ninja Popesses). This only takes a few moments of external time, so
soon the Heroines (and Rimardo, but not Ishmael the hireling cleric) are
scouting the [SPOILER] they assaulted so effectively before. The part
they cleaned out is still deserted, but the next level has a swarm of
[SPOILER], or maybe two competing swarms, but neither is very effective
except at getting beaten up and fleeing. So much for attacking with
surprise!
Sadly, we had no Hazel, so we were down one ninja and one miniature
giant elk. Also we were kind of lethargic. I blame that Trip guy, he's just
no good.
Make a comment!
9 September 2017 - Saturday
We tried to catch Marith up on the Steven Universe she
missed in Roseville, but she decided it was more important to catch up
on surprise Nirvana in Fire, which is fair.
- Nirvana in Fire 22-23: Still all fallout from the Worst
Birthday Party Ever. Gee, do you think maybe Mei Chang Su is a terrifying
manipulative person?
After Earl and Cat toddled away sleepily, full of BLTs and intrigue,
Marith and Dave and Ayse and Ken and I watched some SU so
that Jus can watch it during the coming week and not EXPLODE.
- Steven Universe 3.11-14: These episodes are lighter and
more town-focused, I guess for contrast after "Mr. Greg". The Gems
hardly appear at all, but at least we get one episode with Connie.
It's not a week ending in Sunday if I don't blather incoherently
about gaming!
Knowing what kind of spells I don't want for WFDW
doesn't tell me what spells to actually have. The Wizard should be easiest,
since she doesn't have to have a theme (she finds or is given spells
individually, they aren't related to some field of actual knowledge). But,
I really don't want to give the player the list of every possible spell and
have them start optimizing. In GM mode, I could just customize the spell
list for the Wizard I have, but what about Designer mode? Some kind of
tree/prerequisites? No, that just makes the optimization start with the
selection of the first spell. Too much work for me. Random spells? Or
player chooses one of three spells presented by the GM (rolled with
optional fudging)?
It looks like the stock Wizard and Cleric have about 30ish spells
total, from level 0 to level 9. I can probably come up with that many
spells as long as they don't have to be related.
But what about sorting them into level 1 vs level 9, or more
painfully, level 7 vs level 9? Is spell levels even a thing that's worth
preserving from D&D? I guess I can see not wanting some abilities
(flight? teleportation? area attacks?) until higher levels, but the DW
power curve is generally very flat. At most I can see putting some
spells off until level 6-10, just like the advanced moves.
I write too slowly.
Make a comment!
8 September 2017 - Friday
Did I accomplish anything at work today? No, no I did not. Because I
suck.
More disordered Weird Fantasy Dungeon
World thoughts.
Rather than adding up weight values, I tend toward a simpler
slot-based encumbrance system: you get about 5+CON slots to carry items
in. Most weapons, shields, torches, etc take a slot, armor takes a slot
or two if it's heavy, and most importantly, a backpack or bag takes a
slot. If you want to get at something that isn't in a slot by itself,
you're going to be making defy danger rolls if anything
else is going on.
Another possible background for humans:
The Wandering Kingdom began as the court of an ordinary, stationary
kingdom, but made the mistake of boasting that their palace was better
than Queen Mab's. Now they are cursed to never sleep twice in the same
place, and must wander the world. The lesser members of the Kingdom can
return to the same building after a lunar month or so, and the middle
ranks follow cycles a year or three long, but for the King and Queen,
never means never.
Travellers are always accused of theft, witchcraft, lewdness, and
other crimes, but the Wandering Kingdom holds to its notions of honor and
others mostly recognize that, even if they laugh at the equally archaic
costumes and modes of speech, and the Wandering Knights are respected by
all travellers for the work they do in keeping the roads less
dangerous.
Writing that made me aware of the tension between the two roles I'm acting
in: designer and GM. The difference is that the GM gets to make up setting
details, but the designer only gets to evoke the genre. Although, hm,
looking at The Last Days of Anglekite, The Green Law of Varkith, and The Cold Ruins of Lastlife,
the variant genre is evoked with setting details. Still plenty of
blanks, but there is some structure to the map.
I dunno, man. Gaming is hard. Maybe I should stay under this
rock. With the crawling dead and tentacled monsters from the stars that
whisper things.
Make a comment!
7 September 2017 - Thursday
Today, I watched two episodes of Stranger
Things! I am a video-watching fiend!
That is not what I expected to happen with that corpse. Or with that
makeover.
Have I been reduced to random thoughts, because having to come up
with actual spell lists (or whatever it is that the Hierophant and the
Warlock get) is too much like work? Well, so be it.
One of the standard spells that especially needs to be thrown out is
animate dead. When the dead rise from their graves, hungering
for the flesh (blood, souls, etc) of the living, that's awesome. When any
spellcaster can recycle dead enemies as safe and obedient meat robots
for 50gp each, that is not awesome. (It's efficient, which is
appropriate for many D&D-based subgenres, but not this one.)
On the subject of monsters, do I really want fairies? They seem cool in
Pernicious
Albion but are they actually cool? Maybe they're too much like humans,
or too Monster-Manually (unicorn, dryad, pixie, spriggan, blah blah). But is it
good to have something magical that's at least vaguely natural, or at least not
tentacles from beyond the stars? And fairies can be
creepy
and horrific, and could
in theory all be unique. I don't even have to explain what they are, since
"draw maps, leave blanks" applies to cosmology as well as geography...
And what about demons and angels (probably the same thing (as each
other, not as fairies, although...))? Maybe only the lowest, least
abstract angels are enough like humans to make a contract with the
Warlock. Still need a list of patrons, though.
Also need a list of strange gods for the Hierophant to worship. The only
one I have so far is the god of snails, hermaphrodites, bisexuals,
halfbreeds, and others who embrace or embody the power of AND, and I'm not
sure what magic that actually gets a worshipper, or what geases it puts on
them. Also considering falling stars, standing stones, and carnivorous
flora, but likewise. Should I go for something more straightforward and
combative, like Babeester Gor?
strange gods by marithlizard (Sat Sep 9 11:49:05 2017)
I love the idea of a god who embraces the power of AND - what about the hierophant pantheon being structured around linguistic/grammar concepts?
- The AND god gives you the power to symbolically align or attach things -
at low levels, only ones that frequently go together in common phrases or cliches, but at high levels maybe almsot anything. I'm not sure if this could work like alchemical fusion or more like synchronicity powers (what was the Ars Magica term forthat?) "I have peanut butter, and bread. I will make a peanut butter sandwich and the act of doing so will cause a jar of jelly to turn up in the near vicinity." Also, some possiblities for love/proximity/partnership and other mental manipulation spells. Other possible ways to and: shadows, mirrors. "Me? I'm just Bert. But ever since I met that guy, whenever I look in the mirror, there's an Ernie with me."
- The OR god is the god of yin and yang, of finding divisions and categorizations and enhancing them. Also alternatives. "Put the weapon down." "I could do that, OR..." For physical manipulation at high levels,
maybe something like ore separation?
- The BUT god is not amused when you make those lame jokes about it. Its domain is limitations, and grants devotees the ability to maneuver in verbal judo. I cannot NO your statement, but I can add a BUT to it that will largely nullify it in the ways I care about, if I'm clever enough.
But, I might simply need more sleep and be babbling.
Re: strange gods by Trip (Mon Sep 11 14:28:54 2017)
That is an excellent idea, but too symmetric and clean and meta for this game. There is a pantheon, kind of, but the Hierophant's options should all be weird corner ones.
Re: strange gods by marithlizard (Mon Sep 11 19:28:09 2017)
Fortunately, grammar and linguistics are not short of weird corner cases!
Re: strange gods by Trip (Thu Sep 14 11:35:20 2017)
This is true, and I encourage you to write a NaNoWriMo about a world with grammar-based divine magic!
Make a comment!
6 September 2017 - Wednesday
After approximately one million weeks, we have returned to 13th Age! We
spent all of this session eating We spent all of this session eating burritos and working
out what is going to happen to the world and the Icons in the coming age,
provided the PCs don't do anything unexpected in hunting down and finishing
off the Devourer.
It looks like the Empire will survive, although diminished by the
Crusader taking a big chunk of the north (First Triumph getting
Devourered won't slow him down much). On the other hand, the Lich
King will be brought back into the fold, and the roles of Archmage and
Lich King reshuffled into the Minister of Yang and the Minister of Yin.
The Orc Lord will be eaten by the Devourer, along with the dwarven city
of Anvil, but the dwarves will do okay. Unfortunately, the elven civil
war will result in elvendom splitting into many factions (remains of the
unified Court, high elves, wood elves, drow that tried to get
superpowers from the Green's blood and got demon-tainted, drow who got
mixed up in necromancy, probably some drow who stuck with the spider
theme, etc) and not being unified in the next age. Also the gnomes will
bail on the faerie forests and align with the Dwarf King. Now that the
PCs have freed the White, it will rescue the Green from the drow, and
the Five will take over the northern coast of the Middle Sea from
Drakenhall (and St Claire Island) to Concord, despite some infighting.
The Priestess, having not had much impact on the course of history,
will probably not be an Icon next age. The High Druid will, but probably
with more emphasis on reclaiming ruins and less on farming. The
Diabolist will be influenced by the drow-tieflings as much as they are
influenced by her, and become less of a force opposed to civilization.
The Great Gold Worm will stay stuck in a hole, and of course the Prince
of Shadows will remain completely mysterious (although Shadowport might
have to move a bit to be a better center of international intrigue).
Next week, flashback to the Imperial wedding that was interrupted by
a volcano and a war and a memory-wipe! Also level UP!
Make a comment!
5 September 2017 - Tuesday
The cool, rainy wind coming through my bedroom window felt very nice,
but apparently I can't sleep properly with the window open and no white
noise. Bah!
Second episode of Stranger Things, still creepy!
I didn't think much about WFDW
in Roseville, but I thought a little since getting back. There was a lot
of walking to get groceries.
The Fighter's primary thing is their signature weapon. So, how do we
make that weirdly fantastic?
|
Signature Weapon
This isn't your signature weapon because you always carry it, or even
because you've mastered it. It's part of you on a much deeper level. Why
is that?
| ☐ You made every part of it yourself from ore and seed and calf. |
| ☐ It was created from your blood and bone. |
| ☐ It has been passed down from parent to child in an unbroken line from your family's dark origins. |
| ☐ You received it from a powerful supernatural creature in exchange for an oath that is yet to be fulfilled. |
| ☐ You crafted it from a fallen star. |
| ☐ The spirit in the weapon has chosen you as the bearer who can accomplish its goals. |
Choose a base description....
|
Likewise, the Ranger has their animal companion.
|
Animal Companion
You have a close connection with a loyal beast that aids you in the
hunt, acting as you direct. How did you get this companion?
| ☐ You found a strange creature dying in the wilderness
and nursed it back to health. (fairy) |
| ☐ The Dark Beast has served your family for generations. (demon, summonable (1d4 damage)) |
| ☐ It's your own bestial mutant twin. (human) |
| ☐ It's the animalistic half of your own soul made
manifest. (spirit, summonable (1d4 damage)) |
| ☐ Your first animal companion was so loyal that not even
the grave could keep it from your side (undead, hungers for living flesh) |
| ☐ Okay, you may have used your family's secret techniques to train it, but it's just a normal animal, jeez. |
Name your animal companion and choose a look....
|
The Thief doesn't have a single hook like that, their thing is their
skills. Poisons, locks, and traps could expand into alchemy and
fantastic mechanisms, but maybe the Thief should be the option for no
weird stuff, just skill?
thief class by marithlizard (Tue Sep 5 18:44:19 2017)
Maybe motivation could be the hook for the thief class? Why do you steal things?
- Everything else you fence like normal, but you are assembling a fantastic hoard of object type X and that's secretly your passion in life.
- You were sold to a Dickensian urchin ring at the age of four, and even though you are grownup now and out having your own adventures you know you still have to pay them dues regularly or they will Get You.
- The dark god-statue in your apartment can only be fed by illegal actions, and you're stuck in a very long-term lease.
- You crave the high from danger such that you are driven to more and more daring acts of burglary (gives you disad points)
- Ruddigore-style family curse.
- Your lockpicks are your friends, see how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
- With every theft/other crime you collect evidence about a theory you are trying to prove, or a cause you are trying to advance, or someone you are trying to find/bring down/whatever.
Re: thief class by Trip (Wed Sep 6 16:06:19 2017)
Oh, that could work! I guess to match the others it should be "how did you come to have these skills?" but close enough.
Make a comment!
4 September 2017 - Monday
I made it back from Roseville! The cats are fine, which I knew because
Marith checked in on them. It is not as hot here as it was when we left, which
is good.
In Roseville we played Dominion (I won!
Somehow!), a little bit of Puerto Rico
until we realized that it was going to take forever, Lords
of Waterdeep, 7 Wonders,
and lots of Pirate
Fluxx. (Some people played Tzolk'in
but it only seats four so I didn't.) We watched a few episodes of
Steven Universe season 3, which were amazingly great. We ate
food and more food and some additional food, and no one starved despite
Sherilyn's worries. The kids swam and swam and shrieked. I swam a little
and did not get sunburned. I did not manage to go out walking because it
was roughly one million degrees out ("It's too hot in the Bay Area! Let's
go to the Central Valley!"). In the car, we listened to Night Vale season 2.
There was no Marith, and no RPGs, but otherwise it was a successful
vacation!
- Steven Universe 3.6-10: Amazingly great! Especially Mr.
Greg! But also all of them!
I managed to go grocery shopping, which was hot and sweaty but
undoubtedly healthier than staying inside all weekend. Then I was
lethargic, so I tried watching the first episode of Little Witch
Academia, which was okay, but dubbed and not well. Then I watched
the first episode of Stranger Things, which was pretty
swell and full of doom. I will probably watch more of it! But not
tonight, because sleep.
Make a comment!
1 September 2017 - Friday
No Avalon, only Zuul.
Make a comment!
31 August 2017 - Thursday
Today I implemented some organization at work. Yay?
Still not sure what to do with the Warlock's style of magic, but in the
meantime, what about those non-caster playbooks? I had been thinking of
giving them Secret Techniques of Elite Murderism at higher levels, but
casters get to do freaky magic stuff from the beginning, so
fighter/ranger/thief should get to do at least some of whatever it is they
do from level 1.
But what do they do, and what's the fictional positioning for it? The
stock Fighter has a signature weapon, but it doesn't seem like that weapon
has a lot of mechanical impact; you can hack and slash or
stand in defense with a regular weapon just fine. I'm
tempted to make the Fighter's damage die d8 except when they're wielding
their signature weapon, and maybe add some options for nonmundane things
they can do with their weapon (like the advanced move where they can
consult the spirits in their weapon, but possibly as starting moves,
replacing bend bars, lift gates).
Post-mortem of last night's game shows that class design
needs to be done carefully to promote the subgenre (including power level)
that you actually want, so changing classes is probably beyond me, never
mind making new ones, but it's not like this project was ever not stupid
and doomed.
Make a comment!
30 August 2017 - Wednesday
The bus leaving work was late, so I just missed the connection. But that's
okay, I can walk for half an hour and catch that bus further down the line!
Except it's only about 20 minutes walk to where the wasteland of expressway
with no bus stops starts. Bah!
Yep, I still suck at running Dungeon
World! I have read how to make a monster
scarier than its hit points, but I clearly needed to brush up, and also
find some spine somewhere. I am too soft, and not willing to say, "Nope,
can't do that", or have damage actually rip character's limbs off. I can't
even manage to just make moves assertively (which, yes, means I can't
actually do horror DW). I need to use the "when everyone looks to you to
see what happens" clause a lot more. Or get wimpier players.
Anyway, that was considered a conclusion, so next week is
13th Age for
sure.
Make a comment!
29 August 2017 - Tuesday
Tomorrow will be awful, because I suck. But tonight, Avalon! (Twice in one
week!)
Make a comment!
28 August 2017 - Monday
Because I am not too bright about looking at my calendar, I ended up
walking from work to the grocery store and back three times, but it all
worked out and I did not miss the party for Coworker J2
and his lovely fianceé who are getting married soon.
When we stopped playing Dungeon
World a few weeks ago, I just threw in some stuff because I didn't
think I'd ever have to follow up on it. Now people are wanting to play more
DW instead of 13th
Age! Ack! I must think about this game instead of the purely
theoretical one!
Okay, a couple more thoughts about WFDW. But only short ones.
What kind of creatures are warlock patrons? In D&D4
and D&D5,
the options are fey, demon, or tentacles from beyond the stars. I don't see
TTSNB as sufficiently human-like to make contracts with humans, they aren't
echoes of humanity like faeries or demons. I am pleased with the "I don't
have a contract with any 'Great Old One', I just follow the math where it
leads" that I invented for my GOO warlock in 5E, but I think that's a
different class than the Warlock who has an explicit contract. Maybe closer
to the Wizard, or maybe something else entirely. (I do actually like 4E's
connection between stars and Things That Should Not Be, and will totally
rip it off, but not right now.)
What else? I was thinking angels, but they'd have to be mad fallen deviant
renegade angels, which is pretty much the same as demons, right? Nature
spirits that are human enough to make contracts probably count as
faeries... No, I am thinking wrongfully! The Warlock gets a list of half
a dozen specific patrons, just like the Hierphant gets half a dozen
specific gods, not categories.
I sort of want "The Sole and Rightful Queen of the Fairies, Titania",
and "The Sole and Rightful Queen of the Fairies, Mab" to both be on the
list, but then I'd have to distinguish them from each other as well as from all
the other possible patrons, probably by spell choice.
Speaking of Warlock spells, I think my earlier idea of making them summoners
is bad. Monsters are supposed to be mysterious and unnatural, and if the Warlock
can call up fairies or demons to have a conversation with at any time, that's
not going to work out. (Every GM who would totally play a summoned fairy as a
working-class joe, raise a tentacle. No fibbing.) So how do warlocks channel
patron power, and what do they do with it? How is this different than what
wizards do, in play?
Make a comment!
27 August 2017 - Sunday
Apparently this entire subplot was invented by Jeremy, so I don't need to
redact spoilers.
When Mika fails to return from the dragon's cave, and it's getting on toward
dusk so she should be able to teleport away if she's not in trouble, the other
Heroines decide they have to go in after her. Naturally, they send the other
ninja to get picked off, but when she returns with a report, they all go in
the front door together. ("Order of the Gauntlet!")
Inside, there are spotlights from the ceiling to keep Mika from teleporting
out of the tentacles grabbing her. The snivelly eyeball-face monsters creating
the light don't stand up to the righteous wrath of the Heroines, and soon Mika
is free, but then the creepy elf-thing that lead them to the lair appears out
of the mounds of fungal slime and turns Lam into a garter snake.
The elf pops in and out, polymorphing Akrá into an iguana, dragging
people into the muck to be dismembered, throwing lighting bolts whenever three
points form a line, and generally being so annoying that it seems there must be
at least three of her. In fact, there are! Nevertheless, the Heroines smite the
hags with great vigor, despite Hazelrae being handicapped by a mundane weapon,
and are on the verge of winning thanks to a well-timed healing spell from
Ishmael, when one of the remaining hags causes the goo to condense into a dozen
tentacle monsters made out of tentacles that immediately attack. No fair!
Cut to the Afterlife, where everyone who has died in the Desserin Valley in
the past eight months has spent at least ten thousand years being stuck to
walls or impaled on tentacles. Aside from minor lapses of scale, it bears a
strong resemblence to the dragon's cave, and in fact the dragon is there as
well, to explain the cold facts of this Afterlife which has no god, no
judgment, and no escape. Things look bad for the Heroines of Red Larch!
Because they are the sort of people they are, the Heroines go around the
Afterlife unsticking people from walls and removing tentacles.
They are assured repeatedly that it's meaningless, but it turns out
that vitue is rewarded even here, as the freed dragon regains enough of her
self to realize that this Afterlife could have a god, and what better
candidate than a ten-thousand-year-old dragon? However, a god needs living
worshippers. The Heroines are possibly still alive enough to count, but will
any of them worship a dragon?
In fact, Mara and Mika are willing to become the founders of the church
of the Crystal Dragon (the two articles of faith are: "There is a key to
every shackle" and "Boo tentacles!"), which is enough for the Heroines to
be returned to life, fully healed, with an enchanted crossbow for Hazelrae,
Due to the time differential, their bodies on the Prime Material Plane have
not even started to fall.
"No fair!" cry the hags, before being finished off in a single round.
Shortly thereafter, Old Gnawbone makes her entrance, receives the Heroines'
report, and tosses everyone out so she can properly mourn her daughter. This is
obviously not the resolution she hoped for when she sent the Heroines to
investigate, but she does not declare a perpetual vendetta against them at this
time.
The Heroines were restored to life using the mana that will eventually
be generated by worshippers of the Crystal Dragon, so if Mika and Mara fail
to establish a proper church, that timeline will be foreclosed. No
pressure.
Level UP!
Hurray, Avalon!
Make a comment!
26 August 2017 - Saturday
Today I was not smart enough to go grocery shopping. Instead I
obsessively read Twig
(by the same person who wrote Pact and Worm, which I have not yet
read even though Earl recommended them, but will).
It's never stated in so many words, but the setting is pretty much,
"The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, was a set of lab
notes". The viewpoint character is part of an elite team of novel organisms
made from scratch and altered humans, who would be in middle school if they
weren't spies and assassins in a Frankensteinpunk dystopia. So feelings. Much
doomed. Very body horror.
- Steven Universe 2.27-28: Rewatch for Marith and Jus. Take
that, you clod!
- Durarara!!x2 6: Rewatch for Marith.
- Vision of Escaflowne 25-26: Love. The end!
- Steven Universe 3.1-5: Yay, it's Lapis Lazuli! And
watermelons! And various other plotlines!
|
Normal people worship all the Seemly Gods together, but you do not
worship any of them, only your own god. What abhorrent secret about the
Seemly Gods has been revealed to you?
| ☐ The Seemly Gods are not actual gods; they were created and are sustained by massive human sacrifice. |
| ☐ The Seemly Gods do not exist, they're just a story told by the priests and princes to keep people in line. |
| ☐ The Seemly Gods deliberately let monsters into the world, to frighten people into worshiping them. |
| ☐ The Seemly Gods promise a just and merciful afterlife, but actually they devour the souls of the dead, destroying them utterly. |
| ☐ The Seemly Gods spread their worship because when every living human is baptized to them, they can convert humanity to a better class of servant. |
| ☐ The Lady of Heaven worshipped by the Arbonese actually is the supreme deity; the Seemly Gods are servants who violated her edict against toying with humanity. |
|
Make a comment!
23 August 2017 - Wednesday
Still no Mike, and this week no Kelsey, but everyone else was available,
so we ate Thai food and played Lords
of Waterdeep (I almost won, but then I didn't), and Qwirkle (I
sucked, but then I won after all).
Next week, 13th
Age for sure! Maybe.
What does the setting look like? It's DW
so of course the players have to have a lot of input, but I can draw maps
as long as I leave blanks. I think these maps have a lot of swamps and dark
forests, because less visibility = more creepy, I guess. I also want a
wasteland of ashes and dust that caravans cross on the tops of buried
mountain ranges, but there we have blowing dust to hide the monsters. Not
sure how it fits in with swamps, though.
Isolated villages with horrible or just sordid secrets are a must. Cities
need not just grand architecture to contrast with the slums, but strange
architecture. Possibly everything should be built on bizarre relics of the
past, which raises the question of whether this should be a far-future fantasy.
Probably not.
In any case, there needs to be an ocean, because I thought up this bit
as an example of human backgrounds.
The Arbonese are characteristically tall and thin, with pale skin that
turns bright pink and then painful red under the sun, yellow to white hair,
and blue or grey eyes. They came as colonizers with guns, compasses, and
chronometers, but then the ocean caught fire and the initial expeditionary
force was trapped without backup. Among themselves, the Arbonese have a
great concern for status in different spheres (social, military,
ecclesiastical, ...) and which one applies in any situation, but they rank
everyone else at the bottom of the ladder whenever they can. Also looked
down upon is anyone who deals with human bodies (prostitutes, surgeons,
masseurs, undertakers) even if they're Arbonese. The Arbonese worship a
singular goddess who allegedly created the entire universe and everything
in it, but it's not clear how much good that does them since they
apparently don't have souls. (They say they they have true souls
with are too refined and ineffable for your crude animalistic spirits, but
this is widely agreed to be bullshit.)
Speaking of things the Arbonese call "crude animalistic spirits", the Seemly
Gods are usually depicted as animals with human heads or faces (shedu, sphinx,
etc). They are sufficiently abstract that it's probably not meaningful to talk
about what they "really look like".
I'm less sure about the nonphysicality of the gods the Hierophant could
worship, but this is the sort
of thing (NSFW)the priests of the Seemly Gods say they are.
The Warlock's patron is different. They aren't equals by any means, but
they're beings of the same order, with similar interests and mutually
comprehensible ways of pursuing those interests. This may limit what the patron can
do for the Warlock, but on the other hand, there won't be any of those
embarrassing mixups where the Heirophant's god goes, "Oh, you didn't
want to solve that problem by giving birth to a million live snakes through
your mouth? Weird."
Make a comment!
22 August 2017 - Tuesday
Today my schedule was all thrown off because I had to get Marith to help me
take Aspen in to the vet for scheduled dental work in the morning, instead of
going to work, and then I worked from home and had to get Dave to help me fetch
Aspen home in the evening. Now I feel like I haven't really left the apartment
all day, and I didn't eat what I normally do, and blargh! But Aspen is doing
well and wasn't even as expensive as projected! Of course, with the number of
times she's been to the vet in the past month, it was better to leave the
difference as credit for next time...
But at least there was some Avalon-time! She has given notice at her
horrifyingly mismanaged International Success Life job, so there is an end to
the oppression, even if her new job will not be as high-level.
I've been concentrating on the caster classes, which in some ways are central
to the genre, because I don't think fighter/ranger/thief need much
modification. Maybe a little because I am imagining a slightly higher tech
level, with guns instead of crossbows, but still plenty of swords and daggers
for sticking into people. Barbarians, maybe not so much. I mean, you can grunt
and wave a huge sword around if you want, but I think that just makes you a
particularly inarticulate fighter.
DW
druids are dedicated shapeshifters, which doesn't feel right for this kind
of fantasy. I think it's the difference between turning into an animal, and
turning into a beast. D&D druids are mostly casters, which in WFDW would
probably translate to Warlock, but maybe Hierophant.
I still see no need to put bards into this. Maybe I'm wrong, but obviously
I don't think so.
Earlier I said paladins seemed possible, but now I'm not sure. They don't
seem to go with heirophants; holy warriors are more of an established religion
thing, and the Seemly Gods of mass religion don't empower individuals. But,
secret martial arts techniques of elite murderism have been mentioned, and
isn't the church's order of elite murderers just the sort of group to have
some? Being chosen by a god is nice (for a highly eccentric value of "nice"),
but it's the church that pays for the shiny armor. Probably the Paladin would
not be in good with the church if she's hanging around with PCs, but it's not
like they can unteach you the secret knowledge.
Who else is in the basic
playbooks? Oh, the Immolator. I don't know what to do with the
Immolator in standard DW, never mind WFDW! But they might fit.
Make a comment!
|
Sproing!
|
