Taken delivery of the hub rules (why they can't be called 'core rules' i don't know) and my inner chart-lover has done a little sqwee of pleasure. I've not got much to post at the moment, but i'll use this thread to post my thoughts on the game, probably go through full character creation and take it section by section.
It'll take a while, because although it's a manageable 240 odd pages, it's dense - oh, and it has charts coming out the wazoo! This does not worry a seasoned Rolemaster fan like myself, but it could intimidate some people before they actually start reading the thing.
Me, i love it, and it's chock full of evocative little b&w illustrations.
Watch this space for a full character generation. I'm tempted to carry on with my cyborg guy, but in the interests of full chargen, i'll start again and take it step by step.
Well, i've spent the evening perusing as much as i can and it looks pretty awesome. I'm sure it's not going to be for everyone though, there are some things in there that seem very woolly, even to me, and i'm far from a crunch-meister. The Appearance stat seems to suffer generally in this game, but i've yet to find anywhere discussing exactly what effect that has. Then again i've read bits and scanned it. By the looks of the layout of this thing it could take me 4 weeks to find tucked away in a paragraph or table somewhere. :D
I've successfully rolled up a character though, which is complete bar outfitting. I'll try to post more about chargen and the various options tomorrow. All you need to know right now is that my guy is basically a minotaur - or in ME talk a Cow (Water Buffalo) Bestial Human. His stats are crazy compared to the cyborg guy i half completed.
I'll also say that i couldn't imagine trying to make head or tails of this book if i didn't have a hard copy. I wouldn't recommend the pdf option.
So, the book opens with an overview of the setting and a few ideas to mold it into a terminator type future where machines have won a war over humans, alien invasion, or demonic portals. I personally think the default PA setting is interesting enough without going all Rifts on it. Then there's a brief bit on how to play, being a GM and dice. The usual guff that luckily only takes up 3 (rather dense) pages. Then we're onto the Character Generation chapter with a full-page illustration of a mutant woman with a massive crab-claw arm packing a pistol.
The chapter starts with a step by step guide to chargen, which runs to 15 steps...
Step 1 - Character Type This determines what your 'race' is. I put race in inverted commas because they are all basically either human, altered humans, or contain human DNA or are artificial beings modeled on humans. The checklist suggests that beginning players role randomly for type in order to start playing quickly and to (in theory) not have a more complex character to take care of as a starting player - yes, the random character type table has 3 different columns. The first for beginner players, the second for experienced players and the third for expert players. This might seem a bit preachy, but tbh i see the sense in it. You roll a d100 and cross-reference the result to see what type your character is.
Types are pure-stock humans, clones of various types, bioreplicas of various types, trans-humans (genetically improved pure-stocks), cyborgs, bestial humans (genetically crossed humans and animals), ghost mutants (outwardly normal humans with mental mutations - kinda psionicists), and mutants, from mild, to typical, to severe and freakish. The beginner column does not allow freakish mutants and only a 2% chance of a sever mutant, otherwise everything is on the table.
So, i roll, and get a 58. Cross-referencing that result on the beginning player column, i see the result is Bestial Human. I'm a furry!
More later.
(Note: I should probably point out at this stage that the game is predominately a percentile system. Although it uses all the other dice for associated rolls, the basic mechanic is d100.
As I recall this is a Modiphous product? If so, can you say how well the rules match up to their Mutant Chronicles or the upcoming(?) conan?
Or am I mistaken? Don't make me go to Goggle!
Quote from: Spike;944882As I recall this is a Modiphous product? If so, can you say how well the rules match up to their Mutant Chronicles or the upcoming(?) conan?
Or am I mistaken? Don't make me go to Goggle!
No, it's a one-man-band effort. Outland Arts which is basically William McAusland who used to illustrate some of the DCC products.
So, we know that my guy is a Bestial Human. but the book doesn't tell you when or where to look at your type. Instead it goes straight onto...
Step 2: Trait Rolling. Traits (otherwise known as stats) can be produced by rolling randomly in order, rolling randomly and assign, a combination of the two, or point buy - for beginners (and i'll keep it this way anyway) it suggests roll randomly in order. Now, we get to roll d100 8 times for our Traits. You might think that being a % system, that the result of your roll would be your Trait. Wrong! There is the Trait Value Determination chart where you cross-reference your d100 roll to find out what your Trait score is. You might think this is crazy, but there is definately method in the madness, as the higher you roll, you actually get a set value with a random addition, such as 40 + d20, 80 + d20. In this way, you can get Trait scores above a hundred, when you only roll a d100.
Your Traits are Endurance (which are your actual hit points) Strength (self-explanatory), Agility (same), Accuracy (hand-eye coordination, adds to your Strike Value, otherwise known as chance to hit), Intelligence (Well duh!), Willpower (strength of mind, useful in resisting certain effects), Perception (This is kinda both quickness and perception rolled into one as it affects your Initiative) and lastly Appearance (which appears to do nothing other than give an idea of how ugly/good looking you are by normal human standards - more on this later).
Now then, it's in the blurb for step 2 that i find out that Bestial Humans don't even use the Trait Value Determination chart the same as everyone else - they use a mix of that and the method contained in the Type write-up for Bestial Humans.
I need to look up my type before rolling my stats! I find the type section half way through the character generation chapter, randomly stuffed between castes (previous job, a bit like WFRP's careers) and skills. I find here that there are a whopping 33 types of bestial human and i need to (you guessed it) roll a d100 to see what type i am. A roll of 29 results in Cow (page 27) - kinda glad i didn't roll cockroach. I also see a massive table with all the bestial human types on it and how they roll their Traits. Its a mix of roll as normal using the chart found earlier in the book and just adding a set (or random) amount to the Trait value already rolled on that previously found chart...
Yeah, a bit of a pain and illustrates why i would find a PDF awful.
Anyway, i rolled Traits as directed, noted down age, lifespan, DV (defence value) move, weight and height (more rolls). Jesus, my Water Buffalo guy is 230kg and 9 feet 2 inches tall - no wonder he has an Appearance Trait of 6...
I also need to look at the Cow entry on page 27. There it describes what you look like and also contains unique bits and bobs for your type only. My guy gets a horn attack (which is triple damage and better SV when i can charge 6 metres).
Now, i thought i was finished with my type, but then i thought i'd better read the general bestial human entry at the beginning of the entry.
Lucky i did! I find i've got a 33% chance of d3 prime mutations, d2 minor mutations, and a 1 in 10 chance of a Flaw mutation. I roll it. My boy has some mutations. As it happens 2 prime and 1 minor, with no flaw.
I think i'm now done with step 2 (i'll put my character sheet up at the end). Although it turned into a bit more than simply Trait rolling.
Oh, nearly forgot, Bestial Humans all get the Wilderness Survival skill, as their bestial nature gives them advantages and those nasty pure-bloods kick them into the wilds a lot.
More tomorrow, where i'll be generating my Caste
Quote from: Spike;944882As I recall this is a Modiphous product? If so, can you say how well the rules match up to their Mutant Chronicles or the upcoming(?) conan?
Or am I mistaken? Don't make me go to Goggle!
You are probably thinking of Mutant: Year Zero, which incidentally is what I have prepped to GM for one of my two groups. MYZ looks nothing like Mutant Epoch, nor Mutant Chronicles, nor Conan. The basic resolution in it resembles Arkham Horror. Basically a d6 pool where sixes are successes.
As for Mutant Epoch, I downloaded the free 120+ page quick start guide, glanced at it for a good four minutes or so and decided that it really isn't for me. Somehow I am reminded of MYFAROG or FATAL or some other mutant game I forgot the name of, by it. A work that is done by a lone dude who is stuck to whatever era he started roleplaying in, and stayed there.
Random generation Mutant Tables, gotta love it. I can imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth already of the "Can't Design Your Own Mutant to .00001 Tolerance Point Buy" crowd.
Heh. Already begun.
[popcorn]
Quote from: Moracai;944937Somehow I am reminded of MYFAROG or FATAL or some other mutant game I forgot the name of, by it.
Erm, no and no. or at least so far.
I will say this though, it has a lot more slavery and prostitution than your average RPG. The morality of the setting seems a bit ropey at first glance, but that's the easiest thing to purge. I've heard that the Bestiary One expansion is a bit dodgy, with some of the critters basically wanting to eat you, kill you, or mate with you, not necessarily in that order. I'd find that too squicky if it is as common as i've seen (i think someone said that a troubling amount of the monsters can mate with humans - seems a little obsessively weird for me, if true).
Quote from: CRKrueger;944940Random generation Mutant Tables, gotta love it. I can imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth already of the "Can't Design Your Own Mutant to .00001 Tolerance Point Buy" crowd.
Heh. Already begun.
[popcorn]
d1000 tables, mate.
So, stung into reading the character type write-ups, yeah, there's definitely a master-race vibe from pure-stock humans - but, there's also a master race vibe from androids later in the book, and some mutants. Basically, everyone thinks they're best and not to blame for the current predicament - or about 50% of each type of human is, the other 50% make up the Free-towns and the majority of adventuring types, so although there's a bit too much detail for my liking on how uber alles all these guys are, the assumption is that you're not one of those and as you're adventurers, much more cosmopolitan.
It kinda puts me off getting the setting books though, as i really like chargen, the rules, the mutations and implants etc. I'll most likely just make my own setting and use the non-setting sections of the line for my own purposes.
To be honest all kinds of random mutants with viable "non-bubbling pool of slime mutations" that are mixtures of various species but can't reproduce seems kind of odd to me.
The standard animal-human hybrid present in the Mutant Genre always seemed to me like it was exactly that...somehow the mixture of human/animal genes, perhaps due to Eugenics, CRISPR/cas9 getting mixed with the gene editing capabilities of Flu viruses, whatever, some form of science run amok. No conventional radiation exposure is going to produce viable mutants.
So if all the mutants are basically mixtures of Terran Species DNA, why can't they be allowed to reproduce by the mechanism of the same agent that created them to begin with?
If this wasn't a crazy science accident, but some form of Rapid Hyper-Evolution kicked off like in Darwin's Radio then it could explain both the interspecies viability as well as the increased sexual urges as all the metaspecies are being driven to evolve. Or maybe the agent of mutation was one of those STDs that increases libido.
Once you start getting into the science of how Buffalo Man and Cucumber Girl can be adventuring together, the bumping uglies part kinda presents itself naturally without the author being a Creepazoid.
I don't think the author is a creepozoid. He's a completist from what i've read so far, so he's presenting things that i wouldn't normally care about either as a writer, player, or GM. Easily purged, as i said, but a bit of a bind to read.
So, onto Step 3: Caste. This is basically your previous career and like character type, there are a few of them, running the gammut of several slaves to several military careers. You roll on a table (d100) with your character type cross-referenced with all the Castes. My guy rolls Draftee. This is basically the lowest rung on the military ladder. My water buffalo was drafted against his will into a militia (fair enough considering his fearsome mien). Shame, as it's pretty weak in the skills department. Looking up Draftee, i see that i add d3 to my Endurance and Strength stat and start with 1 warrior skill and d2 miscellaneous skills (i roll 2). My starting equipment is Modest (outfitting comes later).
Right then, below the Caste stat modification table is the starting skill table. Skills are split into 4 catagories - Criminal, Warrior, Educated, Miscellaneous. I roll a d100 and look along the warrior table, finding that my water buffalo 9'2" 230kg guy has Riding 1! Great-horses exist in this setting that can carry 4 normal humans sized riders, so i presume that i was plonked on one of them. My 2 misc skills turn out to be Gambler 1 and Unarmed Combat 1. Next i look up the Draftee write-up to see what kind of trouble i'm in - quite a lot, i ran away from the militia. I have to roll a d100 to determine whether the militia was from my home town or one i visited later. It's my home town and there's a bizarely specific (which is becoming the obvious norm) 73% that if i return to my home town that someone will turn me in for summary justice. The entry says there's a 28% chance i can read and write (i can) and if so, a 33% chance i can do maths (i can also do that).
That's it for Caste. Luckily, as a bestial human i couldn't roll whore or kitchen slave, but i could have done with a better military background. Never mind, next up is random gender (i choose male rather than roll), height and weight (which i've already done through my character type), which hand is dominant (right) and what my swimming ability is (i can't swim), then my age (which again has been specified in my type section).
That takes us up to step 9: mutations, which i'll cover later, as i have a few of them.
Step 9: Mutations and Implants. This is the main section of the character generation chapter. Here we get to generate the mutations that hamper/make our mutants and the implants that improve/weigh down our cyborgs. My guy is neither of those! However, the instructions in the Bestial Human section led to my character having 2 prime and 1 minor mutations.
I can safely ignore the implant section that comes later and also the intro blurb on mutants, 'cos i'm not one technically. Instead i head straight over to the Prime Mutation Table and get to roll a d1000 baby! The ME home site has a handy dice roller app that is downloadable on it which has a d1000 roller, so away i went.
My first roll resulted in Mind Crush! My boy has a Ghost Mutant (ie Psionic) mutation, luckily not resulting in another reduction to Appearance. Now Mind Crush can be used at a range up to Willpower stat x 3 in metres (nearly 150 metres in my case) and 3 times a day per Rank of the character (starting at Rank 1, 3 times a day). The victim must make a Hazard B Intelligence check or suffer 1d20 points of Endurance damage and 1d6 points of Inteligence damage. The Int damage is the killer, especially on mutant animals and the like with poor Int stats. When Int reaches zero you lose consciousness. Nice mutation!
Next up i roll...Project Image Another Ghost Mutant power! This is basically Mirror Image. I can create 4 duplicates of myself that vanish when hit, duplicate my movements etc. Usable twice a day per Rank. So basically i can create an illusion of 4 extra 9'2" water buffalo badasses that do what i do. Quite a cool scare tactic that might tip the scales in my favour in some situations.
I'm happy with my mutations. I've got a Psionic Water Buffalo!
I also have to roll a minor mutation, which are generally pretty harmless. Mine is having violet coloured blood - which considering i'm an intelligent, psychic water buffalo doesn't really amount to much!
Step 10. Name character. I decide on 'Cud'.
Next up, 'Modest' starting equipment.
Listing all the equipment i get from a modest list is too tedious - for a start, the first line says you get all the equipment from the 'poor' listing, with exciting stuff like d8 yards of rope and stuff. So, i'll just cut to the random chances of something decent. Firstly 15% of a trained farm-dog companion, which i don't get, then a 15% chance of a special relic item, which i again fail.
Finally i get to roll on the starting arms and armour tables. Your wealth rating gives you a modifier to a d10 roll, anywhere from d10-6 to d10+10. My modest roll is d10+4. I get the maximum!
My excitement is short-lived as all that gets me is a bow with 10 arrows and a machete...
Oh well, onto the armour chart. Bugger, i roll a 2 for a modified roll of 6 - strangely enough resulting in some decent armour. Spiked leather with a spiked shield, although i fail to get an iron helm. Ha! any critter that bites me is going to suffer d10 damage. Take that mutant animals!
I'll post up my complete character sheet tomorrow and explain how i got some derived values and what it all means.
That's all quite interesting, I'll have to look it up when I get the ol' income train rolling agin.
I'm not entirely a huge fan of piles of random tables, but it did sound like there was a choice option? Anyway: I look forward to hearing more about the system
Quote from: Spike;945104That's all quite interesting, I'll have to look it up when I get the ol' income train rolling agin.
I'm not entirely a huge fan of piles of random tables, but it did sound like there was a choice option? Anyway: I look forward to hearing more about the system
Yeah there's a point buy for traits, and you can build your character if you want to avoid the random aspects. A word of warning though, all the skills, mutations, weapons, and implants have a wild variation in power (a feature, not a bug for random chargen), so if you build a character it would be pretty piss easy to create a monster of a character. The system really doesn't stand up to scrutiny if you don;t use random chargen IMO.
The downside to that of course is that starting characters are likely to have power disparity if you do everything randomly. Again, i'm used to that, so it's a feature not a bug for me, but if random isn't your thing it might be problematic.
The system itself is very easy, but each skill is almost a little sub-system of its own. I'll go into skills before i post my character sheet.
Great thread OHT! I've seen Mutant Epoch a couple times being pimped online and wondered about the game.
Looking forward to you presenting a combat example with Cud once you're done with chargen.
I'll post my character sheet in several posts, hopefully explaining how i got the results that i did and what it means.
Here's my trait block and sundry other values based on my type (race) and caste (previous career).
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Stats were generated by rolling a d100 and consulting the Trait Determination Chart except when instructed what to do by my Type (Cow Bestial Humanoid) or Caste (Draftee).
Endurance - 66 Cud heals 7 points of trait damage per day as long as he gains sleep (Type +40, caste +d3)
Strength - 70 +8 damage melee and thrown/bows, +40% range on thrown weapons, bows etc (Type +26, caste +d3)
Agility - 57 -6 DV (defence value), +0.75 metre move rate
Accuracy - 47 +4 SV (strike value, eg chance to hit. Type +6)
Intelligence - 25 (Type roll d20+7)
Willpower - 48
Perception - 101 +3 Initiative (Type +3)
Appearance 6 (Type d12 +5)
Age 12 (Type d8+4)
Lifespan 44 (Type 44)
-4 DV (Type)
Base Move Rate - 8 (Type) Agility +0.75m (trait)
Weight - 230 kg (Type)
Height - 9'2" (Type)
So, as indicated above, Cud's Endurance and Strength traits were increased massively from what i rolled on the trait generation chart by his type modifications - Cows are durable and strong! He rolled well generally on stats that weren't modified, his Agility, Accuracy, and particularly Perception were really high rolls. His appearance is a potential problem.
Next up are his skills and what effect they have.
Wilderness Survival. I can hunt food and make some basic equipment from the carcasses. Handy to have. I can make a tent from the hide of deer! WS is a 1 point skill, meaning that you cannot improve it. The game has several 1 point skills.
I can Read & Write and do mathematics. Not bad for a Bestial Human.
Riding 1 - The riding skill can be used untrained and takes the form of Hazard rolls in order to do dismounts etc. Having the ride skill makes these Hazard rolls simpler. Trained riders can also increase their mounts move rate SV and damage you best use the mounts abilities. The riding skill does not have an upper limit.
Brawling 1 - Fisticuffs, kicks etc. Brawling is one half of the Unarmed Combat skill - the other being Martial Arts. It's pretty hard to start off with the MA half of the skill and Cud doesn't (he needed 10 on a d10!). My brawling skill gives me SV +3 and +1 damage. There is no upper limit to the brawling skill.
Gambler 1 - This skill isn't for games of luck, but rather games of skill like poker and the like. Anyone can use the skill - you add your INT and Perc trait, divide it by 2 and then roll a d100, adding your bonus to the roll to get the final result. The highest result wins the hand. The gambler skill adds further to your roll, +10 for each point of skill. There is no upper limit to this skill.
Cud is a naturally good gambler and a bit of a hustler. Because of his appearance folk underestimate his mental abilities. The fact he can read and write and do sums is something he keeps to himself or his close associates - sometimes it pays to play dumb!
That stat block makes me think of games like Recon for some reason. It that a 100 range stat block? Clearly not percentile,which tosses Recon out, so I probably shouldn'ta mentioned it...
Now, his tactical abilities. Attacks, mutations, and Type abilities.
The normal starting Stike Value (SV) at Rank 1 is 50. This is modified by various factors. Below are Cud's attack and how i got the values. Strike Value is equal to your % chance to hit on a d100.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brawling SV 57 1d6+9 damage (Rank 1 SV 50, Accuracy +4 SV, Brawling skill +3 SV, 1d6 damage unarmed, +8 damage Strength, +1 damage Brawling skill)
Horns SV 64 base melee/74 charging 6 metres melee - d20+8 damage, 3d20+8 damage charging (Rank 1 SV 50, Type +10 SV, charging +20 SV, Accuracy +4 SV, d20 damage horns/3d20 if you charge 6 metres, +8 damage Strength)
Bow SV 54 damage d12 + 8 damage range 56 metres (Rank 1 SV 50, Acc +4 SV, Range 40 metres +40% = 56 metres, d12 bow damage +8 strength bonus)
Machete SV 54 d12 + 8 damage (Rank 1 SV 50, Acc +4 SV, d12 machete damage +8 strength bonus)
Cud can make a Brawling or Machete attack as well as an attack using his horns in the same round.
Mind Crush Mutation - Range 144 metres (Willpower trait multiplied by 3), d20 Endurance damage and d6 Intelligence damage if target fails a Hazard B Intelligence test. Can use mutation a number of times a day equal to Rank multiplied by 3.
Image Multiplication Mutation - Range (Sight), Create duplicate images of yourself which duplicates your actions. Duration (Up to Willpower trait in rounds). If you take damage images vanish, if a duplicate is struck (Image DV 0) it vanishes. Number of images equal to Willpower trait divided by 10, rounded down - 4 images. Can use twice a day multiplied by your Rank.
Cud gained the bow and machete attacks because they are his starting equipment.
Quote from: Spike;945245That stat block makes me think of games like Recon for some reason. It that a 100 range stat block? Clearly not percentile,which tosses Recon out, so I probably shouldn'ta mentioned it...
From post 6.
Now, we get to roll d100 8 times for our Traits. You might think that being a % system, that the result of your roll would be your Trait. Wrong! There is the Trait Value Determination chart where you cross-reference your d100 roll to find out what your Trait score is. You might think this is crazy, but there is definately method in the madness, as the higher you roll, you actually get a set value with a random addition, such as 40 + d20, 80 + d20. In this way, you can get Trait scores above a hundred, when you only roll a d100.
Don't worry, once up to speed, your character sheet won't look like that. Here's the system savvy version.
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Cud – Cow (Water Buffalo) Bestial Human ex-Draftee.
Endurance - 66 heal 7 pts damage/day
Strength - 70 +8 damage +40% Range
Agility - 57 -6 DV, +0.75 m
Accuracy - 47 +4 SV
Intelligence - 25
Willpower - 48
Perception - 101 +3 Initiative
Appearance 6
Rank: 1
Age 12
Lifespan 44
Base SV: 01-50
DV: -31 (-6 Ag, -16 Spiked leather, - 5 Spiked leather shield, -4 DV Type)
Base Move Rate - 8 m
Movement Rate – 7.25 m
Weight - 230 kg
Height - 9'2"
Handed: Right
Swimming: Can't swim
I can Read & Write and do mathematics.
Skills
Wilderness Survival.
Riding 1
Brawling 1
Gambler 1
Attacks
Brawling SV 57 1d6+9 damage
Horns SV 64 base melee/74 charging 6 metres melee - d20+8 damage, 3d20+8 damage charging
Bow SV 54 damage d12 + 8 damage range 56 metres
Machete SV 54 d12 + 8 damage
Mind Crush Mutation - Range 144 metres (Willpower trait multiplied by 3), d20 Endurance damage and d6 Intelligence damage if target fails a Hazard B Intelligence test. Can use mutation a number of times a day equal to Rank multiplied by 3.
Image Multiplication Mutation - Range (Sight), Create duplicate images of yourself which duplicates your actions. Duration (Up to Willpower trait in rounds). If you take damage images vanish, if a duplicate is struck (Image DV 0) it vanishes. Number of images equal to Willpower trait divided by 10, rounded down - 4 images. Can use twice a day multiplied by your Rank.
Cud is a naturally good gambler and a bit of a hustler. Because of his appearance folk underestimate his mental abilities. The fact he can read and write and do sums is something he keeps to himself or his close associates - sometimes it pays to play dumb! He also rarely uses his mutations in company unless he trusts them implicitly and it nearly always comes as a surprise to those who think they know him.
Cud can make a Brawling or Machete attack as well as an attack using his horns in the same round.
Equipment; Bow & 10 arrows, Machete, Spiked leather armour, spiked leather shield. Add modest equipment and bought stuff.
As Spinachcat asked for a combat example, here's one i doubt that Cud will survive - all random.
Cud finds himself alone in the wilds, having been chased away from an isolated farmstead. He decides, perhaps foolishly, to take a short-cut through a ruined cityscape. Maybe an hour to traverse under normal circumstances, ruins cut movement by 50%, so his normal move is reduced to about 3.6 meters a round. Looking up the encounters section, the GM finds that ruins in daytime is a 4 in 10 chance of an encounter - every 20 minutes! The second such check results in an encounter. Now, the GM uses the Ruins encounter matrix, using the 'street level' entry and rolls a d1000. Getting 706 - Wolf Frogs! The low Rank encounter is d8+1, the result being 6 wolf frogs - the encounter is at d100 meters (71).
Cud decides to try and find somewhere to restrict the number that can come at him and finds a crumbling wall to put his back to.
The wolf frogs run in, dog-sized frogs with a long loping stride instead of hops and a mouth full of sharp teeth, only 3 of them can attack him at once. Initiative is rolled, Cud gets 6 on d10 +3 for his Perception stat, for a total of 9. The frogs get a roll of 6 with no positive modifier. Cud acts first and attacks with his machete and horns.
The DV of the frogs is -10, so that is subtracted from Cud's chances of hitting. His machete SV is effectively 44, he rolls 29% for a hit! for a total of 13 damage. Each frog has 8+d10 endurance. this one has 16 - now 3. The follow up horn attack is a 2%. Another hit and almost a critical hit (1% is always a crit). He rolls 25 damage and smears one of the frogs over the sidewalk.
3 frogs attack him. They have a SV of 45, subtracting Cud's DV of -31 gives them just a 14% chance of hitting him. 82, 71, and 5. One hits for 5 damage. Cud reduces his Endurance trait from 66 to 61.
Next round, Cud misses with both attacks and so do the frogs.
Third round Cud hits with his machete for 14 damage, which is exactly the number of End. the frog had. It goes down, but the injury table says it is incapacitated but conscious. It burps blood and looks sorry for itself. Cud takes another injury, this one reducing his End. by a further 9 points to 52. Ouch.
The fourth round is decisive as Cud hacks another one up and the wolf frog entry says that if half of them are taken down without a similar number of enemies having been taken down, that they flee. Cud finishes off the dying one, cleans his weapon and moves on slightly injured.
Arse, 20 minutes later he encounters something else - a black centipede. he's doomed unless he can get away as its got Endurance 91, DV -18, a SV of 63 which does 2d10 damage per hit and injects a Type C sleeping poison. As he's already injured, his C Endurance Hazard check is going to be harder than normal. Its 82 meters away, so he starts his escape...
Cud is harder than i was expecting.
Edit: Ha i forgot that anything biting Cud takes 1d10 points of damage because of his spiked leather armour. Might have actually chased them away quicker.
Although i don't know the system inside out yet, i'm comfortable with the amount that i know that i quite like most of the system (although there is some painfully 'house-rule' type stuff in there that is faintly ridiculous. The chase rules and called-shots are ok at first blush, but are limited and slightly amateur hour in application. All humanoid monsters seem to want to fuck pretty looking humans and the entries go into Carcosa levels of detail that i in no way think is necessary. Yeah, they're mutants, they do stuff to captives, i don't need to roll a Hazard check based on my Appearance stat to see if they eat me or fuck me thank you very much).
The setting as laid out in the hub rules, although basic, wouldn't result in a cohesive adventuring party, let alone campaign world IMO. I don't know whether the setting expansion books improve this or make it worse and i'm not champing at the bit to find out. If your idea of a PA world is more Tank Girl, A Boy and His Dog, Hell Comes to Frogtown, and Screamers - with a bit too much flesh and squick, rather than Mad Max (although the section on PA vehicles obviously borrows from the Mad Max aesthetics), Children of Men, and Escape from New York, then the implied setting as laid out will be ok for you, otherwise, like me, you might want to make tweaks of your own to adjust it to your own preference.
“So, I was motoring down the cracked remains of the overpass, when I see this big old bird start running alongside me. 'Bout the size of that old refrigeration unit we found in the ruins – yay high. Long tail on it, speckled colouration, and a blur of legs I could hardly see. It kept on running though, even when I went up to 40 clicks. It took little notice of me, maybe it thought I was another one of its kind. No idea. I just cranked up the throttle and took my quad up to 50 clicks. The thing kept on running. In the end, I thought I better ease up and let it go, in case it decided I was dinner. The thing stopped on a dime and regarded me with its black button eyes. It stood upright on 3 pairs of clawed feet, easily as tall as a standing man, its wings folded tight as though they were hardly used. I could see when it opened its sharp, pointed beak that some kind of grabbing appendage dwelt within and could see the cruel sunlight glittering from copper edged feathers. I slowly drew my crossbow and kept a bead on it as it seemed to weigh me up. Then, with a bound, it was off, leaving me choking on its dust.”
Roadrunner, Hexapod
These speedsters have grown to giant size and the mutation that resulted in extra legs for even more speed is the one that stuck. Able to bring down small game, and making do on carrion in the meantime, these frightful birds are omnivorous. They may run at great speed, or fly at lower speed but make a flurry of claw attacks. When using their claws to stand on, their beak has a mutation that allows them to shoot out a grabbing hand that pulls prey in. If the prey is succussfully hit for damage, the hand pulls the victim in 1 metre per round unless they make a B Strength Hazard check. Once reeled into the beak, it scores automatic damage on each round the target is held. This apendage has a range of 6 metres.
DV: -22 ground/ -14 flying
Endurance: 35 +d20
Movement: 18m running/9m flying
Initiative: +1
Attacks: 6 claws or 1 beak
Strike Value: 01-59
Damage: Claws d8+4, Tongue d6+4, then d10+4 per round
Strength: 45
Agility: 33
Accuracy: 33
Intelligence: 8
Willpower: 22
Perception: 58
Valuables: Feathers worth 300 sps
Exps: 20
Morale: Firm
Size: 1.9 m tall
Weight: 70 kg
Mutations: 17% chance of 1 mutation from the bird mutation table
If it helps, here's (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?36156-Mutant-Epoch&p=946831#post946831) an old review I did of the game.
And as an addition, the adventures and source books are really good idea mines for Gamma World type adventures. That said, this is very much a world where you can find a brothel with 1d4 prostitutes of which 75% are female, and a 50% chance the prostitutes have an STD (although I forget the actual numbers, I'm pretty sure there's actual dice and percentages invovled).
Quote from: san dee jota;946832If it helps, here's (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?36156-Mutant-Epoch&p=946831#post946831) an old review I did of the game.
And as an addition, the adventures and source books are really good idea mines for Gamma World type adventures. That said, this is very much a world where you can find a brothel with 1d4 prostitutes of which 75% are female, and a 50% chance the prostitutes have an STD (although I forget the actual numbers, I'm pretty sure there's actual dice and percentages invovled).
Yeah, i read your review before! Good to see you here. Welcome to the asylum.
I get the feeling that the setting is an adolescent's wet dream in some ways - but i'm way past that (in age anyway). Hopefully, there's enough in there to salvage it, because i really like the look of the thing, layout, and the majority of the rules. As you can see, i'm already making my own content.
The artwork is good stuff. I've previously cannibalized it for my Gamma World games.
Thank you for the combat example!
In a fog of morphine i've ordered The Crossroads region guide. mainly because its so big and should contain lots of usable stuff. As i'm laid up for a ridiculous amount of time, i might try to get a pbp set up.
Quote from: One Horse Town;949531In a fog of morphine i've ordered The Crossroads region guide. mainly because its so big and should contain lots of usable stuff. As i'm laid up for a ridiculous amount of time, i might try to get a pbp set up.
What the hell did you do?
Quote from: CRKrueger;949533What the hell did you do?
Slipped a disc.
Quote from: One Horse Town;949537Slipped a disc.
Jesus Wept. Take care of yourself. Hopefully you can get it healed up without surgery.
Quote from: One Horse Town;949537Slipped a disc.
Damn, that sucks. Wish you a full and speedy recovery, OHT.
Quote from: CRKrueger;949547Jesus Wept. Take care of yourself. Hopefully you can get it healed up without surgery.
Paramedic was with me for 2 hours. Didn't think i needed hospital treatment, left me with 100 codeine tablets and a dozen diazepam and instructions to keep moving...yeah, right, i tried that and put up with the pain until last night where i couldn't take any more and went to bed at six. I had a mainly pain-free night and feel much better this morning - so i'm going against his advice for now and taking lots of rest from now on.
Quote from: One Horse Town;949724Paramedic was with me for 2 hours. Didn't think i needed hospital treatment, left me with 100 codeine tablets and a dozen diazepam and instructions to keep moving...yeah, right, i tried that and put up with the pain until last night where i couldn't take any more and went to bed at six. I had a mainly pain-free night and feel much better this morning - so i'm going against his advice for now and taking lots of rest from now on.
Careful, too much time in bed can make it worse. Even if you didn't need the ER, you should see a doctor. Paramedics can hand out drugs in England...that may necessitate a move. :D
Quote from: One Horse Town;949537Slipped a disc.
Shit, sorry to hear that!