Things I May No Longer Do While Playing 13: This Is A Banned List Not A Drinking Game

[Rater202]

(Had to tweak the title so it'd fit)

This is the (unlucky) thirteenth incarnation of this thread of insanity and mutual frustration, both real rules and jokes are welcome in this thread.

For Newcomers, we've more or less abandoned numbers in favor of individual sets of asterixes for the sake of rules and subrules because numbers inevitably get confused and mismatched and this helps keep things straight.

Previous Threads:
1: [Any] Things I may no longer do while playing. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175909)
2: Things I May No Longer Do While Playing II: Stop Making The DM Cry (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=207015)
3: Things I May No Longer Do While Playing III: I May Not Iron Heart Surge Rule Zero (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228707)
4: Things I May No Longer Do While Playing IV: The Decanter of Endless Bad Ideas (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257965)
5: Things I May No Longer Do While Playing V: Pun & Pun, Rules-Attorneys at Law (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=293087)
6: Things I May No Longer Do While Playing VI: This Isn't A Checklist We Swear! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?335782)
7: Things I May No Longer Do While Playing VII: No, Not Even Then (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?370856-Things-I-May-No-Longer-Do-While-Playing-VII-No-Not-Even-Then)
8: Things I May No Longer Do while Playing VIII: Why is the PLOT on fire? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?414743-Things-I-May-No-Longer-Do-while-Playing-VIII-Why-is-the-PLOT-on-fire)
9: Things I May No Longer Do while Playing IX: GNO GNOMES! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?440508-Things-I-May-No-Longer-Do-while-Playing-IX-GNO-GNOMES!)
10: Things I May No Longer Do While Playing X: Bard is not a valid choice (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478028-Things-I-May-No-Longer-Do-While-Playing-X-Bard-is-not-a-valid-choice)
11: Things I May No Longer Do While Playing XI: I May Not Postpone Naming My Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?521656-Things-I-May-No-Longer-Do-While-Playing-XI-I-May-Not-Postpone-Naming-My-Thread)
12: Things I May No Longer Do While Playing XII: A Thousand-Yard Stare is not Permission (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?573751-Things-I-May-No-Longer-Do-While-Playing-XII-A-Thousand-Yard-Stare-is-not-Permission)

[Anonymouswizard]

* If it weighs more than my carrying capacity I may not loot it.
** No matter how many pulleys I have.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

* If we came here to rescue Pokémon, using those same Pokémon as suicidal cannon fodder is frowned upon.

[DeTess]

*Asking how much one of the airships cannon's weighs is a reasonable question.
**Trying to then figure out a way to boost your characters carrying capacity enough so you can easily lug it around isn't.

[Telok]

* Not allowed to abuse massive wealth, vehicle building rules, the "living vehicle" option, and necromancy, to have a squad of zombie 50mm autocannons firing APDS disguised as a rock & roll band.
** No eyeball sucking demon hamburgers.
*** My PC may not have a villian lair like in Big Trouble in Little China.
**** Not allwed a PC so mindlessly and over the top stupid-heroic-good that they're more dangerous and destructive than the villan.

[Rater202]

*I cannot have a self-portable lair that's bigger on the inside than it is on the outsider and small enough to navigate most buildings, equip it with external weapons that I can control from the inside and an intercom, and then just never leave it
**Relatedly, I can't be a superhero whose gimick is that he has what is essentially a tank that he just lives in.
***My Timelord can't be their own TARDIS
****I can't have a TARDIS

[Anonymouswizard]

* Cannot run a Whoniverse game based on the classic series.
** Especially if I base it on the first six seasons.
*** I am to explain how regeneration works if this is the lore I'm using.

Okay, I've not had the chance to run it, but I do have campaign notes for a Doctor Who campaign based on the First and Second Doctor eras. Extrapolating from the episodes the Time Lords become an advanced human* civilisation, 'Renewal' doesn't have a limit but requires technology (included in your standard TARDIS}, and time travel is very, very rare (done only by the Time Lords and Daleks). Sadly I don't know anybody who'd be interested, even Classic Who could be a bit of a stretch.

* Based on the Doctor having no noticeable second heart and referring to himself as human.

[Laughing Dog]

dozen: I am not allowed to put ranks in Craft: (Baking)
dozen: I'm not allowed to put ranks in Profession: (Baker) either.


*I am not allowed to bring the Borg into the Mass Effect universe.
**Even if it would be neat to see them steamroll the Reapers.
***Bringing Species 8472 into the Mass Effect universe is right out.
****I mean, Species 8472 can steamroll the Borg and aren't exactly the friendly sort either.

[Lord Raziere]

* My Khornate Berserker can't be someone who can only say "Blood for the Blood God" as if they are a 40k version of Groot

* not allowed to bring The Doctor into the Mass Effect universe, even if it would be funny to watch him steamroll the Reapers
** and fix the genophage.
*** and quip at everyone for using guns
**** and treat the Asari as a young inexperienced race.
***** it would be worth it if the Reapers say "you cannot stop us Shephard and Shepard says "Yes, but he can" and points to the Doctor
****** and if Shepard somehow gets a win over The Doctor in return in some way to tweak his nose.

* Jojo's Bizarre Fallout is a campaign idea that will never happen.

[PhoenixPhyre]

* May no longer suggest that the party's resident inter-racial (halfling and half-elf) gay couple assassinate the local duke by being flamboyantly, over-the-top gay in her presence and driving her into a rage-induced stroke.
** Even if she is an elderly, racist, xenophobic male-hating jerk with a weak heart. She's not a homophobe, just hates men as anything other than mobile baby-making devices, believing that's the will of the gods. Oh, and hates outsiders, magic users, and adventurers.
** Doing this may cause political consequences that undermine the whole point of trying to talk to her in the first place.

[Lord Raziere]

* My Superman Expy can't be a stereotypical little green man alien who is just using advanced tech to emulate the powers
** Or a xenomorph like alien that has wings, doesn't look human at all but still acts like Superman.
*** or point out that some vampires technically have most of Superman's powers (Super-Strength, Invulnerability, Flight, Super Speed) and that if you count Dio, then a vampire could have laser eye beams as well

[Ides Usher]

* I am not allowed to add HP to all the monsters and dramatically increase the number and deadliness of traps in The Tomb of Horrors.
** I am not allowed to devise additional trap and monster laden levels for The Tomb of Horrors.
***Giving the demi-lich a demi-lich consort is unfair and also not allowed.

[danielxcutter]

* I am not allowed to add HP to all the monsters and dramatically increase the number and deadliness of traps in The Tomb of Horrors.
** I am not allowed to devise additional trap and monster laden levels for The Tomb of Horrors.
***Giving the demi-lich a demi-lich consort is unfair and also not allowed.

Does that module even need to be made harder? I thought that was the one where everyone gets killed by fiat without looking at the DM notes.

[noob]

Does that module even need to be made harder? I thought that was the one where everyone gets killed by fiat without looking at the DM notes.

One word: Hirelings.
Some people likes to see many many hirelings die horribly.

[Rater202]

*May not do a game that's just a bunch of high-level Star Wars characters transplanted into the events of the Mass Effect trilogy.
**May not baffle at things like AI being illegal when sapient droids are commonplace back home.
***May not draw attention to how peculiar it is that humans seemed to have evolved independently in two separate galaxies with the same ethnic categorization and environmental markers to the point of being completely identical except for the fact that the ones in the Milky Way way don't have Midichlorians.
****May not comment on the convenient coincidence that Basic and English are virtually identical languages and that all of the aliens in the Milky Way speak English and refer to things in Earth Time, which is identical to Coruscant Time.
*****May not play Darth Imperious.
******Cannot say "a Sith, a Jedi, and a Mandalorian walk into X" in a joking manner literally every time we go anywhere.
*******Three people can't roll over the entire Mass Effect Milky Way stomping the Reapers, the Batarians, Cereberus, and the Citadel Council all at once, even if the Force is on their side and nobody has any idea how to deal with their powers and weapons.

[danielxcutter]

One word: Hirelings.
Some people likes to see many many hirelings die horribly.

Oh. I suppose the "use cannon fodder to set traps off" strategy would make it easier.


*May not do a game that's just a bunch of high-level Star Wars characters transplanted into the events of the Mass Effect trilogy.
**May not baffle at things like AI being illegal when sapient droids are commonplace back home.
***May not draw attention to how peculiar it is that humans seemed to have evolved independently in two separate galaxies with the same ethnic categorization and environmental markers to the point of being completely identical except for the fact that the ones in the Milky Way way don't have Midichlorians.
****May not comment on the convenient coincidence that Basic and English are virtually identical languages and that all of the aliens in the Milky Way speak English and refer to things in Earth Time, which is identical to Coruscant Time.
*****May not play Darth Imperious.
******Cannot say "a Sith, a Jedi, and a Mandalorian walk into X" in a joking manner literally every time we go anywhere.
*******Three people can't roll over the entire Mass Effect Milky Way stomping the Reapers, the Batarians, Cereberus, and the Citadel Council all at once, even if the Force is on their side and nobody has any idea how to deal with their powers and weapons.

How's the... what's the term, power balance? How's Mass Effect compared to Star Wars? I don't know much but I was of the impression Reapers were pretty damn strong and there are a lot of them.

[noob]

Oh. I suppose the "use cannon fodder to set traps off" strategy would make it easier.



How's the... what's the term, power balance? How's Mass Effect compared to Star Wars? I don't know much but I was of the impression Reapers were pretty damn strong and there are a lot of them.

Maybe lasers shot at them and non instantaneous projectiles suddenly follow star wars rules and can be automatically blocked by lightsabers invalidating all their ranged weapons basically forcing them to use melee weapons and explosives which are both considerably less practical against individual people when you do not want to bring down the buildings on yourselves

[danielxcutter]

Maybe lasers shot at them and non instantaneous projectiles suddenly follow star wars rules and can be automatically blocked by lightsabers invalidating all their ranged weapons basically forcing them to use melee weapons and explosives which are both considerably less practical against individual people when you do not want to bring down the buildings on yourselves

Well yes, but I was thinking "what the heck can a Jedi do against the Reapers" more.

[Rater202]

How's the... what's the term, power balance? How's Mass Effect compared to Star Wars? I don't know much but I was of the impression Reapers were pretty damn strong and there are a lot of them.

In EU materials, it's shown that a sufficiently powerful or skilled Force user can use The Force the throw around ships about the size of The Reapers. And that's basically what the Reapers are, giant starships. Sapient Star Ships with Techno-Organic and Biomechanical parts, but Star Ships none the less.

And you'll note that Darth Imperious is banned by name.

Darth Imperious is a Legends canon character from the Old Republic, being the "default" Sith Inquisitor PC if you skip straight to the DLC instead of playing through the inquisitor's storyline manually. Notably, the name Imperious is the name you get if you're considered a Lightsider when you complete the Inquisitor's class storyline.

The Inquisitor is a Force Prodigy like Yoda, the Skywalkers, Palpatine, or Rey. Just, inherently very powerful with the Force and naturally talented at using it. The same seems to be true of all Force Sensitive PCs in The Old Republic, but it's explicitly commented on in the case of the Inquisitor.

The Inquisitor is something called a Force Walker, a living nexus point where different aspects of the Force comingle. What exactly this entails is unknown, but it is known that it gives them power over the dead. Allowing them to do things like Bind the Ghosts of five powerful ancient Lords of the Sith to themselves in order to access those spirits knowledge and power and slowly take it for themself. The Inquisitor is also immortal for as long as they have a least one ghost bound to them, being physically unable to die.

The Inquisitor also undergoes special training with a group of Grey Jedi on Voss that allows them to perform a ritual that lets them deal with all of their mental issues and drastically, drastically strengthen their mind by literally killing their mental problems, and underwent extensive bio-augmentation via a piece of ancient technology with the biology of every Force Sensitive humanoid species in the galaxy encoded into it which made their body physically superhuman to an unknown degree.

Now, since the Inquisitor is canonically a Lightsider it's highly likely that they released those Ghosts prior to absorbing all of their power(Or put them to rest, in which case it's unknown what happens to the power of the Ghosts) but they'd still have access to vast reserves of natural power, the knowledge of five Lords of the Sith, and a portion of each Lord's power so tossing Star Ships around isn't beyond the pale of what they should be able to do.

If it is assumed that the Jedi and the Mandolorian are similarly powerful/skilled/equipped then that's... Basically, as long as multiple Reapers don't gang up on them.

[danielxcutter]

In EU materials, it's shown that a sufficiently powerful or skilled Force user can use The Force the throw around ships about the size of The Reapers. And that's basically what the Reapers are, giant starships. Sapient Star Ships with Techno-Organic and Biomechanical parts, but Star Ships none the less.

And you'll note that Darth Imperious is banned by name.

Darth Imperious is a Legends canon character from the Old Republic, being the "default" Sith Inquisitor PC if you skip straight to the DLC instead of playing through the inquisitor's storyline manually. Notably, the name Imperious is the name you get if you're considered a Lightsider when you complete the Inquisitor's class storyline.

The Inquisitor is a Force Prodigy like Yoda, the Skywalkers, Palpatine, or Rey. Just, inherently very powerful with the Force and naturally talented at using it. The same seems to be true of all Force Sensitive PCs in The Old Republic, but it's explicitly commented on in the case of the Inquisitor.

The Inquisitor is something called a Force Walker, a living nexus point where different aspects of the Force comingle. What exactly this entails is unknown, but it is known that it gives them power over the dead. Allowing them to do things like Bind the Ghosts of five powerful ancient Lords of the Sith to themselves in order to access those spirits knowledge and power and slowly take it for themself. The Inquisitor is also immortal for as long as they have a least one ghost bound to them, being physically unable to die.

The Inquisitor also undergoes special training with a group of Grey Jedi on Voss that allows them to perform a ritual that lets them deal with all of their mental issues and drastically, drastically strengthen their mind by literally killing their mental problems, and underwent extensive bio-augmentation via a piece of ancient technology with the biology of every Force Sensitive humanoid species in the galaxy encoded into it which made their body physically superhuman to an unknown degree.

Now, since the Inquisitor is canonically a Lightsider it's highly likely that they released those Ghosts prior to absorbing all of their power(Or put them to rest, in which case it's unknown what happens to the power of the Ghosts) but they'd still have access to vast reserves of natural power, the knowledge of five Lords of the Sith, and a portion of each Lord's power so tossing Star Ships around isn't beyond the pale of what they should be able to do.

If it is assumed that the Jedi and the Mandolorian are similarly powerful/skilled/equipped then that's... Basically, as long as multiple Reapers don't gang up on them.

That'd make a kickass fight, honestly.

[Ides Usher]

Does that module even need to be made harder? I thought that was the one where everyone gets killed by fiat without looking at the DM notes.

Yes, yes it is the one. I may have gotten a little carried away there. Or, as my players pointed out, a whole lot carried away.

* I am not allowed to increase the size of the Ravager by a factor of 100 just because I found it inconceivable that a puny little beholder "only" a mile across could destroy one whole world, let alone hundreds of worlds across multiple spheres.

[danielxcutter]

Yes, yes it is the one. I may have gotten a little carried away there. Or, as my players pointed out, a whole lot carried away.

* I am not allowed to increase the size of the Ravager by a factor of 100 because I found it inconceivable that a puny little beholder only a mile across could destroy one whole world, let alone hundreds of worlds across multiple spheres.

...The what?

[Ides Usher]

...The what?

The Ravager is a mechamagical beholder from the Spelljammer module Wildspace that when assembled is about a mile across. The asteroid which contains its unassembled parts and transports it from sphere to sphere is much larger, actually a small planet. My version required an asteroid that was about 1000 miles across, not big planet size, but larger than any mere asteroid.

My earlier post may have been a little misleading. When I said size, I didn't mean volume, I meant diameter.

[danielxcutter]

The Ravager is a mechamagical beholder from the Spelljammer module Wildspace that when assembled is about a mile across. The asteroid which contains its unassembled parts and transports it from sphere to sphere is much larger, actually a small planet. My version required an asteroid that was about 1000 miles across, not big planet size, but larger than any mere asteroid.

I mean, all the adult and older dragons in a given setting would probably fit comfortably inside something that big, and I'm pretty sure most settings would be annihilated if all of them went on a rampage short of literal divine intervention.

[Telok]

I mean, all the adult and older dragons in a given setting would probably fit comfortably inside something that big, and I'm pretty sure most settings would be annihilated if all of them went on a rampage short of literal divine intervention.

* Not allowed to spring Spelljammer monsters on unsuspecting players who have never fought anything "larger" than 20x20, capable organizing a real naval action, and with ranged attacks based on thousands of feet of range.
** Dropping a dwarven citadel on their city from orbit and following up with a 20 cannon broadside on the wizard from outside fireball range is just rude.
*** Not allowed to giggle about "canonical cannons" in D&D while orcs engage in massed cannon fire at PCs.

[danielxcutter]

* Not allowed to spring Spelljammer monsters on unsuspecting players who have never fought anything "larger" than 20x20, capable organizing a real naval action, and with ranged attacks based on thousands of feet of range.
** Dropping a dwarven citadel on their city from orbit and following up with a 20 cannon broadside on the wizard from outside fireball range is just rude.
*** Not allowed to giggle about "canonical cannons" in D&D while orcs engage in massed cannon fire at PCs.

...Okay how do people even fight in Spelljammer?

Also real cannons? Are they good enough that it'd be better to invest in them rather than spellcasters?

[Lord Torath]

...Okay how do people even fight in Spelljammer?With ballistas, catapults, bombards (black powder cannons), jettisons, and gnomish sweepers. To be fair, Telok is running a Warhammer 40k/Spelljammer mashup called Dungeons the Dragoning, which takes Spelljammer (already dialed up to 11) and dials it up to 12.

Also real cannons? Are they good enough that it'd be better to invest in them rather than spellcasters?Depends on how much of a debutante your spellcaster is and how rare your DM decides to make smoke power.

[Telok]

With ballistas, catapults, bombards (black powder cannons), jettisons, and gnomish sweepers. To be fair, Telok is running a Warhammer 40k/Spelljammer mashup called Dungeons the Dragoning, which takes Spelljammer (already dialed up to 11) and dials it up to 12.
Depends on how much of a debutante your spellcaster is and how rare your DM decides to make smoke power.

Canonically (stop giggling, stop giggling) spelljammers take 1 hull damage per 10 regular damage, cannon did... 2d6 hull? (I'd have to check the books at home) out to something like 8 or 10 hexes, and ship combat was on... thousand yard? across hexes. Since it was AD&D a 20th fighter with 18 Con had around 130 hp, but the radiant dragons had a wing buffet attack that did 2d10 hit points + auto "ship shaken" critical as a 200' area/range. And the wing buffets are never the "strong" attacks. On the other hand smoke powder was 50 gp a charge and a cannon used 10 charges a shot. Wizards had damage, but outside of stuff like Teleport their spells only worked at ramming range.

DtD is an attempt at wh40k + exalted + d&d + "what other awesone can we cram in here?". I did run a game, shut down by the plague and not restarted yet. So I'm rewriting chunks of the books to be better. Finished book 1 & currently working on book 2. Still undecided as to including stats for tarrasques as torpedo ammo.

[Lord Raziere]

DtD is an attempt at wh40k + exalted + d&d + "what other awesone can we cram in here?". I did run a game, shut down by the plague and not restarted yet. So I'm rewriting chunks of the books to be better. Finished book 1 & currently working on book 2. Still undecided as to including stats for tarrasques as torpedo ammo.

I've played one and am playing another game of it as a tiefling vampire, first was an attempt at a gish but I learned my lesson from that and now play pure assassin, because at least with Rogue Trader psyker powers, I know how to optimize a character to safely cast spells.

* any concept like "demon vampire assassin" is too edgy
** can't go the other direction and become an "angel dryad knight" to champion both moral and environmental causes at the same time
*** figuring out ways to both be angel and demon are not allowed
**** My next DnD character cannot be a combination of angel, demon, slaad and modron

* My Fallout roleplay character may not be "Nuka-Cola Crafter"
** may not invent "Nuka Turbo" to speed up myself
*** May not have a perk to prevent tooth decay that doubles as being able to use my teeth as a lethal weapon in combat
**** May not have somehow acquired rad resistance from constantly drinking nuka cola.
***** May not somehow get rich from being somehow able to make new bottlecaps, thus contributing to the wasteland economy
****** chem perks are meant for things like psycho and buffout, not drinking soda.

* Luck 10 is not an excuse to make bullets ricochet until they hit the target anyway
** cannot say random things and roll to see if those were luckily the right thing to say or not
*** may not roll to randomly find a plot important item in the first thing I look in
**** may not have a perk to make deus ex machinas save me from things.
***** or become Mr. Magoo or other person who causes chains of reactions while unaware of doing so
****** may not just randomly find riches and power armor I can use out of nowhere

* May not question why things like Fallout, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure or Borderlands have not been at least homebrewed for DtD yet, they're strange and funny enough to be included.

* May not question why Fallout doesn't have playable psychic powers yet through mutation, its seems like the exact nonsense that would go for a mix of pulp cheeriness and modern downsides to them existing.

[Lord Torath]

* Luck 10 is not an excuse to make bullets ricochet until they hit the target anyway
<snip>
**** may not have a perk to make deus ex machinas save me from things.
***** or become Mr. Magoo or other person who causes chains of reactions while unaware of doing soCounterpoint: one (https://rustyandco.com/comic/level-8-161/), two (https://rustyandco.com/comic/level-8-162/), three (https://rustyandco.com/comic/level-8-163/).

[Rater202]

*Attempts to play as Mister Magoo should not end as being Old Man Henderson.

[Bohandas]

One word: Hirelings.
Some people likes to see many many hirelings die horribly.

The solution I remember hearing for it was to drill down into it from the top of the hill

[Telok]

I've played one and am playing another game of it as a tiefling vampire, first was an attempt at a gish but I learned my lesson from that and now play pure assassin, because at least with Rogue Trader psyker powers, I know how to optimize a character to safely cast spells.

Yeah, the game has some issues mixing combat and magic. Doable, but you need to be pretty specific about the builds because gish options are scarce.

Off topic:
Safe casting comes down to rerolling warp crap, avoiding warp crap, or offloading it to someone else. Chosen of Tzeench makes the last one, you're safe except for the occasional daemon (more xp!). Avoidance comes down to two options, piles of rolled dice & fettered casting (eldarin+dragonkin = +2k0 all casts & high casting stats) or dropping 10s. Interestingly paragons are great safe casters once you hit level 3 & power stat 3. Drop 10s and spend pressure to make all your rolls. Rerolling has 3 options, atlantean, druid, wraithbone bionic heart. Annoy the dm by stacking all three.

The gish issue is that casting in melee provokes opportunity attacks. Even the parry & dodge spells technically provoke. The only way around it is a feat in one level 4 class. Granted, the spell-sword class is prett gish-in-a-can, but that's limiting.

Werewolf transmuter druid was pretty good. Swift change lets them swap into armor when they go war-form and the physical stat boosts are good on them. Plus the +1k1 transmutation werewolf asset & rerolling warps.

Under original rules though, squat daemonhost, take evocation as your magic, the first tech-priest level then the courtier track, snag a machinator array + power armor, tough as nails + sturdy + the squat armor & defense assets. Max wisdom & constitution, high/max willpower & charisma. You start resilience 6/7, def 30, ap 12, -6 damage from daemonhost, like 16+ hp, and the courtier track is fast advancement. Physical combat is "dull" as you just do healing surge (+5 def), free action recover the rp, then magic explode something.

Assimar vamp necromancer with wraithbone melee weapon, channel Draining Touch with a melee attack. Throw the 1/whatever asset to add your charisma as rolled damage dice on the spell. For super damage use atlantean & energy grasp instead.

Divination abuse on a hunting rifle or power attack & sword school. Basically you do atlantean-wraithbone heart-overcast Luck and use that to offset to-hit penalties from power attack and maneuvers while boosting damage. Or just massively overshoot with accurate weapons (abuse custom weapons for accurate + full auto + aim as a reaction guns).

The halfling dodge tank flamer god was harsh. Transmutation daemonhost halfling druid aiming to get dexterity to 6 & a good quality flamer, buff dex with magic. TN 35+ dex save vs flamer damage. Snag double tap and dual hand flamers if you're mean.

[Anonymouswizard]

The solution I remember hearing for it was to drill down into it from the top of the hill

Sounds idiotic, it would have been easy for an arch-demilich to fill the bill with traps. The only foolproof way is to disintegrate the hill entirely.

* I am not allowed to run crossover campaigns until I use properties that my players have heard of.
** Both properties, so 'Mass Effect crossed with Revelation Space' is still out.
*** The Reapers are not wimps for allowing ships to get away.
**** I should admit that the inhibitors don't have a perfect track record either.
*** If I'm combining a setting with FTL travel with one where the universe literally takes offence to the conflict I should warn the players before they fire the drive.
**** Definitely not after TPK.

I didn't notice until recently that the Reapers and Inhibitors do very similar things, lurking in the starless dark to exterminate any life that gets past a certain level. They just have to deal with very different universes and the Inhibitors have a much more understandable motivation (they're trying to keep life at the planet bound level so that in a few billion years they can rearrange the galaxy and reduce the death toll from the collision with Andromeda without any major issues, but prevent a biological intelligence/artificial intelligence war by starting many).

[danielxcutter]

Yeah, the game has some issues mixing combat and magic. Doable, but you need to be pretty specific about the builds because gish options are scarce.

Off topic:
Safe casting comes down to rerolling warp crap, avoiding warp crap, or offloading it to someone else. Chosen of Tzeench makes the last one, you're safe except for the occasional daemon (more xp!). Avoidance comes down to two options, piles of rolled dice & fettered casting (eldarin+dragonkin = +2k0 all casts & high casting stats) or dropping 10s. Interestingly paragons are great safe casters once you hit level 3 & power stat 3. Drop 10s and spend pressure to make all your rolls. Rerolling has 3 options, atlantean, druid, wraithbone bionic heart. Annoy the dm by stacking all three.

The gish issue is that casting in melee provokes opportunity attacks. Even the parry & dodge spells technically provoke. The only way around it is a feat in one level 4 class. Granted, the spell-sword class is prett gish-in-a-can, but that's limiting.

Werewolf transmuter druid was pretty good. Swift change lets them swap into armor when they go war-form and the physical stat boosts are good on them. Plus the +1k1 transmutation werewolf asset & rerolling warps.

Under original rules though, squat daemonhost, take evocation as your magic, the first tech-priest level then the courtier track, snag a machinator array + power armor, tough as nails + sturdy + the squat armor & defense assets. Max wisdom & constitution, high/max willpower & charisma. You start resilience 6/7, def 30, ap 12, -6 damage from daemonhost, like 16+ hp, and the courtier track is fast advancement. Physical combat is "dull" as you just do healing surge (+5 def), free action recover the rp, then magic explode something.

Assimar vamp necromancer with wraithbone melee weapon, channel Draining Touch with a melee attack. Throw the 1/whatever asset to add your charisma as rolled damage dice on the spell. For super damage use atlantean & energy grasp instead.

Divination abuse on a hunting rifle or power attack & sword school. Basically you do atlantean-wraithbone heart-overcast Luck and use that to offset to-hit penalties from power attack and maneuvers while boosting damage. Or just massively overshoot with accurate weapons (abuse custom weapons for accurate + full auto + aim as a reaction guns).

The halfling dodge tank flamer god was harsh. Transmutation daemonhost halfling druid aiming to get dexterity to 6 & a good quality flamer, buff dex with magic. TN 35+ dex save vs flamer damage. Snag double tap and dual hand flamers if you're mean.


Gishing is fun but I have absolutely no idea what most of that means. I'm guessing that's more WH40K than D&D in terms of mechanics?

[Lord Raziere]

Gishing is fun but I have absolutely no idea what most of that means. I'm guessing that's more WH40K than D&D in terms of mechanics?

Yeeeeah, Dungeons the Dragoning is a frankensteinian hodgepodge of mostly Storyteller and Fantasy flight era Wh40k mechanics, with the lore of 40k, planescape, Exalted and some other sources put in a blender. spellcasting is basically "go full caster or go home", and all those builds sound too mechanics first for my taste to be interesting to me. I'm more a concept first kind of person, its why I like systems like M&M and Fate. Systems like DnD that give you so many seemingly conceptually cool options but then you actually look at how they add up and as a result the fluff gets ignored so that its torn out so that all the options are instead are used as legos to build something that from a conceptual fluff standpoint is this weird frankenstein but mechanically makes sense, which I don't like.

So when it turns out my conceptual "tiefling vampire spellsword idea" is a bad idea mechanically, it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth.


* Cannot bling out all my equipment
** The purpose of gold and gems is to spend them for other things. not decorate my armor and weaponry so that I look like the gaudiest adventurer ever
*** firing diamond tipped bullets doesn't make them more penetrating
**** Cannot try to justify the bling by trying to make my armor so shiny it blinds my foes with the light reflected off of it as a combat advantage.

[Eldan]

Sounds idiotic, it would have been easy for an arch-demilich to fill the bill with traps. The only foolproof way is to disintegrate the hill entirely.

* I am not allowed to run crossover campaigns until I use properties that my players have heard of.
** Both properties, so 'Mass Effect crossed with Revelation Space' is still out.
*** The Reapers are not wimps for allowing ships to get away.
**** I should admit that the inhibitors don't have a perfect track record either.
*** If I'm combining a setting with FTL travel with one where the universe literally takes offence to the conflict I should warn the players before they fire the drive.
**** Definitely not after TPK.

I didn't notice until recently that the Reapers and Inhibitors do very similar things, lurking in the starless dark to exterminate any life that gets past a certain level. They just have to deal with very different universes and the Inhibitors have a much more understandable motivation (they're trying to keep life at the planet bound level so that in a few billion years they can rearrange the galaxy and reduce the death toll from the collision with Andromeda without any major issues, but prevent a biological intelligence/artificial intelligence war by starting many).

Isn't Mass Effect crossed with Revelation Space just either Revelation Space with more active/human aliens, or Mass Effect with more powerful reapers?

[Anonymouswizard]

Isn't Mass Effect crossed with Revelation Space just either Revelation Space with more active/human aliens, or Mass Effect with more powerful reapers?

Pretty much, except the Conjoiners could probably fight the Reapers to a standstill without hypermetric or Hell Class weapons. So you'd most likely lean towards the latter and set such a game post-Conjoiner Exodus.

Although you also have the Melding Plague to deal with (how common is nanotech in ME), and the relatively more advanced state of humanity in Revelation Space. Plus if we just replace the Systems Alliance with Revelation Space humanity you end up with still as ambitious, but much more divided and crazy humanity.

One that would probably prefer not to be a Citadel species, so it could continue researching what it wants to thank you very much.

[danielxcutter]

I looked it up on TvTropes and boy that ending sucks ass.

[Rater202]

Although you also have the Melding Plague to deal with (how common is nanotech in ME)

It's pretty much just the Reapers(for making Husks) and maybe Cerebus's project Lazarus unless you go for the Synthesis ending(A sapient life in the Galaxy, including the Reapers, becomes a perfect fusion of biology and technology)

Apprently ME5 is coming back to the Milky Way instead of continuing the story in Andromeda. Gonna be interesting to see how they handle the three endings of ME3 because I'm not seeing those three endings leading into the same story either right way or centuries later.

[danielxcutter]

It's pretty much just the Reapers(for making Husks) and maybe Cerebus's project Lazarus unless you go for the Synthesis ending(A sapient life in the Galaxy, including the Reapers, becomes a perfect fusion of biology and technology)

Apprently ME5 is coming back to the Milky Way instead of continuing the story in Andromeda. Gonna be interesting to see how they handle the three endings of ME3 because I'm not seeing those three endings leading into the same story either right way or centuries later.

Weren't ME3's endings all essentially the same except for color? Also what happened to ME4?

[Rater202]

Weren't ME3's endings all essentially the same except for color? Also what happened to ME4?

They released a DLC that showed the actual consequences of the choices.

In short, the Destroy ending destroys all th e reapers but also the Geth if they're still around and any other AI or advanced VI.

The control ending Has Shepard merge himself with the consciousness controlling the Rapers and assume direct control, essentially using them to police the Galaxy.

The synthesis ending combines Shepard's cybernetics with reaper technology to upgrade all sapient races into highly advanced cyborgs(which also gives the Geth and other Synthetic beings a prior understanding of Organic PoVs) and brings peace between the Reapers.

synthesis is treated as the best ending, but there was very little foreshadowing for it as an option and previous attempts at Synthesis between synthetics and organics had been shown as failures. I've heard it suggested that Andromeda's plot was partially to rectify this.

And I'm counting Andromeda as 4 because it's the fourth main game.

[danielxcutter]

They released a DLC that showed the actual consequences of the choices.

In short, the Destroy ending destroys all th e reapers but also the Geth if they're still around and any other AI or advanced VI.

The control ending Has Shepard merge himself with the consciousness controlling the Reapers and assume direct control, essentially using them to police the Galaxy.

The synthesis ending combines Shepard's cybernetics with reaper technology to upgrade all sapient races into highly advanced cyborgs(which also gives the Geth and other Synthetic beings a prior understanding of Organic PoVs) and brings peace between the Reapers.

synthesis is treated as the best ending, but there was very little foreshadowing for it as an option and previous attempts at Synthesis between synthetics and organics had been shown as failures. I've heard it suggested that Andromeda's plot was partially to rectify this.

And I'm counting Andromeda as 4 because it's the fourth main game.

Ah, right. I heard that the DLC came out because people complained about the endings in the base game being crap though. I've also heard something about executive meddling changing the direction of the plot and the Reapers' motivations?

Incidentally, is Synthesis is the "canon" ending?

[Rater202]

Ah, right. I heard that the DLC came out because people complained about the endings in the base game being crap though. I've also heard something about executive meddling changing the direction of the plot and the Reapers' motivations?

Incidentally, is Synthesis is the "canon" ending?

We'll have to wait and see.

[Anonymouswizard]

I looked it up on TvTropes and boy that ending sucks ass.

While I've not read the short story where it goes into more detail, in the main Tillich the presentation makes it work. Humanity is now on the run forever, but it has a long future ahead of itself.


It's pretty much just the Reapers(for making Husks) and maybe Cerebus's project Lazarus unless you go for the Synthesis ending(A sapient life in the Galaxy, including the Reapers, becomes a perfect fusion of biology and technology)

Apprently ME5 is coming back to the Milky Way instead of continuing the story in Andromeda. Gonna be interesting to see how they handle the three endings of ME3 because I'm not seeing those three endings leading into the same story either right way or centuries later.

Yeah, sadly that probably means the Melding Plague is basically nothing. I'd have thought that at least the Salarians have something.

Also give me two hours and I could come up with a brief that could come sheet either Synthesis of Destroy. You'd have it ambiguous as to whether the bio/tech state was the result of picking pastachio ice cream or just the result of hundreds of years, keep the Reapers and Geth away from the plot, and include elements that would point to contradictory choices.

[danielxcutter]

While I've not read the short story where it goes into more detail, in the main Tillich the presentation makes it work. Humanity is now on the run forever, but it has a long future ahead of itself.

I was talking about the end of the series. Big oof.

[Eldan]

Tech comparison between Revelation Space and Mass Effect are interesting. On the one Hand, any of the Conjoiners, Demarchy or Ultras are miles ahead in AI, Chemistry, Medicine, Genetics, Nanotech, Engineering, Industry, Cybernetics, Computing power, pure Energy Output and especially planet-scale Doomsday Weapons, but the Systems Alliance has FTL, which is the great equalizer. For all their tech, lighthuggers still measure travel times between systems in years and decades.

So, while humanity in RS is infinitely more factionalized and fractured, that is probably in a large part because they can't jump between systems in hours, so a lot of local cultures can develop. There probably wouldn't quite be a clustertruck like Resurgam in Systems Alliance space.

[danielxcutter]

Tech comparison between Revelation Space and Mass Effect are interesting. On the one Hand, any of the Conjoiners, Demarchy or Ultras are miles ahead in AI, Chemistry, Medicine, Genetics, Nanotech, Engineering, Industry, Cybernetics, Computing power, pure Energy Output and especially planet-scale Doomsday Weapons, but the Systems Alliance has FTL, which is the great equalizer. For all their tech, lighthuggers still measure travel times between systems in years and decades.

So, while humanity in RS is infinitely more factionalized and fractured, that is probably in a large part because they can't jump between systems in hours, so a lot of local cultures can develop. There probably wouldn't quite be a clustertruck like Resurgam in Systems Alliance space.

Apparently FTL doesn't work in RS? How does interstellar travel even work?

[Taevyr]

.
***** May not somehow get rich from being somehow able to make new bottlecaps, thus contributing to the wasteland economy


And that's how counterfeit law was returned to the wasteland: inflation never changes.

[Anonymouswizard]

I was talking about the end of the series. Big oof.

So was I. The presentation in the trilogy is relatively uplifting, but it's brief compared to the treatment in Galactic North


Apparently FTL doesn't work in RS? How does interstellar travel even work?

It doesn't. The universe takes offence and retroactively kills you. At the very least if you try doing it via inertia manipulation, the only method tried in the series.

Interstellar travel is sublight. Human starships are four kilometre* long cones (to deal with drag from interstellar hydrogen) covered in ice, with two spurs a kilometre from the end (which then tapers to a point) each with an engine attached. These engines invoice such a powerful energy source that they throw remass out at practically the speed of light, allowing practically constant adventuresome at 1g. Cue near-light travel, hence the name Lighthugger.

Basically, brute force and it's incredibly uncasual for a space opera. Most Lighthuggers are falling apart, take subjective years and occasionally objective decades to get anywhere, and the Conjoiners have stopped building the bloody things and won't give anybody else the plans.

* With one half sized exception.

[Telok]

So when it turns out my conceptual "tiefling vampire spellsword idea" is a bad idea mechanically, it kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I think it mostly depends on what a person's interpretation of the gish concept is and how limited you are to the original spells (a number of them are pretty trash). And build stubs always sound mechanical without a character on them.

On topic:
* Pretty certain I won't be allowed to use "electric unicorn fruity cereal bones coffee" as a character concept in just about any game.
** Does not mean I should make npcs & orgs out of it next time I run a game.

[Rater202]

*Homestuck trolls are not an option in Dungeons the Dragoning.
**I can't be a double vampire by being a Jadeblood Rainbow Drinker with the Vampire Exaltation.
***Being a JAdeblood does not make me impervious to sunlight by default as a vampire.
****Sburb/Sgrub classspects are not an Exaltation.
*****Do you have any idea how much work that would entail?

[Eldan]

So was I. The presentation in the trilogy is relatively uplifting, but it's brief compared to the treatment in Galactic North



It doesn't. The universe takes offence and retroactively kills you. At the very least if you try doing it via inertia manipulation, the only method tried in the series.

Interstellar travel is sublight. Human starships are four kilometre* long cones (to deal with drag from interstellar hydrogen) covered in ice, with two spurs a kilometre from the end (which then tapers to a point) each with an engine attached. These engines invoice such a powerful energy source that they throw remass out at practically the speed of light, allowing practically constant adventuresome at 1g. Cue near-light travel, hence the name Lighthugger.

Basically, brute force and it's incredibly uncasual for a space opera. Most Lighthuggers are falling apart, take subjective years and occasionally objective decades to get anywhere, and the Conjoiners have stopped building the bloody things and won't give anybody else the plans.

* With one half sized exception.

Reynolds is also an astrophycisist, so he applies relativity quite consistently. A journey that takes a decade or two of "outside" time may only take a few years "ship" time.

This has the interesting side effect that ship crews (who don't go into cryosleep like their passengers do) have become their own isolated culture, the Ultras. Many of them are several centuries old in planetside time and basically never leave their mostly empty ships.

[Lord Raziere]

*Homestuck trolls are not an option in Dungeons the Dragoning.
**I can't be a double vampire by being a Jadeblood Rainbow Drinker with the Vampire Exaltation.
***Being a JAdeblood does not make me impervious to sunlight by default as a vampire.
****Sburb/Sgrub classspects are not an Exaltation.
*****Do you have any idea how much work that would entail?

* Especially since we don't even know what most Classpects even do, unless we go deep into fan extrapolation/theorizing.
** Any system that requires people to watch optimisticduelist videos to understand the powersets is probably not going to work
*** Good luck trying to explain to people how the Rage Aspect is more than just Rage
**** or all the things the Light Aspect actually represents or is connected to
***** Or what Void is about
****** or explain the Doom or Blood Aspects, given that they are two aspects we see the least of.
******* Of course whats arguably even more confusing is the Classes and the whole passive/active thing that may or may not be accurate, especially the Bard class, which is NOT like DnD bards.
******** Or that the abilities can vary widely depending on the classpect combination
********* And how all this only works in the context of being a teenager who needs undergo an arc to grow up.

[Rater202]

As far as I understand it, the blood Aspect is about connections. Karkat, as the Knight of Blood, arms himself with connections between people: It is explicitly noted that he's actually a pretty competent leader because any other leader would have resulted in everyone killing each other much sooner instead of only after getting effectively screwed out of their victory, then spending an extended period of time having difficult sleep and the one psycho running out of meds.

It's also important to note that he managed to befriend the Jack Noir of his session, the one who became Spades Slick, when all other incarnations of Jack were antagonists...

Breath is also about connections, but not to the same degree. Aspects seem to have a degree of overlap.

I kind of want to know what a Prince or Bard of Blood would be. It'd basically boil down to "destroy a friendship or destroy with friendship."

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah, about that, fan theories I've seen agree that Jack Noir would be a Prince of Blood, since genocide using the Red Miles is the basically the biggest destruction of unity and connections one could possibly do. Its red, it severs a lot of connections at once, it often leads bleeding corpses...it fits.

like we have to remember that an Aspect is often dual-natured: its not just the presence of the aspect, but the negative
side of it or absence of it, and as well as the literal manifestation of it. Blood could mean connections....or the severing or ending of them by making one bleed on the ground. It could also meant he end of friendships metaphorically which Jack Noir also does a lot. its not as if he friendly with a lot of people. Aspects are very holistic and up in the air, and really the best way to represent them would be some system like Nobilis.

Speaking of Nobilis:
* Estate of "DC Universe" does not have properties of "(1) DC Universe Retcons things, (2) DC Universe is driven to bring morality and heroism, (3) DC Universe makes things overpowered."
** Estate of "Marvel Universe" does not have the properties of "(1) Marvel Universe makes underdog heroes, (2) Marvel Universe creates secret conspiracies from nowhere (3) Marvel Universe makes great films"
*** The estate of "Hulk" may not only be "(1) Hulk Smash"
**** The Estate of Dragonball does not have the properties of "(1) Dragon Ball creates new superforms from nowhere (2) Dragon Ball cheaply brings back the dead (3) Dragon Ball is obsessed with fighting and is dumb fun"
***** The Estate of Firefly may not have the property of "(1) Firefly only lasts for one season."
****** Can't have an Estate of a particular franchise

[Anonymouswizard]

Reynolds is also an astrophycisist, so he applies relativity quite consistently. A journey that takes a decade or two of "outside" time may only take a few years "ship" time.

This has the interesting side effect that ship crews (who don't go into cryosleep like their passengers do) have become their own isolated culture, the Ultras. Many of them are several centuries old in planetside time and basically never leave their mostly empty ships.

You're forgetting the Skyjacks. Everybody forgets the other space based culture in that universe. Probably because they show up so rarely.

And yeah, he's ex-ESA, as I remember his star map and travel distances are incredibly accurate, relativity is consistently obeyed, and I think any time orbital dynamics comes up he's spot on as well. Also, while I disagree on the possibility of some technology, he has apparently included nothing he thought was impossible at time of submission.

Lighthuggers are also, as I remember, incredibly expensive to build even if the other cultures could and would build Conjoiner Drives, and even with their automated repair systems require a small army of engineers but to fall apart. The Nostalgia for Infinity's problems were caused as much by a lack of crew as everything else.

[Eldan]

Do other lighthuggers have more crew? I don't think the other few that showed up had more than a handful of crewmembers left either.

[Anonymouswizard]

Do other lighthuggers have more crew? I don't think the other few that showed up had more than a handful of crewmembers left either.

The Nostalgia for Infinity's had at the beginning of the series four crew members, and is pretty much the only ultra ship we get hard numbers on. But in Aurora Rising a Lighthugger captain mentions that he doesn't meet new crew members but just gives them the Blood and Thinner speech over the intercom, meaning that we have at least enough crew in what seems to be a relatively normal Lighthugger for at least one layer of management. A small army might be an overstatement, but there's a significant number. I'd guess at 50-500 depending on the ship.

[Eldan]

Huh. Apparently, there's a Revelation Space story I haven't read? I don't think I know Aurora Rising.

Edit: Oh, apparently, The Prefect was renamed.

[Bohandas]

*Sells-Auto-Insurance is not a proper Argonian name
**Neither is Saves-Fifteen-Percent

[Telok]

Add to the "probably not allowed but it'd be fun" list...

Mecha-treant cyber-druid that gains power from being on fire, with Monty Python bunny animal companion.

Chosen of Malal assimar paladin dual wielding full auto grenade launchers and has replenishing minion allies to include in the AoE.

Dodge-tank wolf(were-halfling) rigger remoting a wave motion cannon armed zeppelin at a 1.5 km stand-off.

Incorporeal invisible flying kenku sniper-bard with laz cannon, void shield, and punk rock band.

"Too sexy for my pants" dark eldarin charisma seduction enchanter-starship captain.

[noob]

Chosen of Malal assimar paladin dual wielding full auto grenade launchers and has replenishing minion allies to include in the AoE.
Seems doable even in dnd 3.5.

[Rater202]

*There's a difference between being weak-minded and being stupid/incompetent.
**Therefore, I cannot mindtrick the Citadel council,

[Lord Raziere]

* The Estate of Bethesda does not the properties of "(1) Bethesda just works (2) Bethesda sells Skyrim Again (3) Bethesda gives endless loot. (4) Bethesda glitches anything it touches."
** The Estate of EA does not have properties like "EA Destroys Hopes/Dreams" or "EA seeks only profit"
*** The Estate of The Worst does not have properties of "(1) The Worst summons others to solve things better than themselves (2) The Worst ruins everything. (3) The Worst wears down your faith in humanity."
**** There is no Estate of Nothing, nothingness is Excrucians
***** My Excrucian's pState cannot be replicating the Skyrim alchemy infinite loop exploit and be entitled "Potions I Make..."

[danielxcutter]

* The Estate of Bethesda does not the properties of "(1) Bethesda just works (2) Bethesda sells Skyrim Again (3) Bethesda gives endless loot. (4) Bethesda glitches anything it touches."
** The Estate of EA does not have properties like "EA Destroys Hopes/Dreams" or "EA seeks only profit"
*** The Estate of The Worst does not have properties of "(1) The Worst summons others to solve things better than themselves (2) The Worst ruins everything. (3) The Worst wears down your faith in humanity."
**** There is no Estate of Nothing, nothingness is Excrucians
***** My Excrucian's pState cannot be replicating the Skyrim alchemy infinite loop exploit and be entitled "Potions I Make..."

Which game system is this?

[Anonymouswizard]

Which game system is this?

While I don't own the system, the terms make me think it's Nobilis, where you play god's with powers over thematic aspects of reality (Estates) and fight against evil things that want to destroy or the world. As a massive simplification born of my 'heard of it, but played it' experience.

[Lord Raziere]

Which game system is this?

Nobilis. Its a system where you play people called the Nobilis, who are basically humans granted the power of Imperators which are basically living principles/spirits of reality such as "Beauty", "Fire", "Death", "Tacos", "Backsies" anything you could think of, there is an Imperator of it with an Estate that governs it, much like a divine domain and Nobilis are humans are empowered with the Estates to fight Excrucians, who are basically people from the void come to destroy reality because they think reality is more beautiful when all the unnecessary parts of it are gone. Its really metaphysical, surreal, conceptual and out there, as its all about mythical reality warping kind of shenanigans. Its a game made by Jenna Moran, so expect that kind of weirdness and that it might take you a while to understand it if you try to get into it.

* May not try to explain Jenna Moran games
** Especially when while I have the PDF's, I haven't read that stuff in a while
*** Attempting to reread Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine will probably an exercise in "Wait how does the arc stuff work again?"
**** Except The Ace, that one I remember because its basically "The Hero Arc" and thus the easiest to remember.

[Anonymouswizard]

* I can't have more game proposals than members of the group.
** At least one of my game proposals should use a system the group has heard of.

[Lord Raziere]

* may not claim that a US version of WH40k would just be Fallout and/or Bioshock in Space
** or Outer Worlds given more time
*** Speaking of which, may not try to make a crossover of those three universes and name it the "Mega-Corps are Evilverse"
**** Fallout counts because Vault Tec, Robco and Nuka Cola.
***** But wait isn't that just cyberpunk?
****** May not claim that these three universes are better the punk genre than most stuff that just copies the cyberpunk aesthetic.

[Rater202]

*My Superhero Origin can't be "kidnapped a bunch of evil/criminal supersoldiers and transfused their blood into myself to become a composite supersoldier."
**Becuase it doesn't matter that they're bad people, kidnapping someone to steal their powers is still a supervillain origin.
***It doesn't matter that I only did it because my daughter desperately needed a bone marrow transplant from a supersoldier in order to beat a terminal genetic illness and I wanted to make sure she could get the best possible sample.
****It's my own damn fault if one o the criminal super-soldiers bosses kidnapped my daughter after the procedure to use her to mass-produce super soldiers.
*****Okay, fine, I can go at this like a combination of John Wick and the Dad from Taken, but still, none of this would have happened if I'd just left the superpowered criminals alone.

[Eldan]

* I can't have more game proposals than members of the group.
** At least one of my game proposals should use a system the group has heard of.

***My game proposal may not contain three different systems, only one of which anyone other than me knows anything about.

(aka no one wanted to play in my game of "How about Everyone is John, but using FATE rules and also it's Disco Elysium")

[Lord Raziere]

*My Superhero Origin can't be "kidnapped a bunch of evil/criminal supersoldiers and transfused their blood into myself to become a composite supersoldier."
**Becuase it doesn't matter that they're bad people, kidnapping someone to steal their powers is still a supervillain origin.
***It doesn't matter that I only did it because my daughter desperately needed a bone marrow transplant from a supersoldier in order to beat a terminal genetic illness and I wanted to make sure she could get the best possible sample.
****It's my own damn fault if one o the criminal super-soldiers bosses kidnapped my daughter after the procedure to use her to mass-produce super soldiers.
*****Okay, fine, I can go at this like a combination of John Wick and the Dad from Taken, but still, none of this would have happened if I'd just left the superpowered criminals alone.

* my superhero origin cannot be "redeemed supervillain" on a Doctor Doom Expy
** cannot utter the phrase "Good plan to save the world, mueeheheheeheheheeehehee!"

* My superhero origin may not be "I'm an assassin who has decided to only kill evil people"
** the assassins procedures may not include things like "destroy the villains soul after disintegrating their body so that they cannot resurrect by making a deal with demons or by being cloned, then check all alternate timelines to make sure no counterparts spring up"
*** Yes we are well aware of how often villains come back from death and why these precautions are necessary in response to Superman pointing out just killing a villain doesn't work because of things like that, you still can't do them
**** May not be so incredibly paranoid that I call Batman "inadequately prepared".
***** My response to knowing of either the Presence or One Above All's existence and the role they play in the universe may not be to try to go back and assassinate them before they invent the concept of suffering so that it never even occurs as an idea in the first place.

* My superheroes power may not "temporarily become a foil or dark reflection of some other hero and their powers as a form of imperfect mimicry"

* may not attempt to de-genetics superpowers away from things like X-Men using drugs that temporarily grant superpowers on a prescription but are potentially addictive.

[Rater202]

* may not attempt to de-genetics superpowers away from things like X-Men using drugs that temporarily grant superpowers on a prescription but are potentially addictive.

I mean, that's already a thing.

DC had a hero way back when called Hourman, who used a drug called "miraclo" that gave him superpowers for an hour per dose but that he eventually became addicted to(When his son succeeded him as Hourman, he was initially horrified because he didn't want his son to struggle with dependency on the drug.)

And Bane's drug 'venom' was originally used by Batman himself to boost his physical abilities. He stopped using it because he became addicted to it and the dependency on it and the withdrawal symptoms were making him worse off than he was without the drug so he got rid of his stash and locked himself in the Batcave until he'd gotten past the worst of the withdrawal and the last traces of the drug had left his system.

Note: It was eventually established that venom was a derivative drug based on miraclo.

Then there's Elongated man, who gained his powers of stretching and super flexibility by overdosing on gingold extract and has to regularly drink a soda made with the same extract in order to maintain his powers, which isn't technically or drug or an addiction, but the thematic are there.

The New 52 version of Ultraman, an evil superman from an alternate dimension, instead of having superpowers as a natural facit of his biology feed by sunlight, gets his powers by grinding kryptonite into a fine powder and smoking it.

Pym Particles are treated as a drug in the Comics. While not addictive, prolonged excessive use of them can cause pre-existing mental illnesses(such as Hank Pym's bipolar disorder) to become worse. How much counts as "prolonged and excessive" varies from person to person, but it's usually around the point where the your body starts producing the drug on ti's own, which was years for Hank but only a few weeks for his daughter Nadia.

And in the Kick-Ass Comics, Hit-Girl's "emergency super serum" is literally just a solution of cocaine, though admittedly citing Kick-Ass is a bit of a stretch.

[Anonymouswizard]

***My game proposal may not contain three different systems, only one of which anyone other than me knows anything about.

(aka no one wanted to play in my game of "How about Everyone is John, but using FATE rules and also it's Disco Elysium")

Darn you, now I want to play Everyone is The Detective.

I would be Unflappable Politeness. See the suspects crumble before my unchanging tone!

[Eldan]

If I played, I'd want to ham it up as much as possible, because I think at least two of my other regular co-players would Play something subdued, like logic or reason or perception. I'd be Pure Id, played roughly between Electrochemistry and the garish Necktie.

[Rater202]

*Cannot play as a polyamorous telepath who has permanently formed powerful psionic bonds with their various loves and they all voluntarily live as a collective.
**Especially if they're all different species of sapient alien.
***Especially if this is a crossover game and each alien is from a different franchise.
****Especially if one of them is a cybertronian that took The Normandy as her alt mode and the rest of the collective lives inside her.

[Anonymouswizard]

*Cannot play as a polyamorous telepath who has permanently formed powerful psionic bonds with their various loves and they all voluntarily live as a collective.

** Mainly because it's bad form to steal Anonymouswizard's life goals, he is not subtle but is quick to anger.


****Especially if one of them is a cybertronian that took The Normandy as her alt mode and the rest of the collective lives inside her.

Ah, the long desired EDI romance option.

Tad off topic, but I want more poly representation in computer games. Not 'let me boink everybody', but let's have some 'çommitted relationship' options that aren't mutually exclusive.

Like, while ShepherdxGarrus is clearly the only canon relationship in that series, I wouldn't mind if there was also some Talibrations going on. It's more work I know, but not every romance has to be poly-compatible.

[Rater202]

Like, while ShepherdxGarrus is clearly the only canon relationship in that series, I wouldn't mind if there was also some Talibrations going on. It's more work I know, but not every romance has to be poly-compatible.

Apparently, if you're playing Femshep in a relationship with Garrus and do work to keep Tali alive and maintain her loyalty, in the Party during the Citadel DLC in ME3 late in the night you can find a drunk Tali in the bathroom and if you hang out there long enough listening to her babble she starts fantasizing about Garrus propositioning her for a threeway with Shepard, so...

[Anonymouswizard]

Apparently, if you're playing Femshep in a relationship with Garrus and do work to keep Tali alive and maintain her loyalty, in the Party during the Citadel DLC in ME3 late in the night you can find a drunk Tali in the bathroom and if you hang out there long enough listening to her babble she starts fantasizing about Garrus propositioning her for a threeway with Shepard, so...

Can I talk to a sober Tali about it? Because while it's great that at least one character has such fantasies I'd still like to see actual representation.

[Rater202]

Can I talk to a sober Tali about it? Because while it's great that at least one character has such fantasies I'd still like to see actual representation.

No, but you also don't get to tell Cerberus to go **** themselves, bring up the fact that they are personally responsible for the Massacre on Akuze when they ask you about it, if you're a Sole Survivor Shep, point out how fricking stupid it is to assume that The conuit is a distraction when Sare's entire plan up to that point has been about finding it, in general call out the Council on their stupidity and pointless dickery, point out that Cerberus stole your body and reanimated you with experimental tech when people assume that you faked your death and ran off to work with terrorists, or in general do lots of things that would make sense to do.

I know that videogames can't plan for everything, but the Mass Effect series seems to have lot of missed opportunities.

[Lord Raziere]

No, but you also don't get to tell Cerberus to go **** themselves, bring up the fact that they are personally responsible for the Massacre on Akuze when they ask you about it, if you're a Sole Survivor Shep, point out how fricking stupid it is to assume that The conduit is a distraction when Sare's entire plan up to that point has been about finding it, in general call out the Council on their stupidity and pointless dickery, point out that Cerberus stole your body and reanimated you with experimental tech when people assume that you faked your death and ran off to work with terrorists, or in general do lots of things that would make sense to do.

I know that videogames can't plan for everything, but the Mass Effect series seems to have lot of missed opportunities.

Yeah, you'd think a Renegade Shepard in ME1 would have those options towards the Council, or the option to literally reject Cerberuses help and steal the second Normandy for themselves, but apparently the lead writer for ME1 was replaced in ME2 and the person who made that thought Cerberus was cool for some reason? Renegade in general seems shafted, because while there is good enough reason to act like a renegade due what some of the authorities do, the options you get aren't exactly the best options they could've picked. like ME2, looking back on it was a bit of a railroad with its premise. But yeah, if Mass Effect had New Vegas form of story choices you could probably do stuff like find the Conduit early if you knew how to decipher the message without going through the story get it and have the final battle on Virmire already knowing what his plan is having already disabled his whole "manually activate the Citadel" plan in advance, or have a quest to kill the Council yourself, blame Saren, put the humans in charge immediately, receive a lot more resources to finding and stopping Saren and finding out the whole Reaper thing faster....but then have to deal with the fallout of doing so when the secret inevitably slips out thus provoking a war between humanity and the Citadel races that you have to stop...

or how in ME2, if with New Vegas style options, you'd be able to reject his offer, take the Normandy for yourself, get rid of the branding, hunt Illusive Man down and kill him in revenge for Akuze, and it would still allow you to go hunting for the Collectors with some other faction like Anderson, the Salarians or the Asari afterwards, or in Omega you could probably just immediately kill Aria and she'd have some note on her corpse for the information you need and you could just kill all her minions too. Or if your paragon, you could simply find out Cerberuses location information, then sell them out to the Council to be a Spectre again, thus taking cerberus of the equation early, then show Jacob and Miranda why Cerberus was always a bad idea. tons of options like that. and don't tell me it can't be done: Fallout New Vegas was made in 18 months. I doubt the Mass effect games got that short a timespan to make their games.


* My GMing tips cannot be "learn how to not railroad from New Vegas"
** All my NPC's don't have notes that conveniently lead you to what you need to do next in case you kill them and take it off their corpse.
*** May not have plans for how to continue the game's conflict no matter how many specific people you kill.

[Telok]

*** May not have plans for how to continue the game's conflict no matter how many specific people you kill.

Must... resist... urge... make...

* Should not make a BBEG that sends minions with "clues" to attack adventurers, leading to the adventurers clearing the path to power for said BBEG.

[Anonymouswizard]

* Should not make a BBEG that sends minions with "clues" to attack adventurers, leading to the adventurers clearing the path to power for said BBEG.

** Upon realising this, the correct response is not to negotiate a share in the profits.

* There are situations where the mass battle rules are appropriate, this is not one of those times.

* Must stop pointing out the situations where a social conflict system would be really useful, like if a PC stands in an election.

Sadly not happened, but I do really want to ruin a game where PCs running for political positions is a legitimate strategy. Sadly I don't own many games with proper debating systems, Burning Wheel might be the only one I have. Most games I have with social conflict systems seen to focus on convincing the other person, not a third party.

[danielxcutter]

Sadly not happened, but I do really want to ruin a game where PCs running for political positions is a legitimate strategy.

Errrrr.....

[Rater202]

*May not use anti-air rocket launching turrets as though they were sniper nests.

[Tvtyrant]

Errrrr.....

It's not a typo, it is a feature!

[Anonymouswizard]

Y'all assuming I'm not planning to ruin the game via an election.

[WindStruck]

* I may not roll up an epic level half-minotaur, half-aasimar, troll-blooded, fey-touched, demonic, cybernetic, half-construct, dragonborn quintuplestalt paragon paladin//ninja//wizard//truenamer//whathaveyou.

**And I may not even ask for games containing such characters to be played.

[danielxcutter]

There’s a good chance that character only has like five class levels due to the template stacking you know.

[Telok]

* Despite the 2 year old child having dinosaur pajamas and being bribeable with sugar-free mints, I may not put the party up against Godzilla just because I have a "mini" to put on the battle mat.

** Not even if I give Godzilla stats.

[Anonymouswizard]

* Cats do inflict an INT penalry on all nearby humans.
** No, the group agrees, it's just me who gets one.
*** I must stop trying to feed tuna steak to the GM's pet.

[noob]

* Despite the 2 year old child having dinosaur pajamas and being bribeable with sugar-free mints, I may not put the party up against Godzilla just because I have a "mini" to put on the battle mat.

** Not even if I give Godzilla stats.

"Godzilla does not have a 5 line stat block including "if it is not aspirin it is immune to it" nor should it include "the lazer it fires with its mouth destroys anything it hits unless it is a giant monster that is hit in which case it still suffers horribly" and it should not have "godzilla does grapples and maul at random the closest giant creature or buildings".
**No I may not call oxygen killer aspirin.

[Telok]

"Godzilla does not have a 5 line stat block including "if it is not aspirin it is immune to it" nor should it include "the lazer it fires with its mouth destroys anything it hits unless it is a giant monster that is hit in which case it still suffers horribly" and it should not have "godzilla does grapples and maul at random the closest giant creature or buildings".
**No I may not call oxygen killer aspirin.

Hey now, the Super-X took a number of direct hits over at least two films and the crews never suffered anything but off-screen cancer.

[Rater202]

*There is no conceivable way that enough chlorine trifluoride to cause an explosion equivalent in size to a 50 kiloton nuclear weapon can be stuffed into a shell for a man-portable weapon.
**Even if I can survive the blast.

[danielxcutter]

*There is no conceivable way that enough chlorine trifluoride to cause an explosion equivalent in size to a 50 kiloton nuclear weapon can be stuffed into a shell for a man-portable weapon.
**Even if I can survive the blast.

How big is 50 kilotons again? And I presume as scary chlorine trifluoride would be, it's still not nuclear-tier scary?

[Lord Torath]

How big is 50 kilotons again? And I presume as scary chlorine trifluoride would be, it's still not nuclear-tier scary?A 50 kiloton yield is equal to 50 million kg of TNT.

[danielxcutter]

A 50 kiloton yield is equal to 50 million kg of TNT.

Well that's big, but it's so big it's hard to wrap my head around it.

[Rater202]

How big is 50 kilotons again? And I presume as scary chlorine trifluoride would be, it's still not nuclear-tier scary?The bomb dropped on Nagasaki was 21 kilotons, so lowball estimate would put the damage radius at about 19047.6 feet away from the point of detonation, or 38095.2 feet across.

So about 41 square miles, rounding up. Or 106.19 square kilometers, if you prefer.

Chlorine trifluoride can burn sand, water, asbestos, concrete, brick, and ash. It reacts explosively with water, oxidizes better than oxygen, and unless I'm mistaken its burning creates toxic byproducts capable of cause severe chemical burns, permanent brain damage, bone jellification, and death so if the fire doesn't kill you...

This is a "screw everything in this general area" type weapon.

[danielxcutter]

The bomb dropped on Nagasaki was 21 kilotons, so lowball estimate would put the damage radius at about 19047.6 feet away from the point of detonation, or 38095.2 feet across.

So about 41 square miles, rounding up. Or 106.19 square kilometers, if you prefer.

Chlorine trifluoride can burn sand, water, asbestos, concrete, brick, and ash. It reacts explosively with water, oxidizes better than oxygen, and unless I'm mistaken its burning creates toxic byproducts capable of cause severe chemical burns, permanent brain damage, bone jellification, and death so if the fire doesn't kill you...

This is a "screw everything in this general area" type weapon.

So, is that more nasty than nuclear fallout or not then? I imagine it'd just be easier to make a 50 kiloton nuke than a 50 kiloton chlorine trifluroide bomb, and not just because of how hard making the bomb only exploding when you want it to.

[Lord Raziere]

* Fallout: Chlorine Trifluoride will never catch on

* My Fallout game cannot have the continents south of the equator relatively fine compared to the continents north of the equator
** especially not to the point where Brazil has somehow become a powerful empire greater than the NCR.
*** Brazil cannot attack with tamed mutated animals from the amazon which has somehow both survived and become a deadly superjungle.
**** Australia may not somehow be worse than how Australia already is.
***** the idea of Fallout of the Caribbean will never catch on
****** especially since it involves pirates sailing the seas wielding rippers and speaking in stereotypical pirate accents despite being dressed like raiders and plundering mostly soda.
******* My character may not be a hyper-intelligent deathclaw
******** Texa may not return as the Lone Star Empire, and it may not seek the Alamo because its descendants have long forgotten what that is and think "Remember the Alamo" is a phrase to make sure to seek out some hidden lost paradise without radiation.

[TeChameleon]

So, is that more nasty than nuclear fallout or not then? I imagine it'd just be easier to make a 50 kiloton nuke than a 50 kiloton chlorine trifluroide bomb, and not just because of how hard making the bomb only exploding when you want it to.

Considering that the most ever ClF3 known to have been made is between 30 and 50 metric tonnes (at which point Nazi Germany decided "Yeah, this stuff is too dangerous and uncontrollable."), making a thousand times that is likely to be iffy at best.

And based on my limited understanding, nuclear fallout lasts a lot longer and is a lot weirder, but in the short term, pretty much everything in the general vicinity of a major chlorine trifluoride incident is so far beyond screwed that it's not even funny. The government-issue safe-handling guidelines are literally 'in case of incident, run away' (albeit in more bureaucratic language).

[Morphic tide]

Considering that the most ever ClF3 known to have been made is between 30 and 50 metric tonnes (at which point Nazi Germany decided "Yeah, this stuff is too dangerous and uncontrollable."), making a thousand times that is likely to be iffy at best.

And based on my limited understanding, nuclear fallout lasts a lot longer and is a lot weirder, but in the short term, pretty much everything in the general vicinity of a major chlorine trifluoride incident is so far beyond screwed that it's not even funny. The government-issue safe-handling guidelines are literally 'in case of incident, run away' (albeit in more bureaucratic language).

Fifty kiloton as in blast yield TNT equivalent, though ClF3 is specifically not useful for this because it is an oxidizer rather than a combustible. You'd be building a weird inversion of a thermobaric device where you're trying to aerosolize stuff that causes things to burst into flame in a fashion that will lead to an actual detonation which... Just isn't really a thing. You'd be way better off crop-dusting with it, go ahead and openly rub in the massive fluorine fires.

[Anonymouswizard]

* Any plan which involves my mind ending up in one of Giger's Xenomorphs is a bad plan.
** As is any backstory which contains such an event.
*** Yes, even in a supers game.

[ideasmith]

* When designing a game, may not use 'foe number' as a game term.

[TeChameleon]

Fifty kiloton as in blast yield TNT equivalent, though ClF3 is specifically not useful for this because it is an oxidizer rather than a combustible. You'd be building a weird inversion of a thermobaric device where you're trying to aerosolize stuff that causes things to burst into flame in a fashion that will lead to an actual detonation which... Just isn't really a thing. You'd be way better off crop-dusting with it, go ahead and openly rub in the massive fluorine fires.

Not sure if I'm missing something, here (honestly asking), but ClF3 was under consideration as a rocket fuel, which means that it has some kind of 'bang' to it, no? I've posted this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4l56AfUTnQ) before, and it looks like it's exploding with considerable force, given that I'm pretty sure it's only a few drops each time.

That being said, chlorine trifluoride is some of the nastiest crap I've ever heard of- if it doesn't set you on fire, dissolve you, poison you, stop your heart, or whatever else... it's also at least moderately carcinogenic.

All that aside...

* I am no longer allowed to abuse Mass Suggestion
** Removing targets' object permanence and then casting Darkness is abusing Mass Suggestion.

* Casting Maze on a target, then creating a portal in the target's space that leads to a private demiplane that is an exact duplicate of the maze is no longer allowed.
** Having an illusion of a third identical maze covering the demiplane is just mean.
*** No, the object of the game is not to traumatize elder evils in as creative a fashion as possible.

* While using a combination nearly two dozen bags of holding full of water, mechanical traps to invert them, and a Resilient Sphere to smash an enemy to jelly with water pressure is technically a solution, it's a long way to go for a pun.

[Morphic tide]

Not sure if I'm missing something, here (honestly asking), but ClF3 was under consideration as a rocket fuel, which means that it has some kind of 'bang' to it, no? I've posted this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4l56AfUTnQ) before, and it looks like it's exploding with considerable force, given that I'm pretty sure it's only a few drops each time.
You actually don't want "bang" from your rocket fuel, makes optimizing the reaction rate a much more complicated process. Rocket fuel deflagrates, which is to say it burns quickly to produce high pressure and temperature gasses. The classic "soda bottle fountain" setup operates on the same principal, except that it's a fluid dynamic process instead of a chemical one; You do something that generates high-pressure gasses (releasing dissolved CO2 in the bottle, combining an oxidizer with a propellant in the rocket), and to get something to move you release this pressure. The concern of a rocket is energy density, not rate of burn.

You want some rapidity to overpower gravity so you can get off the ground, but this is one of many reasons for booster stages. All the talk of "ion drives" is entirely about thrust-to-weight ratio, you use miniscule specs of plasma at high speeds for mere grams of reaction mass to be technically hundreds of times more energy dense than chemical propellant over the course of a years-long trip with a glacial trickle of solar power.

Meanwhile, when speaking of "high explosives", they're single unstable compounds that will react with themselves under pressure to decompose so rapidly that the atmosphere cannot move out of the way of the expanding gases, and pressure-sensitive enough that they're set off by the shockwave of their primer and chain-react from there.

Here's a video that demonstrates the difference with black powder and semtex (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOWcTV2nEkU), notably including a demonstration of the difference between semtex simply burning and it properly detonating. When you want a shockwave you need fast, so it has been settled on having explosives that chain react with their own pressure rather than heat or byproducts, because this is ludicrously faster than thermal reactions or contact reactions, allowing for a far higher pressure shockwave as the end result.

[Anonymouswizard]

* When designing a game, may not use 'foe number' as a game term.

** When making a game about giants the stats can't be Fi, For, Foe, and Fum.
*** Smell Englishman should not be the name for Perception.

[Wookieetank]

* Any plan which involves my mind ending up in one of Giger's Xenomorphs is a bad plan.
** As is any backstory which contains such an event.
*** Yes, even in a supers game.

*Using Xenomorphs as a surprise enemy in the Dark Sun setting is questionable at best
**Introducing the Xenomorphs through a cavern full of facehugger eggs in the first session may have been poor form
***Especially when one of the PCs got implanted with a xenomorph.
****Should probably tell my players I'm going for cosmic/inter-dimensional horror prior to starting the game.

[Rater202]

*I cannot explain to Weyland-Yutani executives that Xenomorphs are useless as weapons because it's demonstrable that they can't be trained and that they die to a strong enough shotgun, therefore their only tactical use would be to drop one in a civilian center and hope it metamorphoses into a queen or otherwise infects a significant portion of the populous before a military response can be launched.
**Or that t would be faster and more cost-effective to just firebomb the place since you're going to end up having to do hat to prevent the Xenomorphs from getting out and screwing up things for you anyway and would be just as severe a war crime.
***Can't continue to point out that studying Xenomorph DNA and biochemistry would probably produce much more profitable results, particularly if they can crack the gene reflux, and that you don't need to capture the Xenomorph alive to do that.

*My superhero origin cannot be 'was implanted by a Face-Hugger which triggered m latent mutant power of an adaptive healing factor causing my now superhuman immune system to kill the embryo and incorporate any and all useful genes and biochemical traits from the parasite into my own genome causing my body to start producing acidic blood which slowly ate away at my flesh which then generated into xenomorph-human hybrid tissues that then further adapted to become more acid-resistant that xenomorph tissues.'
**Especially if the net result is "hot chick that looks like she's wearing form-fitting xenomorph themed armor everywhere except for her head until you notice the tail."
***Cannot projectile-vomit my own corrosive blood.

[Anonymouswizard]

*Using Xenomorphs as a surprise enemy in the Dark Sun setting is questionable at best
**Introducing the Xenomorphs through a cavern full of facehugger eggs in the first session may have been poor form
***Especially when one of the PCs got implanted with a xenomorph.
****Should probably tell my players I'm going for cosmic/inter-dimensional horror prior to starting the game.

To be fair they aren't that much more dangerous than a standard Athasian animal, and their camouflage won't work in the environment. Honestly the biggest problem is the acid blood, mainly due to how trade materials for good ranged weapons are.

Also, despite what Rater says Xenomorphs are pretty well defended against small arms fire (going by Aliens at least) although not impervious, and despite what even official sources say in the films are even better defended against heat and fire (at least two survive the drives of ships meant to achieve orbit). Also while a good shotgun blast can take one down you also have to be far enough away to avoid the avid blood splattering on you. They're still not suitable as weapons, which is why I like the 'evolved in a really weird place' origin, but it's not the the USCMC sent a bunch of complete incompetents either.

[Wookieetank]

To be fair they aren't that much more dangerous than a standard Athasian animal, and their camouflage won't work in the environment. Honestly the biggest problem is the acid blood, mainly due to how trade materials for good ranged weapons are.


That's what I felt, and why I homebrewed them in. My players reacted very entertainingly paranoid about them and was well worth the inclusion.

[Eldan]

I mean, sure, you want xenomorph genetics, but I can't help but feel what you really want is the magic super Acid that eats several times its own volume in metal without even leaving any residue.

[Rater202]

I mean, sure, you want xenomorph genetics, but I can't help but feel what you really want is the magic super Acid that eats several times its own volume in metal without even leaving any residue.

That falls under biochemistry.

[Anonymouswizard]

That's what I felt, and why I homebrewed them in. My players reacted very entertainingly paranoid about them and was well worth the inclusion.

I mean people will have different reactions, but yeah, even in the Alien movies the deadliness and intelligence of Xenomorphs range wildly. But take away their camouflage and you've taken one of it's bigger advantages, and it's even easier if you can lure them into an open space.


I mean, sure, you want xenomorph genetics, but I can't help but feel what you really want is the magic super Acid that eats several times its own volume in metal without even leaving any residue.

I mean, that depends. It's like when my character made that universal solvent, didn't really have anything to keep it in...

What you really, really want is the heat resistant exoskeleton and ability to survive without breathing. Especially since the exoskeleton seems to be something that can actually hold that superacid.

[Wookieetank]

I mean people will have different reactions, but yeah, even in the Alien movies the deadliness and intelligence of Xenomorphs range wildly. But take away their camouflage and you've taken one of it's bigger advantages, and it's even easier if you can lure them into an open space.


They first showed up in an unexplored cave system the party was using to infiltrate an unsuspecting fort on top of a mesa. Was very entertained that by the end of the session I'd say, "You hear..." and before I could finish my description everyone is hollering "I roll perception!" and madly rolling their dice. One of the planned future adventures was going to be in a jungle environment, where the characters would be sorely unfamiliar with the terrain and the aliens added in for good measure. Sadly the group fell apart due to having to head back to college.

Back on topic:
*May not use dimensional rifts as an attempt to pull off Planescape with the serial numbers filed off.
*When using Planescape as a setting, not allowed to have the party working for Aoskar.
**Especially when the end goal will put the party most definitely at odds with The Lady of Pain.
***Wanting to see what mad shenanigans the party will pull to survive The Lady of Pain is not really a good justification for the above.
****When the party realizes what you're up to and are on board for it, may not add risking the physical stability of Sigil to the mix just to keep it interesting.

[Rater202]

*In a DC Superheroes game, I cannot propose to my NPC girlfriend by letting her have her choice of one from a full set of Lantern Corp Power Rigns.

[danielxcutter]

*In a DC Superheroes game, I cannot propose to my NPC girlfriend by letting her have her choice of one from a full set of Lantern Corp Power Rigns.

I'll be the first to admit I don't know jack about these, but wouldn't they either not work that well or backfire horribly one way or another? I think the first three colors are based on negative emotions and the others aren't exactly foolproof either.

[Lord Raziere]

I'll be the first to admit I don't know jack about these, but wouldn't they either not work that well or backfire horribly one way or another? I think the first three colors are based on negative emotions and the others aren't exactly foolproof either.

To be exact:
-Red is Rage, so bad idea. also its parasitic
-Orange is Greed and is only used by one guy because he is so greedy he won't share the power if I recall, so you can't even GET one, and if you could, its parasitic.
-Yellow is fear and thus bad, and is the most common enemy to the green lanterns
-Green is Willpower and while potentially heroic, the girlfriend has to be strong willed for it to work.
-Blue is Hope! Unfortunately, while Hope is the most powerful emotion, it also doesn't work without the willpower to make it happen, so it would only grant Flight and a protective aura if not near a green lantern
-Indigo is compassion, yay! unfortunately because compassion is one of the rarest emotions, using it blocks out all emotions other than compassion so as to use it at all without running out of energy, making it parasitic as well
-Violet is Love! D'aaaaaw. Except now she is apart of the Star Sapphires, which is an all female Lantern Corp dedicated to spreading love but also taking revenge against males throughout the universe, also they use the rings to brainwash female villains into being good. Have fun with that.

** Proposing with The One Ring is an even worse idea than all of these

[Rater202]

I'll be the first to admit I don't know jack about these, but wouldn't they either not work that well or backfire horribly one way or another? I think the first three colors are based on negative emotions and the others aren't exactly foolproof either.

The point is more than using a weapon of mass destruction as a wedding ring is a no-no.

Though, for the record: Each color has an emotion or mental attribute that you have to feel, understand, or be able to inspire in others to use the ring properly. The further away you are from the middle of the spectrum, the more you're influenced to be in that state of mind, but with training, you can resit and control those compulsions.

Red is based on Rage: Notably, Red Rings are based on shamanistic alien Blood MAgic rather than the advanced technology of other Lanter Cores. Red Rings replace all of your blood with a red plasma that functions as blood, but you can also projectile vomit it as a breath weapon that both burns like fire and corrodes like acid. Originally, it also put you in a berserk rage, but this is later revealed to be a separate spell and removed.

With training and rituals, the Red Lanterns can generate energy constructs like Green Lanterns, but that may or may not retain the destructive potential of the Red Plasma.

The downside is obvious: You can't give up your ring or let it run out of charge under normal circumstances or you will die from blood loss. There are ways around this, but it usually requires you to have the help of, or immediately become, the wielder of a blue or violet ring.

Note: The Rage and Hatred that resoantes wth the Red Light can't just be base anger. Just being really angry all the time for no reason doesn't work, being angry at circumstances you've never experienced doesn't work, and tha hatred that a bigot feels against their targets of choice explicitly doesn't work because it's born of fear and ignronace.

For a Red Lantern, the most effective form of Rage is the Rage felt by those who have personally experienced a deep loss or severe injustice. You were thrown headfirst into a vast ocean of despair and came out kicking and screaming and cussing on the other side.

Orange is tied to Avarice: It requires someone to have a great desire and induces Great Greed and Gluttony in the host. Orange can create small barriers from light, but the true power of the Orange Ring is that it can take things and make them yours: Like say, the souls of people you kill, which are used to animate constructs composed of Orange Light who operate as a hivemind under your command with all of the powers of the original.

It can also absorb types of energy and store them in the ring for later use, and hold up to 1,000,000% of a charge of Light(sing the other rings' standard capacity as a baseline)

Yellow is based on your understanding of and ability to inspire Fear. It has all the same powers as the Green Lantern Ring, but can also allow you to probe someone's mind and project an image of their worst fear.

The Green Lantern Ring is technically based on Courage(which is part of why Yellow is a weakness to various degrees), but being at the exact middle of the Spectrum means that you really only need Raw Force of Will, thug naturally there's a great overlap between the brave and those of great Willpower.

It's not the most powerful, but being more or less the easiest to use there's nothing to get in the way and there's almost nothing you can't do with green constructs. With enough charge, willpower, and creativity, green ring can warp reality to a degree that the other colors can't match due to the indosyncricities.

Blue is Hope, both your hope and your ability to instill it in others. Blue is the most powerful color, but by itself, it can only project forcefields and generate hope-inspiring images. However, it causes interactions with other colors, most notable, when wielded alongside a green ring, or when a Blue and Green Lantern Work Together, the Blue Ring gains all the powers of a Green Ring while also powering up the Green Ring.

Indigo is the light of Compassion. It can make constructs, but it can also manipulate the other colors to a limited degree and force empathy on people: Notably, the Indigo Tribe consists almost entirely of sociopaths and psychopaths who use the purple light to give themselves a proper range of emotions and the ability to connect with people on an emotional level.

Violet is based on Love. It's similar to yellow in that it has all the same powers as Green but with emotion manipulating abilities, but direct exposure has a tendency to drive people literally Love-Crazy. The Star Sapphires started using Rings specifically to avoid that.

Black and White technically embodied the entire spectrum, but are more closely tied to Death and Life, respectively. Most Black Lanterns are either corpse reanimated by a Black Power Ring or someone who died and came back being taken over by one. The Black Light replicates and/or enhances the abilities and tools of the original, and the only way to destroy a Black Lantern zombie, or free someone being controlled by a Black Ring, is to destroy the Black Ring, which can be done by blasting them with a White Ring, or with a Green Ring and one other color in perfect synch.

They charge up by ripping the hearts out of people who are experiencing a particularly intense emotion at that moment or shortly beforehand.

White, Comparatively, is just... The combined abilities of the Seven Standard Rings but stronger, plus control over life and the elements.

There are also some minor rings, like one that changes color based on what emotion the User is feeling at the time and I've seen mentions of Ultraviolet and Infrared rings but I don't know what the deal is with those is.

[Lord Raziere]

The Ultraviolet ring is apparently based on ambient negative emotional energy such the hateful, self-destructive, and primeval parts of someone. so basically, its the Edgelord Ring

while the Infrared ring hasn't been introduced yet, but DC is intending to make one just like ultraviolet.


*may not be an "X-Ray Lantern" What would that emotion even be?
** X-Ray Lantern emotions may not be any of the following: "Hunger", "Arousal", "Confusion", "Melancholy", "Stoicism", "Serenity", "Spite", "Naughtiness", "Humor", or "Annoyance"
*** May not instead make the Microwave Lanterns the "Hunger" emotion
**** There is no Lantern Ring for "Apathy", "Regret", "Boredom", "Worry", "Doubt", "Guilt" or "Embarrassment"
***** the Grey Lantern Corp may not be "Apathy" and its Oath may not be "Meh"

[Anonymouswizard]

* May not smelt down six rings to make a rainbow ring.
** No, it does not have any influence over sexuality.

* May not turn down an NPC's proposal because they had a ring and not a weapon of mass destruction.

[Rockphed]

* While using children's warped view of the world to design a campaign is acceptable, I should not have a setting based entirely on the pronouncements of a single 2-year-old.

[Telok]

* May not give the PCs a moon made out of warpstone, inhabited by oompa-loompas who drive plasma cannon ant-mecha and shoot chaos grenade launchers.
** May not make sad faces when they chicken out and just sell the coordinates to the Cocain-Wizards Guild.
*** May not be annoyed by having to stat out giant hybrid ant-mecha-oompa-loompas dual weilding time-bullet railguns.
**** May not be surprised that illithid mind-slavers and halfling mafia dons have better public relations and poll numbers than the PCs.

[danielxcutter]

What's warpstone again? I know weirdstones are from FR and interfere with teleportation in the area.

[Pauly]

What's warpstone again? I know weirdstones are from FR and interfere with teleportation in the area.

In Warhammer fantasy it’s basically radioactive stones that give off warp energy. It’s used to give magical power to the Skaven

[danielxcutter]

In Warhammer fantasy it’s basically radioactive stones that give off warp energy. It’s used to give magical power to the Skaven

Was the Warp inherently evil in Fantasy or not? I think it's not in 40K and the problem is mostly the Chaos Gods?

[Telok]

Was the Warp inherently evil in Fantasy or not? I think it's not in 40K and the problem is mostly the Chaos Gods?

Ah, solidified chaos. Radioactive, mutagenic, addictive, power boosting, lol-random, space bending, time warping, change.

The warp isn't evil, it's more absolute unforgiving forced evolution going very very very fast in meme-Australia^3.

[danielxcutter]

Ah, solidified chaos. Radioactive, mutagenic, addictive, power boosting, lol-random, space bending, time warping, change.

The warp isn't evil, it's more absolute unforgiving forced evolution going very very very fast in meme-Australia^3.

That still doesn't sound evil though. Just extremely dangerous.

[Anonymouswizard]

That still doesn't sound evil though. Just extremely dangerous.

Honestly, in both Fantasy and 40k Chaos isn't inherently evil, just extremely dangerous. Oh sure, they're uncaring and their worshippers are trying to conquer/destroy everything, but dig up the right lore and you'll find that the Chaos Gods are just as complex as The Emperor (a.k.a. Space Sigmar).

In 40k Chaos isn't actually a problem with the Warp, I believe they're a symptom. Back in the time of the Old Ones and Necrontyr the Warp was a stable hyperspace, but creating three of the major races of the setting to do battle with the Necrontyr, two of which are universally psykers? When the Warp is used to do horrific things on such a scale of gets corrupted.

Anyway, 'Chaos is evil' is like saying 'Tech Priests don't innovate', a vast oversimplification of the matter.

* It doesn't matter how many points I sink into Intelligence and Tech, I can't reverse engineer Necron technology.
** Especially their FTL drive.
*** Naming myself Bergenholm doesn't help.
**** I now have Wanted (Extreme, Tech Priesthood of Mars).
***** I should have thought of that before becoming a Heretek.

[Eldan]

Was the Warp inherently evil in Fantasy or not? I think it's not in 40K and the problem is mostly the Chaos Gods?

Depends a lot on which source you read in Warhammer Fantasy. I mean, ever compare Rogue Trader to Indomitus? The settings basically share a few names in common and not much else. Then remember Warhammer Fantasy is ten years older than that.

There's plenty of societies in Warhammer Fantasy that argue that even the chaos gods aren't evil, and many of them seem reasonably stable. The Norscans (fantasy vikings) worship the Wolf (Khorne), the Raven (Tzeentch), the Serpent (Slaanesh) and the Crow (Nurgle), who bring hardship, but also strength. The Khurgan (fantasy steppe tribes) worship Tzeentch the Changer, who makes life interesting. Cathay (fantasy China) too, has a state-sponsored Tzeentch-cult amongst other gods, worshipping knowledge. And there's some chaos cults in the old world who are just right. For example, one of the roleplaying games had a student's uprising who turned to the chaos gods and they had perfectly legitimous grievances. There's also the story of the old widow who was exiled from her village when the local mayor forged documents putting her in debt. She swore vengance and became a Warrior of Khorne.

But yeah, at least in the more nuanced sources, the warp is volatile and dangerous, but not necessarily willfully evil. However, the ones who turn to such a power source are almost all either greedy and reckless or angry and desparate, so it rarely turns out well.

[Eldan]

Honestly, in both Fantasy and 40k Chaos isn't inherently evil, just extremely dangerous. Oh sure, they're uncaring and their worshippers are trying to conquer/destroy everything, but dig up the right lore and you'll find that the Chaos Gods are just as complex as The Emperor (a.k.a. Space Sigmar).

In 40k Chaos isn't actually a problem with the Warp, I believe they're a symptom. Back in the time of the Old Ones and Necrontyr the Warp was a stable hyperspace, but creating three of the major races of the setting to do battle with the Necrontyr, two of which are universally psykers? When the Warp is used to do horrific things on such a scale of gets corrupted.

Anyway, 'Chaos is evil' is like saying 'Tech Priests don't innovate', a vast oversimplification of the matter.

* It doesn't matter how many points I sink into Intelligence and Tech, I can't reverse engineer Necron technology.
** Especially their FTL drive.
*** Naming myself Bergenholm doesn't help.
**** I now have Wanted (Extreme, Tech Priesthood of Mars).
***** I should have thought of that before becoming a Heretek.

Based on a real discussion:
******"But Cawl did it" doesn't mean it's not Tech Heresy.

[danielxcutter]

Honestly, in both Fantasy and 40k Chaos isn't inherently evil, just extremely dangerous. Oh sure, they're uncaring and their worshippers are trying to conquer/destroy everything, but dig up the right lore and you'll find that the Chaos Gods are just as complex as The Emperor (a.k.a. Space Sigmar).

In 40k Chaos isn't actually a problem with the Warp, I believe they're a symptom. Back in the time of the Old Ones and Necrontyr the Warp was a stable hyperspace, but creating three of the major races of the setting to do battle with the Necrontyr, two of which are universally psykers? When the Warp is used to do horrific things on such a scale of gets corrupted.

Anyway, 'Chaos is evil' is like saying 'Tech Priests don't innovate', a vast oversimplification of the matter.

To be fair, a very large portion of my knowledge comes from If the Emperor of Mankind Had A Text-To-Speech Device - not all of it, and I know the canon story's moved on since it started, but still.

Though also to be fair, there was an episode specifically about the topic that had good points on both sides of the argument.

Magnus points out that 1. the Chaos Gods technically represent all of sentient emotion, even if the positive aspects are shown approximately never, and b) destroying Chaos is impossible and even if you could it'd basically screw over everyone anyways, which Emps admits. However, Emps points out that the Warp is still, to quote, DANGEROUS, STUPID, DANGEROUSLY STUPID, AND STUPIDLY DANGEROUS, and that as long as Chaos remains in its current state bringing peace to humanity and the galaxy is basically impossible, which Magnus can't exactly deny either.


Depends a lot on which source you read in Warhammer Fantasy. I mean, ever compare Rogue Trader to Indomitus? The settings basically share a few names in common and not much else. Then remember Warhammer Fantasy is ten years older than that.

There's plenty of societies in Warhammer Fantasy that argue that even the chaos gods aren't evil, and many of them seem reasonably stable. The Norscans (fantasy vikings) worship the Wolf (Khorne), the Raven (Tzeentch), the Serpent (Slaanesh) and the Crow (Nurgle), who bring hardship, but also strength. The Khurgan (fantasy steppe tribes) worship Tzeentch the Changer, who makes life interesting. Cathay (fantasy China) too, has a state-sponsored Tzeentch-cult amongst other gods, worshipping knowledge. And there's some chaos cults in the old world who are just right. For example, one of the roleplaying games had a student's uprising who turned to the chaos gods and they had perfectly legitimous grievances. There's also the story of the old widow who was exiled from her village when the local mayor forged documents putting her in debt. She swore vengance and became a Warrior of Khorne.

But yeah, at least in the more nuanced sources, the warp is volatile and dangerous, but not necessarily willfully evil. However, the ones who turn to such a power source are almost all either greedy and reckless or angry and desparate, so it rarely turns out well.

I suppose anyone who plans on using chloride trifluoride without nitrogen or noble gasses is either stupid or insane, so that checks out.


* It doesn't matter how many points I sink into Intelligence and Tech, I can't reverse engineer Necron technology.
** Especially their FTL drive.
*** Naming myself Bergenholm doesn't help.
**** I now have Wanted (Extreme, Tech Priesthood of Mars).
***** I should have thought of that before becoming a Heretek.


Based on a real discussion:
******"But Cawl did it" doesn't mean it's not Tech Heresy.

Okay, besides "Necron tech is so ridiculously advanced it's not even funny", I think I'm missing a lot of references here. Explanation please?

[Anonymouswizard]

To be fair, a very large portion of my knowledge comes from If the Emperor of Mankind Had A Text-To-Speech Device - not all of it, and I know the canon story's moved on since it started, but still.

Though also to be fair, there was an episode specifically about the topic that had good points on both sides of the argument.

Magnus points out that 1. the Chaos Gods technically represent all of sentient emotion, even if the positive aspects are shown approximately never, and b) destroying Chaos is impossible and even if you could it'd basically screw over everyone anyways, which Emps admits. However, Emps points out that the Warp is still, to quote, DANGEROUS, STUPID, DANGEROUSLY STUPID, AND STUPIDLY DANGEROUS, and that as long as Chaos remains in its current state bringing peace to humanity and the galaxy is basically impossible, which Magnus can't exactly deny either.

While we could debate the specifics, yeah pretty much. Chassis isn't inherently evil, but dealing with it is still dangerous, stupid, stupidly dangerous, and likely to result in tentacles.


Okay, besides "Necron tech is so ridiculously advanced it's not even funny", I think I'm missing a lot of references here. Explanation please?

Necron FTL is barred on negating inertia (at least in older fluff I believe), which is originally from the Lensman series where it was invented by a Mr Bergenholm. The Tech Priesthood of Mars is very conservative and she's not like anybody else messing with it inventing technology, and technological research a privilege of the upper castes. Crawl recently had been revealed as having done some very heretical things on the order of a Primarch.

[Bohandas]

To be exact:
-Red is Rage, so bad idea. also its parasitic
-Orange is Greed and is only used by one guy because he is so greedy he won't share the power if I recall, so you can't even GET one, and if you could, its parasitic.
-Yellow is fear and thus bad, and is the most common enemy to the green lanterns
-Green is Willpower and while potentially heroic, the girlfriend has to be strong willed for it to work.
-Blue is Hope! Unfortunately, while Hope is the most powerful emotion, it also doesn't work without the willpower to make it happen, so it would only grant Flight and a protective aura if not near a green lantern
-Indigo is compassion, yay! unfortunately because compassion is one of the rarest emotions, using it blocks out all emotions other than compassion so as to use it at all without running out of energy, making it parasitic as well
-Violet is Love! D'aaaaaw. Except now she is apart of the Star Sapphires, which is an all female Lantern Corp dedicated to spreading love but also taking revenge against males throughout the universe, also they use the rings to brainwash female villains into being good. Have fun with that.

** Proposing with The One Ring is an even worse idea than all of these

***Lantern Corps Power Rings do not have their Corps' oath written on them in the Black Speech of Mordor
****orrat dautas skalkisham nat; Timer dru baj ob draut; Tak alag nadal dath; Dig sha orka Sinestro ofls

[Eldan]

Okay, besides "Necron tech is so ridiculously advanced it's not even funny", I think I'm missing a lot of references here. Explanation please?

Well, using xeno tech is tech heresy to the Mechanicum. So is improving on old tech. Especially the Emperor's tech. So is building an AI. Cawl has done all of that.

Edit: if you need more information, Cawl is the slightly deus ex machina-y tech priest Games Workshop pulled out of their hat recently, who worked with the Emperor and apparently spent hte last ten thousand years in secret, improving space marines, so that he can now make Better Space Marines. He was never mentioned before GW came out with a kit for Better Space Marines because reasons.

[Rater202]

Is it clarified how better space marines are better?

[Eldan]

He just all around improved the process. Space marines are mutated and have new organs and cybernetics shoved into them. He mutates them more and shoves more new organs and cybernetics into them. In the process, he also eliminates all the weaknesses of the various space marine geneseeds, so that for example the Angry Chapters no longer have rage issues. They are bigger*, faster and stronger.
The Better Space Marines (Primaris) also have, as routine equipment, newly made Better Power Armor, Hover Tanks and Better Guns.

*This is the important one. Games Workshop has steadily, over the years, increased the scale of their models. So by now, there's chaos cultists who are taller than old marines. The entire storyline comes across as mostly an excuse to make new, larger space marine kits. Like, second edition marines, which a few guys I still know, are about half hte size of the new eight-ninth edition Primaris Marines.


https://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2019/4/29/1008711_sm-Marneus%20Calgar%2C%20Primaris%2C%20Ultramarines.j peg

[Bohandas]

Well, using xeno tech is tech heresy to the Mechanicum. So is improving on old tech. Especially the Emperor's tech. So is building an AI.

I think the most unrealistic thing about WH40K is the fact that the empire somehow manages to avoid getting steamrolled despite all that. By all rights they should have long since been smacked down like every other empire that's ever closed itself off and embraced stagnation like this

[noob]

I think the most unrealistic thing about WH40K is the fact that the empire somehow manages to avoid getting steamrolled despite all that. By all rights they should have long since been smacked down like every other empire that's ever closed itself off and embraced stagnation like this

The trick is people saying "they dug up old emperor approved tech" to whitelist their newly made tech.
Plus it is getting steamrolled it is just so huge it will take millenniums to get steamrolled entirely.

[Rater202]

Yeah.

My understanding is that there a lot of folks in the middle and pranks of the Adeptus Mechanics who innovate or approve others innovations just a little bit at a time but fake up evidence that it's "lost" technology.

[Eldan]

I mean, the entire point of 40k is, or used to be, is that humanity was relatively well off but has been slowly sliding into unavoidable obscurity and destruction for the last ten millennia at least. It's ten thousand years of ignorance, fanaticism and entropy.

They are getting steamrolled. It's just that they are so big that getting steamrolled will take another few thousand years. Same for the Eldar. Not anymore for Newcrons, but otherwise, for pretty much everyone. Even the Tau are running into their limits and possibly starting to slide downwars. (More open totalitarianism, and the first chaos problems.)

[Anonymouswizard]

The trick is people saying "they dug up old emperor approved tech" to whitelist their newly made tech.
Plus it is getting steamrolled it is just so huge it will take millenniums to get steamrolled entirely.

To be fair to the Adeptus Mechanics, they aren't as stupidly dogma ridden as they look and occasionally even come up with new technology while admitting that's what they've done. They're just very conservative and have the issue that those actually asked to research are the same ones with a decent chance of replacing half their brain with a computer.


In terms of AI the Imperium has reasons to be wary (Men of Iron anybody), and even then they don't actually file the 'don't create AI' rule to the letter. They've basically told themselves that a sufficiently weak AI isn't actually an AI.

But yes, the Imperium is basically in the point where they'll be gone by the fifty first millennium, and I believe that a decent part of the new fluff makes this explicit. But they rule the majority of the galaxy, even getting steamrolled is going to take a while.

But at least the Orks and 'Nids aren't in decline yet.

[TeChameleon]

I'm... honestly not sure where the Orks would decline to. They're a race of universally dangerously insane mushroom-people who are only a spacefaring race by virtue of sufficiently advanced spacemagic. And I'm pretty sure that they haven't gone extinct by the same principle as Hitchhiker's Guide flight- they keep throwing themselves at extinction and missing :smallconfused:

[Eldan]

Even the "rule the majority of the galaxy" part varies by author. The Imperium is said to have a million worlds. Our real world galaxy has at least a hundred billion stars. There might well be more planets that aren't part of the Imperium than planets that are. And many of the Imperial planets are barely in it. They are feral worlds or medieval worlds that pay a tithe in grain or soldiers every time an Imperial ship comes around, but otherwise don't really have a concept of what space or the Imperium actually are.

[Bohandas]

I'm... honestly not sure where the Orks would decline to. They're a race of universally dangerously insane mushroom-people who are only a spacefaring race by virtue of sufficiently advanced spacemagic. And I'm pretty sure that they haven't gone extinct by the same principle as Hitchhiker's Guide flight- they keep throwing themselves at extinction and missing :smallconfused:

The Orks' society CAN'T decline because they DON'T NEED a society. They reproduce by spores in huge numbers, they build advanced machinery by instinct, and they travel the stars by the power of their own will. Their entire adult population throughout the entire galaxy could be killed off and it wouldn't matter; their race would be set back by the amount of time it took the spores to mature but not a day longer.

[Anonymouswizard]

Even the "rule the majority of the galaxy" part varies by author. The Imperium is said to have a million worlds. Our real world galaxy has at least a hundred billion stars. There might well be more planets that aren't part of the Imperium than planets that are. And many of the Imperial planets are barely in it. They are feral worlds or medieval worlds that pay a tithe in grain or soldiers every time an Imperial ship comes around, but otherwise don't really have a concept of what space or the Imperium actually are.

What doesn't vary by author?

Officially Imperial Space seems to convert the majority of the galaxy, but I'd be willing to accept that only a fraction of a percent of the systems within that are settled (and considering how almost all interstellar travel is Warp or Webway based systems do admittedly count for more than how far across the galaxy it extends). Plus yes, the Imperium is so vast that 'Imperial World' basically means 'pays tithes when asked and venerates the Emperor'.

On the other hand the 40k authors do get the scale they're dealing with most of the time, even if they disagree on that scale. There are entire planets dedicated to managing subsectors, Terra itself is basically a mixture of administration hub and pilgrimage site, and the Guard numbers in at least the trillions. Plus nothing is unified, the Ecclesiarchy basically init functions because each planet's cult is shown to develop as it pleases.

[Eldan]

I just mean while you can paint the entire galaxy Imperial, the density of Imperial worlds can be low. They still occasionally find new minor xenos empires of a dozen worlds or two they didn't notice before.

[Lord Raziere]

* My assassin villain character's goal may not to be "be wealthy"
** Nor may I fool all the other PCs into thinking I'm just a assassin here to kill for the highest bidder without having a horse in the race to take over the city then kill the last one standing myself when rest are taken care of
*** May not play both sides against each other by making them go into a bidding war over my assassination services.
**** My cover identity may not be an amiable dwarven woman who sells potions in a modest shop.

[Bohandas]

They are getting steamrolled. It's just that they are so big that getting steamrolled will take another few thousand years. Same for the Eldar.
I don't see why, given that the setting has instantaneous travel and after 15000 years of no innovation I'd think that how fast you can get to the worlds would be the biggest limiter on how fast it can be done.

Also, remember, the Eldar aren't actually the Eldar, Slannesh is the Eldar and Slaanesh is doing fine


Honestly, in both Fantasy and 40k Chaos isn't inherently evil, just extremely dangerous. Oh sure, they're uncaring and their worshippers are trying to conquer/destroy everything, but dig up the right lore and you'll find that the Chaos Gods are just as complex as The Emperor (a.k.a. Space Sigmar)

And also less evil than the emperor. Well, maybe not Khorne, but you'll find that the others are less evil than the emperor (assuming that the emperor is indeed still alive and still in command and that the ecclesiarchy hasn't actually just been doing a millenia long rehash of Weekend At Bernie's). ("what about slaanesh eating all those eldar souls?" I hear you say. Well, that's the same kind of language the craftworld Eldar use to describe their beloved Ynnead, so it can't really be all that bad if it's what even the anti-slannesh eldar are angling for anyway)

*The Imperial Cult is not "a rehash of Weekend At Bernie's"

[danielxcutter]

I have a feeling that's rather biased, considering that the Eldar don't want to get eaten by Slaanesh. And Slaanesh is basically the Dark Eldar turned up to eleventy-thousand and yes I'm aware that's not a real number.

[Lord Raziere]

WH40k Tangent:
40k FTL is not instant actually. warp travel is....not the most reliable thing (https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Warp_jump#Length_of_Warp_Travel):

Estimating the length of a Warp Jump, at least for the Imperium, is extremely difficult and inconsistent. As the Warp is ever-shifting, determining the length of a jump is difficult for even even semi-fluctuating passages. The Questio Logisticus branch of the Administratum is dedicated to this difficult task.[11]

One example is given for travel between the Hive World of Proxx and the Mining World of Hephastian. These planets are separated between dozens of light years and a standard voyage in the warp will take one to six weeks. However some voyages have been recorded as taking 1,200 years and another in as little as two minutes. 32% of the voyages have yet to reach their destination.[11]
In fact the Warp is technically timeless, and its possible to travel BACK in time using it, but its so corrupt, hellish and chaotic that no one knows how to pull it off intentionally. This is not a method of travel is in any way safe, reliable, consistent, casual, or for the faint of heart. you go into the Warp, your putting your life on the line. Emperor help you if the Gellar Field fails, because traveling through the warp without that is like an Infinite Improbability Drive from Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, except instead of funny haha random weirdness, you get daemons coming to rip your body apart and torture your soul for all eternity.

40k Warp Travel: the no. 1 reason to stay on a single planet and hope you don't get invaded by something.

* May not attack the players with daemon versions of memes they've said too many times when a Gellar field fails
** there are no daemons of chuck norris facts trying to roundhouse kick them in the face
*** may not attack them with horrific daemon versions of monty python characters that only grow stronger each time they repeat their jokes
**** or attack them with daemonettes of slaanesh who look like Bowsette.
***** or any daemon versions of "cursed memes".

[Anonymouswizard]

I don't see why, given that the setting has instantaneous travel and after 15000 years of no innovation I'd think that how fast you can get to the worlds would be the biggest limiter on how fast it can be done.

The Necrons might, might, have it in s practical sense, which is why reverse engineering their drives would be so amazing. For everybody else it seems to be a choice between Warp travel z the Webway, or trying to get the ship to relativistic speeds.

Now there may be other ways to go FTL. I believe that humanity tried several ways the Dark Age of Technology and decided that Warp travel was the heat problematic, and that says a lot about how dangerous it impractical the other methods were (and this was before the Astronomicon). Sadly it's still not quite clear if humanity ever reached Necron levels of technology, so there may be a human-built Bergenholm out there in depths of the galaxy.


And also less evil than the emperor. Well, maybe not Khorne, but you'll find that the others are less evil than the emperor (assuming that the emperor is indeed still alive and still in command and that the ecclesiarchy hasn't actually just been doing a millenia long rehash of Weekend At Bernie's). ("what about slaanesh eating all those eldar souls?" I hear you say. Well, that's the same kind of language the craftworld Eldar use to describe their beloved Ynnead, so it can't really be all that bad if it's what even the anti-slannesh eldar are angling for anyway)

*The Imperial Cult is not "a rehash of Weekend At Bernie's"

I mean, I believe that Big E has been revealed as alive, sitting I admit there might be some Wizard of Oz stuff going on. But yes, Big E is just as bad as the Chaos Godsz assuming he's not one himself (which is uncertain, as he's the 40k version of somebody who's explicitly a god of Order).

Although I'd b actually say that Khorne might not be as evil as Big E. He's just a god simple passions. Now Slaanesh, there's an evil one. Sure, prehensile genitalia might sound fun now, but it's the start of a long road where eventually the acid-gargling and rack start to lose their thrill and you have to move into more debased forms of sensation like mutual torture or yodelling.

[Bohandas]

I have a feeling that's rather biased, considering that the Eldar don't want to get eaten by Slaanesh.

No, but they do want to get eaten by the other deity, which makes it seem like the matter is more down to favoritism.

*There is not a cookbook with the title "To Serve Eldar"

[Eldan]

I don't think space travel is the main factor in how quickly humanity in 40k will fade away. What I mean is more... there's a lot of human worlds, so for all of them to be destroyed will take a long time. It's often said, though that's probably fairly poetic, that there's a million human worlds. If they lose a handful every year, that still means that it will take them hundreds of thousands of years to all die out, even if it's a steady downward trajectory with no rallying. Now, with the story being actively advanced there might be one big enemy ending things, chaos, necrons, tyranids, but as the setting was presented for most of it's history, it's just untold enemies slowly chipping away at the Imperium. You lose one planet to orcs, and then another to corsairs, and then three to tyranids, one undergoes exterminatus because the Genestealers got out of hand and then you lose one because food shipments from the nearest agriworld got delayed by warpstorms and almost everyone starves or becomes a khorne-worshipping cannibal. That's not a lot of worlds to lose in a year, out of a million. But if you lose ten, or a hundred planets every year, more than you settle or reconquer other ones, eventually you're gone.

Steamrollers are slow, but unstoppable.

[Anonymouswizard]

Okay, having run the numbers, if the Imperium consists of exactly a million world's (it's probably more, less then one Space Marine per world and ask that, but it's the best number we've got) and loses .03% of it's worlds per year (so 300 in year 1) then after 10,000 years they still have about 50,000 worlds. The decline didn't start immediately after the the Horus Heresy, and worlds are still occasionally (re)claimed, so the actual proportion is probably lower.

So yeah, a long time.

[danielxcutter]

WH40k Tangent:
40k FTL is not instant actually. warp travel is....not the most reliable thing (https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Warp_jump#Length_of_Warp_Travel):

In fact the Warp is technically timeless, and its possible to travel BACK in time using it, but its so corrupt, hellish and chaotic that no one knows how to pull it off intentionally. This is not a method of travel is in any way safe, reliable, consistent, casual, or for the faint of heart. you go into the Warp, your putting your life on the line. Emperor help you if the Gellar Field fails, because traveling through the warp without that is like an Infinite Improbability Drive from Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy, except instead of funny haha random weirdness, you get daemons coming to rip your body apart and torture your soul for all eternity.

40k Warp Travel: the no. 1 reason to stay on a single planet and hope you don't get invaded by something.

* May not attack the players with daemon versions of memes they've said too many times when a Gellar field fails
** there are no daemons of chuck norris facts trying to roundhouse kick them in the face
*** may not attack them with horrific daemon versions of monty python characters that only grow stronger each time they repeat their jokes
**** or attack them with daemonettes of slaanesh who look like Bowsette.
***** or any daemon versions of "cursed memes".

The Chuck Norris daemons are Khornites I presume? I dunno enough about Monty Python to know which those would be, though.


Okay, having run the numbers, if the Imperium consists of exactly a million world's (it's probably more, less then one Space Marine per world and ask that, but it's the best number we've got) and loses .03% of it's worlds per year (so 300 in year 1) then after 10,000 years they still have about 50,000 worlds. The decline didn't start immediately after the the Horus Heresy, and worlds are still occasionally (re)claimed, so the actual proportion is probably lower.

So yeah, a long time.

…Just to be clear, “Imperium implodes” isn’t the same as “humanity goes extinct and/or the remains get screwed over by daemons and/or Drukhari for all eternity” right? And “Chaos or the Necrons winning” doesn’t mean “the entire universe is permanently screwed over for all eternity”?

[Eldan]

Okay, having run the numbers, if the Imperium consists of exactly a million world's (it's probably more, less then one Space Marine per world and ask that, but it's the best number we've got) and loses .03% of it's worlds per year (so 300 in year 1) then after 10,000 years they still have about 50,000 worlds. The decline didn't start immediately after the the Horus Heresy, and worlds are still occasionally (re)claimed, so the actual proportion is probably lower.

So yeah, a long time.

I mean, there's probably going to be second order effects. Every Agri-World lost to orc Spores probably also means a hive world starving. Losing a forge world also means losing a war somewhere else. And if you lose half your Worlds, I assume you also lose a good percentage of your supply lines.

[Eldan]

*** may not attack them with horrific daemon versions of monty python characters that only grow stronger each time they repeat their jokes

I... may have done that, but they were Harlequins. The Harlequins were trying to be "culturally relevant", so they studied the humour of their next "audience" before attacking. Cegorach liked it, so they had some appropriate powers. Including a black knight solitaire who couldn't die.

[Eldan]

…Just to be clear, “Imperium implodes” isn’t the same as “humanity goes extinct and/or the remains get screwed over by daemons and/or Drukhari for all eternity” right? And “Chaos or the Necrons winning” doesn’t mean “the entire universe is permanently screwed over for all eternity”?

Well, that goes back to "the Galaxy is big". We know there's plenty of one-world Xenos races out there. The 40k wiki lists what is probably around a hundred known sentient species. So, "the Imperium implodes" doesn't mean all of humanity dies, no. As said above, some random world of dirt farmers somewhere might not even notice the Imperium doesn't exist anymore. We'd have a lot of worlds of hunter-gatherers, medieval societies, even a few early industrial societies that might be reasonably comparable to modern Earth. Scavenger worlds not too unlike something like Fallout, digging through the remains of city-sized factories for half-broken laser weapons. Perhaps even a few systems that have more than one inhabited planet and limited space travel between them. They'd mostly be fine, until.
There wouldn't be any large armies anymore to bail anyone out if a Waagh or a Chaos raid comes through, no one to take away and train or kill uncontrolled pskyers and most likely, the remaining humans would be too primitive to do interstellar travel at all, even before we mention that there now isn't an Astronomicon anymore. They couldn't even hope to fight Tyranids or Necrons.
Thousands of planets might remain, some for thousands of years. But they'd be without protection in a hostile galaxy and it would take one instance of bad luck for any of those worlds to be destroyed.

There's a few scenarios where everyone dies. The main tyranid fleet arrives and no one can stop them, they just roll over the galaxy, devour all life and then likely leave. Though at least one tyranid hive-fleet seems to be settling in and is actually colonizing star systems, so they might even stay. Some People theorize that if chaos wins, they might just turn the entire galaxy into daemonworlds that are halfway in the warp. If that happens, everyone is unbelieveably screwed. Necrons don't seem to want to wipe out all life anymore, for the most part, but they might still pull out a galaxy-destroying superweapon they just had lying around. They can already blow up star Systems halfway through the galaxy.

Alternatively, GW might decide that Bobby B (Roboute Guilliman) is successful enough at pulling together the Imperium that he can actually reverse the downwards trajectory for a bit.

But barring those cataclysmic Events, I'd expect a theoretical Warhammer 60k to be almost exclusively inhabited by primitives constantly on the edge of destruction, with very Little hope to get back to the stars any time soon.

Really rather like humanity before the Emperor came around last time.

[Lord Raziere]

The Chuck Norris daemons are Khornites I presume? I dunno enough about Monty Python to know which those would be, though.



…Just to be clear, “Imperium implodes” isn’t the same as “humanity goes extinct and/or the remains get screwed over by daemons and/or Drukhari for all eternity” right? And “Chaos or the Necrons winning” doesn’t mean “the entire universe is permanently screwed over for all eternity”?

*uncertain hand motion* Well maybe not? I mean Chaos successfully doing that is certainly their intention and the settings narrative is staunchly unrepentantly about how things always get worse without even an anti-hero to truly save day, only various extremists and lesser evils making hard decisions and killing so many people that they make the Punisher look reasonable and heroic in comparison. The situation is unlikely to get better and even if it technically doesn't mean that, the Imperium getting crushed still means there is no force in the universe to protect humanity from all the threats around it: between orkz, tyranids, necrons and Chaos, no astronomican to light the way, humanity would quickly collapse into various isolated worlds like they did in the Age of Strife, with every planet and system for themselves, and thus all depends on how well they can defend things without help....problem: most plots in WH40k are about imperium forces responding to some world asking for help because they're being invaded.

I just wouldn't put good odds on the humans in that scenario even if its not guaranteed


* The "Tis But a Scratch" Knight is not an unholy hybrid of Khornate and Nurgle energy who is a seemingly unstoppable unkillable juggernaut
** "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries" may not summon nurglite demons claiming to be their parents, the stench elderberries of which spreading a horrible disease from a fat corpulent zombie while the mother being a diseased werehamster whose bite spreads the condition like a plague
*** the spam joke may not spawn in more small Slaaneshi demons yelling "spam!" every time the word is uttered, making them multiply with every utterance.

[Anonymouswizard]

…Just to be clear, “Imperium implodes” isn’t the same as “humanity goes extinct and/or the remains get screwed over by daemons and/or Drukhari for all eternity” right? And “Chaos or the Necrons winning” doesn’t mean “the entire universe is permanently screwed over for all eternity”?

The Imperium imploding leads to a lot of independent systems, probably a handful of small human empires, and a lot of starving people on hive worlds and forge world's, but not the end of humanity.

Chaos winning is 'galaxy-wide Eye of Terror', and means that the galaxy is probably done for. The Necrons winning is confusing, bare in mind that at the moment the first thing they want is their souls back, and if they do biotransference in reverse that likely means that whatever race they take over probably loses their culture for all eternity, followed by everybody else once the Necron Lords hey bored and start conquering everybody with their legions of robotic soldiers (what, you thought that everybody was getting a new soul?).


I mean, there's probably going to be second order effects. Every Agri-World lost to orc Spores probably also means a hive world starving. Losing a forge world also means losing a war somewhere else. And if you lose half your Worlds, I assume you also lose a good percentage of your supply lines.

True, but as a rough order of magnitude it works. So 10,000+ years for the Imperium to implode without one of the villains stepping up their game.

[Eldan]

[SPOILER=Wh40k]
* The "Tis But a Scratch" Knight is not an unholy hybrid of Khornate and Nurgle energy who is a seemingly unstoppable unkillable juggernaut
** "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries" may not summon nurglite demons claiming to be their parents, the stench elderberries of which spreading a horrible disease from a fat corpulent zombie while the mother being a diseased werehamster whose bite spreads the condition like a plague
*** the spam joke may not spawn in more small Slaaneshi demons yelling "spam!" every time the word is uttered, making them multiply with every utterance.

I still think he's funnier as a Harlequin than as a daemon. Though I guess meme daemons make a bit more sense. To expand on my point above:
**Harlequins may sell neither dead parrots nor cheese. Shooting them is, however, a valid response.
***Harlequins may not throw sleeping gas grenades and sing "Gooooood night, ding ding ding ding ding!"
****The Shadowseer may not introduce himself with "Hello, I'd like to have an argument."

[Rater202]

[SPOILER=Wh40k]** "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries" may not summon nurglite demons claiming to be their parents, the stench elderberries of which spreading a horrible disease from a fat corpulent zombie while the mother being a diseased werehamster whose bite spreads the condition like a plag

*May not point out that elderberries were used to make wine in medieval times and that female hamsters are known to be very... Aggressive, when it's mating season and produce lots of offspring.
**Thus, not allowed to point out that the joke is that the Rud French Knights were saying "you're mother's a whore with too many children and your father is an alcoholic" without actually coming out and saying it.

[Anonymouswizard]

***** When attacking a Harlequin I should not be wielding a banana.
****** Or a punnet of raspberries.
******* I must use, at minimum, a pointed stick.

[Lord Raziere]

I still think he's funnier as a Harlequin than as a daemon. Though I guess meme daemons make a bit more sense. To expand on my point above:
**Harlequins may sell neither dead parrots nor cheese. Shooting them is, however, a valid response.
***Harlequins may not throw sleeping gas grenades and sing "Gooooood night, ding ding ding ding ding!"
****The Shadowseer may not introduce himself with "Hello, I'd like to have an argument."

You misunderstand. its not supposed to be funny. Its supposed to take jokes that I consider far, far too old hat and finally kill them with horror by warping them into daemons to take my revenge on people constantly restating the jokes by twisting them into a context where telling them becomes a terrifying situation that could get their characters killed. How seriously I take this is of course, is a new joke I create on top of these jokes corpses.

[danielxcutter]

Aren’t the Necrons trying to cut off the Galaxy from the Warp? Or was that retconned away?

[Bohandas]

Okay, having run the numbers, if the Imperium consists of exactly a million world's (it's probably more, less then one Space Marine per world and ask that, but it's the best number we've got) and loses .03% of it's worlds per year (so 300 in year 1) then after 10,000 years they still have about 50,000 worlds. The decline didn't start immediately after the the Horus Heresy, and worlds are still occasionally (re)claimed, so the actual proportion is probably lower.
No, it didn't start after the Horus Herasy, it started after the rebellion of the Men of Iron and only got worse from there.

[danielxcutter]

No, it didn't start after the Horus Herasy, it started after the rebellion of the Men of Iron and only got worse from there.

The Men of Iron thing being bad is a recent edition thing right?

Also you misspelled "Heresy".

[Telok]

The Men of Iron thing being bad is a recent edition thing right?

Also you misspelled "Heresy".

* May not intentionally mis-replace "Heresy" with "Hershey" in WH40k games.
** "Willy Horus and the Chocolate Cluster****" is not canon in any edition.

[Lord Torath]

* I may not point out that we already have a thread for discussing 40k Fluff: Warhammer 40k Fluff Discussion XVII: Call Necrosius, The Old Thread Is Dead! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?620097-Warhammer-40k-Fluff-Discussion-XVII-Call-Necrosius-The-Old-Thread-Is-Dead!).

* I may no longer use a first level wizard spell and the occasional healing spell from a cleric as the ticket to limitless wealth.

[danielxcutter]

* I may not point out that we already have a tread for discussing 40k Fluff: Warhammer 40k Fluff Discussion XVII: Call Necrosius, The Old Thread Is Dead! (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?620097-Warhammer-40k-Fluff-Discussion-XVII-Call-Necrosius-The-Old-Thread-Is-Dead!).

* I may no longer use a first level wizard spell and the occasional healing spell from a cleric as the ticket to limitless wealth.

Which spell is that?

[Lord Torath]

Which spell is that?Metamorphose Liquids (2E AD&D - Tome of Magic). The wizard transmutes 1 cubic foot per level of any liquid into any other non-magical liquid by touching the target liquid and placing a drop of the desired liquid on their tongue.
Gold, platinum, and even mithril/mithral (and adamantite presumably) all turn into a liquid if you heat them up enough. 1 cubic foot of solid platinum (after you pour it into molds and let it cool) weighs 8,000 lbs. At 50 coins/lb, that's 40,000 pp, or 200,000 gp, which will easily pay for a cleric to heal the burn you took to your finger. If you use a small enough drop, your tongue won't even get burnt!

[danielxcutter]

I'm pretty sure there are less painful ways of generating infinite wealth, so...

[Taevyr]

Furthering the WH40K theme:

*May not make a "Chaos Warband that say Nee"
**The seemingly immortal leader of said warband may not have a herring as his sole weakness
***Tasking the players with finding suitable shrubbery for Nurgle's Garden, however, is actually pretty entertaining.

[noob]

I'm pretty sure there are less painful ways of generating infinite wealth, so...

But in that dnd edition gold could be used to gain xp and that trick was possible at level 1 so with that trick you could skip the whole "take unbelievable risks" step called adventuring before getting the old edition simulacrum which was fully overpowered.

[Lord Torath]

I'm pretty sure there are less painful ways of generating infinite wealth, so...After that first casting, you can afford to have a cleric cast Resist Heat or Protection from Fire and suffer no harm whatsoever.

[Anonymouswizard]

But in that dnd edition gold could be used to gain xp and that trick was possible at level 1 so with that trick you could skip the whole "take unbelievable risks" step called adventuring before getting the old edition simulacrum which was fully overpowered.

* Must not stop mumbling that the gold must be brought back to civilisation.

[Darth Paul]

* I am not allowed to drop my Daern's Instant Fortress on top of the big villain whilst riding past right at the start of the climactic battle.
** No matter how much it annoys his nemesis the paladin, who had been psyching up to fight him all month.
*** And no matter how cool it looked driving him straight into the dirt like a Looney Toons character.

Speaking of that long-ago campaign;

* I am not allowed to keep a defeated enemy's skull in my backpack so that I can cast Speak With Dead when I'm bored just to ask him, "Hot enough for ya down there?" Not if I want to keep my alignment, I'm not.
** The ranger is no longer allowed to activate his Feather Token while below decks on a ship at sea. Rocs and boats are not a good combination.

[Bohandas]

*Mystra's Weave is not a hairpiece

[Wookieetank]

*Vecna's eye may not be used in marbles
**While amusing conceptually, using Vecna's hand instead of a bottle for spin the bottle is right out.
***While unorthodox usage of Vecna's anything will indeed take me farther along the path to evil, it bothers the other players.

[Anonymouswizard]

* The solution to squabbling over the hand of Vecna is not too grab a knife and ask the wizard to cast Plane Shift.

[Bohandas]

So, "the Imperium implodes" doesn't mean all of humanity dies, no.

It might actually lead to humanity winning, without the ecclesiarchy and the adeptus mechanicus holding them back anymore.

[danielxcutter]

* The solution to squabbling over the hand of Vecna is not too grab a knife and ask the wizard to cast Plane Shift.

What does that do again with that?

Also I have this mental image of Vecna temporarily controlling it long enough to flip the bird at someone and now you do too.

[Metastachydium]

What does that do again with that?


(Come now, it's marvellously simple. You Plane Shift to where this Vecna guy is, cut off the other hand with your dagger, something something, and now you have two hands of Vecna (so you and your folks don't have to squabble over the one)!)

[danielxcutter]

(Come now, it's marvellously simple. You Plane Shift to where this Vecna guy is, cut off the other hand with your dagger, something something, and now you have two hands of Vecna (so you and your folks don't have to squabble over the one)!)

Oh. To be fair it feels like I'm dying because I had an exam today and yesterday and those were the only two times I've set foot outside the house besides minor errands in what feels like months and HNNNNNNNNNNNNRGH

[Bohandas]

*There is no such artifact as the "Butt of Vecna"

[Morphic tide]

*I may not describe the party's Lawful Evil Swordsage as a Xianxia protagonist.
**I may not have the party's Totem Rager Blackblood Cultist be referred to as "The Blascowitz's estranged tribal cousin"
***I may not insist the party's Residual Magic Echoing Spell Practical Metamagic Sublime Chord always have boots to walk on water.
****I may not torturously ensure the party's metamagic abusing Incantatrix can never let go of their technically-not-hands workarounds or else immediately be forced to Silent Still everything.
*****I must not, under any circumstances, describe the level 30 fight against the Readied Action abusing high Fly speed Celestial-made Colossal Construct with a highly-optimized blasting Drilbu as "A Young Master, Shamanistic Doom Slayer, Kobold Yodeler Jesus, and Doctor Strange have brought Psychic Angelic Wing Zero upon themselves"

Edit: This is purely an exercise in making referential humor of some builds

The thing about Kobold Yodeler Jesus is that Echoing Spell lets you repeat spells at -4 CL until the CL is too low to cast the base version of the spell, before metamagic adjustments, and metamagic shenanigans are mostly Arcane so to apply it to healing, which cares relatively little for CL, you pretty much need to go Bard. Which also buys you a +4 CL for a Bardic Music and DC 30 Perform check, alongside Arcane Thesis being another +2 CL, so you can Arcane Thesis Cure Severe Wounds at CL 26 for five instances, if we go with the minimum CL being 7 as a Bard spell.

You need Arcane Preparation to qualify for Echoing Spell, and for it to function properly, but this creates a much better end result than using a Death Master in an all-Undead party, as it takes a much smaller slice of your versatility and less investment since you only need the one extra feat of qualifications. And you can burn the slots when they're low CL for other things that scale by spell slots, such as using Master Wand to follow a casting with burning a last-use to apply your full static CL to a Cure Severe Wounds from the item without spending a charge of it off of Residual Magic.

Your Practical Metamagic (which requires Dragonblooded, hence Kobold) is actually probably going on Maximize, bringing it to only +1 spell level on Cure Serious Wounds and +2 elsewhere, so your 4th-level slots are Maximized for a lot more healing than Cure Critical Wounds at "base" and fit more varied multiplying metamagic in your higher-level slots, because you use Residual Magic to take each 4th level Echoing Cure Moderate Wounds and apply Echoing to another six slots, maybe seven if you can squeeze enough CL, regaining the spell slots in the process. Then when you need one of your other Known spells, you can burn the slot. It's an extremely huge amount of healing from very few slots, and if you have anything to consume spell slots separately from spellcasting you can perfectly well burn the Arcane Preparation slots after using them for healing several times.

Just the initial 5th-level CL 26 Echoing Cure Serious Wounds Echoes at CLs 22, 18, 14, and 10. With an Orange Prism, you increase these by 1 and get a sixth CL 7 instance. Together, this is 18d8+63 healing, average 144, from a single 5th-level slot. And each of these can carry Echoing Spell onto another spell slot with Cure Serious Wounds prepared thanks to Residual Magic's other mode, which allows you to copy a metamagic you put on a spell onto another copy of the spell cast in the next round, though this does not apply to external metamagic sources, including this function itself.

The underlying point of it is that you put a lot of feats into getting to be a high-power party healer from all of six spell slots while having terrible metamagic abuses available for other functions. You can also Practical Metamagic Echoing Spell itself to make it +2 spell levels elsewhere, allowing you to cast 7th-level power spells four times with a 9th-level slot on the job. And this is all just at level 20, you can do far worse madness in Epic. Like getting Permanent Emanation on Infernal Threnody/Hymn of Praise for a +2 CL on all your spellcasting, which may double your instances by applying each time. If we read it as allowing per-casting CL modifiers each time, you have the tools to have a second Arcane Thesis to slowly climb CLs on these 1/hour slots and load every metamagic you know into them

...If I knew "consume enemies for power" effects in 3.5 off the top of my head, I'd have included that in the Swordsage instead of directly stating Alignment.

[Taevyr]

*I may not recreate the "Ship of Theseus" thought experiment with Vecna's body parts

[noob]

...If I knew "consume enemies for power" effects in 3.5 off the top of my head, I'd have included that in the Swordsage instead of directly stating Alignment.

Those exists but basically can be obtained only by playing non humanoid characters(or using one specific psionic power but this power was underwhelming)

[Lord Raziere]

* May not use playing a Getimian as an excuse to intentionally mispronounce Sidereal Exalted as "Side-reels"
** Not even if its perfectly in character for Getimians to not have any respect for them.
*** My Getimian does not come from Gunstar Autochthonia
**** Or Heaven's Reach
***** Or Exalted Modern
****** My Getimian may not be obsessed with the correcting Creation so that it has more magitech
******* My Getimian is not an isekai protagonist from any version of Earth
******** They are not from alternate pasts
********* Nor are they from futures that will never happen.
********** Winter Caste Getimians do not come from worlds of literal eternal winter

* Liminals have other mortals they tie their thread of life to other than beautiful women who keep fires.
** May not see what happens if two Liminals above essence 3 link their life threads to each other
*** Liminals do not respawn near bonfires
**** Nor can they learn Dark Souls Pyromancy
***** My Liminal may not try to challenge run Creation in only their skivvies wielding only a club and wooden board shield
****** My Liminal does not have Melee specialization of "Parry God"
******* They may however Praise the Sun.

[Bohandas]

*"Drow" is not pronounced "Drew"
**"Paladine" is nor pronounced "Paula Deen"

[Darth Paul]

* I am not supposed to humiliate the GM in Traveler by designing a free trader that outguns half of his Starfleet. (Not the individual ships; half of the fleet at the same time.)

* I don't care if Rolemaster grants XP for kills; the Sorceror in my campaign is not supposed to level up 1 point at a time by testing his shock bolts on woodland creatures.

** Nor is the party allowed to ride peasants face first down the mountainside anymore and claim they've invented "serfing".

[Lord Raziere]

*"Drow" is not pronounced "Drew"
**"Paladine" is not pronounced "Paula Deen"

*** Sigil is apparently not pronounced "Sid-jil"
**** Apparently Gary's last name is not pronounced "Gai-gax" its "GHEE-Gax"
***** May not use "Gai-gax" anyways because that is what I've always said.

[Bohandas]

*The bomb from Beneath the Planet of the Apes was not one of the deities that fought Sun Wukong

[Eldan]

*** Sigil is apparently not pronounced "Sid-jil"
**** Apparently Gary's last name is not pronounced "Gai-gax" its "GHEE-Gax"
***** May not use "Gai-gax" anyways because that is what I've always said.

More complciated than that... Gary G. himself was at least fine with Gai-Gax, may even have called himself that. The Swiss pronunciation is indeed different, something like you suggested, but but in interviews I've seen and so on, that's not what he seemed to use. He was born in America, but his father was Swiss, so presumably his father would have pronounced his name that way.

[Rockphed]

More complciated than that... Gary G. himself was at least fine with Gai-Gax, may even have called himself that. The Swiss pronunciation is indeed different, something like you suggested, but but in interviews I've seen and so on, that's not what he seemed to use. He was born in America, but his father was Swiss, so presumably his father would have pronounced his name that way.

I have an ancestor with the surname of Titsler. When they moved to Wisconsin their daughter got much grief for the first letters thereof and eventually changed it to Tetzler. Her father and siblings followed suit. I don't know why Gygax would have changed his pronunciation, but his father might have gone along with it.

* Of I take a penalty to avoid military service, I should expect it to come up.
** "Prefers tropical paradise" is not worth any bonuses.

[Bohandas]

The comedian Mike Birbiglia has a bit about this sort of things. His delivery is much better than mine, but the gist of it is that when people tell him "In Italy it's pronounced Bir-bil-ia" he replies "Well, in America, you're annoying"

[Rockphed]

* While I can play a real person in Serpentfall, I cannot play John Wayne.
** Nor can I play Admiral James Stewart.
*** Bruce Lee is right out.

* While fictional characters are okay, I cannot play a young Hawkeye Pierce.
** Colonel Potter is okay, but know that he has been a desk jockey for quite a while and is liable to have all sorts of old person problems.
*** I do not get more bonus points from giving my old character old person problems.

[Anonymouswizard]

* 'You lived' is not an excuse for friendly fire.
** Especially if we had to resurrect them.

[Lord Raziere]

* Solar Exalted are not the Chosen of Mary Sues
** Lunar Exalted are not the Chosen of Furries
*** Dragon-Blooded are not the Chosen of Zuko
**** Abyssals are not the Chosen of Ow, The Edge
***** Sidereals are not the Chosen of Obi-Wan Kenobi or James Bond
****** Alchemicals are not the Chosen of XJ-9
******* Infernals are not the Chosen of Renegade For Life
******** Liminals are not the Chosen of Dark Souls
********* Nor are Getimians the Chosen of Kingdoms of Amalur

[Rater202]

Even if the Iconic Infernal just goes naked all the time, mine still has to wear pants.

[thorr-kan]

* While I can play a real person in Serpentfall, I cannot play John Wayne.
** Nor can I play Admiral James Stewart.
*** Bruce Lee is right out.

* While fictional characters are okay, I cannot play a young Hawkeye Pierce.
** Colonel Potter is okay, but know that he has been a desk jockey for quite a while and is liable to have all sorts of old person problems.
*** I do not get more bonus points from giving my old character old person problems.
Serpentfall? You got to play in a The Day After Ragnarok game?! Color me jealous.

I love Ken Hite's stuff. And The Day After Ragnarok reads like an awesome setting to play in.

[Anonymouswizard]

Even if the Iconic Infernal just goes naked all the time, mine still has to wear pants.

Huh, I've had occasional issues with characters who wear trousers but not shirts. Apparently lady lumps make all the difference no matter their size1.

1 Like, realistically you want support there even for and small breasts, but this was a fantasy game where well endowed elf maidens wore leaves.

[Rockphed]

Serpentfall? You got to play in a The Day After Ragnarok game?! Color me jealous.

I love Ken Hite's stuff. And The Day After Ragnarok reads like an awesome setting to play in.

Alas, I have not gotten to play any of The Day After Ragnarok. I have, however spent many an hour considering who I would play.

* "I roll to disbelieve" is not the vocal component of counterspell.

[Eldan]

**Neither is "I reject your reality and Substitute my own" for illusions.

[noob]

**Neither is "I reject your reality and Substitute my own" for illusions.

*** I may not argue it is what you say for using the ability that allows to turn illusions real.

[thorr-kan]

Alas, I have not gotten to play any of The Day After Ragnarok. I have, however spent many an hour considering who I would play.
Alas, I feel your pain. I *might* be able to convince my group to give it a go, but there's just so much people want to run and play, and we just don't have enough time.


* "I roll to disbelieve" is not the vocal component of counterspell.
Well, it is now!

*No longer allowed to try and make the session degenerate into the DM talking to himself, in character, in differing accents. (This one's pointed at the whole Friday Night Gaming Group. But we're gonna try again anyways. Because that's how *we* Win At RPGs (TM).

[Darth Paul]

* My Bard does not get bonuses to his Performance skill for being a Rock Gnome.
** Also, he did not invent the electric guitar.
*** Not even if the druid can Call Lightning to power the amp.

[BisectedBrioche]

* If you and the DM both forget your character's invisible, that's too bad.

[KorvinStarmast]

* May no longer suggest that the party's resident inter-racial (halfling and half-elf) gay couple assassinate the local duke by being flamboyantly, over-the-top gay in her presence and driving her into a rage-induced stroke.
** Even if she is an elderly, racist, xenophobic male-hating jerk with a weak heart. She's not a homophobe, just hates men as anything other than mobile baby-making devices, believing that's the will of the gods. Oh, and hates outsiders, magic users, and adventurers.
** Doing this may cause political consequences that undermine the whole point of trying to talk to her in the first place. In truth, those two needed adult supervision from ... uh, my bard. Hmm, on second thought, maybe that would just have been more fuel to the fire ... :smallbiggrin:

The point is more than using a weapon of mass destruction as a wedding ring is a no-no. You've given me an idea that runs into another no no

* I may no longer make artifacts that are a variation on the Rod of Seven Parts. (Seven rings with seven gems of these colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, indigo - that when worn on the same finger (slip one on after the other as they are found) ultimately allow any PC to cast Prismatic Spray seven times a day when going to Saint Ives as long as they have both a cat and a kitten ... well, you can see why I am not allowed to make artifacts anymore.

* May not smelt down six rings to make a rainbow ring. You were way ahead of me, but I went with all seven colors due to my the whole rod of seven parts thing ...

** Also, not allowed to change the game world by using True Polymorph to permanently transform an object into a CR 9 Young Silver Dragon (concentrate long enough for it to be permanent) and introduce them to "a nice young silver dragon I just met last week" (yeah, I did the same thing to the week before) so that the breeding pairs of Silver Dragons increases substantially all over the game world. DM has reviewed my plan and advised me that "well, for each dragon so created, where are you going to find a dragon's soul to inhabit that mortal coil?"

*** And it was such a great idea, right? :smallsmile:

**** No longer allowed to create a simulacrum of a unicorn and then hire the simulacrum out to various horse breeders for (exorbitant) stud fees. :smalleek:

***** And it was such a great idea, right? :smallwink:

[noob]

In truth, those two needed adult supervision from ... uh, my bard. Hmm, on second thought, maybe that would just have been more fuel to the fire ... :smallbiggrin:
You've given me an idea that runs into another no no

* I may no longer make artifacts that are a variation on the Rod of Seven Parts. (Seven rings with seven gems of these colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, indigo - that when worn on the same finger (slip one on after the other as they are found) ultimately allow any PC to cast Prismatic Spray seven times a day when going to Saint Ives as long as they have both a cat and a kitten ... well, you can see why I am not allowed to make artifacts anymore.
You were way ahead of me, but I went with all seven colors due to my the whole rod of seven parts thing ...

** Also, not allowed to change the game world by using True Polymorph to permanently transform an object into a CR 9 Young Silver Dragon (concentrate long enough for it to be permanent) and introduce them to "a nice young silver dragon I just met last week" (yeah, I did the same thing to the week before) so that the breeding pairs of Silver Dragons increases substantially all over the game world. DM has reviewed my plan and advised me that "well, for each dragon so created, where are you going to find a dragon's soul to inhabit that mortal coil?"

*** And it was such a great idea, right? :smallsmile:

**** No longer allowed to create a simulacrum of a unicorn and then hire the simulacrum out to various horse breeders for (exorbitant) stud fees. :smalleek:

***** And it was such a great idea, right? :smallwink:

*** may not suggest: "I will polymorph a rock in a dragon soul too" nor may I ask "are the children of polymorphed rocks polymorphed rocks too?"

[Lord Torath]

** Also, not allowed to change the game world by using True Polymorph to permanently transform an object into a CR 9 Young Silver Dragon (concentrate long enough for it to be permanent) and introduce them to "a nice young silver dragon I just met last week" (yeah, I did the same thing to the week before) so that the breeding pairs of Silver Dragons increases substantially all over the game world. DM has reviewed my plan and advised me that "well, for each dragon so created, where are you going to find a dragon's soul to inhabit that mortal coil?" *** I may not True Polymorph a dead rat into a dead Great Wyrm Red Dragon permanently, and then butcher it for meat, dragonsscale armor, teeth, and alchemical components.

[KorvinStarmast]

*** may not suggest: "I will polymorph a rock in a dragon soul too" nor may I ask "are the children of polymorphed rocks polymorphed rocks too?" I like your sideways thinking there. :smallsmile: But I am pretty sure that I can't sell the dragon soul creation since nowhere can I find the CR of a dragon soul to support my (vain) plea with.
* I am no longer allowed to create a simulacrum of a Deva (originally summoned via a cleric spell). The simulacrum then plays a song by the band Angel (Don't Leave Me Lonely (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmRN5PJkAJk)) over and over again, as though it were on an 8 track tape.
I once owned that album, but it was on vinyl, not 8 track tape. I also once saw that band live; they opened for Styx. And as a DM, I had that song playing in the background when an angel appeared as part of a quest ... please don't hate me ...

@LordTorath: I feel your pain. :smallbiggrin:

[Telok]

*** I may not True Polymorph a dead rat into a dead Great Wyrm Red Dragon permanently, and then butcher it for meat, dragonsscale armor, teeth, and alchemical components.

* The value of mermaid bones will be nerfed if I start farming mermaids for crafting.
** The only reason I can get away with using unicorns is because they breed slower than the average duration of the game.
*** Yup, still not allowed to put DwarfFortress references in D&D games.

[danielxcutter]

…Are mermaid bones worth anything? I mean, I guess human bones wouldn’t be totally worthless if you know the right people to sell to so…

[Wookieetank]

…Are mermaid bones worth anything? I mean, I guess human bones wouldn’t be totally worthless if you know the right people to sell to so…

In Dwarf Fortress, mermaid bones were worth a fair bit when mermaids were first introduced. Once the creator found out about people setting up seaside mermaid farms to raise and murder mermaids just for their bones, he massively dropped their value out of horror.

[danielxcutter]

In Dwarf Fortress, mermaid bones were worth a fair bit when mermaids were first introduced. Once the creator found out about people setting up seaside mermaid farms to raise and murder mermaids just for their bones, he massively dropped their value out of horror.

{Scrubbed} that’s horrifying.

Also I do remember that there was something like that in The Lives of Christopher Chant. The main character becomes aversive to salmon because of it. I do recommend the series in general, really.

[Bohandas]

I mean, half the game is about dismemberment and insanity anyway

[Anonymouswizard]

To be fair to the stone-dragon polymorph plan, dragons are the bards of the monster world. So what your GM is saying is that the rock is less likely to produce offspring while polymorphed.


* I cannot put all my relationship points into having earned the Great Gold Wyrm's wrath.
** I cannot justify it with having stolen his backstratcher and sold it to the first criminal I met.

[TeChameleon]

* Naming my Aarakocra Monk "Paulie", while allowed, is not encouraged.
** Naming him "Karl Douglas" will get things thrown at me.

* There is no such thing as a Brown Lantern.
** I am not allowed to try and create one, and nobody wants to hear what emotion they would be.
*** 'Flatulence' is not an emotion. Also, refer to the previous rule.

[dspeyer]

** Also, he did not invent the electric guitar.
*** Not even if the druid can Call Lightning to power the amp.

**** Cannot use magic lightning to power a convey of electric jeeps
***** Especially not if the magic drawback is "you have to talk to a devil who can try to tempt you" and he no longer wants to talk to us
******* Especially especially if we're looking for opportunities to taunt him

[Lord Raziere]

* My Arbitrator may realize that the Imperium has made so many laws that practically everything is illegal or outlawed on some level and thus it doesn't matter what they enforce
** My Arbitrator may not confiscate anything they want just so they can get food and new weapons
*** My Arbitrator may not enforce law in a hive my just pointing their gun in random directions and firing, reasoning that the las bolts will in all likelihood hit someone who did something worthy of execution.
**** My Arbitrator's reasoning for why my party can do illegal things while others can't may not be "they're Inquisitors, they have clearance."
***** May not attempt to be a "loose cannon Arbitrator who doesn't play by the rules."
****** How did you go through the Schola Progenium while being this corrupt!?
******* "Ciaphas Cain went through the same and he wasn't stock zealot Commissar either" is not an answer

[danielxcutter]

* My Arbitrator may realize that the Imperium has made so many laws that practically everything is illegal or outlawed on some level and thus it doesn't matter what they enforce
** My Arbitrator may not confiscate anything they want just so they can get food and new weapons
*** My Arbitrator may not enforce law in a hive my just pointing their gun in random directions and firing, reasoning that the las bolts will in all likelihood hit someone who did something worthy of execution.
**** My Arbitrator's reasoning for why my party can do illegal things while others can't may not be "they're Inquisitors, they have clearance."
***** May not attempt to be a "loose cannon Arbitrator who doesn't play by the rules."
****** How did you go through the Schola Progenium while being this corrupt!?
******* "Ciaphas Cain went through the same and he wasn't stock zealot Commissar either" is not an answer

I think someone did that once, if not in this thread. Maybe the one before? It’s not the first time I saw this one.

[Telok]

Jesus Christ on a frankfurter, that’s horrifying.

Also I do remember that there was something like that in The Lives of Christopher Chant. The main character becomes aversive to salmon because of it. I do recommend the series in general, really.

Well then, don't look up the dwarven daycare system either.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Well then, don't look up the dwarven daycare system either.

Or really anything else about Dwarf Fortress, for that matter.

[Bohandas]

It's the only game I know of where the stench of rotting corpses is a major game mechanic

[Eldan]

* The value of mermaid bones will be nerfed if I start farming mermaids for crafting.
** The only reason I can get away with using unicorns is because they breed slower than the average duration of the game.
*** Yup, still not allowed to put DwarfFortress references in D&D games.

Tangent again, but we did once have a Duergar character (he had to be from an evil civilization for the backstory to work) who had spent his entire childhood naked in a pit with various animals, beating them to death with his bare hands to become the greatest wrestler of all time.

It was actually a fun character concept.

[Eldan]

It's the only game I know of where the stench of rotting corpses is a major game mechanic

Space Station 13. It's the only game I know where throwing rotting corpses at an enemy so they fall over vomiting and can't defend themselves is a viable tactic.

[noob]

* My Arbitrator may realize that the Imperium has made so many laws that practically everything is illegal or outlawed on some level and thus it doesn't matter what they enforce
** My Arbitrator may not confiscate anything they want just so they can get food and new weapons
*** My Arbitrator may not enforce law in a hive my just pointing their gun in random directions and firing, reasoning that the las bolts will in all likelihood hit someone who did something worthy of execution.


**** May not insist that what matters is for Arbitrators to shoot at people then justify which law justifying death penalty applied to the situation.
***** May not argue you should shoot at half of the people in the town because they "looked sightly heretical from far" even if you would rarely ever shoot non heretics that way.
****** Being dirty, unclean or using equipment in a state of neglect is not a 100% guaranteed proof of being heretical even if that rule works surprisingly reliably.

[danielxcutter]

**** May not insist that what matters is for Arbitrators to shoot at people then justify which law justifying death penalty applied to the situation.
***** May not argue you should shoot at half of the people in the town because they "looked sightly heretical from far" even if you would rarely ever shoot non heretics that way.
****** Being dirty, unclean or using equipment in a state of neglect is not a 100% guaranteed proof of being heretical even if that rule works surprisingly reliably.

I suspect that this is unironically and depressingly common in the canon Imperium anyways.

[Wookieetank]

Tangent again, but we did once have a Duergar character (he had to be from an evil civilization for the backstory to work) who had spent his entire childhood naked in a pit with various animals, beating them to death with his bare hands to become the greatest wrestler of all time.

It was actually a fun character concept.

Did they have a direcat companion?

[Eldan]

Did they have a direcat companion?

No, but he had an irrational phobia of elves because his parents told them they were cannibals.

[Wookieetank]

No, but he had an irrational phobia of elves because his parents told them they were cannibals.

Bwahahaha, serves those shifty eyed tree hugging hippies right.

*When playing dwarven characters, may not blame elves for the worlds woe's
**Even if I'm right
***May not convince the non-elven nations to declare war on the elves pre-emptively based on nothing more than my say so that they're untrustworthy, and up to no good.

[danielxcutter]

I'm guessing the direcat thing is a reference.

[Eldan]

I'm guessing the direcat thing is a reference.

The entire conversation is a reference to Dwarf Fortress. It's a very... memetic game. Because it goes deep on the simulation in ways that allows many weird interactions.

[Wookieetank]

The entire conversation is a reference to Dwarf Fortress. It's a very... memetic game. Because it goes deep on the simulation in ways that allows many weird interactions.

Dwarfs also tend to adopt cats as pets, and whole games can be lost due to cat population explosions which will crash your fps into single digits making it unplayable. Losing is Fun!

[Morphic tide]

Dwarfs also tend to adopt cats as pets, and whole games can be lost due to cat population explosions which will crash your fps into single digits making it unplayable. Losing is Fun!
No no no, the cats adopt the Dorfs. This is in fact a specific feature, as most other pets are indeed adopted by the decision of the dorf in question. It's just the cats.

[Wookieetank]

No no no, the cats adopt the Dorfs. This is in fact a specific feature, as most other pets are indeed adopted by the decision of the dorf in question. It's just the cats.

Heh, didn't know about that, but then I avoided cats as much as I could for the longest time d/t playing on older computers and knowing their inherent threat to game stability.

*May not derail yet another thread with conversation about Dwarf Fortress
**Urist McFistbeard, does not have a prehensile beard that can make a fist shape
***Nor does he have an extra fist attached to his chin hidden behind his beard.

[Anonymouswizard]

To be fair, while it's been a while since I've not had a PC freeze while generating history, I remember it being pretty hard to avoid war with elves. I see no issue to getting a headstart on the inevitable.

* There are dwarf names other then Urist.
* My dwarf ranger must wear more than socks and cloaks.
* The first anvil was not gifted to mortal races by Urist Uristdotter, high God of the dwarves.
* I cannot take Phobia; Carp.


My PC suites successfully run Gnomoria for some reason, maybe I should play the inferior version.

[KorvinStarmast]

My PC suites successfully run Gnomoria for some reason, maybe I should play the inferior version. I thought Gnomoria was a venereal disease. :smallcool: TIL...

[vasilidor]

*may not use the ability to be (and turn things) selectively intangible to replace the insides of chocolates with mustard.
** or sour kraught.
*** or any kind of cheese.

[Rater202]

I can't attempt to interrogate a prisoner by asking a companion to bring me "the drills, the files, the players, the calipers, the syringes, and the disc of the Little Shop of Horrors soundtrack."

[Wookieetank]

*may not use the ability to be (and turn things) selectively intangible to replace the insides of chocolates with mustard.


semi-related
*When the DM uses a tower only substantial in moonlight as a dungeon, I'm not allowed to one shot the boss by tossing a lit torch at their feet and making them fall through the floor several stories to their doom.
**May not cackle loudly when the party manages to make the DM BSOD more than once in an adventure.

[Eldan]

Related to that and actually happend:
**If the Tower is only tangible in moonlight, do NOT build a giant Parasol to blot out the moon over the entire tower.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

*** or any kind of cheese.

There is a chocolate-flavored cheese in existence.

[vasilidor]

There is a chocolate-flavored cheese in existence.

but would you want to risk eating a chocolate that had an unknown cheese place by a guy who would pick the most vile cheese he can find?

[Rater202]

If my warrior princess keeps insisting that NPCs pay her tribute by kissing her feet, eventually the GM will make one of them... into it.

[Bohandas]

There is no space marine chapter with the motto "Ad Infinitum Et Ultra"

[danielxcutter]

Translation?