Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Marvel Heroes 2015
Work has consumed an unhealthy chunk of my time (along with holiday cheer and what-not) so I thought I'd mention one of the few "Steam Sale finds" I actually spent money (and timee) on in the last week or so: Marvel Heroes 2015.
On the surface Marvel Heroes 2015 appears to be a Diablo clone with Marvel Universe setting and characters instead of the usual swordsmen, sorcerers and ornery demons and angels. This impression would not be wrong. In fact, the top reason I have avoided this game up to now was the (misguided) impression that I wouldn't enjoy a game where you play iconic Marvel heroes in a isometric top-down Diablo-style game, including loot drops and everything. It just seemed so...ARPGish, a terrible mesh for the "deeper" storytelling experience I generally think I want out the comic hero genre. It's a tricky angle to take: I am not all that fond of the Arkham line of Batman titles, for example, becase as fun as they can be and as great as the story moments are, they ultimately feel like a glorification of the least interesting elements of the Batman mythology, the stuff usually glossed over in the comics themselves: Batman walking around (or swinging around) Gotham beating up nameless thugs. Lots of this, puncuated by moments of cool, seem to drive the Arkham games.
Marvel Heroes 2015, being an ARPG, is all about the action and there is probably more thug-bashing going on in the first two chapters of the game than in the entire Arkham series, but somehow it "gells" better. Probably because slaughtering Hydra agents or AIM scientists in Marvel Heroes is accomplished with great rapidity and style thanks to quick combat thematics (in the Diablo tradition) and a plethora of levelable character abilities that lend to increasingly devastating levels of mayhem. This means than you get more bang for your punch and also more "plot" for your time investment.
Make no mistake, though....the plot in Marvel Heroes is wafer thin compared to a spectacle like Dragon Age: Inquisition or even the Machiavellian mayhem of the comics themselves, but anyone who's got even a passing familiarity with the Marvel Universe in its contemporary state will recognize exactly where this game is coming from and appreciate the care with which it manages to transport the lore of Universe 616 into an action RPG experience.
If you already enjoy games like Diablo III or Torchlight II then really Marvel Heroes 2015 is a no-brainer. If you happen to love the Marvel Universe lore as well then its an even more delectable experience. You can forgive it for some minor "glitches" as these are probably all deliberate oversights for which planned additional content will fill in the gaps later. Playing the Eddie Brock Venom for example (I fully expect the Flash Thompson Venom to be an available skin in the future), or the absence of Mr. Green from the current Marvel Now Hulk in favor of the "Hulk armor" era of the character from a year or two earlier. These are minor quibbles.....a lot of the game's revenue comes from selling you alternate character costumes, so I am sure these will pop up eventually.
The monetization process for Marvel Heroes 2015 is to get you to play one hero for free (with a smattering of additional starter heroes you can play to level 10 without cost), then give you enough in-game special currency to pick up a second hero. At that point they have four angles to snag money from you: first is more heroes, for those who can't just play two. Second is team-ups, the in-game term for hirable NPC mercenaries, second rate hero options to provide support to your main (you can have Domino as Wolverine's backup, for example). Third is alternate costumes, in which you can pick the favorite skin for your character; these often come with specific additional flavors (see Superior Spider-Man vs. regular flavor Spidey for an example). The final option is power-ups, which come in the form of various random items from "card purchases" that give you everything from additional characters and costumes to (much more frequently) XP, item and currency boosts. They keep you tempted with daily rewards, too.
None of that is necessary....you can level two heroes at no cost to level 60 cap without much effort. It will, however, probably become something you want. The pricing is a bit extravagant, but the sale prices (at least right now on Steam and in the shop) are 1/2 off so I took full advantage of the discounts. Like most in-game shops the pricing is set to "too much" with the expectation that they will drive sales with special deals, at least that's what it looks like to me. Are these purchases worth it when the sales aren't active? I think if you feel comfortable sticking to 2-3 characters and a few "card" purchases you can spend $5-10 a month on this game without feeling in the least bit guilty. Me....I've got a feeling I'll be enjoying this title for a good long while, so I plan to level more than a few to cap.
Look for docfuturity on Daredevil, Moon Knight, Deapool, Hulk and others if you stop in. Trust me when I say that if you are into Marvel and Diablo-style games, you can't go wrong here. The price of admission is just right, but if you get in and want to actually spend money, I doubt you'll feel bad about it.
Monday, December 29, 2014
2015 Needs More Cow Bell...er, Cthulhu
As one of my new year's resolutions I plan to spend a lot more time playing the other non-D&D games I neglect too much. Part of the reason is because I really want to play them (durh) and the other is because I am finally admitting that I am pretty burned out on D&D in general...and if it weren't for 5th edition I might be moving away from it all together. Not even poor 13th Age can fully stave off my sense of ennui toward the D&D-genre right now; I just need a break....or just a change of pace periodically. Yes, it is possible to get sick of chocolate if you eat too much of it for too long!
Luckily, I have the following staggeringly awesome games to focus on for 2015, and I plan to run campaigns and one-shots for each this year:
Goal: to revisit my world of Pergerron with Magic World and to run at least one session of Blood Tide to see if the group has enough interest.
Goal: to run another 4-8 session Savage Worlds Sci Fi campaign in the Savage Space universe and to run at least one of the four published modules for Interface Zero 2. 0 that I picked up (and do more if my players like it)
For 2014 I managed to run Dungeons & Dragons 5E weekly from its date of release, as well as wrap up ongoing Pathfinder campaigns. I got a lot of 13th Age in with three distinct campaigns, and I also managed to get a good Magic World campaign in, as well as a lengthy Savage World Sci-Fi campaign. So all told not too shabby. Will I be able to run as many--or more!--than I did last year? Well.....that's the goal.... and there's at least one or two not on the list I'd like to hit too, but don't want to over-commit to (i.e. Fantasy Hero Sixth Edition, the mythical Deluxe T&T if it comes out in 2015, and The Strange RPG).
As always, any of the product of this gaming addiction shall be liberally sprinkled throughout this blog!
Luckily, I have the following staggeringly awesome games to focus on for 2015, and I plan to run campaigns and one-shots for each this year:
Goal: to run at least 1 BRP and/or CoC game each month between D&D sessions.
Goal: to run a short 1-3 session mini campaign for both Void Core and Astounding Adventures; I may waffle and use Cthulhu Rising/Jovian Nightmares instead of Void, though....we'll see.
Goal: to revisit my world of Pergerron with Magic World and to run at least one session of Blood Tide to see if the group has enough interest.
Goal: to run another 4-8 session Savage Worlds Sci Fi campaign in the Savage Space universe and to run at least one of the four published modules for Interface Zero 2. 0 that I picked up (and do more if my players like it)
Mutant Year Zero is freaking me out with how cool it is. My local group isn't as gung-ho about post-apocalypse as I am, but if I have my way we'll run at least one full length campaign in this system sometime in 2015.
Goal: see if I can actually get this thing read and find inspiration to run it.
As always, any of the product of this gaming addiction shall be liberally sprinkled throughout this blog!
Friday, December 26, 2014
Six Role Playing Games to Look Forward to in 2015
Having survived Xmas, let us all rejoice in some of the awesome games coming up in 2015!
First up, a game I am eager to check out once it's been stripped of other people's settings...
6. Monte Cook's Cypher System
Cypher System currently powers The Strange and Numenara, two games that look fascinating if you're in to fiddling with other people's specific settings and preconceptions. I am intrigued at the idea of a stripped-down version of the rules that lets me do what I want with it.
Next, one which I am quite excited to see even if I am leery as to whether or not I'll adopt it immediately, is....
5. Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
Coming in a "Player's Guide" and "Keeper's Guide" (I think the Keeper's Guide has the whole game), this is the first siginifcant revision to the CoC game system in its history, with the mechanics ditching the 3-18 stat block for core stats in favor of an entirely percentile system. This is likely to annoy the old fans while being a smoothing of the process for new one....if you, like me, have ever had to explain the concept of attributes in CoC and BRP and how they relate to the statistics rolls then the idea of merging the two won't seem so far fetched. Either way, I look forward to seeing what it all looks like, while crossing my fingers that there aren't too many intrusive new mechanics or systems designed to "fix" the pass/fail skill check "problem" like Trail of Cthulhu in favor of a less exciting point pool mechanic.
CoC 7th edition has the PDF out....I haven't snagged it yet, sort of holding out for the print edition first, but that doesn't mean you can't take the plunge.
Next we have....
4. Fantasy Hero Complete
I've raved about this already, but needless to say its a redux of the Hero System 6th Edition rules with a hard focus on fantasy gaming. Hero System may yet be something I can get played at my game tables with a focused book like this! Here's to crossing my fingers for a Star Hero Complete next.
Next we have the long past due but eagerly anticipated....
3. Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls
Ken St. Andre, Liz Danforth, Bear Peters, Rick Loomis and Steve Crompton are all among the fabled caretakers of Tunels & Trolls, and they've been working for better than a year now on producing a definitive edition of the game. It's taken a lot longer than anticipated, at least partially because the scope of the book moved from a "best of reprint" to a "totally revised edition with so many bells and whistles you'll go deaf" but the drafts released so far look amazing. I really, really hope this game comes out soon.
After that we have....
2. The End of the World RPG
Fantasy Flight Games just keeps on giving, this time with the first of four planned End of the World RPGs, #1 being on the Zombie Apocalypse. Future books will focus on the Wrath of the Gods, Alien Invasions and the robot apocalypse. This may fill a void left by Eden Studios more or less falling off the radar in recent years.
What could be more exciting than that? How about my top pick for 2015, one which I am already looking at the PDF for as my wife bought me the special edition package in print for an Xmas present (gotta read it fast before Santa finds me on the naughty list!). It is...
1. Mutant Year Zero
Modiphius has reprinted this updated and revised version of a classic Swedish title I had only heard about until now. The book looks to me to be the definitive word on post-apocalypse gaming, with a excellent middle ground established between Gamma World, Aftermath and Fallout. I will likely be writing a lot more about this one soon!
First up, a game I am eager to check out once it's been stripped of other people's settings...
6. Monte Cook's Cypher System
Cypher System currently powers The Strange and Numenara, two games that look fascinating if you're in to fiddling with other people's specific settings and preconceptions. I am intrigued at the idea of a stripped-down version of the rules that lets me do what I want with it.
Next, one which I am quite excited to see even if I am leery as to whether or not I'll adopt it immediately, is....
5. Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
Coming in a "Player's Guide" and "Keeper's Guide" (I think the Keeper's Guide has the whole game), this is the first siginifcant revision to the CoC game system in its history, with the mechanics ditching the 3-18 stat block for core stats in favor of an entirely percentile system. This is likely to annoy the old fans while being a smoothing of the process for new one....if you, like me, have ever had to explain the concept of attributes in CoC and BRP and how they relate to the statistics rolls then the idea of merging the two won't seem so far fetched. Either way, I look forward to seeing what it all looks like, while crossing my fingers that there aren't too many intrusive new mechanics or systems designed to "fix" the pass/fail skill check "problem" like Trail of Cthulhu in favor of a less exciting point pool mechanic.
CoC 7th edition has the PDF out....I haven't snagged it yet, sort of holding out for the print edition first, but that doesn't mean you can't take the plunge.
Next we have....
4. Fantasy Hero Complete
I've raved about this already, but needless to say its a redux of the Hero System 6th Edition rules with a hard focus on fantasy gaming. Hero System may yet be something I can get played at my game tables with a focused book like this! Here's to crossing my fingers for a Star Hero Complete next.
Next we have the long past due but eagerly anticipated....
3. Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls
Ken St. Andre, Liz Danforth, Bear Peters, Rick Loomis and Steve Crompton are all among the fabled caretakers of Tunels & Trolls, and they've been working for better than a year now on producing a definitive edition of the game. It's taken a lot longer than anticipated, at least partially because the scope of the book moved from a "best of reprint" to a "totally revised edition with so many bells and whistles you'll go deaf" but the drafts released so far look amazing. I really, really hope this game comes out soon.
After that we have....
2. The End of the World RPG
Fantasy Flight Games just keeps on giving, this time with the first of four planned End of the World RPGs, #1 being on the Zombie Apocalypse. Future books will focus on the Wrath of the Gods, Alien Invasions and the robot apocalypse. This may fill a void left by Eden Studios more or less falling off the radar in recent years.
What could be more exciting than that? How about my top pick for 2015, one which I am already looking at the PDF for as my wife bought me the special edition package in print for an Xmas present (gotta read it fast before Santa finds me on the naughty list!). It is...
1. Mutant Year Zero
Modiphius has reprinted this updated and revised version of a classic Swedish title I had only heard about until now. The book looks to me to be the definitive word on post-apocalypse gaming, with a excellent middle ground established between Gamma World, Aftermath and Fallout. I will likely be writing a lot more about this one soon!
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
I'm feeling like a Greyhawk Xmas
While you are battening down the hatches, applying fire retardant gel to the hous exterior and reinforcing the bullet-proof plating on the roof in anticipation of Xmas, I just wanted to point out that dndclassics.com has stealthily released Gary Gygax's original World of Greyhawk setting in PDF.
I snagged it....this was one of the few 1st edition books I never secured a copy of back in the day when the game was new and I was young, and its a good scan, and the maps look great. It's fun to take a look at the first officially published setting for AD&D, glorious warts and all. You know you're dealing with an old school setting when the first three things you learn about the world, in order, are its place in the heavens, the seasons of Oerth, and the types of trees that like to grow around here. Try starting off a contemporary setting tome with that info, you'll have all the youthful tablet jockeys hitting "delete" so hard their screen shatters! (/hyperbole)
Seriously though, it's a cool PDF collection of the two books plus maps. You'll find a brief but inspirational overview of the world that virtually all 1st edition modules appeared in until the Forgotten Realms smashed its way onto the scene a few years later. You get the run-down of the world's gods, notable locales, politics, dungeons, stats to kill the gods, encounter tables, great hex maps, a key to where all the modules take place and in what hexes specifically, and it all smacks of that weird, quasi-amateur style that permeated TSR until around 1982-83 when it started to get too big for its britches.
I snagged it....this was one of the few 1st edition books I never secured a copy of back in the day when the game was new and I was young, and its a good scan, and the maps look great. It's fun to take a look at the first officially published setting for AD&D, glorious warts and all. You know you're dealing with an old school setting when the first three things you learn about the world, in order, are its place in the heavens, the seasons of Oerth, and the types of trees that like to grow around here. Try starting off a contemporary setting tome with that info, you'll have all the youthful tablet jockeys hitting "delete" so hard their screen shatters! (/hyperbole)
Seriously though, it's a cool PDF collection of the two books plus maps. You'll find a brief but inspirational overview of the world that virtually all 1st edition modules appeared in until the Forgotten Realms smashed its way onto the scene a few years later. You get the run-down of the world's gods, notable locales, politics, dungeons, stats to kill the gods, encounter tables, great hex maps, a key to where all the modules take place and in what hexes specifically, and it all smacks of that weird, quasi-amateur style that permeated TSR until around 1982-83 when it started to get too big for its britches.
Return of the Horror Film Reviews: Stranded (2013)
Stranded (2013)
It's sometime in the not-too-distant future and four astronauts on the Moon Base Ark are about to have a very bad day after a rogue meteor shower pellets their base, seeding it with alien spores. The spores rapidly manage to infect some of the crew, leading to possible hallucinations and madness. Are the crew just imagining things, or are they really experiencing a seriously low budget film with aspirations to produce an alien that somehow manages to blend multiple other horror films' aliens together into a sort of spore puree?
The film is largely forgettable, at least partially because it takes itself rather seriously but misses some very important steps along the way to "getting to the good parts" which aren't really all that great so I don't know what their hurry was. Among other things it failed to take time to establish any personality for the four main characters beyond "scared, yelling, and in constant state of emergency," so we never learn much of anything about them that helps to sympathize with their plight or at least feel for them. In their defense the actors really did have "freaking out in middle of space emergency" down perfectly, though.
Unlike virtually every other movie these days Stranded actually uses old fashioned FX and never once soils itself with lame CGI. This has the distinct advantage of making the movie a bit cheesy in an old fashioned way, but it also makes the movie feel a bit more genuine and distinguished from its similar low-budget competition. The gore FX in the movie are not bad, even if we only really get to see something truly alien in the last five seconds of the film. This reliance on classic FX almost makes up for the painfully basic recycled set pieces and props. The film's sets are so generic and recycled that you will spend a lot of time trying to figure out which other film they filched the set pieces from. Some items (I'm looking at you, booklight-turned-space-radio) are so blatant that it takes you out of the movie every time you see the piece in action.
Most startling of all the special effects is the moon base exterior, a lovingly detailed scale model crafted with all the precision and accuracy of a model train set piece. All of the exterior shots, from meteor showers to landing (and taking off) ships are done using this set piece which clearly was someone's special project of love. I would not at all be surprised if the moon base set wasn't finished first, and the story pitched to make use of it.
When all is said and done this movie had about 20 minutes in the middle where it actually got really interesting, and I started to take notice....but then it degenerated back into more derivative silliness again. Unfortunately Stranded was trying too hard to be too many other films, and the really interesting bits don't get enough attention in the film's effort to borrow from other better ventures before it. If the movie had spent more time on the core conceit (spore-alien seeks to mimic host organisms while hosts think they are hallucinating) and also spent more time setting up these characters as people we could relate to (or at least feel for), then it would have done better.
Stranded answers many important questions that I never knew needed answering. Some of the questions this film tackles include:
What has Christian Slater been up to, lately? Making this movie, for one!
Did you know those little pop-out book lights they used to sell all over the place a decade ago can double as space communicators if you paint them black?
One of the great mysteries of a film like Alien is just what the alien is (bioweapon or perfect hunter?) but it turns out that alien spores are quite capable of hijacking a host and getting her to give birth to an alien doppelganger in a matter of hours because reasons.
Also, motorcycle helmets with vacuum tubing make good spacesuit helmets. And firefighter breathers make good moon breathers, too.
Worst case of "explosive decompression into a vacuum doesn't actually do that to the human body" ever. Like: pureed exploding body bad.
Another fine example of "gravity and weightlessness in films are portrayed accurately in inverse proportion to the film's budget."
All in all a fun little romp if you catch it for free on Netflix like I did, but utterly forgettable otherwise. I give this one a C+ but might have been tempted to give it a B- if I didn't wince every time I saw Christian Slater speaking into my old booklight.
![]() |
actual appearance of alien may vary |
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Return of the Horror Film Reviews: Mortuary (2005)
First, just wanted to mention that I started typing this on my new Galaxy Tab S4 10.1 inch tablet, which so far is proving to be a worthwhile investment. The Logitech Bluetooth keyboard/cover combo is rather nice, albeit a bit small....but beyond that it's pretty serviceable, if not as cool as the Surface's flexible keyboard. Unfortunately every five seconds or so Blogger would try to update and when it did the cursor would decouple from the typing area, so now I'm back on the old desktop. But enough of that!
Mortuary (2005)
Mortuary is a 2005 horror film with the name Tobe Hooper prominently displayed as director. The opening premise is simple but rife with weird promise. The film opens on a family of three, a mom, her odd daughter and snarky teenage son (played by Dan Byrd who steals much of the show) as they set off to start a new life in the wake of their father's death. As it turns out, for reasons never quite established the mom is keen to start a career as a mortician (or maybe resume one?) and she has invested in an abandoned cemetary/mortuary combo in some small back-assward California town. The place is a shambles, a relic of a complex ripe for horror films. The guy selling it to her is a bit crazy, one gets the impression....or just happy to have a sucker to take over the operation. A normal person would have called her in on child abuse for subjecting her kids to the place.
But hey! This is what good B movie horror films are made of. Everyone gets along, the teenage son starts off making local acquaintances, including the gratuitous punk bully and his two uncharacteristically slutty small town girlfriends, while mom sets about cleaning the place up just in time for the bodies to start rolling in. The pace of the movie is rapid and we quickly establish a range of quirky local denizens at the local diner where the teen son takes a job, even as some odd sightings are made at the graveyard.
When the mom delves into the graveyard and stumbles across a tomb with the nigh infamous Lovecraft "...even death may die" quote, verbatim, chiseled in stone I decided that this movie was going to be fun if nothing else. As it progresses along we discover that there is a lingering evil in the place, a story about a made couple who used to run the mortuary and had a deformed son that they kept locked away, until one day he escaped and murdered them, and all the while strange black ooze creeps out and snacks on blood spilt by the mom, who thankfully is working only with dead bodies because she would never get a medical license, let me tell ya....
In surprisingly quick order the movie escalates from "could a creepy deformed madman be lurking in the caverns below the cemetery?" to full-on Reanimator-style zombie invasion, and the similarities are just significant enough to suggest that the people behind this movie really liked those earlier films. It maintains a camp quality to the entire experience, much as most 80's style horror films did, playing it all straight while still throwing just about every gory bit they can at the screen. The bulk of the FX is makeup, but the blood monster is CGI (a sort of unholy love child of a shoggoth, the sarlac and the Black Oil virus from X-Files).
This movie includes:
1. Vile house just waiting for victims
2. The Lovecraft moment (a quote from The Nameless City carved on a tomb)
3. Smart, fast possessed undead who become a terrifying inversion of what they obsessed about in life
4. Granted honorable mention for the "Linnea Quigley Cemetery Chick" Award (but no actual nudity)
5. Manages to get both the hillbilly mutant, shoggoth-thing and reanimated dead in all at once
6. Gratuitous disrespect for the dead....even BEFORE they get up and start chasing the living!
When we get to the end of the ride (and it's definitely a ride) the only question is just how the monsters will manage to eat everyone at the end....and we know they will. But it's a very fun ride along the way, with a shade of Movie Lovecraft* permeating the experience. If Jeffrey Combs had shown up at the end with a giant juicer I would have been not at all surprised. A solid B+++!!!
*You know what I mean: Lovecraft through the lens of Stuart Gordon
Mortuary (2005)
Mortuary is a 2005 horror film with the name Tobe Hooper prominently displayed as director. The opening premise is simple but rife with weird promise. The film opens on a family of three, a mom, her odd daughter and snarky teenage son (played by Dan Byrd who steals much of the show) as they set off to start a new life in the wake of their father's death. As it turns out, for reasons never quite established the mom is keen to start a career as a mortician (or maybe resume one?) and she has invested in an abandoned cemetary/mortuary combo in some small back-assward California town. The place is a shambles, a relic of a complex ripe for horror films. The guy selling it to her is a bit crazy, one gets the impression....or just happy to have a sucker to take over the operation. A normal person would have called her in on child abuse for subjecting her kids to the place.
But hey! This is what good B movie horror films are made of. Everyone gets along, the teenage son starts off making local acquaintances, including the gratuitous punk bully and his two uncharacteristically slutty small town girlfriends, while mom sets about cleaning the place up just in time for the bodies to start rolling in. The pace of the movie is rapid and we quickly establish a range of quirky local denizens at the local diner where the teen son takes a job, even as some odd sightings are made at the graveyard.
When the mom delves into the graveyard and stumbles across a tomb with the nigh infamous Lovecraft "...even death may die" quote, verbatim, chiseled in stone I decided that this movie was going to be fun if nothing else. As it progresses along we discover that there is a lingering evil in the place, a story about a made couple who used to run the mortuary and had a deformed son that they kept locked away, until one day he escaped and murdered them, and all the while strange black ooze creeps out and snacks on blood spilt by the mom, who thankfully is working only with dead bodies because she would never get a medical license, let me tell ya....
In surprisingly quick order the movie escalates from "could a creepy deformed madman be lurking in the caverns below the cemetery?" to full-on Reanimator-style zombie invasion, and the similarities are just significant enough to suggest that the people behind this movie really liked those earlier films. It maintains a camp quality to the entire experience, much as most 80's style horror films did, playing it all straight while still throwing just about every gory bit they can at the screen. The bulk of the FX is makeup, but the blood monster is CGI (a sort of unholy love child of a shoggoth, the sarlac and the Black Oil virus from X-Files).
This movie includes:
1. Vile house just waiting for victims
2. The Lovecraft moment (a quote from The Nameless City carved on a tomb)
3. Smart, fast possessed undead who become a terrifying inversion of what they obsessed about in life
4. Granted honorable mention for the "Linnea Quigley Cemetery Chick" Award (but no actual nudity)
5. Manages to get both the hillbilly mutant, shoggoth-thing and reanimated dead in all at once
6. Gratuitous disrespect for the dead....even BEFORE they get up and start chasing the living!
When we get to the end of the ride (and it's definitely a ride) the only question is just how the monsters will manage to eat everyone at the end....and we know they will. But it's a very fun ride along the way, with a shade of Movie Lovecraft* permeating the experience. If Jeffrey Combs had shown up at the end with a giant juicer I would have been not at all surprised. A solid B+++!!!
*You know what I mean: Lovecraft through the lens of Stuart Gordon
Monday, December 22, 2014
Class Act Kickstarter: Fantasy Hero from Hero Games
Fantasy Hero Complete is off to the printers, and I have the PDF in my hands (well, I have a tablet with the PDF on it in my hands?)
From the KS Announcement:
Fantasy Hero Complete is off to the printer!
We've sent download instructions for the PDF to all backers at $10 level and above, and instructions for the PDF and Hero Designer Character Pack to backers at the $20 level, and $40 and above. We'll send you further instructions when the bonus adventures are ready but we've included a preview of those in case you want to read them right away and not wait for layout and maps.
If you have any problems downloading them please send us a kickstarter message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. We appreciate your patience during the holidays.
We wish you the happiest of holiday seasons, and a New Year full of Fantasy Hero adventuring. As always, thank you for your support! We couldn't have done it without you, and we're deeply grateful you helped us make this book.
Now that's how a Kickstarter should function! Awesome looking book by the way....can't wait for the print copy to arrive effectively on time. Wow. Hope I'm not jinxing it in the home stretch....
From the KS Announcement:
Fantasy Hero Complete is off to the printer!
We've sent download instructions for the PDF to all backers at $10 level and above, and instructions for the PDF and Hero Designer Character Pack to backers at the $20 level, and $40 and above. We'll send you further instructions when the bonus adventures are ready but we've included a preview of those in case you want to read them right away and not wait for layout and maps.
If you have any problems downloading them please send us a kickstarter message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. We appreciate your patience during the holidays.
We wish you the happiest of holiday seasons, and a New Year full of Fantasy Hero adventuring. As always, thank you for your support! We couldn't have done it without you, and we're deeply grateful you helped us make this book.
Now that's how a Kickstarter should function! Awesome looking book by the way....can't wait for the print copy to arrive effectively on time. Wow. Hope I'm not jinxing it in the home stretch....
Return of the Horror Film Reviews: Ashes
I have next to my desk a stack of horror movies begging to be watched and reviewed. To combat the holidays I always like to kick back with a few grizzly horror flicks this time of year. Anyway, first up is....Ashes, a zombie movie with the twist being that where most zombie apocalypse films begin, this one ends....
Ashes (2010)
Brian Krause plays Dr. Andrew Stanton, a driven medical professional who is working as a full time on-staff hospital physician (in ER no less) at the same time that he's working on a cure for aids, specifically some sort of immuno-boost drug that seems to be working on his principle volunteer patient. One day, a boy suffering from what seems to be a snake bite (but which the audience knows was a jellyfish sting) is dropped off at the ER door and begins to fade. For whatever reason they are unable to identify the boy's malady, and can do nothing for him....his immune system, it seems, is failing.... (yes, see where this is headed...)
Our good doctor decides to intervene, injecting some of his experimental serum into the boy, but he dies. The boy's name, in a moment of attempted apocryphal implication, is Jesus...oh and his sister is Maria. Before he dies he suffers a severe siezure and in the process bites Dr. Stanton.
Ultimately Stanton determines that he is getting sick from the bite, and suspects he is both the cause of the boy's death and possibly his own malady. He gradually figures out that his serum mutated when exposed to whatever was within the blood of the boy, and its second stage is rapidly changing him. A confidante and assistant realize that the third stage, if it gets out, will be quick and overwhelming to the host. As one can imagine, the movie inevitably and with great and prolonged foreshadowing strides its way to the inevitable conclusion, as Dr. Stanton and all he has come into contact with succumb to the disease or are bitten by those who have. The zombie apocalypse begins.
The film is actually very slow to start, and has a great 80's sort of feel to it at times, a measured and careful pace in which we establish the character and his many relations so that when things start to happen there is some empathy and interest in the inevitable destruction of Dr. Stanton and his world. I'd like to attribute this careful build-up to smart directing and plotting, but honestly it's probably also because the film was clearly made on a small budget. The special effects are minimal but used to great efficiency, and there's not a single piece of CGI in sight, a welcome relief.
Five noteworthy moments about this film:
1. lots of gratuitous low-budget lab porn
2. gratuitous lesbian kissing scene
3. an "everybody dies" movie....almost
4. lots of "do hospitals really work like this?" moments
5. features living infected zombies
Want to see a low budget, no-name star zombie flick that starts off slow and builds to a crescendo, a film which shows you exactly what happened right up to the moment before Dawn of the Dead or any number of other zombie movies start? Then check out Ashes....a good, solid B+ movie.
Ashes (2010)
Brian Krause plays Dr. Andrew Stanton, a driven medical professional who is working as a full time on-staff hospital physician (in ER no less) at the same time that he's working on a cure for aids, specifically some sort of immuno-boost drug that seems to be working on his principle volunteer patient. One day, a boy suffering from what seems to be a snake bite (but which the audience knows was a jellyfish sting) is dropped off at the ER door and begins to fade. For whatever reason they are unable to identify the boy's malady, and can do nothing for him....his immune system, it seems, is failing.... (yes, see where this is headed...)
Our good doctor decides to intervene, injecting some of his experimental serum into the boy, but he dies. The boy's name, in a moment of attempted apocryphal implication, is Jesus...oh and his sister is Maria. Before he dies he suffers a severe siezure and in the process bites Dr. Stanton.
Ultimately Stanton determines that he is getting sick from the bite, and suspects he is both the cause of the boy's death and possibly his own malady. He gradually figures out that his serum mutated when exposed to whatever was within the blood of the boy, and its second stage is rapidly changing him. A confidante and assistant realize that the third stage, if it gets out, will be quick and overwhelming to the host. As one can imagine, the movie inevitably and with great and prolonged foreshadowing strides its way to the inevitable conclusion, as Dr. Stanton and all he has come into contact with succumb to the disease or are bitten by those who have. The zombie apocalypse begins.
The film is actually very slow to start, and has a great 80's sort of feel to it at times, a measured and careful pace in which we establish the character and his many relations so that when things start to happen there is some empathy and interest in the inevitable destruction of Dr. Stanton and his world. I'd like to attribute this careful build-up to smart directing and plotting, but honestly it's probably also because the film was clearly made on a small budget. The special effects are minimal but used to great efficiency, and there's not a single piece of CGI in sight, a welcome relief.
Five noteworthy moments about this film:
1. lots of gratuitous low-budget lab porn
2. gratuitous lesbian kissing scene
3. an "everybody dies" movie....almost
4. lots of "do hospitals really work like this?" moments
5. features living infected zombies
Want to see a low budget, no-name star zombie flick that starts off slow and builds to a crescendo, a film which shows you exactly what happened right up to the moment before Dawn of the Dead or any number of other zombie movies start? Then check out Ashes....a good, solid B+ movie.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
How Steam handled the removal of an offensive title...and then put it back
A few days back I posted some thoughts on Onebookshelf's decision to kick the "Gamergate Card Game" from their online stores. Not long after this incident an interestingly similar situation arose with Steam and a game called Hatred. No links to the game, Google it yourself (I found it a disturbing mess).
Here's the scoop:
Steam banned a game called Hatred from its Greenlight section, for much the same reason initially that Onebookshelf banned the Gamergate Card Game (topical and offensive, apparently a bad mix). Shortly thereafter Gabe Newell himself came out and reversed the decision, stating that it was not Steam's job to act as a gatekeeper of content. Specifically, he stated (from PC Gamer):
"Yesterday I heard that we were taking Hatred down from Greenlight. Since I wasn't up to speed, I asked around internally to find out why we had done that. It turns out that it wasn't a good decision, and we'll be putting Hatred back up. My apologies to you and your team. Steam is about creating tools for content creators and customers."
This is interesting to me because it implies that Steam is very much aware of the fact that they are a platform of delivery of content....a mediator...between the publishers and the consumers. They are not the ones who get to decide what publishers can sell, and have even set up tools (such as Steam Greenlight) which let publishers pitch ideas and the consumers vote on what they want to buy. If a game like Hatred has no market or interest, it will presumably wither and die at that point, without Steam ever having to apply any ethical oversight at all....leave it to the consumer. And of course, if it does get Greenlighted then it is clearly sufficient for those who wanted to back the game that they now can --and it means that those in the crowd like myself who wouldn't touch this game with a ten foot pole are now free to ignore it and vote with our wallets by buying other, better games elsewhere.
I haven't particularly been fond of the end-product of the Greenlight process because it has led to a torrent of "early access" titles on Steam that are, indeed, largely unfinished and rarely worth paying for if you're not in the business of being an unpaid QA tester with almost zero presence to the development team. But that said, I think I do like the Greenlight process as it works here.
Unfortunately the business model for Onebookshelf wouldn't likely support such a structure....which might end up feeling like a weird cross between a retail outlet and Kickstarter if they tried, most likely....but the principle holds well. Wouldn't a title like the Gamergate Card Game have been better left for sale, to be soundly beaten about in bad reviews and comments on its page rather than removed from sale?
Here's the scoop:
Steam banned a game called Hatred from its Greenlight section, for much the same reason initially that Onebookshelf banned the Gamergate Card Game (topical and offensive, apparently a bad mix). Shortly thereafter Gabe Newell himself came out and reversed the decision, stating that it was not Steam's job to act as a gatekeeper of content. Specifically, he stated (from PC Gamer):
"Yesterday I heard that we were taking Hatred down from Greenlight. Since I wasn't up to speed, I asked around internally to find out why we had done that. It turns out that it wasn't a good decision, and we'll be putting Hatred back up. My apologies to you and your team. Steam is about creating tools for content creators and customers."
This is interesting to me because it implies that Steam is very much aware of the fact that they are a platform of delivery of content....a mediator...between the publishers and the consumers. They are not the ones who get to decide what publishers can sell, and have even set up tools (such as Steam Greenlight) which let publishers pitch ideas and the consumers vote on what they want to buy. If a game like Hatred has no market or interest, it will presumably wither and die at that point, without Steam ever having to apply any ethical oversight at all....leave it to the consumer. And of course, if it does get Greenlighted then it is clearly sufficient for those who wanted to back the game that they now can --and it means that those in the crowd like myself who wouldn't touch this game with a ten foot pole are now free to ignore it and vote with our wallets by buying other, better games elsewhere.
I haven't particularly been fond of the end-product of the Greenlight process because it has led to a torrent of "early access" titles on Steam that are, indeed, largely unfinished and rarely worth paying for if you're not in the business of being an unpaid QA tester with almost zero presence to the development team. But that said, I think I do like the Greenlight process as it works here.
Unfortunately the business model for Onebookshelf wouldn't likely support such a structure....which might end up feeling like a weird cross between a retail outlet and Kickstarter if they tried, most likely....but the principle holds well. Wouldn't a title like the Gamergate Card Game have been better left for sale, to be soundly beaten about in bad reviews and comments on its page rather than removed from sale?
Friday, December 19, 2014
The Battle of the Five Armies
My wife and I caught The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies at a matinee on Wednesday and had a blast. I just wanted to comment briefly that of the three movies that Jackson managed to somehow squeeze out of The Hobbit plus the Silmarillion and the Lost Tales this one struck me as the most well-paced (even if...SPOILER ALERT, I GUESS.....Smaug bites it big time in like the first five minutes).
It helped that the movie was a bit shorter than the prior two. #2 Especially suffered I felt for having so much obvious filler, stuff which not only was never in the books but which made very little sense from any sort of coherent analysis (giant gold dwarf statue event I'm looking at you).
In the end, despite the deviation from the book, the film holds up well. When you think about it, if you are one of those deeply analytical fans concerned about the canon of the films vs. the books, one could readily imagine that the movie somehow portrays "what actually happened" (hisssss!!!!!) while The Hobbit as a novel actually portrays what Bilbo remembered, or was able to reconstructs (for example...another spoiler.....the difference between how Thorin Oakenshield, Killi and Filli die in the movie vs. how they died in the book). Given that Bilbo for either occasion was mostly unconscious during the battle, one could readily imagine his retelling might be from a second hand reconstruction or a fanciful retelling.
I now look forward to the 27 part movie series Peter Jackson produces when the Tolkien family finally relents and lets him put the rest of J.R.R.'s works to film!
It helped that the movie was a bit shorter than the prior two. #2 Especially suffered I felt for having so much obvious filler, stuff which not only was never in the books but which made very little sense from any sort of coherent analysis (giant gold dwarf statue event I'm looking at you).
In the end, despite the deviation from the book, the film holds up well. When you think about it, if you are one of those deeply analytical fans concerned about the canon of the films vs. the books, one could readily imagine that the movie somehow portrays "what actually happened" (hisssss!!!!!) while The Hobbit as a novel actually portrays what Bilbo remembered, or was able to reconstructs (for example...another spoiler.....the difference between how Thorin Oakenshield, Killi and Filli die in the movie vs. how they died in the book). Given that Bilbo for either occasion was mostly unconscious during the battle, one could readily imagine his retelling might be from a second hand reconstruction or a fanciful retelling.
I now look forward to the 27 part movie series Peter Jackson produces when the Tolkien family finally relents and lets him put the rest of J.R.R.'s works to film!
Realms of Chirak in D&D 5E: The Cannesh Shapeshifters
Here's the next racial option in the Realms of Chirak Campaign guide up for revision and playtesting/feedback: the cannesh, a race of spiritfolk shapeshifters.
Cannesh
The cannesh tribes are shapeshifting fey folk of the northernmost
Legoran forest lands, not far from the Northern Wastes. They are mysterious,
but very down to earth folk, and are not often found as adventurers outside of
the Legoran lands. Their nature as blessed beings of the spirits makes the
Legoran people reverent and fearful of the Cannesh tribes.
The cannesh are a remnant of the ancient past, descended at one time
from Legoran stock. The Cannesh are the descendants of Legoran men and women
who intermarried at one time with a now legendary fey folk of the north, a
mysterious society of animist spirit folk who are described in the ancient
myths as a race of spirits, freed from the crags of the earth at the time of
the apocalypse to, "dance upon the edge of the world in a swirling pattern
of light and dark." No mortal being who interacted with these fantastical
spirits could resist them, and it is said that the most ancient and favored
Legoran people were nurtured and cared for by these beings through a time of
great darkness before being released back in to the world, forever changed and
unique.
Preservationists claim these ancient Fay Spirits were among the many
spirit servants of the gods cast down from the heavens in the apocalypse, but
the legorans claim that they were ancient forest spirits who always existed
apart from the realms of men and gods, and that they appeared then to help the
legorans survive through the harsh centuries after the destruction of the
world. Because of this, the legorans treat the touched descendants of these
people, the cannesh, with a mixture of fear and respect.
The cannesh themselves claim to still know of the existence of the fey
spirits, but are not fearful or curious of the mysterious northern beings which
spawned their kind. Instead, they love to recount tales of their first
legendary clansman, Yagirin Hedor, who led the young race southward to seek out
the heart of the world. It is said that this migration was because of an exile,
that Yagirin and his peers sought to capture the essence of the heart of the
forest, and that in doing so, it forever altered them. Others claim that this
was a gift freely given, and when it was accepted, the cannesh were considered
ready to return to the mortal realms.
Cannesh are humanoid in appearance, although the nature of the possessing
beast within each cannesh's heart has an overall affect that shows in his
humanoid side. A bearfolk cannesh in human form looks large and burly, while a
Vollfluen wolf folk will have sharpened canines and a healthy body of hair.
Hidihirin and rastakats are short, and mistaken as Halflings, although the
sharp, pointed and bird-like features of the rastakats shows through, just as
the lean and athletic features of the hidihirin give them away for their rabbit
nature.
Cannesh, as shapeshifters, can transform in to their spiritual animal
form, and may do so at will. Their animal form will have all of the
characteristics of the animal in question, but the hit points, skills, and level-based
modifiers of their humanoid form.
Each Cannesh belongs to one of the following tribes:
Bacgruit (the Bear folk)
Hidihirin (the Rabbit folk)
Vollfluen (the Wolf folk)
Rastakats (the Raven folk)
There are several other lesser tribes (badger folk, skunk folk, serpent
folk, fish folk, etc.) In addition, rare cannesh are born as the feyweres
(Cannesh Lords), who can shapeshift in to any animal form they wish.
Cannesh Characters
Cannesh characters must choose from one of the aforementioned tribes.
Cannesh in humanoid form have all of the outward physical characteristics of
humans or halflings, but with the following racial characteristics that are
dependent on their native tribe:
Traits Common to all Cannesh
Language of Animals: Cannesh can speak with animals of their own
kind using their racial tongue, as well as speak to others of their species.
Tribe: Choose from one of the following tribes of cannesh. Each type
gains a shapeshifting form, and the abilities of that form can only be access
when shape-shifted. The tribe of choice also grants a language specific to the
animal type they can shape change in to. This language allows for communication
between cannesh of the same tribe, as well as animals of the same type.
Uncivilized: Cannesh do not understand or embrace
civilization. Cannesh who spends too much time in civilization and away from
the wilderness will gain a -2 penalty to all charisma and charisma based skill
checks as a result of his increasing sickness at being away from the
wilderness. When in civilized lands (a city, for example) the cannesh gains the
charisma penalty. He will lose this penalty when he leaves the city and returns
to nature.
Conversely, cannesh are more cunning in the wilderness, and gain a +2
initiative bonus when in the wilds. This bonus does not apply in civilized or
man-made regions, such as towns, dungeons and cities.
Shapeshifting and Gear
When shapeshifted cannesh normally lose the
benefit of any armor worn in humanoid form. Equipment remains at the location
they change shape, although cannesh often wear harness-like clothing that will
remain worn when they shape shift. Such garb normally costs the same as normal
clothing if purchased in a cannesh community, and must be crafted by cannesh
tailors. If the armor is purchased outside of a cannesh town, or is made by a
non-cannesh, treat it as a variant masterwork suit of armor for purposes of
cost only.
A cannesh with the appropriate tool proficiency may attempt to adjust
his armor so that it will conform to his animal form; it requires 1D6 hours and
a DC 15 skill check for light armor or hides, DC 20 for most other armor, and
DC 25 for half plate; full plate cannot be customized this way. If the check
fails, then that particular suit of armor cannot be adjusted to fit his beast
form.
Basics on Cannesh Shapeshifting
Cannesh retain their base abilities, proficencies, hit points and most
passive traits in their animal forms. They only retain armor benefits if wearing
custom armor (above), and may gain natural armor. Shapeshifting takes an action,
but they can also move while shapeshifting. Seeing a bacgruit run at you while
transmogrifying in to a bear can be a morale-checking experience! They can
shapeshift as often as they like, and without restriction.
Unless otherwise noted, any skill or ability that requires fine
digitation is not possible in animal form. However, all cannesh spell casters
learn how to invoke their spells with verbal and somatic elements in both
humanoid and animal form, and so are not impaired by their shifting. In animal
form cannesh can speak any language fluently; they do not suffer from the
language limits of normal animals. As magical fey beings, this is a simple
matter for them.
Bacgruit (the Bearfolk)
Average Height: 6’2”-7’
Average Weight: 225-400 lbs.
Ability Scores: +1 Strength,
+1 Constitution
Size: Medium (human) or large (bear)
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Low Light
Languages: Bear-Tongue, Tradespeak, and one other
Cave Bear Form: Bacgruit shift in to the form of large cave
bears (brown bears per the MM). In this form the cannesh is large sized. The
cannesh gains the following traits and attacks:
Scent: the bacrguit gains advantage on Wisdom (perception) checks for
smell while in bear form.
Natural Armor: the natural
form of the cave bear has AC 12 (plus dexterity modifiers, if any).
Multiattack: the bear form grants two attacks each round,
one with claws and one with bite.
Claws: the bacgruit can strike with its claws for 2D6 plus strength
modifier damage.
Bite: the brown
bear can bite for 1D8 plus strength modifier damage.
Hidihirin (the Rabbitfolk)
Average Height: 4’ to 4’10”
Average Weight: 65-150 lbs..
Ability Scores: +1 Dexterity,
+1 Charisma
Size: Small (both human and rabbit)
Speed: 30 feet (40 feet in
rabbit form)
Vision: Low Light
Languages: Rabbit-Tongue, Tradespeak, and one other
Rabbit Form: Hidihirn change in to the form of an
unusually large winter hare (they remain small in size, but rabbits are usually
tiny creatures). While in rabbit form, the hidihirn gains a movement speed of
40 feet, and is extraordinarily quick and nimble. The hidihirin gains a natural
attack in the form of a kick.
Kick Attack: hidihirin can kick for 1D6 plus
Strength damage.
Racial Skills: hidihirin have
advantage on Wisdom (perception) and Dexterity (stealth) checks when in rabbit
form.
Rastakats (the Ravenfolk)
Average Height: 3’2” to 4’6”
Average Weight: 50-125 lbs.
Ability Scores: +1
Intelligence, +1 Wisdom
Size: Medum (human) or Small (raven)
Speed: 25 feet on foot, 40 feet
flying
Vision: Low Light
Languages: Raven-Tongue, Tradespeak, and one other
Giant Raven Form: The rastakats can transform in to the shape
of a giant raven with a six foot wing-span. While in this form they may fly at
40 feet per round and gain a natural dive attack.
Swooping Attack: rastakats in raven form can dive attack with
their beak, dealing 1D4 plus Dexterity modifier damage. As a reaction when
doing this the rastakat can attempt a dexterity (sleight of hand) check to
filch a random item.
Racial Skills:
Rastakats gain advantage on Dexterity (sleight of hand) and Wisdom
(perception) checks related to sight when in raven form. Although their beaks
are nimble, they cannot perform complex digital tasks in this form, but excel
at quick pick-pocketing maneuvers.
Vollfluen (the Wolffolk)
Average Height: 5’3” to 6’4”
Average Weight: 125-300 lbs.
Ability Scores: +1 Dexterity,
+1 Constitution
Size: Medium (both human and wolf)
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low light vision is
common among volfluen, and they can use it both in human and wolf form.
Languages: Wolf-Tongue, Tradespeak, and one other
Wolf Form: Vollfluen transform in to wolves
as their animal form. There are rumors of dire wolf tribes and winter wolf
tribes, but they are regarded as folklore by most vollfluen.
Bite Attack: like regular wolves vollfluen can bite in
wolf form, with a reach of 5 feet, dealing 2D4 plus dexterity modifier damage.
A target bitten in this way needs to make a Dexterity check (DC equal to 10
plus the vollfuen’s strength modifier) or fall prone.
Pack Tactics: when adjacent to a friendly ally who is also
in wolf form, the vollfluen gains advantage against the target.
Keen Senses: in wolf form the vollfluen gains advantage on
Wisdom (perception) checks for hearing and smell.
Cannesh Racial Feats:
Feywere - Cannesh Lord
Prerequisites: Race-Cannesh, any 2 attributes 16+
The cannesh discovers his heritage as a true shapeshifter. He loses his
tribal affiliation, but gains the ability to transform in to any listed cannesh
animal forms (bear, rabbit, wolf, raven, and others at the DM’s discretion).
Use the Animal Form abilities as listed for each tribe: the feywere gains all
of them. Note that his base abilitiy and racial modifiers (determined by his
initial tribe) do not change; he merely gains the Animal Form trait of each
tribe instead. The feywere also gains a +1 increase to one attribute of choice.
Fae Intuition
Prerequisites: Race-cannesh, proficiency in Arcana, Wisdom
13+
A cannesh with especially keen intuition gains an enhanced ability to
divine the magical nature of things around him. He can "see" fey
forms and spirits, circles of power and ley lines. He can extend this to
conventional magic. The cannesh gains permanent advantage when using the Arcana
and Insight skills, and can identify any fey creature or spirit correctly by
making an arcana skill check, against a DC equal to the 10+the level of the
target inspected. He also gains the ability to cast the Detect Magic cantrip at
will.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Race of Chirak in D&D 5E: The Animates
This is part of my ongoing revision to the Realms of Chirak core campaign book which I would like to release in 2015 as a 5E setting if WotC will ever bother to finalize details of either an OGL or some sort of licensing for 3PP. I'd actually love some feedback on this racial option. It's built to fit the style and options of the animates as presented in 3rd and 4th edition iterations, and the balance of the animates depends on a racial feat to control the pace of acquiring animate add-ons. Whether it's really suitable for PCs or not is a different question.
Animates
Animates are the magically animated forms of golems brought to life
through an imbuement with elemental energies. With very few exceptions, most
animates are relics from the pre-apocalyptic age or derived from the remains of
such, and it is believed that they were
used as servants by the Old Mythrics, Inadasir, and other lost cultures both
during peace and war.
Animates most people hear tell of in legends are the great monstrosities
that guard the Black Dome of the north near the White Desert, killing and
smashing all that approaches. The lesser known forms are sometimes referred to
simply as collectors, humanoid entities of clay, metal and other odd patchwork
parts sent out into the world to gather knowledge. They are sometimes self
described as researchers and scholars, while at other times they seek out
specific objects or items, and will often trade and barter for such items if
they are held in high regard. Doppelgangers who have been utterly refused have
been known to leave, only to come back later with deadly reinforcements.
Animates are unusually difficult characters to play, but can be an
interesting challenge for someone who would like to try out a living construct.
Animates usually serve some unusual ultimate purpose, which could be a long term
campaign goal. On occasion animates achieve a sense of independence, perhaps
having been inactivated due to damage, or on rare occasion shutting down due to
some inhibition of their elemental power source. These animates may have a
sense of free will and curiosity on their own, and an urge to explore.
Playing an Animate Character
Animates build their humanoid collector models to emulate living
creatures, and so the nature of the magical artificing imbues them with
life-like qualities, although they are clearly made of artificial materials. An
animate collector appears to look like a human or elf made of stylized and
decorative pieces of metal, ceramics, cloth and a strange fiber.
Average Height: Variable, usually in precise measurements of
5, 6, or 7 feet in height
Average Weight: 300-500 lbs.
Ability Scores: +1 Int, +1 Con
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Normal, but an animate may
choose better vision (see below)
Languages: Old Mythric, Espanean (or one other) and Tradespeak
Keen Observers:
Animates are racially proficient in Perception.
Living Construct: Similar to standard constructs, living
constructs are imbued with an elemental anima, or animating force that gives
them life-like properties and separates them from golems and other unliving
animated entities. As such, animates have the following differences and similarities
from standard constructs:
Animates do not need to eat,
breathe or sleep, but they still require eight hours of immobile activity to
replenish their elemental power cores (and magical abilities or spells)
Animates are subject to any
fortitude save that would ordinarily affect an object, but they are immune to
poison and disease effects that do not target elementals as well
Elemental Attunement: Animates must choose an elemental trait that
reflects their animating force: they gain resistance against attacks with that
elemental property. Choose from: cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic,
psychic, radiant or thunder. Additionally animates can choose from two
additional elemental types: earth, which grants the animate an unarmored AC of
16 plus Dex modifiers instead of any special resistance, or air, which grants
the animate the ability to levitate as the spell at will (costs 1 action to
activate).
Unnatural Physiology: although magical healing replenishes the
elemental lifeforce of animates, the medicine skill is utterly useless when
dealing with these creatures. Animates that have been damaged utilize the magic
of their animating force to repair injury (allowing them to spend hit dice to
heal wounds), an effect which is not unlike the mending spell. Actually using a mending
spell on an animate will restore 2D4 hit points of damage, but the animate can
only benefit from the mending spell
once per short rest (the spell has upper limits for what it can do to heal
living constructs).
Death and Living Constructs: Animates
that reach zero hit points are inactivated; animates that reach the negative of
their HP score are completely destroyed, and their elemental anima dispersed.
Animates are believed to have no souls and so cannot be resurrected or raised
(except by animate clerics, it seems). Animates who are raised by their own
kind usually suffer memory loss of up to 1D6 months of events prior to their
deaths. The animate clerics of the machine gods explain that their loci is only
“backed up” periodically, and do little else to explain to outsiders what that
means.
Construct Slots: Animates modularize themselves, adding or
removing features best suited to the job at hand. Animates at level 1 have two
“slots” they can install features in to. At later levels animates can take a
feat which lets them add additional slots. Once an animate has filled a slot
with one or more of the installed features, they can later free those slots up
by installing other features. This requires an extended rest to properly
perform (or 8 hours). Installing the new equipment isn’t just a matter of
bolting it on, the anima of the construct has to attune to the device as well.
This attunement in unique to the animate and does not count against normal attunement
to magic items.
Animate Racial Feat: Advanced Construct Slots
This feat can be taken by animates only, and expands them to allow for
two additional construct slots. The animate may then choose the additional
traits to install when the feat is chosen, though the DM may require an
expenditure of time or coin to “activate” the chosen traits, typically 100 GP
per slot and 8 hours of install time. Animates may take this feat multiple
times, but each time the feat is taken the animate’s form grows proportionately
larger and more “accessorized.” Animates with 8 or more slots are considered
large creatures.
Animate Racial Traits:
The following traits may be used to fill the construct slots. At level 1
animates start with one or two traits (enough to fill both slots; most traits
take one slot). Many animate traits emulate spells. The animate uses
constitution as the spell ability for determining attacks, damage bonuses and
save DCs unless specified otherwise.
Night Vision (one slot)
An animate with this ability can see at night as if it were daylight,
although sudden bright lights can be momentarily blinding. Complete darkness is
equivalent to dim light. Only darkness spells will remove the animate’s ability
to see.
Rules: This effect is a bonus action to activate, and remains on until
deactivated. If the animate is surprised by sudden bright light equivalent to
sunlight within 10 feet of his location, he has disadvantage against ranged
attacks and perception checks until the beginning of his next turn.
Elemental Spray (one slot)
Small holes in the ends of the animate’s fingers release a stream of
burning liquid in an arc spray.
Rules: The animate gains a ranged attack that functions like burning hands, with two specific
exceptions: the animate may choose a different elemental type for the damage
that matches its own elemental attunement, and it gains 3 “charges” to use the
effect, each equivalent to a level 1 spell slot. These special charges require
a long rest to recover. If the animate is elementally of earth type the effect
is fire. If the elemental type is air it will be thunder or lightning
(animate’s choice).
Elemental Reservoir (one slot)
Prerequisite: elemental spray must be installed.
The majority of the animate’s arm and additional storage on the back of
the construct are used to provide extra fuel and punch to the animate’s
elemental spray.
Rules: the elemental reservoir enhances the elemental spray, granting
the animate an additional 3 slots to use for powering the elemental spray.
Burning hands may be empowered with higher level spell slots; with the
elemental cannon installed the animate can now “spend” the charges to attain a
higher level of effect by adding them to get the desired level (i.e. with 6
charges the animate could use the spell as equivalent to a level 1 slot six
times, or burn them all as a level 6 spell slot, or fire twice at level 3
each). As with the regular elemental spray all of the charges are restored
after an extended rest.
Change Self (one slot)
With a thought, the animate’s exterior appearance changes like plastic
to emulate another humanoid form.
Rules: This ability emulates the wizard spell disguise self and works
in the same manner. The animate gains 3 charges equivalent to 1st
level spell slots which can be used to power the effect. The charges replenish
after a long rest.
Hardened Skin (one slot)
This animate can tense up, as armored plates lock together in to a
solid, impenetrable mass of hardened ceramic, metal and wood.
Rules: the animate may activate this effect as a bonus action and gains
a natural AC of 18 (equivalent to plate armor, does not stack with other armor
or dexterity). The effect lasts for ten minutes. Once used hardened skin cannot
be restored until a short rest is taken.
Machine Logic (one slot)
Some animates are particularly mechanical in their way of thinking, and
perceive reality through calculated, analytical eyes.
Prerequisite: Wisdom or Intelligence of 13 or better.
Rules: The animate gains advantage against all illusory and
mind-affecting attacks as well as attacks.
Advanced Fire Spray (one slot)
Prerequisite: animate with elemental (fire) spray
installed.
Benefit: Animates that use the elemental spray may choose this option.
The animate can spray a lingering elemental fluid from its fingertips in
addition to the normal elemental spray attacl. The spray does an additional 1D6
ongoing damage of the chosen elemental type to all targets hit by the spray
each round. The targets must save vs. Constitution (DC equal to 10 plus
animate’s CON) to extinguish the elemental “burning” at the end of their turn.
The effect will dissipate after one minute if not extinguished via save.
Advanced Machine Logic (one slot)
The animate has honed its machine logic to a razor’s edge.
Prerequisite: Animate with machine logic installed;
Wisdom and Intelligence of 15 or better
Rules: The animate gains total immunity to charm effects and resistance
against psychic damage. In addition, when rolling advantage on saves against
mind-influencing and illusory effects the animate may ignore any 1’s or 2’s and
reroll.
Photographic Recall (one slot)
Prerequisites: Intelligence 15 or better.
Rules: Animates can be constructed and magically programmed to record
what they see and hear with stunning precision. As time goes by, this ability
is nurtured and becomes truly vivid. Animates with this ability gain a sense of
amazing recall about events they have witnessed.
The animate gains three “recall charges” to use with this trait. Each
time the animate expends a charge as a bonus action it may choose one of the
following features. The charges, once spent, may be recovered with a long rest.
Skill Advantage: recall useful information regarding a skill
or attribute check, gaining advantage for that roll
Attack Advantage: gain advantage on your next attack
Lore Recall: recover one useful bit of data from memory about
current or historical lore or information relevant to the adventure (subject to
DM interpretation)
Proficiency: gain proficiency on your next action based
on recollection of useful information
Lost Memories: an animate can try to remember ancient experiences
from its own life or the lives of other animates it can access. Make a
intelligence (history) check to determine how old the memory is. The result may
at the DM’s discretion grant proficiency on one relevant skill or attribute
check that relates to the recovered memory.
Roll Length of Time
1-5 1 week
6-10 1 month
11-13 1 year
14-16 10 years
17-20 100 years
21-25 1,000 years
26-34 2,000 years
35+ +1,000 years
Note that an animate might be fairly young, but its internal memory
might contain archived data going back thousands of years. Any animate with an
intelligence of less than 15 does not contain an archived data bank and can not
be upgraded with one until its intelligence is improved to 15 or better.
Once the recall is complete, the animate may photographically
reconstruct an image recalled in a physical media (such as potter or painter);
the animate gains a bonus (based on the above chart) to the relevant skill
(usually perform) for such attempts. It will be almost lifelike, depending on
the quality of painting materials. An animate with the Mimicry trait (see
below) may precisely duplicate voices from any period of time (like a
recording, but not as voice mimicry). Minutiae down to the signature on a clay
pot or the runes on a banded ring may be recalled with this ability.
Mimicry (one slot)
Prerequisites: Charisma 14+
Animates with this trait installed are able to study and precisely
imitate the motions and voice of those they encounter. Some perfect it to an
art.
The animate can study one target for a period of time that it can see and
attempt to mimic that target with a Charisma (deception) skill check. The base
DC for this task is 15, modified as follows:
DC 15 if the target is studied for 1-10
minutes
DC 13 if the target is studied for more than 10
minutes
DC 20 if the target is studied for 1 minute
or less
DC 25 if the target is attempting to disguise
its own movement or behavior (or make a contested roll vs. the target’s
deception skill)
Roll with advantage if studied for one hour
or more
Roll with disadvantage if the subject is
being mimicked through second-hand (but accurate) information
The animate, if successful, will precisely imitate the mannerisms and
voice of a target (or both, with two separate checks). The mimicry will be so
precise that the animate could be instantly assumed to be its mimicked target.
Note that the animate that does this is actually doing a form of pantomime, and
is not creating movements that are able to duplicate combat or skill-based
actions of the target. Nonetheless, the result is uncanny compared to
conventional thespians, a mechanically precise duplication of life.
Photographic recall used with this feat may allow for additional
applications of this trait.
Resistant Skin (two slots)
The animate enhances his hardened skin for a total carapace which
resists specific damage types.
Prerequisite: Animate with hardened skin installed, Level
8+
Rules: This animate has added a layer of additional protection on his
exterior carapace. In addition to his normal bonuses when activating hardened
skin, he adds resistance as well. The resistance will be against either 2
elemental damage types of choice, or against piercing, slashing and crushing
damage. The effect lasts for as long as regular hardened skin does. The choice
of resistance types may be changed after a long rest.
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