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OOC: Commentary

Posted: 09 May 2010, 17:21
by nemarsde
GM and players talk about the LXG: Post-Nuclear campaign.

Geography

Posted: 13 May 2010, 13:24
by nemarsde
We're rapidly approaching session 3 and with most of the PCs travelling through the post-nuclear Tunisian wilderness, I wanted to say a few words about geography.

There are several reasons why real world maps are only good for a cursory glance in LXG: Post-Nuclear.
  1. The setting isn't the real world. Nor has it ever been.
    Taking Tunisia as an example, it never gained independence, the French Union only ever invested in the high-tech metropolis of Tunis. The coastal towns along the Gulf of Hammamet were hideaways for the rich and famous and mostly accessed by yacht. So why build modern, surfaced roads elsewhere when there's nowhere else to go then? The French also couldn't control such roads militarily, so any roads traversing the country would have been to the advantage of their hostile, Communist-allied neighbours to the east, Kalubya.
  2. Where there are modern, surfaced roads, after a nuclear winter and sudden, catastrophic shift to nuclear summer, they aren't necessarily passable by all vehicles, they may even have been obliterated by the desert.
  3. Pedestrian travel in the desert is never in a conveniently straight line, it's a zig-zagging route between water-holes and unless you know precisely what lies over the next rise, it is an extremely risky undertaking. Walking a modern, surfaced road could be the worst idea possible. They were intended to be cruised along at high speed; they may not lead to water in short enough intervals for a walker.
  4. Finally, if the GM isn't being exact about geography, there's not much point in the player being. In-continuity, the pre-war maps of inland North Africa would have been very vague anyway. There was no need to map aught but the terrain, and only a few organisations would have bothered with that. In the real world, accurate and commonly-available maps of these regions are a very new development.
So if looking at a map it seems your characters might be taking a circuitous route, just go with it and assume they know best.

Magic and the Supernatural

Posted: 19 May 2010, 22:23
by nemarsde
With our campaign being set post-apocalypse a detailed understanding of the setting is unnecessary. Most of the world's populace have known nothing but the post-nuclear world, and the wastelands aren't well understood by them either.

Based on the real world, most of the setting will be comfortably familiar to players regardless of whether they've read LXG or played Fallout, etc. However, there's one fundamental difference: magic and the supernatural exists and its existence is (or at least was) science fact.

So, how does science explain "magic" and "the supernatural"?

The two terms are connected. By the 1960s magic was considered to be a discrete extradimensional effect that interacts with the four observable dimensions (space-time) in a way described as supernatural. The description of magic has gone through many paradigm shifts throughout history and for millennia it was attributed to a special force, energy, substance, or being, when it can conceivably manifest as any. Its effect has always been the same, it permits the breaking of the laws of nature (hence "supernatural"). By the turn of the century, writers were already imagining that alternate realities might exist without magic (and what a strange and disturbing place they'd be).

Because it breaks the laws of nature, there was never a single unifying theory of how to this effect can be manipulated. Its nature also meant magic could not be studied scientifically (even codifying procedures, a magical experiment that worked for one scientist did not necessarily work for another). Advances were being made in this area even as the missiles were warming in their silos.

Magic is the X-factor, indeed it puts the X in LXG.

Combat System Lethality

Posted: 21 Jun 2010, 22:52
by nemarsde
If you recall, in the Interlock System and Unisystem, one shot from a handgun would likely kill or incapacitate your character (unless they were armoured).

In Savage Worlds, one shot would have to inflict a success (for Shaken condition) and four Damage raises to inflict three Wounds and Risk of Incapacitation on the fourth. That's a Damage roll of 16 points above your character's Toughness.

Before you roll for Risk of Incapacitation, you can spend a benny to Soak the damage. This is a Vigour roll. 1 Damage raise is eliminated per Soak success or Soak raise, so to eliminate 4 Damage raises, they would need to roll a 16. Even rolling a 4 would be a success, eliminating the Risk of Incapacitation and leaving your character Shaken, on 3 Wounds with -3 to all Trait rolls. At this point they are living dangerously, but far from dead.

If you fail your Soak roll, rolling under a 4, you can benny to re-roll it. Or accept the Risk of Incapacitation and make a Vigour roll.
  • On a raise (roll of 8 or above), they're Shaken, on 3 Wounds with a -3 to all Trait rolls.
  • On a success (roll of 4-7), they're unconscious for an hour or until a successful Healing roll is made on them by another char.
  • On a failure (roll of 2-3), they're unconscious and dying and have to make this roll again next round. Also a Risk of Permanent Injury.
  • On a critical failure (roll of 1), they're dead.
Since this is a Vigour roll, you can spend a benny to re-roll. (Bennies can be spent to re-roll any Trait roll.)

So it's not as lethal a combat system as we've used in previous campaigns. It's intended to allow you to play larger-than-life heroes, and that's when playing Novice-level characters with the SWEX core rules. Our player characters are all Veteran-level characters created with the NEEX super powers rules. i.e., They're triple-hard bastards.

Advancement (SWEX, p37)

Posted: 19 Oct 2010, 11:17
by nemarsde
Hurrah! October saw our ninth LXG: Post-Nuclear session and the start of the next leg of the campaign. In celebration of Hallowe'en, when I'll be dressing up as Agent 47 again and dishing out treats, I'm also treating your characters to two Advances. (Basically the sum of 10 experience points, for anyone interested in the game mechanics.)

No trickery involved; it wasn't worth reprinting char sheets for one mere Advance, so I held the first back and am now awarding it with the second.

Your characters each have two (2) Advances!

Click here to find out what you can do with an Advance

Note that your characters are still Veteran Rank and that no attribute can be raised above d12 (except by Legendary Edges and Super Powers).

Please reply here with how you're spending your Advancement, putting your character name in the Subject. This guarantees we're all on the same page.

If you want to regale us with stories of your Hallowe'en costumes, please do so. 8-)

Kitty's Advancement

Posted: 28 Oct 2010, 11:40
by nemarsde
1st Advance
Gain a new Edge: No Mercy

2nd Advance
Increase two skills that are currently less than their linked attributes: Healing to d8, Shooting to d10

Roger's Advancements

Posted: 28 Oct 2010, 21:48
by brightlilim
Wow...evil advancement, Kitty! Seriously considering following suit...but won't as I need the bennies too much for actually hitting something!

1st Advance
Gain a new Edge: Frenzy

2nd Advance
Gain a new Edge: Improved Frenzy (specialising in mosh-pitting) [Changed thanks to Neil]

Swamp Thing's Advancement

Posted: 30 Oct 2010, 13:06
by nemarsde
You need your dice exorcised, more like! :P

1st Advance
Increase one skill that is currently equal to or greater than its linked attribute: Fighting to d10

2nd Advance
Increase one attribute by a die type: Spirit to d12

Ibis, Kardak, Mandrake, Sargon and Zambini's Advancements

Posted: 30 Oct 2010, 13:32
by rossi720
The following would also be valid for at least a half-dozen other wizards of varying nomenclature, but the title line is subject to technical limitations due to lack of programmer foresight, and having to abbreviate by eliminating honorifics is affront enough.

1st Advance
Gain a new Edge: Level Headed

2nd Advance
Increase two skills that are currently less than their linked attributes: Guts to d12, Notice to d12.

Giles' Advancement

Posted: 17 Nov 2010, 19:56
by nemarsde
Unless I hear otherwise.

1st Advance
Gain a new Edge: Common Bond

2nd Advance
Increase two skills that are currently less than their linked attributes: Investigation to d10+2, Streetwise to d10+2.

T-800's Advancement

Posted: 17 Nov 2010, 19:57
by nemarsde
Unless I hear otherwise.

1st Advance
Gain a new Edge: Marksman

2nd Advance
Gain a new Edge: Two Fisted

How to kill a vampire

Posted: 03 Dec 2010, 21:20
by nemarsde
Within the realm of LXG, a vampire could potentially be any vampire in the entirety of fiction. Wannabe vampire slayers have to be much more adaptable in their approach, gathering what intelligence they can beforehand or rely on the old reliable "stake through the heart".

In LXG: Post-Nuclear, a vampire must be undead and specially vulnerable to a stake through the heart. If they aren't both of these things, they aren't a vampire in this campaign.

Undead

So let's first consider what it is to be undead. For most vampires it means:
  1. +2 to basic Toughness
  2. +2 to recover from being Shaken
  3. Don't suffer additional damage from called shots
  4. Never suffer from Wound Modifiers
  5. Don't suffer from poison or disease
Stake Through the Heart

If in doubt, stick 'em in the anahata. The anahata is the heart chakra and all vampires are vulnerable to a stake through the heart.

What is a stake through the heart? Impalement, the offending object piercing the heart from one side to the other.

The offending object can be wood, iron, silver, steel, glass, almost anything, although most vampire slayers avoid using plastics for some reason. Ice is also unreliable for obvious reasons.

Staking the heart releases the vampire's life force in a catastrophic, and often spectacular fashion.

A called shot to the heart is -4 to hit. Most vampires must then make a Vigour roll vs the damage, taking damage normally if successful or carking it if failed. Remember the attack gets +4 to damage from being a called shot to the heart, eh.

Most vampires have invulnerability and can't be harmed by anything other than a few vulnerabilities. They can be Shaken by other attacks but never wounded.

For this reason a stake through the heart is the number one method of killing a vampire. For nameless, mob vampires, a stake to the heart is usually an insta-kill (the GM might not even bother with the Vigour roll).

Also for this reason, vampires in body armour are a perversion and subject to extermination by whatever deus ex machina wanders along. Seriously, when do vampires in fiction ever wear body armour!?

The vampire heart is enlarged, altered by the vampiric curse to serve as a mainframe. In a living being the heart chakra is where the soul's core is carried, the brain does all the thinking, but in a vampire all conciousness is centred in the heart. There the complex matrix that comprises the "mind" is trapped and suspended. Impaling the heart side-to-side breaches the containment of this matrix and allowing the lifeforce to leak out before the vampire can repair.

Direct Sunlight

Most vampires are vulnerable to direct sunlight. Those that aren't are real bastards.

If any part of a vampire's skin is exposed to direct sunlight they suffer 2d10 damage per round until dust. Armour does not protect, obviously, although head-to-toe hard armour might prevent exposure in the first place.

It must be direct sunlight, or if you're being pedantic, light from a star close enough to burn your skin on a summer's day. That's why vampires don't explode on cloudless nights or every full moon. Focused sunlight (magnifying glass) makes up in concentration for what it loses in reflection. So this weakness might better be described as a vulnerability to sunburn.

Setites are rumoured to be doubly vulnerable to sunlight, but as the League has learnt, they seem remarkably resilient to it! Wonder who started that rumour then.

Other Weaknesses

All other vampire weaknesses are unreliable, but can help tip the balance in the vampire slayer's favour if they are known.

So, listed in order of how common they are:

Holy water: Vampire is instantly Fatigued and splashing them is only a touch attack! Don't know what Fatigued does? -1 to all Trait rolls. That includes Fighting, Spirit and Vigour rolls. Holy water will often work on vampires that don't even believe in a religion. Maybe the conviction burns them whether they believe in it or not?

Holy symbols: Those give an opposed test of Spirits. The vampire must win to approach the wielder of the holy symbol. Doesn't tend to work against those non-religious vampires.

Garlic: Rare and generally limited to Carpathian strains of vampire. These vampires get a -2 to all Trait rolls if garlic is within 1" (that's 2 metres)!

Running water: Even rarer a weakness than garlic, possibly signifying a necromantic source to the vampirism. When it is a weakness, it's an effective one. The vampire suffers an immediate wound if they cross running water, unless asleep in their coffin.

Fire: It's fair to say that nothing likes being set on fire, and vampires don't take kindly to it either. But anything short of a thermobaric bomb is likely to be recovered from quickly. It is good practice to burn a vampire's remains after it's been slain, but the same might be said of any supernatural foe.

Magic/Psionics: Not a vulnerability as such.

Dhampirs and Thin Bloods

Half damned and debased, weak-blooded vampires are fresher and more squishy than other vampires. They have no invulnerability. They do not have undead abilities No. 2 or 4; they ignore only two levels of Wound Modifiers.

A stake through the heart that causes a single wound or more Incapacitates them instantly, but this effect ends immediately if the stake is removed. :o (Unless the vampire would be Incapacitated normally, of course.) Don't worry about this, since dhampirs and thin bloods have no invulnerability, just take Van Helsing's advice and always decapitate and burn your staked vampire (see Finishing Move, SWEX, p68).

Talking of the Professor; his nemesis, Count Dracula, is no common variety vampire, having used necromancy to become a vampire. Few realise the Bloody Count is actually more feared as a sorcerer than as a vampire.

General Advice

When expecting to encounter vampires, always keep a sword handy and a few stakes nearby, at least 30 cm long, long enough to pin 'em to the ground if need be. Only ever venture into vampire territory in daylight! Make up some water bombs out of holy water and condoms for a vampire-slaying religious dichotomy. Raiding old toy shops for water pistols isn't childish. Otherwise just a plain glass jar, filled with holy water, can be used to splash a vampire within reach. Only turn to holy water if having difficulty subduing or staking the vampire, it should not be a first resort unless it's a known weakness of that vampire.

Impale, decapitate, burn, regardless of the strain of vampire.

When you are confronted by a mob of vampires, they may well be thin bloods. Impolitely stab the nearest in the belly. If it starts leaking and looks upset, it's a thin blood. Forget about staking the heart, unleash your most powerful modern weapons. Massive damage in whatever way possible is your aim. A frag grenade into a mob of thin bloods can be effective and is one of the few times a hero can grenade a mob and not feel bad about it.

Note that a shambling undead is probably not a thin blood or vampire at all, but a zombie. Although these are more vulnerable in the ajna or "third eye" chakra (called shots to the head are +6 damage, instead of +4), they're also susceptible to massive damage.

If the sword blade's forcefully repelled from the vampire's body, leaving nary a scratch, then it's a fully signed-up, card carrying member of the vampire union. You're in trouble and what's worse, a master vampire is almost certainly nearby, in the same town, village, etc.

Where were you when the bomb dropped?

Posted: 25 Jan 2011, 11:44
by nemarsde
The campaign is set in an '80s time forgot. The present date in-continuity is unknown, but we'll use 1985 as a base. The nuclear holocaust was in 1964.

A very simple chart gives us a quick idea of how old characters encountered were when the bombs dropped. You can then extrapolate from that where they were, using your back story.

AA BB
00 21
10 31
13 34
16 37
18 39
21 42
30 51
40 61
50 71
60 81

AA = Age in 1964
BB = Age in 1985

As you can see, anyone under the age of 21 was born after the apocalypse. How does this apply to the League?
  • Kitty was born about 4 years after the bomb, to refugees from Europe.
  • The T-800 is a machine sent through time from 1959.
  • Alec Holland would have been about 25 and working in French West Africa when the bomb dropped, then been murdered and turned into Swamp Thing 8 years later.
  • Roger would have been between 13 to 15 (since he was always that age in the books) and in Africa at the time of the nuclear holocaust, making him 34 to 36 years old at present.
  • Giles was about 9 and living in Britain with his Watcher parents when the bomb dropped. He fled with them to North Africa, and is 30 at present.
  • Your Miracle Man was already 52 when the apocalypse came, making him a genuinely old coot now.

It's those bloody Setites again!

Posted: 26 Jan 2011, 12:42
by nemarsde
The Setites in LXG: Post-Nuclear are an ancient race of Serpent Men that fled from a dying, alien world with a red sun, arriving on Earth before "the oceans drank Atlantis" and intermixing with the prehistoric civilisations of mankind. At first they were worshipped as divine agents of Father Set, but in later ages they were usurped by the Atlanteans.

Never numerous, after these early cataclysms the Setites were even fewer and so in the millennia after they assumed a doctrine of infiltration and manipulation from the shadows. Subterfuge and fear of exposure became embedded in the Setite psyche.

Yet the Setites have never been rivals of mankind. The Setites' own world was consumed by the vampiric curse, they'd drank their last drop of fresh, mortal blood, and the world was populated by deranged, starved vampires.

So the Setites on Earth were cautious not to make the same mistake twice. Vampirism became a great privilege, bequeathed only on the most worthy, and vampires spawned from other, non-Setite sires, were considered a dire threat and natural enemy. Ultimately, it best suited the Setites for mankind to thrive.

Over thousands of years of experimentation and breeding programmes the Setite vampires were able to recreate a facsimile of their own race. The early prototypes were monstrous Man-Serpents, but the end result was a satisfactory reptilian humanoid. These reproduced and the Serpent Man race was reborn.

Disguised as humans these became the far-reaching arm of Setite influence. Such disguises once required illusion, but in modern times a mass produced, synthetic human skin was developed that allowed blanket infiltration of human society.

Although technically aliens, the Setites had been intermingled in human society for over twenty thousand years, so their culture was almost indistinguishable from human culture.

After the Bomb

Wow, mankind really fucked up this time, you have to feel sorry for the Setites. Everything was going swimmingly, the Setites had largely out-played their vampiric rivals, but they hadn't reckoned on human nature. For a supposedly intelligent race, humans just loved to fight and the Setite conspiracy never got to grips with this. In the end, any chance of utopia was ruined by a stupid monkey in the Oval Office.

After the nuclear holocaust, a once disgraced and impoverished Setite noble rose to power; the sorcerer called Cobra. Leading a rebellion in the Setite ranks, which were still reeling in shock, he took up the abandoned title of Khan and forcibly unified Setite ambitions.

It would be a new era, and the Setites would hide in the shadows no longer. There was hardly any civilisation left to cast a shadow.

In the decades since WW3, the Setites have assembled a war machine, constructed from the most advanced military technology. Their sign is a red sun between black serpents, facing each other.

But what is Cobra Khan's goal? His alliance with the Martians and the base at Tiamat may hold the answers.

Wildcards

Celebrity Setites!
  • Cobra Khan. An ancient vampire with mind control powers, he crossed swords with the League's old coot of a Miracle Man back in the 1930s, when Cobra was running a criminal empire. Cobra has always worn the chromed steel mask, shaped like a skull. Thwarted, he fell from grace but came back with a vengeance after Armageddon, turning the surviving Setites into an ultra high-tech army, intent on world domination. Not as stupid an idea as it once was.
  • Tojo Ken the Reptile. Another ancient vampire, overlord of a Setite ninja clan. Opposed to Cobra Khan's new vision for the Setites, he attempted a coup using the Genesis Device to reshape Earth's ecosystem (including the human species) into a planet-wide blood factory. Tojo Ken was barbequed by the League, however, and his plan fell through. The other lords in his clan are now suspected of treason and are on a short leash. Obvious cultural ties to Japan.
  • The Lizard King. Considering Cobra Khan is "Khan", this is unlikely to be a title conferred by the Setites themselves. He's a leader of a snake cult, operating in the Tébessa underground and promising paradise to his followers. Ralf's got his number.
  • The Black Adder. Sole survivor of an Old English clan, the Black Adder was a low ranking noble at the time of the Third World War and was given the unenviable task of being emissary on the front line. Ironically, whilst he narrowly avoided "final death" during a bayonet charge on Soviet positions, his superiors in the clan were consumed by nuclear fire back in London, leaving the Black Adder as overlord. There was no place for conniving sybarites in Cobra Khan's new vision for the Setites and the Black Adder was ostracised. Him and his dogsbody, Baldrick, would later settle in MedievalWorld in Delos.
Rivals

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Who are the Setites' rivals?
  • Martians? The Martians are also alien vampires, and far more militant than the Setites have traditionally been. But it now seems that under Cobra Khan's leadership, the Setites and Martians can see eye-to-eye and are allies, not rivals.
  • The 7 Golden Vampires. This shadowy cabal of Chinese vampires, purportedly clones of a master vampire, keep being mentioned but whether or not they're actively opposed to the Setites is another matter. The Chinaman was convinced the League were serving the 7.
  • Count Dracula. The bloody count is the vampiric equivalent of a sex-pest with a stubborn venereal disease. His special brand of evil has always been driven by an obsession with carnal existence. As a mortal he studied necromancy, becoming one of its foremost practitioners, all so he could live forever and keep on philandering. He has no morals, there are no depths of depravity he wont plumb, he's a sexual pervert yet staunchly heterosexual and has a vitriolic hatred of the Church.
  • Omega Kingdom. These white supremacists and religious zealots aren't going to like "demons" taking over the world. Omega have an armoured battalion at their disposal and they'll go out fighting, rather than bow to the Serpent. If not for the Setites air superiority, they might even inflict some damage if they could draw them out.
  • Alliance of Democratic Nations. Some of the UK's intelligence apparatus is still intact. There's "M", and apparently the British Library's Special Operations Division has an operational nuclear submarine. The Setites are definitely enemies. It may have been a Setite splinter faction that had stolen the Genesis Device, but if Cobra Khan got hold of the device he'd probably attempt the same remodelling of Planet Earth and the human species that Tojo Ken intended.
  • The Mad God. Father Set is a multi-headed dragon god of chaos. His form of chaos is corruption and deceit and to the Setites, these are akin to high art. The Mad God's form of chaos tends towards wanton destruction; it's about wreaking havoc, fouling things up beyond all recognition. It's safe to say his followers will be opposed to (and opposed by) pretty much everything and everyone.
"If it bleeds we can kill it"

There are three kinds of Setite. The reptilian humanoid. The reptilian humanoid/vampire. And the half-man, half-serpent hybrids.

Many rumours surround the Setite vampire, many of them untrue. Some say they're even more vulnerable to sunlight than other vampires, but the League haven't witnessed this. If anything the Setites' synthskin makes them more resilient to sunlight.

One thing worth considering is that there are no Setite vampire goons. A Setite doesn't earn the mark of a vampire by being a goon. Any Setite vampire encountered is likely to be ancient and possess their own unique powers.

They do burn in sunlight though, and are of course vulnerable to a stake through the heart (see above).

Non-vampiric Setites seem to be similar to normal humans. They have red blood, and when in disguise can easily pass as human.

The synthskin disguise is complete. Eyes, tongue, genitals, it's all there. It's all bonded to the Setite's own skin via nanotech, and has to be physically torn off unless the correct method of removal is used. (Though it's not currently known what this method is.)

According to legend, the Atlanteans devised a shibboleth with which to identify Serpent Men disguised by illusion:

"Ka nama kaa lajerama."

Worth remembering. There's also some scant evidence that they're allergic to Vibranium or "Star Metal", as it's referred to in the ancient texts. (This would result in a -4 to all Trait rolls and Pace halved.)

"Snakeheads" are Setite troopers, dressed in authoritarian navy blue uniforms, adorned with the Setite symbol. They wear an integrated battle suit system, complete with trademark helmet and black face mask. Some Setites wear red. This is a mark of prestige, signifying the wearer is "blood bonded" to a Setite noble/vampire. Setites wearing red will often have powers granted to them by this bond. Tojo Ken had his Red Ninja, Cobra Khan has his Crimson Guard, etc.

Snakeheads are equipped advanced technology, based on the very pinnacle of human design. This technology is propelled by an abundance of Tiberium and energy. It's known that the Setites took over Haïdra power station. They also have cold fusion technology. Perhaps they stockpiled Tiberium before the war? Otherwise they have found an off-world supplier.

Either way, their war machine is geared towards fighting lightly armed, fast moving guerillas. Anticipating human rebellion much? As such, their own forces are highly mobile, geared towards maximum tactical flexibility.

The Mad God

Posted: 23 Apr 2011, 13:19
by nemarsde
The Mad God may have a rich history but it is shrouded in secrecy. With notable names being Tarjan and Nyarlathotep, anyone researching the Mad God must be willing to look in the grimmest of grimoires for even a reference, and delve further back into prehistory than ever before for original works. The Mad God was already ancient history by the time of the earliest Mesopotamian civilisations.

It was during the post-Hyborian Age that a powerful magician called Mangar the Dark accidentally summoned the Mad God in his quest for ultimate power. This period remains largely unstudied, due to the difficulty and danger of the research. Accounts tend to be confusing and often nonsensical, overall painting a picture that is almost maze-like. It seems that the avatar of the Mad God wrought immense destruction across time and space. The SS insignia even appears in some accounts, suggesting elements of the Third Reich were recruited into the Mad God's horde.

The term, abbreviated here as "B.A.T.", was not the name of the Mad God's avatar per se, but rather a phrase invoked in reference to the avatar, perhaps even a spell.

Translations generally agree that this avatar appeared as a tall humanoid, made of diamond and gold. He was impervious to all weapons except those crafted from his own flesh. Indeed, this was how he was eventually slain, using the "Strifespear". The avatar had crafted the spear from one of his own ribs, and cast it at one of his enemies, an Amazon. Although the enemy was killed, she was avenged by her true love, who used the spear against the avatar.

The avatar was also portrayed as crafting golden rings from his own flesh, allowing him to possess whoever wore them (as a circlet, bracelet, armlet, collar, or finger ring).

A power attributed to the Mad God and his avatar was the power to absorb the souls of the freshly slain, turning them into "dread spirits" which could then be used to animate corpses. This is often given as the motive for the Mad God's rampages. Whilst it might be misinterpreted as the archetypal quest for power, it is more like the Mad God striving to evolve through the processes that are inherent to him. In other words, the Mad God can't not try to kill every living thing in the Universe.

Instrumental in these events was an archmage of immense power, almost certainly one of the most powerful to ever have lived, who was said to have mastered the six magicks. For some reason, there are no references to this archmage's name in any work, and tantalizingly there is a missing epilogue in the Darkhold's account.

It was in the notes of the Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred, notably the author of the Necronomicon, that Giles found an obscure reference to the Darkhold's missing epilogue, suggesting that the Knights Templar may have had stone tablets that detailed its contents. Giles tracked these stone tablets down to the private collection of Lord Heshingly Croft. Written in the code of the Black Circle, it would be almost indecipherable to a lesser scholar and without the knowledge of the Laputans. Rubbings of the tablets had been mistakenly identified as originating from Shangri-La by Croft (unimpeachable explorer, rotten scholar), and so been lost to academia. Even so, Giles barely managed a rough translation. It is a story told by a warrior, written out of most accounts. He demands that his story be set in stone, and he recalls the events in the aftermath of the Mad God's avatar's defeat.

The archmage pursued the Mad God's essence into the outer darkness and by guile, tricked the Mad God into forgetting all identity, all past events, so that he became simply "Prime"; self-begotten, self-produced, a neutral store of unfathomable knowledge.

This was a sudden, startling revelation for Giles. The literal translation of "Prime" in Ancient Egyptian is Thoth. The Ibis-stick is a magic artefact that is a direct link to Thoth, in some ways allowing whoever wields it to act as his avatar on Earth.

But some how the Mad God's other avatar has been resurrected. Where or how is unknown, but what's for sure is that B.A.T. has sensed the Ibis-stick and is hunting for it.

Then there's the golden ring integrated into No's bionic hand, a ring that gave him supernaturally fine control over his life force and made him one of the world's foremost experts on "neuralware". A ring that also possessed him and enslaved his mind, his master none other than "Lord Necron", an honorific title given to B.A.T. by his followers.

Of the archmage's identity, Giles found no trace. The archmage was thorough in covering his tracks and hiding the truth from Thoth.

Heavy Weapons and Armour

Posted: 25 Apr 2011, 12:53
by nemarsde
Don't be confused. The rules for Heavy Weapons and Heavy Armour are quite simple and can be summed up in a single sentence.

All armour offers protection, but only Heavy Weapons can penetrate Heavy Armour.

Remember that and you're fine. Hell, don't even read the next part unless you're interested in the mechanics. I'm warning you. :P

So for example, a Setite infantry battle suit gives +6 Armour. This applies whether you shoot it with an Uzi or a Cobra Assault Cannon. The Cobra Assault Cannon happens to be a Heavy Weapon though, so it can also penetrate Alliance Ablative Armour (+2 Heavy Armour), which an Uzi can't.

It's worth noting that Heavy Weapons tend to have an AP (Armour Penetration) effect too. This often renders body armour ineffective, regardless of whether it's Heavy Armour or not. A Cobra Assault Cannon has an AP 9. This negates the +6 Armour of an infantry battle suit and the +2 of ablative armour. i.e., You might as well not be wearing armour.

Want to be a munchkin? The most common Heavy Weapons all have an AP 4. Thus, +6 Armour from a full body infantry battle suit might be better for Wild Cards (like the PCs) than the +2 Heavy Armour from head and torso only ablative armour. Wild Cards have bennies, three wounds and even then are only Incapacitated. Whereas ablative armour would be far better for extras, who have no bennies, only one wound and generally get hit in the torso.

The Climactic Battle of Good versus Evil!

Posted: 31 May 2011, 20:28
by nemarsde
It happened, but like some wild all-night party, afterwards can be a bit of a blur and leave you with a sneaking suspicion that you embarrassed yourself.

The last session went well, although we did have to expedite things somewhat. I cut using the mass battle rules and combat between Roger and the Mad God. This did remove a lot of the randomness, so whilst this might not have been "railroading" as such, someone was definitely playing with their train set. My reasons for this were simple, I said it would be the last session and if we overran, our next available play date was in September. That would have sucked the massive udders of Mothra, even more so than a forced march to the finishing line.

Since we mentioned kaiju, let's get back to the climactic battle of good versus evil.


Upon Cobra Khan's death, a fail-safe device was activated that began the systematic slaughter of Tiamat's 400,000 human slaves. The aim was to overload the nexus point and create a dimensional cross rip and summon Father Set from the outer darkness. Cobra Khan envisaged this as his resurrection. As khan he saw himself as a king of kings, a Setite messiah and Father Set's divine agent on Earth. Father Set's glory would also be his.

This all went James Hong when the Miracle Man jammed the Ibis-stick into the nexus and attempted to manipulate its energies to attack Tripletron. Failing the Spellcasting roll succinctly, and already having spent his bennies on resurrecting Kitty earlier, this instead caused a backlash that allowed Lord Necron to finally escape from within No's ring and simultaneously chose the form of the Mad God's manifestation. Father Set is depicted as a multi-headed dragon, so the Mad God's Chosen Form would be.

Thankfully a Thenurian was on hand to give handy hints about how to defeat this menace. (He would be compelled to do this several months later, after Giles had rediscovered the ritual for summoning Thenurians.) The League would need a weapon capable of vanquishing the Mad God. But the Mad God is only vulnerable to weapons made of his own body? The Thenurian found an exploit...

The Mad God and all the supernatural existed because of "magic", without which the world would be mundane and the closest thing to a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen would be Steven Seagal. In essence, the Mad God was made of magic. Back in the dawn of time, the Most Powerful Wizard in the Universe™ also worked this out and after thwarting the Mad God the first time, he crafted a weapon made of pure magic, a conduit to the dimension of magic in the shape of a sword. The Thenurian ensured this would find itself into the hands of the League, aeons later.

Fabulous secret powers were revealed to Roger when he held aloft this magical sword and said to himself "I have the Power!" He was then able to wrest the Ibis-stick from the heart of the Mad God's Chosen Form and return it to its dormant state. With Roger now possessing the spirit of the Most Powerful Wizard in the Universe™, the Ibis-stick was in some ways returned to its creator along with the Power Sword.
  • Deacon triggered the Genesis Device, destroying himself and saving Western civilisation. This completed his mission, giving Joshua a check-mate.
  • Kitty was left in the care of the Secret Service, and finally had a dog of her own, Beast.
  • Giles now had access to the data vaults of the British Library, Laputa and the Setites. He was probably never seen of again, except by the interns changing his IV drip and the batteries in his VR goggles!
  • Alec wandered far into the depths of the wild, seeking to understand Genesis, his creation, and himself.
  • Roger landed the unenviable job of Defender of New Earth, but fortunately the Power Sword also gave Ruh an upgrade to help him out.
  • Joe sailed to the Blazing Lands, where all hurts are healed.
  • Ralf became the satrap of a Caribbean banana republic.