sladethesniper

7 minutes ago, Ian Absentia said:

You mean gaining special abilities through prolonged denial of worldly engagement?  Aside from the obvious impediment to engaging roleplay, you might look to the Ki Skills from Land of Ninja for RQ3 (assuming you can find it).  Failing that, I'd suggest you duplicate this post to the Mythras forum elsewhere here on this site -- they do mysticism in some depth in that BRP-compatible game.

!I!

Well, I was meaning more things like a lot of vows, not just chilling in a tower focusing on eternity.  Something like living only on bread and water, no sex, vows of poverty, etc. 

Thanks for the heads up on Mythras Lloyd and Ian.

-STS

Are there any rules or skills for religious or psionic asceticism anywhere?  

Thank you in advance.

-STS

n/t

I don't like simplistic morality.  I liked having all the sides being both good and bad.  Feels better, more natural, to me at least.  Just like all Orcs are not evil, all Imperials are not evil (at least in my interpretation).

As for Rey...well, she IS the grand-daughter of the most powerful Sith ever, who was literally going to possess her to continue his reign.  She is supposed to be OP.  Within the constraints of the universe, it made sense, to me.  Finn was trying to tell Rey that he is Force Sensitive, and that he kinda has the hots for her...but then so does Poe...kinda.  Instead of a weird love square, having Rey be a Force Diad with Kylo Ren (just like Bastila Shan and Revan) was a good way to solve that issue.  Because so many people hated the Rose/Finn story line (to the point that the actress, Kelly Marie Tran wanted her character cut out as much as possible), they dropped it and tried it with Jannah, which kinda seemed a bit more understandable (they have a lot more in common).

It is my third favorite SW movie...After ESB and Revenge of the Sith...

-STS

?? I am assuming you want your antagonists to be non-sympathetic things to be mowed down with moral impunity?  The FN storyline was kinda weak sauce  in the last three flicks, but in Rogue One, you learn that the Rebellion are pretty much terrorists and murderers...but they were presented as the good guys in the other films (minus Rogue One).  I don't know, I rather liked the fact that the Stormtroopers were humanized a bit.  The fact is that there are several types of Clone/Stormtroopers...the Kaminoan clones, the Spaarti flash clones, the actual Stormtrooper Corps using Humans, then some near humans (in the EU mostly), then the First Order Stormtroopers that were snagging kids and hypno-indoctrinated them.  I appreciated the fact that there was some humanization for the Stormtroopers.

-STS

Wow...gorgeous.  More money for Chaosium.  But so much happiness for me and the poor investigators who will be investigating.

-STS

Well, I'm getting this!  Yay.  It looks gorgeous.

-STS

On 9/3/2019 at 2:54 PM, smiorgan said:

This. This is how I wanted to play it when I made (aborted) plans for a campaign...

The other possible option I considered is a campaign where the Nephilim are the bad guys and a few rogue Nephilim decide to help humanity to get rid of them for good. Characters play the humans that one day discover that they are possessed - as many people are - bur the Nephilim that were possessing them are now letting them free and hinting at how to liberate other humans... they go around pretending to be Nephilim and, in fact, their former Nephilim have given them their powers...but their tired Nephilim are rapidly devolving... A bitter and bloody war ensues, full of moral dilemmas and "who is the real monster" questions...

 

The whole awaking thing leading to unseen wars feels like it was stolen by Mage: the Awakening.  The OWOD Mage was great but the NWOD version feels like a Nephilium copy.

On 9/3/2019 at 5:36 PM, foolcat said:

Oh well, Nephilim, the occult heartbreaker. I still own every book published back in the day (the sigil formed by the spines glows in the night of a supermoon, I swear!), yet I never got around doing anything with it. But what a source of inspiration it has been for me, and still is.

You‘d think that with today’s (renewed) interest in all things mystical and supernatural, a game like Nephilim would fall on fertile ground. Look at TV shows like, well, Supernatural (15 seasons!), Grimm, American Gods & Good Omens (excellent Gaiman weirdness, both of them), Warehouse 13, Travellers, and even Lucifer: hidden worlds galore! Popular shows like Westworld and Altered Carbon, while clearly being SciFi, ponder questions like „what is consciousness anyway, and can it be transferred?“

Alas, when I asked Jeff two years ago at Eternal Con about their plans for Nephilim, it was clear the game was on the back burner, if anything. Which, of course, is their prerogative, having two hot irons in the fire already with RQG and CoC.

Concerning Nephilim incarnation and awakening in player characters, I‘d handle it less like a body snatching thingy, but more like an epiphany: while you clearly and presently remember living your life as John Doe so far, suddenly there‘s more; you can remember living as one Jane Doe in the 70‘s; and before her, another face in the mirror. Then there’s a whole chain of faces, fading back in time; all of them themselves, yet behind all of them, the true name of the ageless entity that is you. And you’re asking yourself the age-old question (again): „The breath of the flute player, does it belong to the flute?“

😉

Well, another way to play it would be similar to the tager idea in CthulhuTech.  Instead of being taken over with no say in the matter, you could run it like the Nephilium has to be asked to be join with the human.  That would be a good way to start the game off...a human is in a near death state and instead of death, the Nephilium could offer life at a cost.  Alternate ways would be having to do a ritual to make a bargain, or get kidnapped and sacrificed by a cult and your character has no choice but to be Nephilium skin puppet...

That could give you a choice of campaign style.

2 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

I played (GMed) Nephilim for a few years. 

I agree that the concept of playing an invasive being taking over a human body (and life) can be repelling for the players. 
My players always wanted to follow their goals, but also took account of the previous life of their host/Simulacrums. 
They showed up on the wedding aniversary of their parents, tried to be in good relations with the colleagues of their Simulacrum (they were university students, so with their fellow students and professors), etc. They also identified themselves with the former life of their Simulacrum as strong as with their own pastlives. 
 

This is really cool.  Were they 100% Nephilium with memories, or did they play it like a symbiosis sort of thing.

-STS

You actually have players that want to play Nephilim?  Wow...That is so cool.  I envy you.

-STS

I only own the core book, and while this might seem silly...was there more books produced for it (in English)?  I have had the most luck in tying in the game as an "alternate" view of the world for my CoC games.  As a stand alone game, I don't know anyone who played it...and I am the only person I know who even owns the book.

-STS

I have both games, but don't play either.  I use some of the ideas from Nephilim in my CoC games....  As for Superworld, I think most of that was covered in the BGB.

-STS

I am also very interesting in getting an update on this project.  Sci-Fi and BRP are my two favorite things....

-STS

Spotify has a lot of random playlists if you are up for that sort of online thing.  I second the recommendation of Abney Park.

-STS

First off, Thank you!  This may be the push that my wife needs to run Ravenloft.  Her first choice was AD&D, her second choice was 3E (blech), but this may work to have her run it in a GOOD system...(although AD&D was "better-ish" than 3E, now that I can look back on both systems...)

-STS

On 3/16/2017 at 3:39 PM, colinabrett said:

There are a couple of threads around here dealing with Cyberpunk. One of those led to me creating Cyberpunk 2046 , which might help get you started.

And your efforts are much appreciated

-STS

20 hours ago, SDLeary said:

I'm not so sure this is accurate. While a hit that doesn't cause noticeable impairment immediately, it can over time (BRP aggravation). So I would say a non-impairing hit would still be important. If the PC doesn't (or can't) get it treated, it still might get them in the end. 

Impairment effects will vary depending upon the severity of the hit. This variance will be greater if the round cannot cause enough damage once the hit occurs; both skill and round capability factor into this. 

As to a Lethal hit, yes. But being an RPG you also have to factor in heroism. Will the character be able to respond in kind before they fade out? Has their equipment protected them enough that they can get off one more shot at their assailant? Will John Reese be able to knee cap the tactical squad and reach his target before he falls unconscious?

And even in the real world, the results in this regard would probably be a bit different from CQB vs. distance fighting, where you could have a bit more time to properly aim.

SDLeary 

My reference to impairment is roughly analogous to "hit points".   How I model weapons damage in my games where players ask for more realism (pretty much only for my military gamers and my son):

Probability of Hit/Probability of Kill (pH/pK)
Probability of Hit is equal to the skill of the attacker as a percentage. (The normal skill in BRP).
Probability of Kill is equal to the chance that an attack will kill the target and is determined by the maximum damage a certain weapon can do divided by the hit points of the target. This will give a number that is converted to a percentage, and if that number or below is rolled on a d100, then the target is destroyed by that attack.
Example: a weapon that does 6d6 damage hits a target that has 300 Hit Points. 6 times 6 equals 36 divided by 300 equals .12 which equals 12 percent of a kill.
Roll a d100, if less than or equal to 12, then it is a kill. If the roll is 13 or higher, continue as normal. So the 6d6 becomes 33 damage (you rolled great) 300 Hit Points minus 33 equals 267 HP remaining. The next hit by this weapon against that target will be 6d6 vs 279 HP equals 36 divided by 279 equals .1348 which equals 13 percent of a kill. Therefore, as the target takes damage, the chance of a catastrophic kill increase.
Also, APPLY Damage Reduction or Stopping Power to the Max Damage of the weapon, so a SP of 25 vs a 6d6 weapon is 36-25=11 damage to be used Against the 300 HP target, NOT 36…otherwise armor would be pointless.

Always round down.

The "kill" may not actually be literally dead, but it does mean out of combat so if the GM wants they can merely be unconscious and seriously wounded.

It is an extra roll (to hit, probability of kill, if no kill, roll damage) and it makes the damage process longer (until you get some practice), BUT it does have the tendency to make combat faster as there end up being some insta-kills reducing combatants.

As for "heroism" in RPGs, I have never really bought into the special snowflake idea of PC characters.  The heroism, for me at least, is that the PC are choosing to do something that other people will not...the heroism is their choice to BE a hero and risk death or imprisonment in difficult situations as opposed to having more hit points or special powers. Granted, in old school D&D, it was more about home invasion and murder, so maybe their version of heroism is different that mine, since racially based stereotypes of who it ok to murder never really held much weight with me.

-STS
 

One thing that I think some people may be missing is the fact that accuracy/skill plays a larger part in the lethality of combat that the weapons used.  

Using special and critical successes are what make highly skilled combatants far more lethal than their less skilled brethren, regardless of the weapons being used.

http://basicroleplaying.org/topic/1868-special-success-query/

While having a LOT of weapons data is nice, the effects should basically come down to: Hit or Miss; If HIT is the target IMPAIRED or DEAD.  A non-Imparing hit is worthless and does not need to be modeled, whereas an Impairing hit has to show how much Impairment the target has (can they still fight?, can they still move?), and a Lethal hit is just that, and the target is dead, or dying and will be dead quickly.

-STS

In case it might be useful...Over the years I have built a complete table of weapons and damage ratings that range from fists to nuclear weapons.  The damage numbers get big, but the reason for that is that I follow a generally linear damage progression, the damage ratings can be used for BRP, D20 and Palladium (because I love Mega Damage).

I have been able to "mostly" rectify two different methods for damage determination:

1. Depth of penetration (primarily used for vehicular weapons) = 1 point of damage per 1/2" of penetration in flesh OR 1/2 mm of penetration in steel 

2. The square root of joules of energy/2.4 = weapon damage

A lot of the damage ratings end up rather high, but in my experience a lot of BRP combat lasts until someone is hit, which is rather similar to my experiences IRL combat (using a house rule wherein unconsciousness occurs at 0 HP, and death happens at -1/2 HP, and there are no "critical hits" since those are modeled by rolling high on damage). 

Also, here is a list of bullet types and damage multipliers that I use:

Dual Purpose                                                     ½  SP ½ damage if wearing armor; if no armor damage x 1.5

Armor Piercing                                                  ½  SP, ½ damage,

Wadcutter                                                          damage x 1.5, armor x 2, ½ range,

Semi‑wadcutter                                                damage x 1.25, armor x 1.5, 3/4 range,

Reverse semi‑wadcutter                               damage x 1.5, armor x 2, 3/4 range,

Full Metal Jacket                                              standard damage,

Total Metal Jacket                                           SP ‑ 1,

Solid construction                                            SP ‑ 3,

Soft Point                                                            Damage x 1.25, armor x 1.5,

Pointed Soft Point                                            Damage x 1.1, armor x 1.25,

Ballistic Tip                                                          Damage x 1.25,

High Pressure                                                    Damage x 1.1,

Very High Pressure                                          Damage x 1.25,

High Velocity                                                     Damage x 1.25, range x 1.25,

Ultra Velocity                                                     Damage x 1.5, range x 1.5,

Hollow Point                                                      Damage x 1.5, armor x 2,

Fragmenting/Frangible                                  Damage x 2, will not penetrate any armor or cover,

Ramjet ammo    AKA "Gyroc"                       Damage x 2, range x 2,  

Blended Metal Jacket                                     Damage x 1.25, armor x 1

Tungsten Core                                                   Armor x 1/3, damage x1/2

SLAP                                                                      Armor x 1/4, damage x 1/4

sabot                                                                     armor x 1/2, damage x 1/2

Tungsten Core SLAP                                        Armor x 1/5, damage x 1/2

"spoon tip" AKA Loeffelspitzung                Damage x 1.5

Segmented Bullets                                          Damage x 2, armor x 2

-STS

Well, due to that article my wife is finally (after 20 years) OK with using RuneQuest instead of D&D on a one shot "to try it".  Nevermind that I was totally right about Call of Cthulhu and BRP in general....  Apparently my powers of persuasion are less than Sandy's.

-STS

On 8/9/2016 at 7:48 PM, Mankcam said:

Well, D&D is American. But Chaosium was Californian .

Oh...guess I can't like Chaosium anymore...although that leaves me with Steve Jackson Games...and that is just sad

-STS

j/k

I actually really like how ICE combined % skills and a level/class system into a pretty efficient hybrid system.  It makes a nice "bridge" for a lot of different games systems that use D100 mechanics and class/level mechanics.

-STS

The thing is I love the setting of Cyberspace, CP 2020 and Shadowrun...each has their own "angle" on the cyberpunk genre.  Cyberspace is, IMO a much better game, with a robust set of rules, and a fully developed world that needs no additional material.  I liken it to a Delorean, an ambitious game with great staying power, that just sort of died before its' time.  CP2020 is a classic, but it really shows it's age...like an old musclecar...strong, but not really in it's prime anymore, like the 1968 Charger.  Shadowrun is like the new 2016 Corvette...constantly updated, with more and more stuff added on to it, but still, it's convoluted rules sets and still somewhat cryptic combat pacing makes it out of the reach of many gamers...but the aesthetic still can't really be matched.

-STS

edit: sorry for being so pretentious....

edit 2: no, I'm not...

Very nice.  I like the fact that this is clean system and doesn't add totally new mechanics, it works within the format of the game as established.

-STS

By plot armor, I am referring to ensuring that PCs or NPCs survive regardless of dice.

When I need to protect the plot (not NPCs) I have the enemy plot on a timeline, so there are specific points that PC actions can influence the enemy, but if they wander off to investigate red herring number 3 and ignore all the clues, oh well...I have never been accused of railroading.

-STS

How much plot armor do you provide for PCs and NPCs in your game?  Does it vary by genre?

For me, I enjoy gritty and noir games and as such am pretty dice centric...I play the NPCs smart so they use tactics, retreat when beaten and conduct recon before attacking.  In my games, my players actively avoid combat unless they spend the time to prep beforehand.

My wife on the other hand GM's in a very cinematic style where dice are a guideline to how the scenes play out.  Plot armor is used as the battles are there for a reason and although

Our group thankfully enjoys both types of gaming and the varying levels of plot armor involved, primarily due to the pre-game conversation about expectations, genre, and character creation.