Diis Manibus: Discussion

[Xeviat]

=)

[Xeviat]

Beejazz, I have a suggestion for your Critical misses; for thrown weapons, have the weapon become lost on the battle field somehow (search DC 20 to find, or DC 15 plus a size modifier). Perhaps it gets stuck in the dirt, lost in a shadow; the description would depend on the terrain.

[beejazz]

Um... probably not. Losing a weapon you wouldn't be able to use again in the short term doesn't really add to the depth of the tactics. In the long term, you might be really hurting the player's wealth. Especially if it was a magic weapon.

[Ghost]

It looks very awesome, especially the explanations for the gods. I also liked the use of the physics.

But I haven't seen the part where it says what the Sayoshant is. Do you have a link to more information?

[beejazz]

Sayoshant is ripping off the Zarathustrian messiah.

You can't have the end of the world without a pseudo-Christ/Antichrist thing going for you.

I promise I'll explain it better than that later, but for now it'll have to suffice.

[beejazz]

Sayoshant is ripping off the Zarathustrian messiah.

You can't have the end of the world without a pseudo-Christ/Antichrist thing going for you.

I promise I'll explain it better than that later, but for now it'll have to suffice.

[Seraph]

Perhaps you have posted this somewhere, but I have not seen it:  You said guns basically work like exotic crossbows, so what differentiates them?(besides often requiring a extra feat to use)  Why would someone choose a gun over a crossbow?  Do they deal more damage?  have a better crit multiplyer?

[beejazz]

I pretty much use the stats out of the DMG. Higher damage, decent critical threat (as there are no multipliers in my system)

[beejazz]

Updated armor. I am very pleased with Xeviat's idea, and with my solution to keeping DR beatable.
*toots own horn*

[Matt Larkin (author)]

I totally missed this as setting of the week (been kind of busy lately), but I'm trying to catch up.

I'll review the secrets page you link to.

1) Origins of Humanity
This is very cool.  A good twist involving a race at the most basic level is always (as is a similar twist to a religion) because it forces us to question our most basic beliefs.  Like myself, you seem willing to blend science fiction and fantasy without delving into ridiculousness with little explanaition, which I admire.

Aboleths are wonderful.  They make a great template for Lovecraftian horrors and really make a setting feel darker if done right.

2) Quantum Magic
The theories seem well-thought-out and based on actual sciene.  Kudos.  Also nice to see someone else bother to explain magic as something other than "the magic goddess creates a field/weave/whatever that lets mortals use it."

Game Effects:
1. Someone trying to become God?  The potential for epic conflicts abounds.
2. Interesting.  So that would mean the existence of the aboleths at the same time as humans is a paradox?
3. The possibilities for story ideas with this are grand, but I think you are correct in urging caution here.  Players that feel their actions do not produce definitive results are apt to become frustrated - if events do not unfold based on their actions, they can effectively become impotent.

3) The gods?  Is there another page you have not linked to?  I am lost.  Twists with the gods, like that they are/were human are also great.

Overall:
You have an excellent sense of plot twists and the surprises necessary to keep things fresh and interesting, but manage pull these off with enough explaination they don't seem forced or arbitrary.  Good work.  I recommend more secrets and mysteries.

Mysteries for non-human races may be good.  Perhaps (if your aboleths are as advanced as mine) the aboleths created some of the other races through a genetic experiment.  Maybe the "gods" created others as part of their grand plans.

[beejazz]

Thanks for the review! I'm glad to have made such a good impression... it was what I was going for, after all.

As for the gods, my only work on them so far has been in the rules, crunch, and overview thread. Just the demiurgical pantheon so far, but it should answer your questions about them... also IIRC, I mentioned racial origin in the same post.

Secrets is going to occasionally reference overview (or even threads for specific nations) so it could get a little confusing.

[Seraph]

I like it.  Your magic system is very unique.  As to the Collapsing Wave Function, you haven't by any chance seen What the Bleep Do We Know? have you?  They use the exact sameelectrons are everywhere until you look at them bit.
So the origins of your humans (while not that of traditional fantasy) does not necessarily mean that the world is any more advanced than traditional fantasy.  
I once tried to do something vaguely like your collapsing reality, but you did it much better.  One thing I would be wary about is how would PCs retain memory of events that never happened?  Why would the change affect everyone but them?  

[beejazz]

What the Bleep: Yep. Seen it. I don't know how much of this stuff I buy, but it is chock-full of scifi premise gold.
Tech: Well... as I've said before there are guns. I haven't really gotten around to the ancient artifacts yet, but... I might have mentioned subways and massive hovercraft somewhere. I'm almost sure I mentioned subways (oh, and underground fungus cultures... a nod to Prelude to Foundation) in the Nompelle thread.

And as to the last question... why indeed. I suppose I could pull something out of m-theory and animism. Or you could go with something where the heroes are somehow special (which they probably are for some reason or another... there's gotta be some reason why they of all people are sucked into the middle of all this).