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Topics - Arthesul

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Forum Games / There's a MAFIA in my Monastery!
« on: December 05, 2017, 01:29:30 am »
I’VE RETURNED BY POPULAR (Berka’s) DEMAND TO BRING JOY AND GOODNESS! Seeing how fun it was to have complete badasses for Sethaniel-style Mafia characters, like Colonel Bruce Barley and Marko, I figured a Martial-Arts-Themed game where EVERYONE’S a badass would be fun, and TOTALLY NOT RUIN THAT AT ALL. Well, not really. I just sort of had this vague idea for translating ideas and principles* from different martial arts into Mafia abilities for a long time.

*Or at least just the Hollywood versions.

In the futuristic year of 15xx, in the magical world of Jianghu, trouble abounds! Monks and racketeers alike roam the streets, particularly the ones around bars, restaurants, and taverns, all beating the shit out of each other! And a lot of those racketeers don’t even play tennis! In a Wuxia World, crime, corruption, and vigilantism run rampant, but one man stood above it all, leading the forces of law, order, and peaceful Kung Fu practice… Before he fell down.

Sifu Dragonsword, master of medicine, Kung Fu, and all of thisandthat, had invited his legendary graduated students to The Raolin Monastery for his two-hundredth birthday, only to be murdered shortly after the guests arrived. Even worse? His legendary blade was STOLEN! This could only be the work of the Shuangdong Mafia! They wanted him dead for years, but none of the assassins sent before had done their job. With the students being the only people there with him, it’s perhaps possible that paying off his less loyal, or perhaps disillusioned students was the only way to get the job done… Using a sacred, albeit dark ritual to reveal Truth in Death, Sifu’s students have banded together under the agreement that no one leaves The Monastery until Sifu’s death is avenged! Though, with killers as tricky and secretive as these, it may be difficult for the innocent to escape this situation unscathed…

Choose your Character!


Stiff Johnny:
A mysterious, stiff-jointed, hypochondriac from a noble family nobody’s heard of, Stiff Johnny has always been an eccentric figure… But never seemed to be the ‘organized crime’ type. Until, perhaps, now. Seeking Dragonsword’s advice for physical and spiritual health, his time at The Monastery gained him some skills in the martial arts as well. Perhaps it wasn’t so much technique as it was his bizarre level of strength, but he too became a well known student of Sifu Dragonsword for his ability to kick ass. Though, despite his insistence that he’s very much NOT a vampire, it’s quite hard for him to dispel all the dark rumors. Some of which may be rooted in reality.


Master Bamboo Stick:
Master Bamboo Stick was always considered a rebel and a hellraiser in his younger years, but after graduating to Master, he’s become more of a helpful drifter… Though occasionally his methods of displacing violent gangs haven’t been the most legal, and his befuddled methods and mannerisms haven’t always been very effective sources of help… But surely this isn’t out of malice or criminal affiliation? Right?


Master Dao:
 Dragonsword’s youngest and most mischievous student, Master Dao has quite a reputation for being both an elaborate prankster and a kicker of ass. He’s always lived on the edge, both of the law, and of Dragonsword’s nerves, but he’s a very respected martial artist and member of society. In another, more suspicious  light, perhaps he wasn’t the innocent trickster everyone thought he was…



Master Sun:
Entirely discounting the rumors that Stiff Johnny might be an immortal vampire who’s taken many aliasses over the years, Master Sun is one of Sifu Dragonsword’s earliest surviving students. And, whether the rumors are true or not, certainly the one who was closest friends with him. Master Sun has lived and practiced with Dragonsword for multiple decades, and often went off adventuring with him more than without. He was, perhaps, the closest thing Dragonsword considered to an equal in skill and experience, and perhaps might have been the only one capable of killing him hand-to-hand… Surely the two never shied away from an argument, or even a feud, but would Master Sun turn to the Mafia over one of their differences?


Master Bertram:
There’s at least a million different kinds of boxing. Northern boxing, southern boxing, western boxing, kickboxing, chess boxing, drunken boxing, cannon boxing. Master Bertram was trained in all of them. Though he was Sifu’s most recent… And perhaps most unusual students. Hailing from a mysterious, faraway place, Master Bertram came directly to Sifu Dragonsword in hopes of learning his techniques. And, well, how could you question an absurd creature like that? Master Bertram picked up on his teacher’s lessons quickly. Perhaps too quickly. Was this mysterious stranger the one the Mafia sent to kill Dragonsword?


Freddy Wong:
Wong was a simple travelling doctor before he met Sifu Dragonsword. It used to be quite a busy job as a Doctor, what with all these thugs around hurting people. Almost more than Freddy could handle, but when Dragonsword came by and shut down the local toughs and their organizations, Freddy found himself with a MUCH more manageable workload. It was then Freddy decided to follow Sifu and take up a career in… Preventative medicine. There wasn’t much money in forcefully gangsters from injuring people, but Freddy Wong believed in his cause… Though, perhaps a lack of medical business with the rise of Dragonsword and his vigilante students caused a change of heart.


Fearsome Commander Noodle:
Fearsome Commander Noodle was a simple Navy Chef, but now he is a war hero who regularly drives pirates away from Jianghu’s shores. But once, he was the laughingstock of the Jianghu Empire’s defense force. Or so it seemed. His lack of kung fu training made him an easy target for the abuse of others. It was years of unjust servitude in awful conditions. One day, while dodging the blows of an angry “customer” with all-too-practiced skill, he caught the eye of Sifu Dragonsword. What followed after his training was quite the story. After taking charge in a particular battle and slaying 22 pirates with his own bare hands, there was no more servitude and kitchenwork for him. The general promoted Noodle to Battlecommander right then and there!... But perhaps ambition and violent efficacy aren't exactly a law-abiding combination...


Master Tiger:
In Sifu’s century-and-a-half career, Master Tiger has been known as the most fierce and passionate of Dragonsword’s Students. As soon as he graduated from Sifu’s training and went off on his own, the first thing he did was go out on his own to defend the innocent, and teach the innocent how to defend themselves. There are many songs in many villages praising his name for driving the bandits away and building fortifications to protect them from future invasions. Master Tiger has long been known as a passionate protector of the people, but never to the extent that an alleged demigod like Dragonsword was. Did he tire of Sifu’s shadow?


Happy Traveller:
Happy Traveller had always been a man out of place and time. Always seeming to know more than he should, always keen to walk the earth imparting irreverent but wise advice. It was only natural that kind of monk would be attacked ALL THE TIME, and it was certainly a wonder Happy Traveller managed to live long enough to arrive on Sifu Dragonsword’s doorstep. Luckily, when he did, Dragonsword kindly took the man in, tended to his wounds, and taught him how to defend himself from those who would have him beat up. Nobody expected him to be so good at it, but somehow he managed to achieve legendary status in the field of fightsmanship. Is there something less innocent to his sly demeanor and mysterious ways?

“BUT ARTHEYBOY!” I hear you cry, “Bill Murray is the only monk character, and he’s not even from Sifu’s monastery! Is Sifu Dragonsword even a monk? You do know there are people other than Shaolin Monks who had their own Kung Fu styles, right? There were just regular people with regular gyms who taught each other Kung Fu!”

And to that, I say, “Quiet, you! It’s better with alliteration!”

2
General Game Discussion / Call of Cthulhu BRP Question
« on: September 13, 2017, 02:48:59 pm »
Ooh, hey, it's me again. This time I have no idea what to do with the Call of Cthulhu system.

Quickstart says to put your stats in 80, 70, 60, 60, 50, 50, 50, and 40 if you don't want to bother with rolling, but when I  put stuff into an autocalc sheet and looked for practical examples of what an "80 SIZ" person would look like, I came across forum threads saying it would be nucking futs for a person to be over like, 12 size unless they're immobily obese, and one GM tries not to let people put their education that far above 30 or 40 before things get "out of hand". Is there another system that people call 'Cthulhu'? Does Cthulhu seriously overhaul their numbers with every edition? Is the Quickstart supposed to just make your character a superhuman badass so you'll buy the full game, kinda like how CoD allegedly gives you hidden stats the first time you play the game so you win all the time? Or were they actually quoting from the size chart in terms of half/fifths for the sake of brevity?

3
So, I've come up with an idea recently. I want to make a sort of multiplayer, tabletop "roguelike" that I plan on hosting here or some other place. The idea is, you're all conciousnesses trapped in an endless loop, and each of you enter your own dungeons, hidden from one another (Although there are some spells, potions and scenarios that allow you to enter the dungeons of other players.) the "IC" is what's OOC in most games. You'll encounter certain repeating themes and puzzles, which you may choose to help other players out with based on your experiences. You have to beat the dungeon (Descend X-number of floors in one go) to escape the loop.

Because of this aspect, I really, really want it to be a gamey game and not freeform, because not only will I probably run dry having to do all this myself based on fiat and "Yeah, I reckon ya could climb that!", but a lot of mechanics I'd like to implement involve things that are best implemented in strict mechanics and with numbers, I.E. finding out about who you were in a past life during questlines and such will give you a distinct advantage over the course of the game, (Being able to keep an item after death, finding loot you used to have, one permanent increase of your aspects, etc.) at the expense of a permanent, but perhaps less severe debuff. (You gain a personality flaw you had once, it takes a toll on your sanity, you may trigger Alien Hand Syndrome after critically failed rolls, etc.)

I want a lot of monsters to be something hard or costly enough that you want to avoid, outsmart, outmaneuver, or work around them, but not something that's blatantly impossible if you do decide to brute force it, and to be able to allow some playstyles that have gathered up the means over a suitable period of time to take them on and be rewarded for their dungeon crawling. Combat should be sustainable under the right circumstances, but the ability to battle with foes has to be earned, and being able to get the drop on something or avoid conflict altogether should be a reliable and much safer solution. I'd like combat to play a part, but be an occurrence you're excited or anxious about. The problem, I guess, would be making new character sheets after every death.

I'd like to randomly generate the structure (Not necessarily the content) of each floor with Donjon's thingymabobber, or another map generator, because this is a roguelike of sorts. Players can find maps in containers to tell where they are and what they haven't explored, and they'll also get a copy of the map with a log summarizing what they did every time they go down a floor.

To make character sheets quick and the game easier to get back into, I was thinking of dividing characters into two parts. One being who they are in the game's in-game: Starting new dungeons with a class system, like Nethack. These classes will have pre-made stats, and ideally it won't be impossible to tweak and manage your playstyle as the game progresses, but you would select certain classes for certain things as the game progresses. There would be different kinds of fighters, different kinds of investigators, and things built for the purpose of "I'd like to stockpile good loot so I can access it in a future life should I rediscover it." or "I'd like to fight the things so I can figure out the puzzles" or "I'd prefer to have more cerebral skills so I can investigate and learn important things for the next game". Players would also be able to create their own classes based on their wants and needs because... I'm not exactly the Romero Bros.

And the other being who the consciousnesses are, that they'll be rediscovering: Everybody submits a character with personality traits and flaws and a history, and they will be randomly assigned to other characters. Certain things in the game will be a Silent-Hill-reflection of aspects of the character that the consciousness is/was in the life they were in before they got trapped in the game.

I think that'd all be pretty fun, but I also play MDickie games, so fun is a foggy concept. My questions are as follows...

Am I doing something wrong/tedious from a game design standpoint?

Are there any tabletop systems that would facilitate this very well?... Or at all? I'm considering Call of Cthulhu since I'm somewhat familiar with it and I've been reading some of it recently. I've heard plenty of good things and bad things about Cthulhu, but I'm more than open to suggestions at this conceptual phase.

Does this seem at all interesting?

4
Forum Games / Assassin in the Ballast! (The game thread!)
« on: February 06, 2016, 06:58:19 pm »
The yarrr be 1723, an' yer a hardened buncha salty cutthroats who've been sailin' an' lootin' ever since the war with Spain! That is, until a hurricane rolled by that was so powerful it blew ye clear acrarss Mexico an' landed ye somewhere in the Pacific! Luckily, ye finally found land! Unluckily, it be inhabited by a giant angry monster made o' Seafood! Ye managed ta smack it a good 'un with yer boat, but then ye were boarded by an army o' fish 'enchmen!

Ya fought 'em downner the (fish)man, with many casualties delivered to yer crew, until it came down ter the one last fishman an' the last o' you!... Unfortunately, when ye tried te torture 'im fer answers, 'e shat out a smoke barmb an' dissappeared, an' when ye could see agin, there was a human skeleton lyin' in a pool o' blood!

The filthy bastard be 'idin' in one o' yer skins! Ye must protect the Cap'n at all costs!

---

Yer all startin' te feel like ye've spent too long givin' each other awkward, silent stares, and have come te the decision that it's best te start lynchin' people until ye get the alien monster! Thank goodness too, cause if ye don't get rid of enough weight, the boat's gonna start sinkin' faster than ye can bail it out! Be vigilant, me hearties!

Currently on the boat:

Aman
Playa
Seth
Berka
Daed
Aeon

5
Forum Games / Assassin in the Ballast!
« on: January 14, 2016, 04:56:50 pm »
Avast, me 'earties! In honor o' the fact that there be only 248 days 'til National Talk Like A Pirate Day,  I be plannin' ta 'ost yet another Assassin inna Palace game, but this time on a boat, like the Mafia Game, but more Piratey!

The yarrr be 1723, an' yer a hardened buncha salty cutthroats who've been sailin' an' lootin' ever since the war with Spain! That is, until a hurricane rolled by that was so powerful it blew ye clear acrarss Mexico an' landed ye somewhere in the Pacific! Luckily, ye finally found land! Unluckily, it be inhabited by a giant angry monster made o' Seafood! Ye managed ta smack it a good 'un with yer boat, but then ye were boarded by an army o' fish 'enchmen!

Ya fought 'em downner the (fish)man, with many casualties delivered to yer crew, until it came down ter the one last fishman an' the last o' you!... Unfortunately, when ye tried te torture 'im fer answers, 'e shat out a smoke barmb an' dissappeared, an' when ye could see agin, there was a human skeleton lyin' in a pool o' blood!

The filthy bastard be 'idin' in one o' yer skins! Ye must protect the Cap'n at all costs!

6
Official Rules Questions / Implementing martial arts in BHB?
« on: August 20, 2015, 03:35:22 pm »
I understand that this was kinda done before with the Drunken Boxer perks, but that was insanely powerful endgame material. What I'm looking for at the moment is a way to implement different fighting styles in such a way that players can pick fights and manage their playstyle based around their different fighting styles in a way that mechanically affects melee and grapple combat. What I've come up with so far is making 5 health bars (Bones, internal organs, (if applicable) Cyberware, (if it's there) muscles, and bones) applying a set for each limb and the torso, and making the weapons and fighting styles affect these all differently.

Of course, the problem with having a bajillion health bars is that you end up getting crippling injuries, grotesque disfigurements, and debilitating pains in the ass even after a knife fight with two extras. Victories often become Pyrrhic and unrealistically costly unless you've stealth-killed your way through the goons, so I assume it'd be a good way to go if you're going to make a game about thieves or geeks or adventure game protagonists or some other form of character that tends to avoid combat at all costs.

Naturally, I need another way of going about this, and I'd like to know if you have any ideas.

7
Official Rules Questions / Some confusion.
« on: April 28, 2015, 08:42:15 am »
Alright. Now that I've found how word-finder on Google Chrome also works on PDFs, my understanding of BHB has risen significantly. I now know that weapons such as whack-a-mole hammers and enormous novelty erasers hurt your vitality points, (And your dignity points!)  and things like guns and knives and knife-shooting guns hurt your wound points... Unless Stun and lethal are different things entirely?...

Regardless, my knowledge has more holes in it than a stop sign in the backwoods, and I'd very much appreciate it if someone could demonstrate a round of combat or something to help me out here.

Also, a question about the book. You know the muscle man in the pictures with big shades, an intimidating beard, and a totally ballin' hat? What's the Star-of-David-esque thing tattooed on his upper arm? I think I saw it before somewhere, but I can't quite place it.

8
Forum Games / Assassin in the Chalice (Game thread!)
« on: January 17, 2015, 05:10:37 pm »
The sun rises on the wine glass once more. Most Yeast cells would be asleep by this point, but not the ones here. It was a restless night in the glucose palace as the alcohol began closing in and the assassin roamed its halls...

Here, the eldritch god Anhueser Busch of Budweiser Brewing watches with baited breath. If one yeast cell is not killed, be it by assassination or by lynching, within 24 hourse of one another, the grape juice will wholly ferment and burn them all to death.

9
Forum Games / Mafia on a Boat!
« on: November 22, 2014, 09:10:20 pm »
The year is 1925. A certain Alcohol trafficker threw a masquerade on his yacht off the coast of California, and people of considerable wealth from all over the world came to be there... For varying reasons. The host was shot in the ballroom late one night by a mafia hitman, and as a precautionary measure, the security guards locked up all the passenger wings. Your characters are currently stuck there, and will be stuck there until the boat reaches the shore. Might as well make the best of your time here... And kill the mafia before they kill you.

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