Are you on commission or something, Skywalker?

Quote from: One Horse Town;706671Are you on commission or something, Skywalker?

Only to the extent that I benefit with a double sized book if we hit $15K

I post what I enjoy, and there is a lot to enjoy in Atlantis.

Before starting round 2, I make a observation that the lion has quite a lot of Hero Points. Unlike a PC, it's tempting as a GM just to blow them on the fight, but this would seem to be unfair and lacking in context. As such, I will limit the lion to 3 HrP, assuming that it has spent some elsewhere. This is in line with a comment in the GM section that assigns minor villains to 1-3 HrP only.

ROUND TWO

Initiative: This is a straight SPD roll. Orra gets 3, and the lion gets a 6.

Lion's Turn: Seeing how dangerous Orra is, the lion tries for a grapple in a hope that if successful it will help close the gap by preventing free use of Orra's sword and bringing STR more into play.

Before the attack, Orra decides to Dodge. That's +12 with a DoD of -10. Orra gets a 9 for a total of 11. Just a success.

Orra's Turn: In retaliation Orra unleashes two attacks. The lion decides to Dodge at -5 and gets a Partial Success. Orra then rolls at +10 with DoD of -10. The roll is 11 making it a Success. That's 8HP damage reduced 4HP.

His next attack is at -5. He rolls an 18, for a second Success. That's another 8HP. The lion decided not to risk a Dodge due to the growing chance of critical failure and not spend his last HrP.

The lion is now on 14HP out of 27, and Orra is unhurt except temporary loss of HrP.

The lion pounces at Orra with a snarl. The lion's fury is immense and Orra twists and rolls out of its way, a fraction before it collides with him. He avoids the razor claws and falls with the impact.

Orra deftly spins around, already balanced on his feet. He spins his sword in a deadly web in front of him. The blade slices twice the lion's flank before it can turn. The pain from the strikes turns the snarl into a yowl. With ears back and fangs exposed, the lion collapses on to it's side - a death it has faced many times before now filling its eyes as the Andaman advances relentlessly.

Observation this round is that despite combat being tense, starting PCs can still kick twelve kinds of booty It really is a great balance between gritty yet pulpy; tense yet exciting.

Quote from: CRKrueger;706666Since the authors are here, thought I'd ask.

Aesir are over in Eria and speak Tamarac instead of the North Sea (where the other Hyperboreans are).

Is this a riff on Vikings in America/Pathfinder kinda thing or an error?

Nope. They're supposed to be there. They've been there in the Atlantis setting for ages and ages, so... Yes, likely a riff on the Vikings finding America (in the northern latitudes) before Columbus in the Gulf. Pathfinder would come later out of similar historical sources.

The Aesir in Eria are definitely Norse influenced.

ROUND THREE

Initiative: This is a straight SPD roll. Orra gets 10, and the lion gets a 12. Orra has lost every initiative!

Lion's Turn: Badly wounded, the lion decides to retreat. Simply turning to flee would open it to a strike that would likely kill it, so it chooses to retreat instead. Due to its speed it need only do so for one turn before disengaging. It does halve its attack bonus but gets a +5 to defence.

It rolls an 18 on its SPD + Athletics roll.

It considers an attack but at -12 DoD, its not a good idea.

Orra's Turn: Orra wants to finish this, so he slashes at the beast on its way past. The DoD is -15, making his attack at -2.

He gets a 19! That's reduced to 17. He decides to spend a Fire HrP to get +4 to the roll and get a critical hit. Though the lion isn't a major villain, I allow it to make a critical hit roll to see if its out of the fight. That's +4 for its CON but -8 due to the DR. It gets a 9, reduces to 5. The lion is dead.

There is a moment of pause between the lion below and Orra above. The lion's claws extended are mere inches away from the tip of Orra's blade. The silence is broken as the hold door flies open from the impact of a body.

With a swipe of the paw, the lion uses all of its wild strength to jump through the lines below deck, making for the door. Orra has to give ground or be raked, but he turns around and chases after his prey. The glory of gold pales in his mind to the pursuit of victory.

Above deck, the fighting has mostly subsided. The pirates grab their weapons as the massive lion breaks through the hatch and into their midst with a frightening cry. Frozen with terror, they see the wild king stand for just a moment, tall and proud, before collapsing to the deck.  Striding out of the hatch is the imposing figure of their captain. His sword drenched in the lion's blood, he begins to shout commands at them. Not even their awe at his feat overcomes their fear of disobeying his orders.

Observation in the last round, as a GM I liked having various tools to help me tailor my enemies to something appropriate. "Mooks" are not really on a separate system, but I can avoid the fiddly stuff with them if I choose to do so.

And as a reminder-

If you're unaware the Kickstarter for Atlantis:Geographica is 9 days from completion so if you were on the fence about getting the world book for this game I've posted a picture below. It's the Sky temple of the Uluka people on the continent of Mu




Thanks!

Only 5 days left and there are couple of Corebook + Geographica spots left for newcomers to jump in on. We reached full colour hardcover which will be spiffy.

How spiffy? Well, the prototype PC sheet looks spiffy:



And the sample of the PDF layered map is fun to play with too: http://www.godsendagenda.com/art/Gondwana_Europa_Map.pdf

Less tha 48 hours to go. $50+ pledges now get the Action Deck for free.

Oh wow! The final PDF is staggeringly pretty. And there have been some great enhancements, including 6 pages giving short summary on the cultures and lots of the other feedback online incorporated.

And so much cool full colour art... gasp... my eyes...

Quote from: writermonk;706779Nope. They're supposed to be there. They've been there in the Atlantis setting for ages and ages, so... Yes, likely a riff on the Vikings finding America (in the northern latitudes) before Columbus in the Gulf. Pathfinder would come later out of similar historical sources.

The Aesir in Eria are definitely Norse influenced.

I know the Aesir have always been there, they used to be a race, not a human culture.

My question was targeted at the location, and their native tongue.  Since their native tongue is the same as the Eria natives, it seems they are not colonists, but Eria natives descended from North Sea colonists?

Quote from: CRKrueger;711730I know the Aesir have always been there, they used to be a race, not a human culture.

My question was targeted at the location, and their native tongue.  Since their native tongue is the same as the Eria natives, it seems they are not colonists, but Eria natives descended from North Sea colonists?

Yeah, we ditched the innumerable races of the past editions in favor of a smaller number of race and cultural packages.

The Aesir speak the local Erian languages because that's where they live and who they live near and who they trade with.
Too, you don't have to be Human to be an Aesir; humans just predominate. You could easily be a Jinn, a Netherman, an Andaman, etc.

They may have once been colonists...

QuoteOff the northeast coast of Eria rests the island of Gava, called "The Land of the Giants" by the mainland tribes. A tribe known as the Aesir dwells on this island. They are quite tall by Erian standards, often reaching heights of 2 to 2.5 meters. Most are bronze-skinned with brown hair. A convoluted set of tales surround this tribe, tying them to distant Anostos, Atlantis, or even Europa, while several of the Aquaga tribes claim that the Aesir are their ancestors.

is how the section on Gava starts off in Geographica.

Quote from: Jerry D. Grayson;703252Because the underlying system changed enough to warrant it.

There are a lot of differences between the two now. If you played Atlantis using the Omni system it would not play the same. The dice mechanic is the same but a lot of aspects of the way the game plays are different.

Can you give some examples of how the system has changed?

Quote from: Dan Davenport;720810Can you give some examples of how the system has changed?

The old Omni system version of Atlantis: the Second Age is really close to a D&D clone set in an ancient Earth. Aside from ubiquitous humans, there's fairly standard elves, dwarves, gnomes, dark elves, trolls, giants, and goblins that you'd recognize from any standard RAW D&D game. Well, the trolls would be different. And there's one small group of dwarves who ride ostriches. Otherwise, you could pretty much play in the old Omni Atlantis using D&D as a rules-set without much strain.

The Omega Atlantis is different. Those differences might seem subtle and minor mechanically, but they do impact play a great deal.

Omega ditches tons of Talents (Feats for D&D) and pares them down. Same with the Skill list. Omega then adds in Hero Points. The Hero Point mechanics have a huge impact on play; players can use them in a variety of ways and around a table often players actions will provide an impetus to encourage (incite) others to push and spend Hero Points as well. Instead of XP, Omega switches to Renown. Your advances as your Renown climbs are pretty structured; it might not seem like a big difference to just getting XP and spending it on skills, but it does mean that characters tend to be very focused on one small set of skills or abilities as they grow in power. Omega assumes that magic all comes from outside - demons, elementals, spirits, etc - and that the miracles of the gods are very manifest. Arguably, magic in Omni is similar, but in Omni, the implication is that the caster is powerful and can command all these things (even priestly magic). In Omega, while the player is control of that, in game the character is dependent upon outside forces for world-bending power and that comes at a cost. Too, the miracles of the gods are handled vastly differently in each: in Omni, it's just another field of magic, in Omega it's a matter of rituals and appeasement and a literal personal relationship with a god.