The return of the evilgasm
OK. First off, the new webcomic is up over at TorC Press, AND there's an announcement about Sombrero Friday! Aoysum.
Second, I got me Christmas present from Wendy last night! She gave it to me because it was in the mail, clearly marked Paizo, and I prolly knew what it was. Actually I thought it was the kick ass "Yer a dick" tshirt, but no. Even better! Order of the Stick: On the Origins of PCs!
Here's a review. Awesome! 72 pages of black and white OOTS action. A little background about each character and how they all got together. If you like the webcomic, you'll dig the book, although since this is prequel action, it suffers from the same prequel syndromes you always get. Still a good read, and yet another reason I love me some Wendies.
And just because we all know this blog post is too short, here's a little more Shadowrun. As mentioned below, the character I made for the gaming is a face/hacker, with a little gunning skills, and pumping his abilities with Cerebral Boosters and Tailored Phermones.
Well, last night, I noticed that Kinesics was an Adept power that did about the same thing as the Tailored Phermones, and I thought to myself, "You know, you could make a variant on the original character with that power." Then I thought, "Hell, why not go with Mystical Adept instead of just vanilla Adept." So instead of a gunslinging, influential hacker, I made a spell slinging, influential hacker. Still gotta completely work up his powers, but I'm leaning towards Kinesics @ 2, Voice Control, and Improved Ability:Con@2, with a spellcasting ability at 3. He's got a Raven mentor-spirit, so he's a little more manipulative than the previous guy, but he's allergic to cucumbers, addicted to Psyche, hated by Beast spirits, and incompetant at Unarmed Combat. He loses a few dice in social settings than Aardvark, but makes up for it with Control Emotions and the spell that plants a suggestion in someone's mind forever. Combat wise he's got manaball and Ignite, plus a light pistol. Can't summon worth a shit, but banishes like a mofo. I think he also has armor and heal spells. I know I could just drop the mystical part of the adept and give him crazy Kinesics and Improved Ability powers for hacking and influence (with a Magic of 5 you could grab +4 to social with Kinesics and still have enough for +4 to any 3 non-combat skills, say Con, Hacker, and Negotiations), which would give him WAY more dice on each of those tasks than the other guy, plus better skills in the first place. Hell, I could prolly dump his Magic up to 6, grab Astral Perception and make him the face/spirit hunter. But that's not the way I wanna go.
The trouble is, which guy to play? Aardvark is the easiest to play, hands down. Why? Number one, his personality is most like mine, so no RP stretch there. Number 2, he'll get along with the other characters the most, because that's what he does; he makes people like him. His backstory is solid, and while I've not gone so far as to map out his karma use, I do have a wishlist of gadgets for him (mostly drones). He's not too tactical right now, but his options expand greatly as his gadgets do. The biggest drawback Aardvark has is being limited to one Intiative Pass without drugs. Because of his sensitive neural system, bioware is the only way to update that permanently, and that's pricey pricey.
As for Norman (no real name for the mystic yet), he's a manipulative bastard (which I am too, of course, but not like this guy), so I'll have to be really on my toes to play him, AND with a Willpower check required to NOT take advantage of someone, he's more likely to be at odds with the party members. At least he's got the skills to smooth over any bad party action, but he's still likely to be the one causing it. I've no backstory for him yet, so there's another nail in the coffin, but at the same time, that gives him more room to grow. Maybe he's a former rock star or celebrity that lost it all in some scandal, so he's had cosmetic surgery and hit the shadows. This guy's flat out not worth much in combat though. Well, I mean ignite and mana ball are bad ass, and if buys a sustaining focus he's solid as support. That's probably a good thing, though really. I mean if the character's gonna be a dick, it'll help smooth over PLAYER feelings if somebody else shines when the shit hits the fan. Mystic Man gets the crew in with magic and charm, but once the alarms are tripped, the other peops get us out. This guy's actually got a better commlink than Aardvark, but seriously less overall ability with it.
So, in the end, Aardvark's easier to play and less disruptive, but way more vanilla than Mystic Man. Aardvark's better at computer stuff, a more viable combat option and has easier room for tactical growth, but MM has room for some creative use of his abilities and is a better combat support character, prolly giving him a longer life span than Aardy. Most of all, MM brings the HEALTH spell to the table, which could save lives, but might not be necessary IF any of the two or three characters that I haven't seen show up with that... So, I guess I'll finish him up (mebbe in two variants) and see what the party has in the way of support before deciding whether I play the hacker support or magic support.... Oy. Need more contacts than just Nick in the group....
Second, I got me Christmas present from Wendy last night! She gave it to me because it was in the mail, clearly marked Paizo, and I prolly knew what it was. Actually I thought it was the kick ass "Yer a dick" tshirt, but no. Even better! Order of the Stick: On the Origins of PCs!
Here's a review. Awesome! 72 pages of black and white OOTS action. A little background about each character and how they all got together. If you like the webcomic, you'll dig the book, although since this is prequel action, it suffers from the same prequel syndromes you always get. Still a good read, and yet another reason I love me some Wendies.
And just because we all know this blog post is too short, here's a little more Shadowrun. As mentioned below, the character I made for the gaming is a face/hacker, with a little gunning skills, and pumping his abilities with Cerebral Boosters and Tailored Phermones.
Well, last night, I noticed that Kinesics was an Adept power that did about the same thing as the Tailored Phermones, and I thought to myself, "You know, you could make a variant on the original character with that power." Then I thought, "Hell, why not go with Mystical Adept instead of just vanilla Adept." So instead of a gunslinging, influential hacker, I made a spell slinging, influential hacker. Still gotta completely work up his powers, but I'm leaning towards Kinesics @ 2, Voice Control, and Improved Ability:Con@2, with a spellcasting ability at 3. He's got a Raven mentor-spirit, so he's a little more manipulative than the previous guy, but he's allergic to cucumbers, addicted to Psyche, hated by Beast spirits, and incompetant at Unarmed Combat. He loses a few dice in social settings than Aardvark, but makes up for it with Control Emotions and the spell that plants a suggestion in someone's mind forever. Combat wise he's got manaball and Ignite, plus a light pistol. Can't summon worth a shit, but banishes like a mofo. I think he also has armor and heal spells. I know I could just drop the mystical part of the adept and give him crazy Kinesics and Improved Ability powers for hacking and influence (with a Magic of 5 you could grab +4 to social with Kinesics and still have enough for +4 to any 3 non-combat skills, say Con, Hacker, and Negotiations), which would give him WAY more dice on each of those tasks than the other guy, plus better skills in the first place. Hell, I could prolly dump his Magic up to 6, grab Astral Perception and make him the face/spirit hunter. But that's not the way I wanna go.
The trouble is, which guy to play? Aardvark is the easiest to play, hands down. Why? Number one, his personality is most like mine, so no RP stretch there. Number 2, he'll get along with the other characters the most, because that's what he does; he makes people like him. His backstory is solid, and while I've not gone so far as to map out his karma use, I do have a wishlist of gadgets for him (mostly drones). He's not too tactical right now, but his options expand greatly as his gadgets do. The biggest drawback Aardvark has is being limited to one Intiative Pass without drugs. Because of his sensitive neural system, bioware is the only way to update that permanently, and that's pricey pricey.
As for Norman (no real name for the mystic yet), he's a manipulative bastard (which I am too, of course, but not like this guy), so I'll have to be really on my toes to play him, AND with a Willpower check required to NOT take advantage of someone, he's more likely to be at odds with the party members. At least he's got the skills to smooth over any bad party action, but he's still likely to be the one causing it. I've no backstory for him yet, so there's another nail in the coffin, but at the same time, that gives him more room to grow. Maybe he's a former rock star or celebrity that lost it all in some scandal, so he's had cosmetic surgery and hit the shadows. This guy's flat out not worth much in combat though. Well, I mean ignite and mana ball are bad ass, and if buys a sustaining focus he's solid as support. That's probably a good thing, though really. I mean if the character's gonna be a dick, it'll help smooth over PLAYER feelings if somebody else shines when the shit hits the fan. Mystic Man gets the crew in with magic and charm, but once the alarms are tripped, the other peops get us out. This guy's actually got a better commlink than Aardvark, but seriously less overall ability with it.
So, in the end, Aardvark's easier to play and less disruptive, but way more vanilla than Mystic Man. Aardvark's better at computer stuff, a more viable combat option and has easier room for tactical growth, but MM has room for some creative use of his abilities and is a better combat support character, prolly giving him a longer life span than Aardy. Most of all, MM brings the HEALTH spell to the table, which could save lives, but might not be necessary IF any of the two or three characters that I haven't seen show up with that... So, I guess I'll finish him up (mebbe in two variants) and see what the party has in the way of support before deciding whether I play the hacker support or magic support.... Oy. Need more contacts than just Nick in the group....
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 9:36 AM
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