The Chronicles of Darkness – Background/Intro to Character Creation

Welcome one and all! This post will be the first of a multi-part series (I don’t know exactly how many yet,) where we’ll explore the themes, moods, and eventually character creation for one of my favorite worlds, the Chronicles of Darkness (formerly known as the New World of Darkness.)

To begin, the World of Darkness is just like our world, in the present day. It has our cities, our races, our technology, even our people. There are two primary differences, however. The first is that it is inherently darker. Crime rates are higher, police response times are lower, murder and disappearances are commonplace. The second? The supernatural is real. Vampires, Werewolves, the Fae, almost every story you’ve heard.

And you’re just a normal guy (or girl) living in this dark world.

And this guy is your neighbor

Now, you may be wondering how people sleep through the night, knowing that the monsters of the night could be right next door. The thing is… they don’t know. Most of them at least. Each creature has a reason to keep humanity in the dark.

Now! On to character creation!

For this, we’ll be using the base New World of Darkness, not the Second Edition (known as the God Machine Chronicle.)

This game is unlike a lot of tabletop RPGs out there, like Dungeons and Dragons, and Pathfinder. It is a game of storytelling, not dungeon crawling (most of the time.) While none is inherently better than the other, each has its own merit.

The Storytelling System uses 10-sided dice, and uses a stat system that goes from 0-5 in each stat (there are always exceptions.) A zero means you are completely unskilled in that particular stat, while a 5 means you are world-renowned for that particular stat, with the rest being the in-betweens.

This weakling here only has a Strength of 10

Step 1! Concept: This part is very basic, as it’s just a short phrase describing who your character is. This could be anything from ‘girl next door’ to ‘small town mechanic.’ This is also where you come up with some semblance of a background for your character. You could also look to your storyteller to help run a prologue for your character, to help flesh him/her out.

Step 2! Attributes: These are divided into three categories; Physical, Mental, and Social. These are then divided up into three more categories; Power, Finesse, and Resistance. Each of these starts at 1.

The Physical Attributes are, in order of Power, Finesse, and Resistance, are Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina.

The Mental Attributes are Intelligence, Wits, and Resolve.

The Social Attributes are Presence, Manipulation, and Composure.

For your character, you want to determine which of the three categories, between Physical, Mental, and Social, you want to make the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.

For the Primary category, you will have 5 extra points to divide between the three. For instance, if you choose Physical, you could put 2 into Strength, 2 into Dexterity, and 1 into Stamina, a fair stat spread for an athlete.

The Secondary category would get 4 points, while the Tertiary category would get 3.

Our next article will go into Skills and derived traits!

GURPS Character Creation: Just the basics! Part 3

Hello again, gamelings!

Welcome to the third installment of “Let’s Create A Character!”

In today’s episode we will be discussing:
Social Background and Wealth and Influence

Let’s jump right into it, shall we?

Social Background consists of 2 elements:

Tech level and Language.


Tech Level:

Tech level is the number of the level of technological advancement. Prehistory/caveman days would have a low tech level while future/space age would have a high tech level.

Usually the campaign is assigned a tech level but if you want to be crazy with it all (and your GM lets you), you can spend points to be higher or lower tech level than the assigned campaign tech.

Now let’s say that you want to have a lower tech level than that of the campaign…

Well… okay then…

It’s your choice.

This means that you start off the campaign with NO KNOWLEDGE of how to use ANYTHING at the campaigns tech level.

You’re campaign takes place in late Victorian England (tech level 6)? Your tech level is 2?

Good luck figuring out indoor plumbing! Hell… Good luck even figuring out books or doors!

You can, however, learn certain DX-based skills (such as opening those darn doors or how to hold and fire a weapon, even) in play if there is someone of the correct tech level around to teach you.  However, since you don’t think the same way as other (higher-tech) players, they can’t teach you any IQ based tech skills.

In order to obtain this super special lack of technological knowledge, you get -5 points for each tech level you plan to loose.

Good for you…

HOWEVER!!!!

If you plan to have a higher tech level than your fellow campaigners (and the ability to look down your nose at these primitive beasts), you must spend 5 points per tech level!  This comes in handy big time if you are in a lower tech level campaign and just so happen to be a doctor!

“QUICK! HAND ME THAT SYRINGE OF EPINEPHRINE!!!”
“Yarp.”

Moving right along to Language!

Now, GURPS just assumes that your character is fluent in your native language! (How sweet is that?)

Your fellow campaigners and gm, however, will need to know what that is so go ahead and mark it on your character sheet in a similar layout to this “English (Native) [0]”.

Go on.

Trust me… You want to.

It will save you time and a headache later…

Done with that?

Good.

Now…
Language:

Language is a combination of two parts:

Comprehension levels and Literacy.

Comprehension level is basically how well you can function in the foreign language.

How many points you are going to spend on learning a new language depends largely on your comprehension level, of which there are 4.

None: Just nod and smile because this language doesn’t even rustle your hair as it zooms over your head. It costs zero points to have this non-level.

Broken: You can say “where is the bathroom?” but you probably won’t understand the answer until the person you are speaking to slows it down like they are speaking to a toddler. This means that you are at a -3 when it comes to skills that require or depend upon language. This costs 1 point for spoken and 1 point for written.

Accented: You can speak the language but people snicker at you behind your back for how silly you sound. This gives you a -1 to skills that require or depend on language. This level costs 2 points for spoken and 2 points for written.

Native: You speak this language so well that no one would know that you aren’t from there… you know… except that they’ve never seen you around before…  This one has no negatives toward your language skills and it costs 3 points for spoken and 3 points for written.

Next up we have...



 Literacy:

This basically determines if you can read!

Illiteracy: This is a written comprehension level of “none”… It basically looks like scribbles and gibberish to you. You get the previously mentioned -3 disadvantage to your language rolls. Dang… that sucks.

Semi-literacy: This is a written comprehension level of “Broken”… you read SUPER slowly! You must roll against your IQ to understand the most basic things written in this language. You get the previously mentioned -2 disadvantage to your language rolls.

Literacy: This is a written comprehension level of “accented” or “native”. You can read at full speed and even understand it! YAY YOU! You still get the -1 disadvantage to language rolls if you are “accented” though.

Alright!

On to Wealth and Influence!

What does it take to be wealthy and influential?

Well…

Wealth

Reputation

Importance

THESE ARE THE INGREDIENTS CHOSEN TO CREATE THE PREFECT LITTLE GIRL!

I mean…

Yea…


Wealth:

Wealth is dependent on the character.

A factory worker in modern days will be living much more comfortably than a medieval lord even though the amount of money he has is less.
It’s all variable.

Most people will start off with an “Average” wealth level. This doesn’t cost any character points and it gives you the average wealth level for your campaign.

Now here’s the fun part:

Deciding what wealth level you want to have.

Dead Broke: You own nothing but the scraps of linen that you call clothing attached to your body. That’s it. You have no money. You have no property. You have no source of income at all! You are unable to work, unwilling to work, or can’t friggin find work! -25 points! Congrats! Go spend them on a shower, a shave, and some food…. You bum.

Poor: You have 1/5 of the average campaign wealth. You can find some work but no one is willing to pay you more than pennies! -15 points.

Struggling: You have ½ the average campaign wealth. You can get any job out there… you just won’t make very much money at all… -10 points.

Average: Your bank account is completely average in every way. You are the everyman! 0 points

Comfortable: You have a job but you are living a bit better than the rest of the world. Congrats! Your starting wealth is double that of the Average campaign wealth! 10 points

Wealthy: You are sitting pretty at 5x the average starting campaign wealth! Woooo! Go you! 20 points

Very Wealthy: You get 20x the average campaign starting wealth!!! How are you doing this?!? 30 points

Filthy Rich: At this point money is probably all your character has going for itself since you are spending a whopping 50 points on this! The upside, however is that you have 100x the average starting campaign wealth. Congratulations on becoming the 0.001%.

Reputation:

What do you want to be known for?

The details of your reputation are 100% up to you! That means you get to use that big, beautiful brain of yours!

Look at you go!

You are a character creating machine!

Be SUPER SPECIFIC when it comes to your reputation and know that for every +1 to reaction rolls (up to +4) it costs 5 points and for every -1 to reaction rolls (up to -4) it is -5 points!

Easy, right?

Now we come to the last bit of this installment…

Importance (status):

This is you place in society!
It has its own little distinction from your personal fame and fortune
.

Status levels range from -2 (beggar) to 8 (god-like ruler).

The average status for most characters is 0 (free man).

For every level above 0 that you raise it will cost you 5 points but going even one level above 0 puts you in a ruling class in YOUR CULTURE ONLY! This means that those from YOUR CULTURE will defer to you giving you a bonus on reaction rolls.

If you want to go a level or two below average in status it will be -5 points per level! Save those points for your advantages and disadvantages!

We will discuss those next time on:
SUPER FUN CHARACTER CREATION TIME!!!!!

Do you have any questions? Any at all? Wonder why narwhals have sword-like protrusions on their faces? Go ahead and ask us whatever you want in our comment section! 

Final Fantasy VIII: How to get the LionHeart Gunblade on DISC ONE!!!

I Know what you are thinking:

“I want that LionHeart ASAP! FINAL WEAPON WOOOOOO!!!!!”

Well I’m here to tell you that you can get it as soon as you leave Timber heading for Galabadia Garden.

"How is this possible?!"

So, for starters, here is what we are going to be needing to make the Lion Heart.

1 Adamantine

4 Dragon Fang

12 Pulse Ammo

Now, this is a long a rather tedious process, as we are going to be playing a TON of Triple Triad to farm Elnoyle cards. We will be doing this first as we do not want to start accidently leveling up the party just yet.

Triple Triad; this is by far my personal favorite mini game/side quest in the history of EVER! The rules are rather simple and if you can’t figure out how to play it GTFO (JK I’ll be making a Triple Triad guide soon just for you lovely people).

OK so here’s the plan, you get your first set of 7 cards from the dude on the Bridgeway to the classrooms on the second floor of Balamb Garden as soon as you have the hallway train wreck with Selphie. Just talk to him and he will give you a general run down of the game, which Is more than enough information to play around Garden.

“OK, now I have the cards, what the fuck do I do now?!”

Good for you, now take the elevator down to the ground floor and start harassing your fellow students to play cards. The one you really want to play against is the young boy wearing a blue and white striped shirt. He is found jogging around the central pillar. He has the “MiniMog” card. We want this to make future farming games.

That little punk in the blue short sleeved shirt right there

Now chances are you will have to play him several times before he decided to do the right thing and play the damn card. When he runs off the screen, just move to the elevator screen and back to the main one.

“OK I have the stupid MiniMog, now what?”

Gratz Bra! Now you’re going to head off to the cafeteria. If you don’t know where that is, you might want to start explaining how Squall has lived in the Garden for so long without knowing where the damn food is.  No seriously, check the map board thing. It’s in the picture above, right there where those teenage hormones are standing.

Ok, now that we are in the cafeteria, move on the second screen and challenge either of the dudes at the front right table to a card game.

The two fuckwits there on the right

They have Quistis’ card. There is also a third Quisty Fan-boy in a place that I can’t remember because I never play against him. Again you may have to play several games before they cough it up. I’ve had runs where I’ve played these douchebags for 30 straight before they gave it up.

“OK Quistis Obtained! Now what?”

SWEET! Now go save your friggen game. If you lose either MiniMog or Quistis to the next player you can just restart from the save.

OK SAVED!

Now head to the infirmary! We will now be relentlessly harassing Doctor Kadawaki. Because no one gives a rat’s ass if a student is sick, PLAY ME BITCH!

Ok, she plays the Elnoyle Card, we want a minimum of 20 of these little buggers!

Why 20 you ask?

Because 10 Elnoyle cards refine into 1 Energy Crystal, and one energy crystal refines into 10 PULSE AMMO *ding ding ding*

Obtaining these 20 cards is going to be the longest part of the entire process, it beats out any grinding and story arch time combined. It usually takes 100-150 games with her to get all the cards that are needed.

“OK, That fucking sucked, but I got them *heavy breathing* now what?”

HOLY SHIT!!! YOU’RE STILL HERE???!!! Determined little monkey aren’t you. OKIE DOKIE, moving right along.

TIME OUT!!! Here we can split the path. One Path is faster (time actually spent) and the enemies stay at a relatively decent level for the point in the game. The other requires quite a bit of grinding outside of Balamb Garden and the enemies will be massively Over Powered for your current equipment, but you will get the LionHeart earlier in the Story. Continue reading and decide for yourself which you would prefer to do.   TIME IN!!!

On to the Dragon Fangs! Dragon Fangs are dropped primarily by Blue Dragons, but we don’t exactly have any of those on hand at this stage of the game now do we? So what is a crazy gamer to do? Well there are two options at this point; you can keep you level average below 19 and farm Grendels in the forests outside Timber (if you’re going to do this press ctrl+f and type [GRNDLHNT])     OOOORRRRRR option 2…. T-Rexaurs….. yeah have fun with this one.  T-Rexaurs drop Dragon Fangs when they are between the level’s of 20-29. So keeping this in mind, lets progress the story a little bit! Go do the Fire Cavern!

“Ok, DONE!”

Sweet! Equip Ifrit, and start wandering around the Training facility ASAP, the T-rexaurs are more often encountered on the left path. As you fight you will not only level up, but so will the MoBs. (yay level average). So when your average level is in the above range start killing the t-rexaurs. Don’t forget to have someone constantly casting sleep on them.

“OK, GOT THEM! Are we almost done?”

NOPE….. Well….. Kinda…

Now we get to actually play the story line. Just play through like normal making sure to keep your level average somewhere around 30, come back and see me when we are leaving Timber.

“OK, WE’RE LEAVING! Are you coming or not?”

Well, butt-munch, if you want the friggen gunblade you’ll wait for me, won’t’cha!?

Ok, I’m ready.
I was eating hot-dogs.

Ok, time for a long mothafuckin’ walk son! But before we go; do you want it now? Or can you wait through a bit more story?

To get The Lion Heart NOW Continue reading from here

To sit through some more story press {ctrl+f} and type [MINTOMB]

-----

You are a greedy one aren’t you? Or just can’t wait another hour or so. Either way, off we go!

We are heading for the beach just south of Dollet.

Don’t Question me, just do it!

Here you will encounter the Adamantoise. It’s a giant armored turtle. Trust me, you can’t miss them, they are that obvious. When these pre-soup monstrosities are level 30+ They drop the Adamantine you need for the LionHeart (among other things) farm for as many as you want, you will have an easier opportunity to get 10 a bit later on though. HEY you’re the one who wanted to do this the hard way, not me! Once you have as many as you want (minimum 1 for the LionHeart) we now go through the check list.

“Do I have adamantine?”
Yes (move on) 
No (wtf I just told you where to farm them dude get to it!)

“Has Ifrit learned Ammo-RF?”
Yes (move on to question 6.) 
No (see question 3)

“Is Ifrit Level 10?”
Yes (next question)
 No (start leveling him up right frikken NOW)

“Has Quetzequotl learned CardMOD?”
 Yes (next question)
No (learn it NOW)

“Have I modded the 20 Elnoyle cards into 2 Energy Crystals?”
 Yes (Good Job. Next)
No (do it with CardMOD)

“Have the Energy Crystals Been refined into 20 Pulse Ammo with Ammo-RF?”
Yes (SWEET Next)
No (do that)

“Did I get the Dragon Fangs from the T-rexaur?”
Yes (THANK GOD that would have sucked if….)
No (dude you just wrecked the whole thing. Now you gotta wait until you get back to Balamb Garden to get them on DISC 2!)

Now that that’s out of the way I’m presuming because you haven’t rage quit yet that you have all the mats you need. SWEET! Let’s head back to Timber, and make the LionHeart!

BAM!!

You did it!

Congratz, you just made the game stupid hard, because you did all that grinding, at least you have Squall’s final weapon as a consolation.
That’s something at least...

[GRNDLHNT]

So you have opted to not grind like a beast to get your Dragon Fangs from the dastardly Sharp Tooth, huh.  That’s fine, doing this will ultimately be the less time consuming method of obtaining the LionHeart. Mind you, you will be acquiring it a little bit later game wise.

“OK I have the stupid cards, now what?”

Nothing, you continue the story like a normal play through BUT make sure you’re levels do not exceed 19 for any character. This means you might have to run from a few battles, and that’s ok.  Come find me again when we’re leaving Timber.

…..

“OK WE’RE LEAVING! Are you coming or not?”

Well, butt-munch, if you want the friggen gunblade you’ll wait for me, won’t’cha!?

Ok, so now that we’re leaving make like we’re progressing the story and go through the first Dream World Scenario.

Ok, now we hunt the Grendel….

For their teeth….

Now the particular kind of Grendel we are looking for are the baby Grendels. They look exactly the same as the adults the only difference is that they are levels 1-19 and if you were paying attention your average should be there as well. If not, you be screwed.  Now gather 4 of them.

“OK I knocked the teeth out of some baby Grendels, now what?”

YOU VIOLENT BASTARD!!!!!
Beating a baby dragon for its chompers….. that’s just heartless.

But it had to be done.
Now progress the story until you reach the Tomb of the Unknown King. Before you enter the Tomb: 

WAIT

“Has Ifrit learned Ammo-RF?”
Yes (move on to question3 ) 
No (see question 2)

“Is Ifrit Level 10?”
Yes (next question 1)
No (start leveling him up right frikken NOW)

“Does Ifrit have the option to learn Ammo-RF in the list?”
Yes(Go learn it)
No (see question 2)

“Has Quetzequotl learned CardMOD?”
Yes (next question)
No (learn it NOW)

“Have I modded the 20 Elnoyle cards into 2 Energy Crystals?”
Yes (GJ next)
No (do it with CardMOD)

“Have the Energy Crystals Been refined into 20 Pulse Ammo with Ammo-RF?”
Yes (SWEET Next)
No (do that)

“Did I get the Dragon Fangs from the Grendels?”
Yes (THANK GOD that would have sucked if….)
No (dude you just wrecked the whole thing. Now you gotta wait until you get back to Balamb Garden to get them on DISC 2 from the T-Rexaurs!)

[MINTOMB]

Ok Now that those are all taken care of I’m going to presume that because you’re still here that everything has gone as planned and you have everything for the LionHeart minus the Adamantine. We will now enter the Tomb of the Unknown King, after you get the Student ID for the General; just keep going deeper into the tomb. This is not a full walkthrough and I will not be going into how to get around this hellish maze here, but I will give you the major clue that the camera is ALWAYS fixed behind the Party, and check the map often.

There are 2 boss fights here, one is with a mentally challenged oaf of a minotaur named Minotaur….

 Wait what?

That’s a real fucking original name…. (don’t worry the other one’s not much better). Once you kick his butt he runs away to find his “big brother”  You must now follow him and fight Minotaur and his big brother Sacred (a midget minotaur with a Napoleon Complex). Once the battle is over GTFO, heal and save like your life depended on it.

“OK DONE”

DUDE! Midget Minotaur is a mean little guy… HAAAAA little guy… *gigglesnort*

OK, we’re on the last step here, pay super close attention to this part…

Use the CardMOD ability learned from Quetzaqotl on MINOTAUR’s card, not SACRED’s.  Then head into Deling City, and hit the weapon shop upgrade the gun blade, and BAM you have the LionHeart on Disc 1! And you did it without making the game super difficult by opting to NOT beast mode grind for levels! Have fun with this awesome weapon earlier than it’s usually acquired.

NOW, HURRY! GO SAVE!

"Who Is the Doom Marine?" A DOOM background/lore overview. **SPOILERS**

Hello fellow gamers!
In this installment, we’re going to discuss the protagonist in Doom, a game that looks like a reboot of the classic games. In the original games, the Doom Marine (Doomguy) was intended to be You! Yes you, staring at this screen. You are the guy who went through literal Hell and back. You’re actually kind of a badass and you didn’t know it. In the reboot, however, you play the Doom Marine, who isn’t you. You’re still a badass though.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

That guy, you play that guy.

He’s known by a few names, the Doom Marine, the Doom Slayer, the Hell Walker, the Unchained Predator. They all tell their own pretty tale about how well-liked he is in Hell.

He’s not.

Now, you may be wondering where such a man came from. The Codex entries in Doom tells us everything we need to know about him! If you can find them, that is. The first comes up near the beginning of the game, titled, appropriately, The Doom Marine. The UAC went on an expedition to Hell and found a sarcophagus, a discovery they labelled DM1-5, but the scientists gave the man inside the moniker ‘Doom Marine.’ A discovery in the same expedition, the book of Daeva, depicted the Doom Marine, in his Praetor Suit, fighting demons as a hooded figure looked on.

We also find another Codex entry titled The Praetor Suit early on, which tells us that the suit he wears is impervious to damage, but the scientists were unable to activate it. The catalyst to activate the suit was likely the Doom Marine himself, which we prove by putting it on at the beginning of the game. The suit itself is not what makes the Doom Marine a badass, however. As we find powerups throughout the game, we discover that he can survive things that would kill a normal human. The Codex entry for the Haste buff tells us that, when a normal person is subjected to the Soul-Breaker energy, it greatly increases their speed, but inevitably leads to myocardial rupture, the heart literally exploding. The Doom Marine isn’t even adversely affected by this.

No comment

Later on, after reaching Hell, we find runes that update our Codex, telling us the Slayer’s Testament, which is the exploits of the Doom Slayer, from a demon’s point of view. Which demon, however, is unclear. The first portion of the Slayer’s Testament tells us that in the First Age, a man stood, and chose a path of perpetual torment, and this man finds no peace because of his unending hatred. He was a member of the Night Sentinels, and those who fought him called him the Doom Slayer.

In the second Testament entry, we discover the other names he’s called, the Hell Walker, the Unchained Predator, and he was the only one able to take those names, and the only non-demon to traverse Hell as he did, cutting a path of diabolical cruelty in his wake. The third Testament tells us that he did all of that unaided, and *then* he was blessed by the seraphim (angels?) with great power and speed. He went to the Blood Temples and destroyed the obsidian pillars. He shows no pity for the minions of hell, and was unbreakable, incorruptible. And he was on a warpath to bring Hell down. The fourth Testament tells us he left broken bodies and souls of demons in his wake for *eons* according the demons. Every battle brought the servants of Hell more terror, and his name was spoken with fear. He drew power from killing demons, and he always came for them.

*This* is his vacation spot.

The fifth Testament says that no other had been able to stand before the horde, other than the Doom Slayer, but now, the demons, too, had a champion. The Great One, the Titan, those were its names, and it brought the fight to the Doom Slayer with the fury of every demon he had left dead in his path. The Titan was still no match for the Doom Slayer, and was felled. The sixth Testament brings to light a heresy amongst the demons, a betrayer that adorned the Doom Slayer in great armor (likely the Praetor Suit) that was wrought in Hell’s forges, impervious to damage. Because he needed more help. The seventh Testament details the Doom Slayer’s capture. Even after destroying the Titan, he was insatiable. He sought the tombs in Blood Keep, where the priests of Hell had laid a trap, capturing him in a cursed sarcophagus, and leaving the mark of the Hell Walker on the tomb, as a warning to all of Hell to never let him escape.

Which brings us back to the first Codex entries. The UAC can’t read the writing of Hell, apparently, and set him free, and gave him his Praetor Suit, so he could go on the rampage called Doom.

In short, the Doom Marine is a man, fueled by the death of demons, striking fear in the hearts of the servants of Hell, captured and held for god only knows how long, alive and awake the whole time, then released, and given some pretty big guns, into a world starting to be overrun by demons.

In every visceral, mindless rampage, there is a story to be told, it seems.