So, I was flipping through older pages and found discussion on whether or not Lord English is a Warmain or a Strategist. But that got me thinking...
What would Doc Scratch be? Personally, considering he's a bastardization of what was supposed to be a god and a protector, I'd call him a Mimic with the Blasphemy of summoning Lord English into the universe. Though, what is he mimicking? Lightlord? Darklord?
edited 27th Jun '14 1:54:17 PM by Inari2600
Eco Mono, on rpg.net, statted him up as a Strategist:
This is a Strategist whose dereliction of duty is destroying him. To insinuate himself into Creation, he takes the place of a First Guardian, along with their obligation to shepherd their planet. But Doc Scratch has another loyalty which he considers more important, and which has compromised his judgment as a First Guardian - has compromised the ideal by which he determines what his charges' "ultimate purpose" ought to be. Eventually, the Green Sun in his heart will peter out, and he'll become a lifeless thing, his nature cast Outside until it can reintegrate itself with the source of its power.
Doc Scratch frequently makes reference to a being called "Lord English", whom he supposedly serves, and who will supposedly have been retroactively summoned upon Creation's final death. He further claims that since Lord English is "already here", his victory is a foregone conclusion. Whether this is true, or a mistake formed of the dark pockets in his omniscience, is left as an exercise for the reader.
Aspect 0
Domain -
Persona -
Treasure 4
Heart of Green Lightning 7CP ([Lesser Motion of Space, Global, Automatic, Limited, Uncommon])
Eternal 3CP
Road to the Great Undoing - Doc Scratch knows exactly how the summoning of Lord English is to come about. He can deduce what anyone is doing, or was doing, or will do - any event that would occur in the history of the world - if their actions affect the completion of this goal. (He can then derive from this as normal using his unenhanced Superior Deduction.) [World-Shaking Deduction, Global, Automatic, Focused, Uncommon] 10CP
World-Breaker's Hand (gratis)
[2] Bond: First Guardian of Alternia.
[2] Bond: A gentleman in all things.
[2] Bond: The Felt. [Wondrous Collection - a gang of fifteen mobsters recruited to Doc Scratch's cause, each bound to one of the fifteen object balls in eight-ball billiards.]
[1] Bond: I still feel a lingering loyalty to Snowman. [Miraculous Anchor - technically the Eight Ball of the Felt, but first among equals, with powers commiserate to her position. She was the one responsible for Doc Scratch's current form and nature.]
[1] Bond: HAA HAA HEE HEE HOO HOO. [Strategist Vice - Doc Scratch's current form and nature are derived in part from a marionette plucked from a boy's uneasy dreams. He revels in making people uncomfortable, and pushes his "gentlemanly" bond as far as it'll go.]
[5] Affliction: I serve Lord English, who is to come.
[3] Affliction: There exist dark pockets in my perception. [Doc Scratch's Superior Deduction and Aspect Gift are his only functioning senses. Anything with a relevant Property, Bond, or Auctoritas strong enough to prevent use of Road to the Great Undoing, he is unable to perceive at all.]
[1] Affliction: Marionette with a cue ball for a head.
Superior Deduction 5
Skill: Chess 2
Skill: Etiquette 2
Also, Chuubo backer-only beta release PDF is out. This is a seriously gorgeous PDF, although it's doing nothing to discourage me from seeing Chuubo himself as Criminy from Sinfest.
And today in I Didn't Think It Could Be Done In Chuubo's, courtesy an rpgnet thread about statting up Transformers in your favourite system:
"I prefer to beat my opponents the old-fashioned way...brutally!"
Starting Arc: Knight (Become Somebody) Starting Quest: Refusal of the Call
- Truth: Honourable
- Failing: Inflexible
- Role: Warrior
Skills:
- Superior War Machine 2
- Battle-Tested Veteran 3
- Philosopher 2
- Student of Classical Literature 1
Basic Quest: Nobler in the Mind (Blue) - Dinobot can earn XP toward this Quest by speculating about which course of action would be more honourable. Of course, Dinobot's concept of "honour" has no objection to, for example, eating one's evil clone. It may not be as clear-cut as it may seem, is what I'm getting at here.
Perk: Bond - Transformer 2. While the ability to transform rarely has a significant impact on his core stats, the ability to switch forms offers a useful advantage in problem-solving. Invoke this Bond to represent switching from one form to another to solve a problem - gaining more dextrous hands, for example. Perk: Connection (Optimus Primal) 1. Reluctant respect is still technically respect!
Arc Traits: (1)
- Become Somebody 1
- Wounded Angel 2
- Devices: Rotating weapons (Superior Combat Robot)
- Dramatic: You have an uncanny ability to turn up when the leader of a group is taken out of the action in some way.
- Cage for a Blasphemy: Dinobot's most ruthless side is a nightmare to behold.
Wound Powers
Wound: Ambitious
Dinobot believes that the honourable course, when your leader is unworthy, is to take over and run the outfit yourself. Leaders who prove worthy deserve loyalty, but those who haven't proven themselves worth your service should be, at best, your underlings, at worst a pile of scrap.
- Miraculous Action: Scourge the Unworthy - 1/chapter, you may take a mechanically perfect action so long as you are behaving in concert with your admittedly ruthless warrior code. This can be used in combat, unless your Intention involves defending against a surprise attack.
- Imperial Miracle: Serve the Worthy - 1/chapter, you may call upon an Imperial Miracle to aid your progress in a task, so long as your goal is to loyally serve a leader who has proven worthy of that service. This can include yourself; just as you would not serve an unworthy leader, you would not wish to become one.
Wound: Ferocious
Dinobot has a notably short temper and often butts heads with less aggressive teammates.
- Miraculous Action: Relentless - 1/chapter, you can make yourself immune to Obstacles from fatigue, terrain, or unexpected Predacon device as long as you are engaged in some form of combat.
- Imperial Miracle: The First Thing We Do...Hell, Why Stop At Lawyers? - 1/chapter, you can gain a startling amount of strategic insight, albeit skewed by your code and your aggression, into the current combat situation. This includes when it is not actually combat, but looks like it's about to become so.
Bonus XP Emotion: Speechlessness XP. Ideally, the other players should be taken aback at your fusion of rage and nobility. When they're awed by an act or statement of either impressive ruthlessness or impressive self-sacrifice, you get XP.
(1) Could also be modelled with Child of the Ash, but that could get very repetitive in a Transformers-focused campaign.
(The wound powers are a bit vague-guess, because it's been a while since I last did this and I was running out of time).
edited 2nd Jul '14 4:44:36 PM by CountDorku
Edit: And I've seen the first "Sell Me On" thread on rpgnet for Chuubo's. Truly, it has arrived. [wipes away single tear]
edited 30th Aug '14 5:04:27 AM by CountDorku
Well, I'm enjoying it. The Chuubostuck campaign I'm in over on rpgnet has just had an epic god-tiering that managed to net me 11XP even though I wasn't actually the one going god-tier.
(It was a complicated chain of events involving an old rivalry, a lightning-powered wrench, a fungus-monster that infected my character with hallucinatory spores, a volcano, and a hallucinatory confrontation with the bits of herself she's coming to hate that came at a time when flipping out and beating on the thing in front of her was not ideal for anyone concerned.)
I'm enjoying it, although one of my games is rather slow due to extenuating circumstances. Nothing really changed for me since the game was officially released, but it's nice to see progress being made. I'm eagerly awaiting the Fortitude setting book and the Glass-Maker's Dragon, eventually. It took a lot longer than the estimates to get the corebook, so at best we can expect those for next year, but it can't be helped. I'm sure it'll be awesome by the time it comes out.
Chuubo Halloween Special is out!
Looks to be kind of a quick start-y sort of campaign. Might pick it up for my gaming group some time; this might be exactly what I'm looking for in terms if introducing the game.
What the heck, I've got some income to dispose. Let's check this thing out.
Okay, it's about how the Halloween King, and if you can read those two words in sequence without automatically filling in "Jack Skellington," you're a stronger person than I am, was usurped by the six jarls under him and now the world is at risk of ending. The world of Town, not the Halloween world. That's probably safe. Astute and knowledgeable readers may note that one of the suggested alternatives for Entropy is a ruler or a Halloween world instead of an evil one, and he is in fact the king in exile. Doesn't know it starting out, though. Genre is Fairy Tales, and there are some Halloweeny properties in place including one that makes anything scary turn out to be a trick, illusion, or misunderstanding. Which kind of sucks for Entropy McBloodyhands.
It's got four PCs and an NPC Chuubo who aren't a whole lot like the versions of them found in the rest of the books. None of them have the emotion XP we were led to expect, for one thing. Entropy II is an apathetic drunk with more of Snape than Dumbledore in him who gets Facepalm XP for how crap he is at his job, Jasmine Apocynum gets Speechlessness XP for stuff like ranting about how it is right that the world end (she'll change her mind on that eventually) or the characters she ships from her vampire book, Soun Shounen gets Putting My Faith In You XP because people are always dragging him into doing things like running awesome parties or preventing the end of the world, and Edony (mentioned in passing as the Magical Detective) gets Aww! XP for being orphaned at eight although at least she's not living in the poverty of Old Moulder or getting kidnapped by the Russian cyber-Mafia. Also, Entropy's School is in Soma Village.
Edony's got a lot more weird powers than I expected. She's a Changeling, can perform the Night-Craft, and her childhood blankie works as a low-rent invisibility cloak. She's even got "Inhuman" as an Affliction. They weren't kidding when they called her the magical detective, I guess. Although here she's the Exchange Student, since she exchanged with Chuubo, sending him into the Halloween world when she ended up in Town. They talk through mirrors now.
There's some interesting stuff in the suggested alternatives. Entropy can be Attaris, with a blindfold covering up her lack of eyes and an autonomous shadow that is secretly a parlor trick, or have bloody hands not because of mystic shit but because of all the razors he keeps putting in candy because of reasons (maybe it's required by obscure rule, or he just prefers the taste). Edony can be Chuubo, who doesn't have a wishing machine or a magic blankie and is definitely not in any way a giant snake even if he does have some ophidian abilities. Soun can be a dog, which does not apparently impact his ability to be a mysterious bishie.
The Hollyhock God gets a stat sheet. Academics Skill: You Know All. Sports Skill: Ineffable.

Well, we seem to have reached the conclusion that it should all be spent on stats, so we have Aspect 0, Persona 4 and Treasure 1.
Now we need 14 points of Bonds and Afflictions. Ideas?