Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 3:10 pm
Things pick up a bit once you get into the 100s, I was really feeling my way the first few months.
Keep it coming, fectin.
(and congrats Ancient, for the awesomely evocative stuff! )
Page 6 of 12
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 3:20 pm
Coming in to say this thread is pure gold. Im planning a EP campaign and it cuts me time to go straight to the best materials in the Farcast blog.
Keep it coming, fectin.
(and congrats Ancient, for the awesomely evocative stuff! )
Keep it coming, fectin.
(and congrats Ancient, for the awesomely evocative stuff! )
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:36 pm
The Exsurgent virus is one of the big setting conceits. It's a software-nano-memetic-biological virus - get infected by any of those vectors and you start spreading it through all of them. IIRC it's either TITAN or alien in origin, but I don't think there were any clear official answers about it.
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2014 11:42 pm
Danke.silva wrote: (and congrats Ancient, for the awesomely evocative stuff! )
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 9:21 pm
If I do a 2015 yearblog, I think I need to collect it in a more digestible format.
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 9:41 pm
No, no, I didn't even finish reviewing the Doctor Who game (granted, for different reasons); it's more that my time that's useful for reviews is sharply limited.
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 7:13 pm
Fair enow. I've just got the 2015 thing on my brain. I kinda want to do it, I'm on my third revision of an outline for the thing - it would be Call of Cthulhu based - but I don't know if I'm going to do it. Because I want to do it better than Farcast, y'know? And I don't know if I could pull it off, or if it'll be worth it even to try.
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 7:42 pm
If fectin's not going to finish it, anyone else interested?
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2014 7:24 pm
fbmf? Anybody?
Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 8:56 pm
Hokay.
The lawn is mown, the latest batch of wood is stained, and I have a BLTini. it's time for 085: The Pearlworks
I'm a little torn on this one. It's good; it's evocative; there's absolutely no reason for a group to care about it.
Roughly, there are these organisms living in an undersea river that slowly build a mineral sphere and live around the surface. The organisms are beautiful and pearlescent, and live only in one river. That's all really cool, but so what? Worse, the first seed just uses them as an especially uninteresting Chrono-Crossed Macguffin.
However, the second seed goes pretty far towards redeeming it: $MEGACORP has found that the pearls have started building spheres with platinum, and (obviously) started bulk harvesting them. $SOMEGUY would really like the megacorp to not kill off this species, and proposes using them to trace back to the actual platinum lode. "Blow it out your ass," suggests the megacorp. So now, Some Guy wants to raise capital, trace the lode, and mine it out, thereby earning $TEXAS, saving the pearls, and sticking it to the man right in the back of a volkswagen. That's fantastic. It's expansive, easy to hook into, easy to feel good about, and provides ongoing motivation for escapades.
Without that hook, B; with it, A-.
The lawn is mown, the latest batch of wood is stained, and I have a BLTini. it's time for 085: The Pearlworks
I'm a little torn on this one. It's good; it's evocative; there's absolutely no reason for a group to care about it.
Roughly, there are these organisms living in an undersea river that slowly build a mineral sphere and live around the surface. The organisms are beautiful and pearlescent, and live only in one river. That's all really cool, but so what? Worse, the first seed just uses them as an especially uninteresting Chrono-Crossed Macguffin.
However, the second seed goes pretty far towards redeeming it: $MEGACORP has found that the pearls have started building spheres with platinum, and (obviously) started bulk harvesting them. $SOMEGUY would really like the megacorp to not kill off this species, and proposes using them to trace back to the actual platinum lode. "Blow it out your ass," suggests the megacorp. So now, Some Guy wants to raise capital, trace the lode, and mine it out, thereby earning $TEXAS, saving the pearls, and sticking it to the man right in the back of a volkswagen. That's fantastic. It's expansive, easy to hook into, easy to feel good about, and provides ongoing motivation for escapades.
Without that hook, B; with it, A-.
Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 9:05 pm
Pearlworks was the beginning of a theme week built around aquatic Eclipse Phase settings.
Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 10:11 pm
Oh, neat. That wasn't obvious to me, but in a Europa-specific campaign I'd value Pearlworks more highly.
086 First Spawning
Europan festival based around a carefully coordinated mass birth of biomorphs tailored to the Europan environment. Neat backdrop, but not independently compelling. I think this could have been a fantastic adventure backdrop, and could easily be expanded to a very compelling campaign sourcebook, but in isolation I am seized by a profound apathy. A+ potential, C+ for this specific realization (consistent with awesome, but doesn't deliver).
086 First Spawning
Europan festival based around a carefully coordinated mass birth of biomorphs tailored to the Europan environment. Neat backdrop, but not independently compelling. I think this could have been a fantastic adventure backdrop, and could easily be expanded to a very compelling campaign sourcebook, but in isolation I am seized by a profound apathy. A+ potential, C+ for this specific realization (consistent with awesome, but doesn't deliver).
Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 11:05 pm
087: Tam Uisge
Neat, but bland. It's a guy adapted for ocean living. He might be a guide for the PCs. It's possible that "futura morph" conveys info I am not privy to and makes this neater. Otherwise, it's most interesting for being evocative of a short story I read once that made me care about cat people.
Overall: B. Bumped up for having a clever hook where instead of finding Tam when he disappears, you need to find the crazy stalker who went looking for him first.
Edit: from the comments, the name is a clever Irish pun. "Uisge" sounds like whiskey, and Tam is a common name, so I'm guessing 'man of the water'? Either way, brownie points for that.
Neat, but bland. It's a guy adapted for ocean living. He might be a guide for the PCs. It's possible that "futura morph" conveys info I am not privy to and makes this neater. Otherwise, it's most interesting for being evocative of a short story I read once that made me care about cat people.
Overall: B. Bumped up for having a clever hook where instead of finding Tam when he disappears, you need to find the crazy stalker who went looking for him first.
Edit: from the comments, the name is a clever Irish pun. "Uisge" sounds like whiskey, and Tam is a common name, so I'm guessing 'man of the water'? Either way, brownie points for that.
Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 11:33 pm
I'll take 50 or so closer to the end. I very much did enjoy reading the daily entries, and can scarcely appreciate the effort involved in their production.Ancient History wrote:anyone else interested?
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 2:04 am
088: Sharktooth
It's a clever and evocative shiv. Easy to conceal.
Solid B.
It's a clever and evocative shiv. Easy to conceal.
Solid B.
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 2:28 am
I plan on doing more. I've just been very busy lately with summer travel and preparing upcoming child's nursery.Ancient History wrote:fbmf? Anybody?
Sorry for the delay, AH.
Game On,
fbmf
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:25 pm
089: The High Pools
It's a sauna-as-Randian-public-work. Could definitely use an actual layout to make this an easier drop-in. This would be good as part of a setting book.
I like that it calls out the operators, and mentions their priorities.
Overall, B
It's a sauna-as-Randian-public-work. Could definitely use an actual layout to make this an easier drop-in. This would be good as part of a setting book.
I like that it calls out the operators, and mentions their priorities.
Overall, B
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 9:34 pm
090: Otta Tvash
Blind dino-penguin as flying explorer. She certainly has a lot going on, but most of it seems more suited to 'rich inner life' than 'interesting NPC.'
Notes suggest using her to get players thinking about their extra sense, but I'm not sure how that would work.
I assume she's well built and easy to drop in though, so B-.
Blind dino-penguin as flying explorer. She certainly has a lot going on, but most of it seems more suited to 'rich inner life' than 'interesting NPC.'
Notes suggest using her to get players thinking about their extra sense, but I'm not sure how that would work.
I assume she's well built and easy to drop in though, so B-.
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 10:13 pm
091: Seanav
It's a bio- inertial nav sensor. Justified as an excuse to keep play going.
That requires a certain amount of foresight though, so I'm not 100% confident.
Mostly mechanical, so hard for me to evaluate, but looks like a B+.
It's a bio- inertial nav sensor. Justified as an excuse to keep play going.
That requires a certain amount of foresight though, so I'm not 100% confident.
Mostly mechanical, so hard for me to evaluate, but looks like a B+.
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 10:34 pm
092: Nagog Hill
"[A] bizarre pseudo-fractal recombinatorial extrapolation of Schloss Neuschwanstein..." Nice.
It's a writhing squid of a building on a hill, filling a crater. Inside, it's a comic-con of competing cosplay ideas, writ large.
Great and plausible excuse for genre bending, and could be dropped in fairly easily.
Overall, A-, because there were no specifics, just an overall concept. Would be interested to see this expanded to a mini-setting though.
"[A] bizarre pseudo-fractal recombinatorial extrapolation of Schloss Neuschwanstein..." Nice.
It's a writhing squid of a building on a hill, filling a crater. Inside, it's a comic-con of competing cosplay ideas, writ large.
Great and plausible excuse for genre bending, and could be dropped in fairly easily.
Overall, A-, because there were no specifics, just an overall concept. Would be interested to see this expanded to a mini-setting though.
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 10:41 pm
093: Skeeters
Mosquitos as drones. Good, solidly written, and some implications explored. Easy to use, but no compelling reason to do so.
Overall, B.
Mosquitos as drones. Good, solidly written, and some implications explored. Easy to use, but no compelling reason to do so.
Overall, B.
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 10:48 pm
094: Ulf Vargsnev
Garbageman with a good backstory. Useful as a contact, or as an excuse to smuggle in somewhere, and potentially has prices more interesting than just cash or Macguffins.
Somewhat heavy on the violins though. A-.
Garbageman with a good backstory. Useful as a contact, or as an excuse to smuggle in somewhere, and potentially has prices more interesting than just cash or Macguffins.
Somewhat heavy on the violins though. A-.
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 10:50 pm
Schloss Neuschwanstein is the Bavarian castle that served as a model for Disney's castle.
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 10:57 pm
I know.
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 11:16 pm
095: Orcamorphs
I'm not sure what to think about these guys. They're large critters that are super-smart, and adapted to swim like whales. They're usually quadrupeds, and look funny. Apparently, a huge minority of them are autistic.
It's evocative, even if I can't picture it, but was this what people were clamoring for? (Again, no basis for judging balance)
Overall B
I'm not sure what to think about these guys. They're large critters that are super-smart, and adapted to swim like whales. They're usually quadrupeds, and look funny. Apparently, a huge minority of them are autistic.
It's evocative, even if I can't picture it, but was this what people were clamoring for? (Again, no basis for judging balance)
Overall B