Cyberpunk Fantasy Heartbreaker: Bestiary

TheFlatline · Post by **TheFlatline** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:27 am

My first thought was "brown elf nipples are an explicit no-no, but blue asura nipples totally are?"

I get it though. Maybe it could be worded differnetly...

"Asura have secondary mammary glands and may frequently exhibit supernumary nipples along the milk line" would summarize the same paragraph.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:31 am

So, the elf eye thing confuses me. Do they actually have multiple irises like a microscope, that move around? Because that'd be pretty cool...

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:47 am

Prak_Anima wrote:So, the elf eye thing confuses me. Do they actually have multiple irises like a microscope, that move around? Because that'd be pretty cool...

Seems like they have one really big eye with multiple irises that move around to make them look Bug-Eyed.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:49 am

Nipple lines are a real thing and extend on humans from the shoulder to the thigh:

It is actually impossible to talk about people who have non-standard arm and leg setups without getting into nipple discussions. It's simply not even possible. At least this time it's people discussing whether or not the nipple discussion should be in there instead of people ranting at each other about what the nipple situation actually is.

-Username17

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:14 am

Spiderman grew extra arms from time to time, but he never grew extra nipples (as far as I know).

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 9:41 am

Lokathor wrote:Spiderman grew extra arms from time to time, but he never grew extra nipples (as far as I know).

A man spend hundreds of dollars commissioning artists to draw pictures of spiderman with a tiny penis watching various female characters from the franchise enflagrante. The internet is a horrible place. But most nipple conversation about spiderman gets side tracked by Kristin Dunst in the rain with no bra. The point is that nipples will always be part of the conversation, see: the Dragonborn.

-Username17

A Man In Black · Post by **A Man In Black** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:08 am

FrankTrollman wrote:A man spend hundreds of dollars commissioning artists to draw pictures of spiderman with a tiny penis watching various female characters from the franchise enflagrante.

People have spent hundreds of dollars commissioning parodies or vandalized versions of commissioned images of tiny-penis Spider-Man watching various female characters etc. etc., to boot.

The things you learn in /co/.

Anyway, wouldn't there be a better name than "Bestiary" for a book of races you'd actually expect people to play?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:18 am

That's just the section I have written. Also for inclusion:

The Infected. Penanggalan, Werewolves, Vampires
The Aliens. Morlocks, Yuggothians, Dragons.
The Overstressed. Cyclops, Dagon, Davanas, Duergar, Unseelie.
Non-human demitypes. Dogs, Cats, Rats, Chickens, Pigs, Cows, Horses.

Taking suggestions for those bad boys.

-Username17

Lokathor · Post by **Lokathor** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:33 am

Being able to play as a Talking Chicken would be silly, but you should have a sidebar for it.

Space monsters from Mars are pretty common, and should be in. However, space monsters from Venus and Mercury could also be new and exciting. Or even just space monsters that drift through space. Probably no extra-solar creatures or intersteller stuff, otherwise it's just too damn big of a universe.

Are AIs going to be able to control avatars and drones and be characters like that? Assuming they have to be kept on special hardware that can support them, will said hardware be portable, even if it's in the form of something like "that entire semi-truck is the AI's body"?

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:47 am

New Asura description works much better.

Vebyast · Post by **Vebyast** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 5:20 pm

I was figuring that at least one of the demitypes was more intentional than accidental, and since this is cyberpunk as well as fantasy we need a few demitypes that aren't overtly magical. Every single demitype being a magical accident is boring.

Ogres and Asura are easily the best candidates for both human design and nonmagical origin, since they require the fewest biochemical modifications from standard human. Asura are another pair of arms and some duped brain bits, and Ogres are just big humans. As I mentioned, Ogres also have a bunch of features that I'd guess were intentionally chosen by Frank to drive them to cybernetics, and other people are going to notice that intentionality. [edit: just realized another one. Ogres' lifelong growth is probably a side effect of massively improved osseointegration.]

Dwarves and Deep Ones would be unintentional and/or magical. Deep Ones have major biochemical modifications (gills are probably hard), and the Dwarven magical effect doesn't seem to be like something someone would "design"; those both point to unintentional. They also both have racial magic, which points directly to a magical origin.

Elves are a toss-up.

Also, minor question: what happens to straight humans when they get more magic? Asura grow arms, Deep Ones get deeper, and so on; do humans grow robes and a "cryptic advice" brain lobe, roll randomly on the entire table, or have their own set of things?

violence in the media · Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:28 pm

Lokathor wrote:Being able to play as a Talking Chicken would be silly, but you should have a sidebar for it.

I don't know. I think it would be pretty cool to be able to play a brain-enhanced gorilla. And hacker dolphins are genre-appropriate.

Endovior · Post by **Endovior** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:47 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:Nipple lines are a real thing and extend on humans from the shoulder to the thigh:

-snip-

It is actually impossible to talk about people who have non-standard arm and leg setups without getting into nipple discussions. It's simply not even possible. At least this time it's people discussing whether or not the nipple discussion should be in there instead of people ranting at each other about what the nipple situation actually is.

-Username17

What. Not only is this totally a real thing (wikipedia link), but it's a real thing because that's the line along which humans, of either gender, can actually grow extra nipples and breasts. Yes, there have been actual cases of men that randomly develop a functional breast on their thigh. What.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:52 pm

violence in the media wrote:
Lokathor wrote:Being able to play as a Talking Chicken would be silly, but you should have a sidebar for it.

I don't know. I think it would be pretty cool to be able to play a brain-enhanced gorilla. And hacker dolphins are genre-appropriate.

Playing an aquatic creature would seem like a role too heavily restricted for your average campaign, but the hacker dolphin concept sounds awesome. These are creatures that literally kill other animals for giggles and have won the everlasting trust of humanity because their jaw is shaped like a perpetual grin. In the words of Movie Bob, they're the Joker of the sea.

Vebyast · Post by **Vebyast** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:12 pm

Chamomile wrote:the hacker dolphin concept sounds awesome.

Not only are dolphins awesome, I'm pretty sure they're sentient and sapient. For one, they have names. Dolphins can tell other dolphins their name, call other dolphins over using their name, and even refer to other dolphins in the third person. There are suggestions that they can verbally transfer knowledge to other dolphins or echo-illuminate areas they want other dolphins to look at, both indicating theory of mind. A friend of mine is working on building a doohickey that uses pattern recognition to actually talk to them.

I'm all for there being dolphin @men and drone pilots, at least as a special-case race.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sat Jul 16, 2011 11:26 pm

Darwin Friend!
Jones Fry!

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 2:59 am

FrankTrollman wrote:That's just the section I have written. Also for inclusion:

The Infected. Penanggalan, Werewolves, Vampires

The Aliens. Morlocks, Yuggothians, Dragons.

The Overstressed. Cyclops, Dagon, Davanas, Duergar, Unseelie.

Non-human demitypes. Dogs, Cats, Rats, Chickens, Pigs, Cows, Horses.
Taking suggestions for those bad boys.

-Username17

You included an underwater PC type; make sure to include underwater adversaries. Like sharks. And cybersharks.

Are there any wild robots that deserve to be beasts instead of machines?

Davanas is a little obscure, and google won't define it for me. Maybe call it a Gorgon instead?

Vebyast · Post by **Vebyast** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:03 am

Duergar should be walking techbanes. Their normal aura ("Dwarven magic can corrode and destroy and it can repair and fortify") strengthens into an active effect. Normal tech around them changes so it only works when the/a Duergar is around. Maybe do something steampunk with it.

zeruslord · Post by **zeruslord** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 9:46 am

We're going to want the two standard kinds of scary mythological dogs - one that's huge and fierce, probably multiheaded and/or firebreathing, and one that's huge and black and ominous and howls and then you're doomed. We want at least one of a pegasus and a unicorn. We might also want a few demitypes for non-city/farm animals - a ghost bear, some sort of dream/peace panda, maybe an eagle.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:48 am

Dream Eating Tapirs too.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:11 am

Ok, my first character is going to be a cyborg Asura

But I do think it's strange you opted for explaining a multitude of nipples, instead of just "they have two nipples, they don't increase with arms" as I have never seen multi-armed asuras/devas depicted with multiple nipples.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oV9XVDzDnQw/U ... 0/Kali.jpg
Kali always has two nipples. But whatever, I can always just change it for when I run your game.

So with the control over multiple limbs would this mean Asura could run around with four pistols? Or a shotgun and machinegun at the same time?
How exactly will this be balanced vs a plain ol' human with two arms?

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 12:26 pm

The nipple line has to do with mammalian development and limb structure. Most drawings of Hindu gods and demons simply have the extra arms attach off camera somewhere with no obvious attachment. For extra arms to be functional, they would need to have muscular attachments in the chest. That means not only having a second set of rotator cuffs, but also having an extra set of pectoralis muscles. And having an extra set of pects without having nipples on them would look super weird.

Anyway, the actual rate of fire you're capable of having with automatic weaponry is already so high that modelling individual bullets is essentially impossible. Yes, with four hands you can hold four pistols and even fire all of them, but in a 12 second round a regular two handed character can already hold down the trigger of an uzi and get off 240 bullets (assuming that their magazine held 240 bullets, which it probably does not).

Having already accepted modeling the flight of individual bullets as futile, the existence of four or six limbed characters who can hold and fire more weapons is a relatively small concern from a game balance standpoint. The key is winning the shootout, rather than specifically how many guns you are capable of holding at a time.

-Username17

RiotGearEpsilon · Post by **RiotGearEpsilon** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 5:01 pm

Being able to run around with a shotgun, plus two hands free to open doors and shit, is pretty nice. But it's not crazy. Even if you can hold a bunch of guns, you can really only usefully shoot one at a time.

fectin · Post by **fectin** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:07 am

It might be useful as a better set of options: holding "flashlight, uzi, flamethrower, sword" is probably better than just holding a flashlight and an uzi, even if you only use one at a time.

Grek · Post by **Grek** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 12:42 am

Ogrebattle: Please get rid of your huge ass images. Or spoiler them or something. You're breaking tables.