Song of Swords: Norman Haircut Edition

>are you aware of how phenomenally racist this sounds?
A bloo bloo bloo it sounds raycist

>In the OP post it's stated that white people exist because of Din rape. Is this true, and are you aware of how phenomenally racist this sounds?

You realize what we call to be modern white people (as opposed to other caucasians like armenians) are a result of neanderthal DNA right?

J.R! A completely different question but is there such a thing as absolution or redemption for Genosians? Can a man who ended up on Genosus' "Flame on" list be taken off without the use of paladin Judgement?

Build a cathedral single handedly?

Yes, confession and absolution are all elements of the Genosian religion, though the later requires genuine honesty and penance in the form of labor.

A common endeavor for aging Genosians is to undertake some personal project of great scale after confessing their sins to a priest. It is considered the ultimate noble death to die in the process of such a work. Many paintings and statues depict old men slumped over their tools or laying in the field beneath some half-finished project.

It is considered very important that this project, once discovered by others, be completed if at all possible, or else let alone to stand half-done as a testament to the labor the brave man undertook.

This seems relevant:

thisiscolossal.com/2016/07/a-lone-man-spends-53-years-building-a-cathedral-by-hand/

>The O-Din are just neanderthals
Eskarne's a bit on the qt side for a literal subhuman...

>not thicc
She's not quite baboonish enough for my liking. You'd think the ohanedin would have bigger arms.

Some of the guys in my group cut their hair for Hastings every year, which does look good in Armour I'll admit. I've never been tempted to join in though.

Partly it's because I'm wedded to my locks, and partly because our group covers a fairly wide time period so there is no single correct hairstyle. People forget fashions changed, then as now.

Just a generation after Hastings, the Norman fashion was long hair "like a women's" going to or past the shoulder and the iconic "Norman" haircut was very old hat at which point I'd be the one at the cutting edge of fashion. However if you are only portraying a very narrow time period where the style doesn't change too much then yes, getting the right hair is a huge bonus.

One thing that does bug me though, is that the guy got the hair perfect but the coif is just plain wrong for the period. Such is life.

How would you stat laser weapons in SoS? Give it burning and a very low TN to hit with?

Jimmy, would Din be able to dodge a laser weapon? I don't know if their ability is bullet time that lets them dodge the bullet, or bullet time that lets them move away from where the gun is about to point.

What? Racist how, because the whites are descended from elves? Most people would consider that a dire insult on Veeky Forums.

>Just a generation after Hastings, the Norman fashion was long hair "like a women's" going to or past the shoulder and the iconic "Norman" haircut was very old hat at which point I'd be the one at the cutting edge of fashion. However if you are only portraying a very narrow time period where the style doesn't change too much then yes, getting the right hair is a huge bonus.
Much like the modern day, old men always held to old fashion styles. Long robes went out of fashion by the late 14th century, but the old men and men of the church could still be found wearing early 1300's fashion.

>Much like the modern day

It's amazing how hard it seems for the average member of public to accept that our ancestors were people too.

I wonder how many reenactor types are still frequenting these threads.

By saying that white people exist because of dinnic rape, and that's wrong aren't you saying that it's wrong for people to be born from rape and the people that are born of rape are also wrong? Isn't that a bit unethical? Surely all people are of equal value

I think the implication is that it implies that white people are betterer because they're part elf. That's reaching a bit though. As above guy said, on most of Veeky Forums implying a kinship to elves is strictly derogatory. It's reading too much into a simple statement.
I do like that Jimmy actually thinks about this stuff though. Canonical ethnographic mysteries are the mark of a truly patrician setting.

How is it racist? It just shows why white people exist. There are no mechanical advantages of your ancestors being raped by dins.

If we go by the logic of "implications" then SoS is racist, but not because white people are a product of din rape, but because the "pure" humans of Lost Izagone who are black are so much better than the inferior whities.

>but because the "pure" humans of Lost Izagone who are black are so much better than the inferior whities.

WE WUZ ARYANS AND SHIIET

Except Italians.

...

Well I know how I'm painting my Inquisitor now.

You are now aware that this may actually be true. In Tattered Realms humans can breed with Zells and simply produce more Zells. In the Void, humans and Zells create a weird chimera that isn't perfect.

Either the difference is in the void itself or the humans on SoS are somehow genetically predisposed to elf genes.

or Jimmy's elf breeding fetish has grown over time.

I assume everything has a deep lore purpose, even if Jimmy is obsessed with... Racemixing? Well there goes the theories of him being a nazi.

He's an octoroon, so he fantasizes about being forcibly given better genes for his children.

I just like elves ffs

Post latest LATEXfag PDF

Answe my question about wazer wifles god damn it

>even if Jimmy is obsessed with... Racemixing?
He has Pathfinder background. What else would you expect?

I actually really like this imagery.

Would that mean Genosians approve of that weird Dwarf habit of going for one last dig before you die? Actually, what's the Genosian view on Dwarves in general?

So let's say I want to use a hand-off weapon primarily in one hand. Do I take 1h proficiency or 2h? Do I have to default when I add/remove the second hand?

Use the proficiency of the weapon.

I don't like elves.

Revision 0.1.3 is now out
Among other changes that I have forgotten to note down:
Weapon Qualities now link
Weapon tables style changes
Fixes of some misplaced tables
Fixed Description fontsize
Moved Proficiencies and Talents from Part III to Part I
Some tables now wrap
Minor skills section layout changes
Missile chapter fixed up mostly

Added combat factor summary after hit locations: Now this one might need some explanation. Essentially, it's an index of obscure rules like Fire/Cold/Electricity, Catch Chance, etc.

The goal is to easily reference rules that one might not use often, so that one doesn't have to go digging through the whole PDF to resolve one's combat.

Please suggest what rules you'd like to see here! I think I forgot to add side attacks, outflanking etc., but then, I also forgot battlefield terrain (not the index reference, the actual SECTION).
Gives me an easy thing to put in my next "improvement" though :^)

Added Unkindlies and Dark Pyromancy! These two still need prettying up, but they're there now

I haven't been working much at all on the PDF of the late, and this extremely slow rate is likely to continue until the end of January when my exams will be over. Until then, please make sure to find the errors (don't worry, it'll be easy, they're all over the place) and give me a heads up.

Updated versions along with source code can, as always, be found on github.com/progamanon/latexed-SOS

You can also help us out big time by leaving comments on pad.riseup.net/p/Song-of-Swords
It doesn't have to be technical, style preferences or questions as to what is possible or even just words of encouragement (or discouragement since I subsist entirely on a diet of self-loathing) are greatly appreciated and requested

I'm not sure how, but I managed to fuck up when I moved the target change/overwatch stuff, so round conclusions got deleted. I've fixed that now (thanks git)

This makes me realize, however, that many things could have disappeared, which is gonna make me real sour

What is that even supposed to mean?

>If a character is holding a sword in their dominant hand, then they must use the 1H Sword proficiency
> There are a few exceptions to this, such as the OffHand rule for some 2H weapons that allows them to be wielded one-handed while still using the 2H proficiency of their type.
- Page 74 of 1.9.5

So if you go to the rulebook you'll see that all the hand-off weapons are in the 2H Sword or 2H Blunt tables, they keep using that proficiency even if you one-hand them. The LaTeXed version seems to have spread the two and off-hand stat block over the two tables, I'm not sure if that's intentional and I don't think I like it.

That's how it is in the Updated Weapons Chapter.

I can't comment on whether or not it's intentional on Jimmy's side, I simply copied it blindly.
Regardless, I intend to add a hyperlink from the 1h profile to the 2h profile, and vice versa, once I get around to not being a lazy sack of shit.

(as for the actual rule about hand-off weapons, every hand-off weapon should hyperlink to the following paragraph under Special Qualities for weapons:

Hand-Off — This weapon can be wielded with one hand in addition to wielding with both hands. If used in this fashion, you may continue using it with its normal Proficiency, or with a 1H version of either Blunt or Sword proficiency (depending on the base type of the weapon). However, instead of using the normal profile of the weapon, use the 1H version of the weapon with an * next to it. Switching from 1H to 2H versions of a weapon can be done at the beginning of any Action (or in response to an injury) and requires no CP expenditure.)

The same mistake was made with racial limitations.

I am very happy I have git to track changes made to the .tex file, or I wouldn't have caught that one. I'll go through the commits to see where else I might have messed up.

This is why I need those extra eyes to catch these mistakes. I am probably clinically retarded or something

A thought experiment, if you will.

Consider the case of the Quarterstaff. We could take the Main Gauche, but the Light Blade on that makes it poor for our purposes. The Swordbreaker would be good, if not for its -1 TN to Parry being very situational.

Now, there are maneuvers that allow you to reduce the parry TN. Stains of Time and The Feeling Disappears and the Unarmored specialty of the Noble school.

You'd think that you'd have to be an Ohanedin or Burd to use these benefits, that when stacked, would bring the Quarterstaff's parry TN to 4, but it turns out the Unkindlies have an Honor that lets them get access to Stains of Time without being a Burd.
Additionally, the Unkindlies have access to Disintegrate, allowing them to lose one HLT for 24 hours, in exchange for completely ignoring an attack that would succeed with 4 BS or fewer.

Additionally, Whirlwind Parry exists to let you keep parrying with your Quarterstaff no matter how many fuckers you are facing, getting back 2 CP for each attack you defend yourself against.

Now, maybe we should consider the Swordbreaker or Main Gauche again, for consider this: they get one (1) free success on each parry

They can then swing back after their Riposte with a Power Attack Tulwar to the face, or a Warhammer if they feel like some serious blunt force trauma.

Really though I just like the idea of a dude with a Main Gauche parrying 7-odd people at the same time, and killing them off one by one.

Sadly, the 2 CP aren't returned until after maneuvers resolve, so he'd need to succeed each individual parry attempt, but he has Disintegrate to catch the outliers that get through.

With a Quarterstaff, the scene of Rafiki vs. the Hyenas becomes doable

Song of Swords; the system of choice when recreating Disney fight choreography.

Well, why else would there be rules for dogs?

Well folks, its about time I do this. The thread is still relatively fresh and my crew just finished the first 'act' of the First War of Containment. Its alot to go over, so I'll mainly just talk about the good bits. The campaign so far has had fantastic dialogue, but I'll be skipping most of that just to talk about stuff that happened.

Sweet.

For people we have 5 people to start with:
Bob: The consistent screwup who made it a point of failure to date the village redhead.
M.S. Scott: Very unhappily married, owns a cigarette factory, smokes half the production.
Taylor:Quiet medic bloke who mostly sits around and applies addictive medications to people
Jameson:The other medic who also gets everyone addicted to meds. The second luckiest PC in the trench.
Ridgeway:Gets way too lucky rolls, but is socially awkward and grew up reading books. Is also the only PC to never fail a grit roll.
The first two sessions were relatively simple. We did a snowball fight in everyone's hometown village back in Nova Silva (this was to introduce combat to the newbies), there was a hunting trip and basic training as well. The second session mainly just got people used to routines of daily trench life. Everyone except Ridgeway also spent the first hour throwing up because of the smell. There is a moment they all had to stand-to against a Chironite infantry charge, and then watch in horror as 200 ought friendly cavalry go butchered in a counter charge. This littered the field in horses, it also started pouring rain. The invasion of Arlon had only been going on for 3-4 months, so people still thought ponies were a good idea.

The third session started out with a good bit of fun.

And by that I mean I sent everyone over the top. Taylor got shellshock when an artillery shell basically murdered his entire squad. Jameson's squad was gunned down but he survived because he tripped over a horse. Ridgeway managed to get his men down and they all survived the engagement. Bob wasn't here for this session and had not been deployed yet. M.S. Scott lost all his men and couldn't really do anything because the medics only had pistols. Eventually the crew managed to take out an enemy machine gun position, but a retreat was ordered. I also realized I made a fuckup here:Taylor was a rifleman, Scott was a medic. Upon landing back in their line, the enemy counterattacked. The northern bit of the line was actually breached, but poor Scott had to watch in horror as they exploded into a fine red mist and mass of limbs along with some friendly infantry due to an artillery shell. This caused Mr. Scott to sink to the ground and reach for a cigarette. To his dismay, he was hallucinating that every cigarette pack was filled with fingers. Ridgeway and Jameson watched as this man repeatedly dumped out pack after pack (this man seriously brought a satchel full of cigs everywhere). The boys also encountered a nasty chironite sniper, whom was picking off MG positions. In comes Bob, merrily rushing to the front and eager to prove his ability in combat. He shot a Chironite laying in no-man's land, and then immediately received a coke-can sized hole in his arm from the sniper. Thus an intense desire to kill this unknown sniper began, and I was forced to promote this rando NPC into a named character (of which they still haven't discovered). Not much happened for the rest of the month. Bob discovered that his GF was working at the field hospital he was sent to, and he was essentially tortured for a month.

Both Ridgeway and Jameson were shot at by the sniper. Ridgeway's head was just barely grazed and Jameson's helmet (literally just issued that session). Ridgeway also got promoted to Leftenant due to his magical ability to not get killed and his men got the nickname 'Corpse Squadron' because everyone knew they rightfully deserved to be dead. Most everyone had suffered some type of injury during this time as a result of going over the top several times. Taylor also got to enjoy the suspense of the sniper (now represented by playing the Saw theme in the R20) when he was forced to crawl above the trenches to repair some communication lines. The round instead grazed the head of one Terry Lemming (A much loved NPC of the party and one of four Lemming quadruplets from the village they all grew up in together). Taylor was also almost killed by an artillery shell as he crawled back into the trenchline. Now the next session ends the depressing note because drunk me is a far different GM, so I will do that in its own block.

Oh god how do I start. Well....Ridgeway's men how have mortars, and Taylor got promoted to Staff Sergeant. However, they were sent to got reinforce a French battle line to their south that had came under attack by the Chironites and was no longer in communication with the rest of the line. Upon arrival the boys discovered a cream-looking smoke covering the forward trenches. Bob was also back, but I'll get to him in a second. Jameson correctly identified the smoke as gas and everyone donned masks. Ridgeway ordered his squad to hold back and set up the mortars and fire if they heard gunshots. The remaining crew split into two and went down separate lines. Bob was leading one line and walked into the smoke no problem. Everyone else wasn't clean shaven and began to feel an itch in their throats.

And by that I mean their lungs began to bleed. Ridgeway didn't notice at first, but the two men behind him did and the lesser hurt of the two dragged the other out. Ridgeway eventually did notice and rushed out to perform an adjustment on his mask as he hadn't breathed too much in. Taylor noticed Scott (who was right in front of him) drop in pain, and dragged him back out. You now had two people (a redshirt and Scott) bleeding as Taylor and Jameson desperately try to figure out what to do. The redshirt drowned to death on his own blood, but Jameson managed to stabilize Scott with some creative medicine. Meanwhile, Bob dragged out an Arloni captain in critical condition (whom survived and was discovered to be one Captain de Gaul later because I like pissing of my Frenchophile player). Ridgeway had an odd encounter though, and actually ran into a squad of very lost Volgins. Luckily he spoke the language and they managed to set up a defense line, which Bob and Taylor quickly joined. Jameson ran around looking for survivors and instead found a Chauchat that he decided to grab. The smoke lifted to greet the crew with a block of 250 ought Chironites marching in line

What happened next was pure butchery. The crew, with mortar support, murdered around 150 chironites in the first phase.

But I wouldn't stop there: Ridgeway, high or low?

Low, correct. A buzzing noise filled the sky, and suddenly hundreds of Rahoo were killing each other in the skies. The air war had begun, or as the Roo knew it: This week on family feud.

Now there are planes crashing everywhere, bullets are flying, my players are audibly shouting 'what the fuck' on TS. It was great really. Of the 250 Chironites involved in the charge, 5 made it into the trench line. Here is where we learn that Ridgeway had super gains mode specced into close combat, and he brutally murdered 4 of them in personal combat. The Volgins literally ripped the other apart trying to take off his shoes. Jameson showed up at this point holding an empty Chauchat. Everyone except Ridgeway once again failed their grit checks and gained mental afflictions. The Volgins disappeared and the Hibernian 4th Guard arrived to reinforce the line. Everyone went home confused, depressed, and (in Ridgeway's case) slightly fulfilled. Scott was cent to a hospital for recovery in the capital of Arlon. Lucky for him, the next session consisted of the party also being sent their because they were rotated out for some R&R. This 'resting' session consisted of a lot of dialogue and random stuff, so I'll just give some bullet points:
-Turns out Scott had been talking to Bob's gf this whole time and Bob was beaten unconscious in a broom closet when he went to visit Scott.
-Ridgeway and Jameson meat Louis (now Gaston) Pasteur and have a (literal) how long chat with him. They also discover a Bob crawling into the shop and begin to shove heroin down his throat to get him to stop moaning. Bob's gf discovers them doing this and Ridgeway throws Bob under the bus, meaning he gets sent to rehab.
-Ridgeway gets a girlfriend. During his first date. (gotta do more).

Continuing.
-Jameson also tries to find a date so he can join Ridgeway, but instead spends a good while trying to escape a tranny. One of his comrades clotheslines the bitch and dumps her body in a river. Jameson, depressed by his failure, gets drunk and steals a bike. He then rides it into a river and is saved by the tranny. His screams of terror are answered by on Terry Lemming, who suplexes the it to death and leaves her body in an alley somewhere. Jameson also becomes buddies with Pasteur and they are now pen pals.

Eventually a month of happy stuff (except for Bob). ends and everyone is sent back to the line. There they discover three things. One is that the Chironites have built pillboxes, another is that there are a lot of men around, and the last is that they will be participating in the battle of the Somme (called the Harrison offensive here). I made Ridgeway roll for his CO, and he got Arthur Currie.

Here is where we receive a new player. One Sgt. Brown, a green officer fresh out of camp, but a total GI Joe when it comes to verbally affirming orders. A couple things happen before the battle, like a week long artillery barrage and Bob getting re-addicted to alcohol, but nothing much else after. We did some rolls to figure out the effectiveness of some preparations like the engineering tunnels and artillery. Artillery knocked out one MG position and killed roughly 40 Chironites. As for the tunnels, the explosive mine was dug too short, but the liven's flame projector was spot on. However a tunnel collapse meant the engineers were trapped down there. The battle was bloody but successful. Ridgeway got a promotion and royal title for literally butchering his way through 20 Chironites and capturing 9 prisoners from the enemy command bunker. Taylor had passed out halfway through the battle upon seeing a hundred Chironites burned alive by the flame projector. In terms of casualties, the line did better than most others. of the 250 men in the charge, 32 survived including the players. We end here with the Chironites being chased out of Arlon and put on the defensive. During the clearing of the island, a Volgin infantry squad was discovered. Their albish was mostly unintelligible except for one word: Ridgeway. We also end here with everyone being notified that they are to stand and testify at Jameson's trial, who is being charged with desertion.

I know I left a lot of details out, but this covers most of the spirit of the game. One thing I cannot properly represent is how wonderful the dialogue these guys put out. There were literal 1-2 hour long periods of time where they would just emulate sitting around and having a chat, which is the exact type of thing I wanted to capture with this representation of trench warfare.

Well there it is, hope everyone enjoyed it, or at least had something to read on the shitter.

>he didnt want the feminine dick

It's like he didn't partake in the space suit art thread.

Why is Jameson up for desertion?

Hey Jimmy, if BotLW is a weird post-WWII, where are the nukes?

Also new Boccanadessia lore when

It's not post-ww2, it's more like pre-ww1

Babel artillery.

When you can use artillery that goes through fortifications by killing the souls of people inside, but leaves everything else intact, you don't need nukes.

England is victorian in its scope still, yes, but Germany is clearly at WW2 levels. See:
>winning the second war of chironite containment
>killing ALL of the jews
>forming Gross Germaniums
>being fucking nazis

He was actually unable to attend, so I gave him an offer: burn one luck permenantly and he would be promised to survive the session. He took the offer, I'm just a dick at execution. It's also been unanimously agreed by the party that Bob will also be tried since he only reached then enemy trench line after all the fighting stopped.

>started with a snowball fight to teach combat
Absolutelypatrician.png

It was a day like any other.

>gross germaniums

That's a really good idea.

I actually straight ripped of final fantasy tactics

I know, I was complimenting the reference as well as the fact that it works pretty dang well for CotV

Huh, I've never played that.

Really good game if you like strategy, I've always just found the opening bit good for the food fight version of ballad.

It's just occurred to me that if you change the Ulysses from a submarine to a voidship then Atlantis is basically a Ballad movie.

Oh wow. I'd watch that shit.

You can use either proficiency, either 2h or 1h. Obviously it's better to use 2h prof because that gives you more variety.

For autistic clarity's sake, the snowball fight is the intro to the gameboy advanced version: Final Fantasy Tactics: Advanced. The original Final Fantasy Tactics intro was a small mercenary company helping tsundere waifu-knight protect her princess.

Is it the one where they're all in a dream and there's a crippled kid that doesn't want to wake up?

It is in fact the one where the main character is just an asshole ruining this crippled guy's life.

I don't know about you but in his situation I wouldn't even be thinking about leaving the fantasy world. You send me to this weird fantasy paradise full of bunny-girls and chicken horses you're goddamn right the last thing on my mind is "man I sure fucking want to get back to the real world, April's coming up and God knows I haven't had Uncle Sam's star-spangled dick in my ass since July"

Wasn't able to find it in the Ballad document. But is "Space", where most void ships sail, a vacuum? If not why is it dangerous for a hull penetration made my small arms?

"space" has an atmosphere. The danger with hull breaches is that you get leaks of whalebone radiation or something, which fucks you right up.

Thanks for the clarification.

I think it's that breaches in the hulls of ships can allow subspace dust to enter the hull, and that shit is mad poisonous. Normally you're so high above underspace it doesn't matter, but ship battles tend to stir a lot of it up because of explosions and stuff.

I'd say whalebone wouldn't be bad, but the whale oil would be.

Otherwise, how would the first ships been build if the material could kill you by just being near you? 1700s ship builders didn't really have OSHA to watch over them.

Does everyone on deck wear gas masks?

Don't you still need to Quick Defend to parry more than once per turn?

Pretty cool.
Also that makes what, three WWI campaigns that people have run?

Please defend TMZs I'd like to hear opinions regarding whether or not to continue using them. It has been suggested to me that all they do is reduce the viability of half of the options and increase the amount of stuff that slows the game down. Thoughts?

great discussion m8s glad we have these threads.

I've run pretty well without them, without issue. Their biggest drawback is having extra stuff to figure out and slowing down combat, but some people simply don't have much of an issue with it. If you do, I'd recommend dropping it. See how your players react. They may never abuse attacking unarmored limbs, which is what TMZs are supposed to help with. Even if they do abuse it, having a quick and manageable combat system is more important. It's optional for a reason.

yeah, I think I might just have to start putting armor on dudes' legs and drop TMZs. Was wondering if anyone had any strong arguments in favor of them.

Everything about this post proves once again that Jimmy Rome is a man of taste.

Theyre supposed to encourage historical armor priorities, and in that theyre usually successful. But theyre optional because its just another layer of minutiae. I employ them because people focus firing ankles constantly pisses me the fuck off.
Then again, I also employ a house rule that voiding attacks at the head and limbs is easier, because TZMs actually encourage people to focus fire at the wrists.
C'est la vie.

That's a good alternative. Just make limb voids easy. That's a rule that they used to have in the main game.

>limb voids are easier
I'd like to know the details, please.