Ghosts! >What goes "Bump" in the night in your setting? >Is it real in-universe? Or is it a fairytale there too? >If it's real, what makes it too spooky? >Is it undead? Something else?
Hard Mode >Are there any ways to avoid its attention?
This is only one spook of many, but the bug people of my setting are sometimes afflicted with a fungus that hollows them from the inside out and controls their exoskeleton to go around and bite/sting other buggos. The exoskeltals have neat designs where they're all fucked up hollowed out exo skeletons filled with really fucking neat/horrifying looking fungus.
They're basically the setting's version of vampires.
There's also a spot where a civilization composed of spooky skeletons keeps several human towns in extreme isolation, governing them well and keeping everyone fed and quenched with calcium rich milk. Then every century or so they spread plague and famine across the villages and resurrect the dead into more skeletons that they teach the truth and induct into their secret kingdom. (Which is actually only a secret to the villages, the outside world doesn't know that the ol' skelly kingdom is being kept functioning by literal bone-farms.)
Elijah Fisher
Sounds pretty fucked up user.
Jackson Phillips
Well, since the Americans are all going to sleep, a question for the Asians and Euros!
What are some Secret Societies in your settings? Are they always sinister? What are their goals? Are any of them benevolent?
My current setting has 3. Maske, the Eyes of Zora, and the Black Shroud.
Maske is an effective intelligence network developed by a one-time PC, with an emphasis on disguises and running everyone else's government behind their back. Their ultimate goal is purely self-enrichment.
The Eyes of Zora are more akin to an Inquisition, but they use the actual Inquisition as a front for their operations. They are a high-ranking Church society bent towards the gathering of knowledge of all sorts, and the destruction of all Evil knowledge, including Necromancy. Necromancy in this setting actually IS super-evil, so they kind of are justified in that regard.
The Black Shroud is simply put, a collection of insane death-worshiping Necromancers who want to let the Zombie-Gods kill us all. They just happen to have the most ludicrous streak of luck anyone has ever seen. I have included them in every game I ever ran in my setting, and the PCs have NEVER managed to notice them. One of them WAS a member, and he didn't even fucking notice. And the cult itself has the strangest ability to always crit on off-screen checks to see how they're doing.
Baffling and frustrating, but the payoff will be worth it!
Jose Sanchez
So has there been any major wars recently? What were the ramifications? Were countries divided? United? Did the superpowers of the world take it upon themselves to correct the world map?
Ghosts! >What goes "Bump" in the night in your setting? The long vertical island chain is basically all haunted
>Is it real in-universe? Or is it a fairytale there too? Oh its real, fucking straight up skinwalkers.
>If it's real, what makes it too spooky? Summoned by an ancient race to guard the mountains they wrought from the very earth, in an effort to seclude themselves
>Is it undead? Something else? Couldn't say specifically, nobody knows if they're zombies or just gnarly looking monsters because the inhabitants of the islands focus more on hiding and avoiding them rather than studying them
Hard Mode >Are there any ways to avoid its attention? Fucking leave, they can swim but dont swim off the islands they're on, they're just there to scare fuckers off
Dante Must Die >CAN it be stopped at all? maybe if you destroy the society that maintains their population, or maybe they're already dead and the skinwalkers are reproducing on their own?!?!?! nobody knows really, most people assume its just a fairy tale along with the mystics inside the ring of islands and could care less because they're more scared of the pirates that are known to hide out in the islands
Hunter Bailey
Is this a good idea for a faction? Alien machines that found something that logic couldn't comprehend and did the only logical thing their minds could come up with and worship the entity they found as a god. Creepy sacrifices made form humans they catch, wearing ceremonial clothing etc.
Jaxson Wilson
There hasn't been large scale wars in recent years in Western Kingdoms that require special notice other than two much longer conflicts both located inside the area of former Nehrovian Empire.
Duke Oden whose duchy was located in southern parts of the Empire had gotten enough of hill tribes living near him. Seeing potential taxes and keeping them in line to make sure that they don't ally themselves with Duke Odens enemies. Calling his banners and raising three thousand soldiers and five thousand strong baggage train. After initial clashes with the hill tribes he easily won, he managed to subjugate the tribes, but large number of willing men fled to woods and mountains and started a long guerrilla war.
For the next ten years Duke Odens men were stretch thin and under constant attacks from the population and guerrillas. The tax revenue was nowhere close to finance the campaign. With troops morale low and salaries late, desertion started to happen. Duke Odens campaign to subjugate and conquer the lands finally ended during his effort to destroy known group of guerrillas located in the hills. Catching some disease, he died on the campaign trail. His men took his corpse and retreated from the area back home. Rumours are that when Duke Oden was weak and bedridden, his personal surgeon killed him and that the assassination was planned by disgruntled nobles and vassals.
Gavin Nguyen
Idea was to have the center and south very different cultures. (Think of germanic and classical)
Would it work this way or should I make a second mountain chain? (Red line)
Ian Sanchez
I forgot the map.
Aaron Baker
It can work very easily. What is the scale?
Cameron Torres
Roughly western + central europe. A and left B are roughly the size of france. Right B is slightly smaller.
I am terrible in estimating size, though.
Jeremiah Watson
>pic
I literally live almost next to that bridge and I cross it regularly.
Jayden Perez
...
Dylan Jones
In that case yes, very easily. You could even have subcultures inside one region.
Aiden Ramirez
>What goes "Bump" in the night in your setting?
She-Who-Was-Forgotten its a an ancient deity of lies and secrets. Legends tell that she is scared of fire and truth. Because of that, all mortal races have the social custom of telling a precious secret in any bonfire so She doesn't know about that secret. >Is it real in-universe? Or is it a fairytale there too?
She-Who-Was-Forgotten is very real, but his fixation on mundane mortal secrets is exagerated.
>If it's real, what makes it too spooky?
Her memories and knowledge include everything that isn't known by anyone else, for that she knows the most terrible secrets of everything mortal, inmortal and anything in between, she is more mischievous than spooky but has many legends of her punishing mortal that hold secret lovers making them pay for infidelities or hiding treasures making them fall for their greed.
>Is it undead? Something else?
An ancient deity, mysterious in her attributes. She is identified as the mother of all sphinxes
Hard Mode >Are there any ways to avoid its attention?
A bonfire hallowed by the telling of truths is enough to make oneself invisible to her.
Dante Must Die >CAN it be stopped at all?
She is the only free ancient deity not trapped by the new gods, not because of raw power, but because she knows too much of all the embarassing, dangerous dark secrets of the young pantheon.
Ryder Reed
What do you mean with subcultures?
Juan Allen
My dudes im working on a space monk organisation that ponders about magic and i need a cool weapon thing for them to have. Would a sort of staff thing be cool? it needs to be something that can be personal to them. like jedi sabers or harry potter wands etc.
Ian Richardson
Well what kind of tech does the setting have? how are they monks?. Monk-knights a la templars? peaceful monks who study all day? shaoling ass-kicking monks?
Juan Cook
solar system up to the belt is colonized. Cyborgs, robotics, holograms, laser weaponry. They're monks because their a group of people who came together after being 'called' to venus, discovering they all had a link to a mystery power. They're a new order so their path is undecided, but they have to fight shadow society types.
Landon Thomas
Holographic weapons would be cool. Something like a thrown homing projectile that multiplies. Holoshurikens?
Jordan Cox
Holostaff? I like the idea of staff wielding dudes. The hilt which could be the center, is the more personal component of it and where more tech inclined guys could tinker.
Adrian Howard
Holo gauntlet.
Connor Howard
Maybe make them fist fighting martial art specialists and put all of their fancy gadgets in a belt? More advanced you are in the organisation, better yout belt is, the best being black
Anthony Ramirez
I've been tasked by my players to come up with the way the non-humans of my setting flirt. Completely ignoring that I can't into flirting.
How do people flirt in your setting?
Brody Carter
Pretty much the same way but with little twists of course.
>Your eyes are like gems so bright a dragon's hoarde would be envious >I here you're like a troll - you just keep getting right back up >Is that an immovable rod in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? >KURG HIT PRETTY LADY ON HEAD, KURG NOW HAVE WIFE!
Christopher Thompson
Dwarves just drink together in silence until having sex sounds like a good idea.
Elves appreciate poems and romantic gestures, which is too bad because all their weddings are arranged.
Goblins are attracted to thick wallets, the art of goblin flirting is to convince the other party of your wealth without spending a penny.
Halflings don't waste time on pointless shenanigans like flirting, they marry whoever has more acres of land.
Orcs have very romantic souls, but modest vocabularies, so their flirting usually consists of a single phrase like "you have big tits", which is followed by either sex or a punch in the face.
Panotti, shockingly, are are actually attracted to intelligence as opposed to simply stating that they are to appear a deeper person, they flirt by telling interesting facts to each other.
Arimaspi don't know love or sympathy, they only get married and form families out of desire to fuck up their partner's life as much a possible.
As for humans, everybody agrees that their flirting is the most random and retarded of all and that things would be much easier for them if they acted more reasonably.
Camden Rivera
Has anyone done eusocial dwarves before?
Hudson Martinez
>Dwarves There isn't any flirting, women choose their suitors based entirely on merit and stoneworking prowess
>Elves Holy fuck there is so much poetry
>Gobbos/Halflings/Gnomes Basically like humans, joking leads to flirting leads to heavy petting leads to more goblins/halflings/gnomes
>Half-Orcs Similar to uh, people of color. A lot of posturing and chest beating, a little bit of "oh but hes actually bae material" and then they cheat on eachother
>Half-Elves Still pretty poetic, but not as lofty and dramatic
Brandon Gray
>Dwarves Clan patriarchs purchase their friend's and peer's daughters
>Ogres Sports and feats of strength From both sexes
>Beastmen Orgies
>Trolls Actually fairly standard stuff
>Elves Elves almost exclusively force relationships on their social inferiors and slaves because no two elves of equal standing could ever trust each other enough to be around each other without armor let alone naked.
Michael Allen
Hey Veeky Forums I am new to 5e and role playing as a whole. I have started to get the hang of my character and my abilities, but I joined at level 8 and I have an excess of gold that I'm not sure what to do with. Well I asked about that a couple of weeks ago and someone said to build a stronghold. So I look up the stronghold manual and it looks like you can build actual towns if you want to.
So I sent my dm an email asking if I could build this town that I made a rough sketch of and the rough build plan for. I would appreciate some adivce so I don't fuck it up or go about it the wrong way or become annoying to the dm or the group.
Ayden Sanchez
Here are the steps I think it makes sense to do it in:
>Start by building a shop / trading post, hiring a shop keep to live there, and connecting it to the nearest city. Use this to gain additional capital for construction. Allow other merchants to settle and build their shops in the trade district. >Build the docks, fish boats, and trade ships. Allow trade companies and people to come build houses in the residential districts (affordable district for the dock workers and fishermen and the luxury district for the trade company owners and merchants) >Build the lighthouse to make the harbor safer for incoming ships during hazardous weather. >Construct the Temple of Pelor in the center of the legislative/ academic district. There will be no graveyard as the dead are cremated to avoid the chance of undead. Allow various trades and academic bodies to build academies as long as they are neutral or good. >Construct a bank.Begin collecting light taxes to cover maintenance of the town. >Construct the wall and barracks to ensure the safety of the citizens. Hire guardsmen >Construct a moderately sized house on the beach for my character. >Further upgrade defenses and buildings to max as funds are available >If we get the moving castle, construct a portal between my house and the castle
Ryan Powell
>What goes "Bump" in the night in your setting?
Sailors who drown at sea with no way to burn their bodies so their Souls can reach the Ashen Lands become Kala Balidan, "Drowned Wanderers", who march to the shore and begin killing people to eat their flesh. Some of them even have their own ships, the fastest ships in the known world that are lured by the scent of human flesh being consumed.
>Is it real in-universe? Or is it a fairytale there too?
It's a myth that's meant to scare sailors away from cannibalism while at sea, mixed with a myth that came into being after a long tradition of fire burials which started as a way to prevent disease from spreading from the dead to the living. Because the last thing you want is a spooky ship full of bigger, undead cannibals who will straight up kill you no matter how strong or clever you are. Don't do cannibalism, kids. Also burn your dead or they'll kill you for not letting them pass into the afterlife.
>Is it undead? Something else?
They're described as rotting corpses with hollow eyes and razor sharp teeth.
Isaac Gutierrez
>Ghosts! >What goes "Bump" in the night in your setting? most monsters you can think of exist in some form or another in this universe >Is it real in-universe? Or is it a fairytale there too? they're all real to some extent, although many started out as fictional due to how things work in the setting >If it's real, what makes it too spooky? one of the main things about my setting is that instead of the standard elements(stuff like Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water), the core elements of magic in this setting are derived from certain Primal Emotions(still sorting out how many are there, but the three I've figured out are Fear, Rage, and Love so far), most Monsters tend to be aligned towards Fear(except Demons/Devils, they tend to be aligned towards Rage, while Angels are aligned towards Love) >Is it undead? Something else? a lot but not all monsters are Undead(in this setting being Undead means either a corpse animated by solidified Fear energy or are formed from pure Fear energy from a psychic impression of something dead, more rarely a soul might form a body from Fear Energy), others are living(most non-Undead Fear monsters fall into three categories; congealed and evolved from Fear Energy by itself, a living creature warped and altered by Fear Energy, or an object that's come to life from Fear Energy exposure)
1/2
Evan Johnson
>Hard Mode >Are there any ways to avoid its attention? depends on the monster, although few Monsters are 100% malevolent, almost all can be parlayed with or placated in some manner without needing to use violence
>Dante Must Die >CAN it be stopped at all? not really, the Primal Emotions are needed for Life to function above the single cell level, not to mention each Primal Emotion basically has a kind of god that is a potent focus for it, and wouldn't look kindly upon some foolish wizard trying to alter such things, the entities for the 3 Primal Emotions I've locked in so far are;
Fear: The Man In The Moon, god of Ghosts & Goblins(and all other creatures of The Unknown), ironically despite being the Entity of Fear is generally benevolent in nature as long as he's shown the respect due to a Lord of his stature(and yes he is in fact literally The Moon), most Arcane Magic comes from him and his domain
Love: Melek Taus, The Peacock Angel, Holiest of Angels, and Demiurge of The World, Melek Taus was once known as Lucifer Morningstar and rebelled against The One True God, after his rebellion was thwarted Lucifer spent 7000 years weeping in repentence, purging himself of all Sin, and proving his worthiness in being the builder of all Creation
Rage: Satan, The Crooked Man, formed from the purged sins of Melek Taus, he rages against all that is good and holy in the world, and commands all his Demons and Devils to try and bring ruin upon Man in whatever manner they can
2/2
Gabriel Harris
I could use some advice. My setting has a background character who is immortal, incredibly powerful, and is treated in folk lore as basically being the devil. The thing is, he is the king of giving no fucks. Though he's easily the most powerful mage in history and has no qualms about killing/raping/jaywalking, he also has zero ambition. He lives for the day, as it were, taking what he wants in an immediate sense but never really thinking things through. In folklore, the best defense against him is simply to feed him, give him a place to sleep, and let him do as he likes until he gets bored and leaves. In a way he's like an evil Bugs Bunny in that he's perfectly willing and capable of ruining someone's shit (up to and including a nation), but will only do so if provoked.
My question is this: should he have children? I'm not going to say much about his origins or WHY he's so powerful, but it makes sense for him to possibly be sterile. Originally I had intended for him to be so, but recently I've started warming to the idea of having a sizeable portion of the world's history's greatest villains unknowingly being his children, grand children, or so on. Months after he leaves a place one or two babies may end up getting born. Obviously they'd be ostracized and so would probably be driven from civilization, which, when coupled with their natural inherited ability to use magic (and without the training necessary to use it safely), would result in strong mages with grudges. Also monsters. If he CAN have children, there would be a good chance they'd be less than human.
Thematically, which sounds more interesting? One-off random encounter of doom, or evil Johnny Appleseed (with evil babies instead of apple trees)?
Carson Mitchell
Part of me votes children just to see it happen.
I know immortals have kids is complicated, and needs planning. (honestly my immortal doesn't have kids, but I am never clear on if he can or not) Lost Odyssey had the kids be perfectly normal, and brought in some powerful parental protection moments.
One major think you got to decide is how much this reveal changes things. Also this strikes me as don't give a fuck evil, rather then some pure evil.
One crazy idea to throw out is that the kids have a small potion of his power, above average mage, nothing too powerful. Which puts the elite government heads in a delicate place. They want him to fuck bitches to grow their Mighty Mage numbers, but have to look tough on him given he kills towns folk and stuff. Basically the nations source of power and source of woes is him, and how they discretely try to manage him without pissing him off. There are a lot of ways to run with that, more so on the personal and nation axis.
Bentley Foster
I'd like to avoid making him too important in the setting if I can. If he becomes a "power source," as you put it, then I can't really use him as a random encounter. I original came up with him to use in the classic "asshole in a bar picks a fight with a nobody who turns out to be Superman" type of scene, so he has to be well known in stories, but not too easily recognizable in person (as such, his description is very bland: dark hair, dark eyes, somewhat sunburned skin, average height, etc). Having him have children would threaten that, for the very reasons you give, but I don't want to lose the stories I can tell about his possible children. After all, how often can a guy passing through town really get accosted badly enough for him to wreck things? He's sure to have far more normal days that ones in which he paints a town red with the blood of its people. So between whores and loose women, he probably has a few bastards from willing women (who probably don't know who he is) too.
At one point I even considered having him literally be the source of magical blood in my setting. That is, have ALL wizards and such be connected to his bloodline in some way.
Oh, and "doesn't give a fuck evil" is a great way to describe him. Also, if I do go with the children idea, their average "power level" will be about what you say.
Connor Miller
What is your immortal like?
Carson Gonzalez
I see you're a fan of certain SJW reviewer of crappy Halloween merchandise, formerly a talented monster designer.
Jaxson Cook
Have you seen "Trigun"? (great anime, highly recommend) Destruction everywhere, never looks for a fight. Cut that part about saving lives and adjust here and there and you got most of what you want.
I am all about "asshole in a bar picks a fight with a nobody who turns out to be Superman" type of scene, half my ideas start that way.
Have you tried some kind of second hand shadow story structure. You know the one where the story is all told about/by the people he meets so their histories and perspective bring the color rather then him directly? Allows for more personal stuff without really getting to know him or making him too big. After all buying a kid ice cream can make their day, without tipping the nation powers. That kind of thing, not sure how to describe it better.
"Eat Man" (another great anime), kind of did that. Sure there are many more, but can't think of them now.
To save a lot of time, Captain America in space after the USA is long gone. His power level keeps climbing past insanity, but he really just wants to farm his own food and simple stuff, like he did as a kid. He is the guy who could change everything to how he wants it, but constantly question the deeper ethics of imposing such a will on others even it he could get them to willingly join and believe they would all benefit in the end. So he is just kind of waiting for the world to change back, although it never will.
Wyatt Garcia
see
Zachary Powell
>Have you seen "Trigun"? It's one of my top 5 anime. And now that you've mentioned it, I must watch it again. Vash's reputation is certainly an inspiration.
I think you get what I'm going for, and I think I understand what you're trying to say.
William Bell
I've been going on and off of an "old anime bender" watching old animes and ovas from the 80's and 90's such as Cowboy bebop and Outlaw star (both of which I loved!)
I hated Trigun. I couldn't even stomach, maybe, 3 episodes of it- I just thought it was terrible, if only because I couldn't STAND Vash. Vash is such an awful fucking character. He reminded me of everything bad about 90's/early 00's anime fans, gaia online, blech- eeuuch, hurch!!
Austin Carter
I can understand that, but he does gets better. Vash's thing is that he's got a dark, terribly painful past like your usual Sasuke or other emo git character, but doesn't wallow in self pity or brood. That happy-go-lucky shtick is just an act, but he really does care about people. He's also something of a rarity in that he's a well written pacifist. Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin, who was written around the same time. I didn't like him at first either, but by the end of the series he became one of my favorite characters.
Also, just embarrassed myself by posting this in the Horus Heresy thread by accident. I am an idiot.
Jonathan Jenkins
That is why I suggested "Eat Man", similar in a number of ways.
But I really think the key is going to be having those around him tell the story more then him. That third party perspective allows for dynamic scaling without effecting the larger world too much.
Event: He Blows up a bar Bar owner: THAT WAS MY LIFE, THAT MONSTER NEED TO PAY!!! Ranger or newspaper person chasing him: Another case of needless destruction that why I got to stop him, before real damage is done Random towns folk: That bar was a necromancer hangout anyway, hope those spooks move out now that they lost their bar. Him : junk box was stuck on sad song, destruction spell fixed that problem
You got to keep things with some uncertainty or else he will turn into a more common anti-hero.
I play a lot with my immortals motivation for that aspect, took down drug lord not because the right thing to do or cared about his friend getting hooked, but drug dealer took his parking spot one too many times. But before you mess with motivation, it helps to defined it, set boundaries then bend your rules to the story, or that how i look at it, other tell me that is bad.
as with the deeper magic connection, you could drop the kids (as that complicates thing a lot given what else you have said) and try to persevere part of it with him having some connection, artifact or forbidden knowledge that disturbs magic around him or something. His magic pact was the original one that brought magic into this world? or somthing.
Samuel Turner
Don't worry, he definitely won't be an anti-hero. While there are certainly instances of him wrecking the shit of thieves and thugs, he's just as likely to end up hitting on the baker's daughter and ending up peeling the skin off the face of the blacksmith's son after the poor kid tried to defend her honour.
Ooo, I like it. This is "I didn't ask for this" done right. Kinda. You know what I mean.
Oliver Martinez
This one is less of what the common people fear and more of a rather out there conspiracy theory known amongst most governments that have access to communication with other countries in general peaceful terms.
>What goes "Bump" in the night in your setting? "Chosen ones" or People with manifested destinies. This can range from warrior kings to heirs of a new dark age. People of change either good or bad.
>Is it real in-universe? Or is it a fairytale there too? Oh they are real and they are the nightmare for every order or government out there, good or evil, democratic or monarchy. Of course they have their legends about legendary heroes who show up for X people during that or thit time or Messias for cults.
>If it's real, what makes it too spooky? The fact that as soon as the threads of fate starts spinning, you're fucked, they will become unbelievably strong, lucky and/or charismatic and they are working to undermine you, kill you or cause the end of the world. And theres little next to a divine intervention to stop any of those. Thanks gods!
>Is it undead? Something else? They change from whatever they originally were to a demi-god in that form, a being only wearing the old body as a disguise, though mortal for it.
>Are there any ways to avoid its attention? CAN it be stopped at all? Usually most competent or awoken governments and organizations have huge sects or services dedicated to oracles and folklore. Paying lip service to X oppressed people because there's a tale that in their darkest days blah blah blah... Usually its mainly forgotten thanks to the rarity of these events and because lolproffits. What they do is usually find these special and outstanding people before they can start their story and become neigh unkillable. Usually keeping specially trained assassin inquisitors under the guise of witchhunters and demon killers.
My players are those inquisitors and they are all hunting people so overpowering to them that its silly.
Jonathan Fisher
Same guy
That sound barbaric, a bit too dark for my style, but definitely a place for that out in the world.
I always had issue with those types very hard to do right, but when done right they are amazing. Madness for madness is just lazy, and madness for anything else can be rationalized away if your not careful.
There was a version of the Joker that I liked a lot, he did everything for the purpose of making Gotham smile. One time I looked back at everything he did and realized he was a saint, he had selflessly engendered everything he had and even fought Batman just to help the people smile. In that Joker's mind he was doing everything he could to help people in a completely selfless manner, oddly that how many define a hero. But the murdering people didn't help the PR.
So in that case some obsession would quickly flesh him out. Finding the proper balance of magic in the world? Heartless scientist are fun to work with.
Problem is most obsessed character could reach their goal if X. The one that I see done bad often is the dead wife, OK you burned the world to the ground and brought back your wife, now what? Logically you would stop burning the world because you got your wife back, but no still two episodes to go and big bad just can't leave now so contrived reasons.
Going back to my immortal. It has a lot of "I didn't ask for this", but I actually see it more as the conflict between the collective and the individual. He wants to be part of his old world, part of a collective were it is about the group. Yet he finds himself in a vast galaxy of pro individualists, who see him as near perfect as he alone can do anything on his own power. Yet his status is a big part of why he can never just hangout with them.
Over the long term he takes many stances, even a evil general for a bit, but it is never him snapping one day, erosion. Which casual people miss. It is his stance trying to manifest with what the world is now and will be.
Owen White
Oh no, you exposed me!
Kevin Bennett
how do i add in sort-of retro futuristic technology to my sci-f? Like data tapes and pdas and such, could i justify it as cyber crime got so bad at one point that companies and governments started intentionally using more physical forms of technology to avoid hacking?
Carter Ward
Yes, we even see this already Russia Intelligence made one of the largest in recent years purchases of typewriters (a few years back) to "increase security".
But it helps to understand the technology a bit. You can't just slap stuff in or you will look stupid, and it is very easy to look stupid that way.
For example some kind of updated optical cassette tape could hold huge amounts of data in a very small package for years, but would take painfully long to read and edit. So for somethings it would be stupid for others it would make sense. But know that newer hologram crystals are already threating to be even better.
I would guess most of the benefits would be the ability to build and repair with more common tools you can get without too many questions and arguable specialized performance gains. Like odd custom chip architectures. Glut of old 64nm gear means groups could build crazy chip types with old prototype development gear old factories sell off. Not as nice as smaller 32 or 14nm, but if built for one purpose it could out do newer more generalized chips. Also the matter of custom made my not have serial number and stuff to trace it. But at that point your hacker is starting to rebuilding everything which is logistically super human at best.
Basically 80s hacker aren't what we have now, more months of programming an attack virus. Then uploading it with the push of a button and hopping it works and you don't get caught, not very thrilling visually.
Josiah Carter
>What goes "Bump" in the night in your setting? The closest things my setting has to real spooks are the Frosthounds. A pack of 15 oversized white wolves with a venom that freezes its victim's blood. Every single person living on Stegarin is terrified of the Frosthounds, mostly because until this point they have proven to be completely unkillable. They also seem attracted to the pheromones humans give off when experiencing overwhelming grief, which is why they often target the recently divorced, widowed, or orphaned.
Oliver Garcia
>setting has 7 cultures fleshed out, with maps and everything >only story that takes place in the setting only barely mentions most of them because character driven narrative >ends with the world as these people knew it gone and civilization collapsing
who /wastedefforts/ here???
Luis Thompson
All worldbuilding built for detail instead of practicality is wastedefforts.
