Degenesis

That's an interesting way to spell "black-supremacist".

>Slav white supremacist fantasies
>The Neolibyans are literally the most powerful faction and are noted as being far richer than everyone else
Activates my almonds.

I was planning on sticking with Chroniclers/Spitalians/Scrappers/Clanners mostly, maybe an anabaptist or a helvettic, just because they seem much easier to fit together. Either that or just stick with a single cult, because that seems to work just fine.

>game that's built around racist Slav white-supremacist fantasies
>most of Eastern Europe is taken over by post-apoc future, goat-fucking Muslims
>Western Europe has had most resources snowed in, iced over, or destroyed in meteor impact, leaving them to degenerate into tribalistic savages at worst or dark ages plebs at best
>Africa is a verdant wonderland full of newfound wealth and food, as long as you mind the killer plants bordering the continent

Buddy, I don't know what kind of slav white-supremacists you hang out with, but something tells me they aren't very good at the whole supremacist thing.

That's like saying orientalist fiction that displays all Asians as Ninjas and Kung-Fu warriors isn't racist.

Cultural appropriation, orientalism and africanism are never OK, user. Especially when Slavs neckbeards do it.

>WE IZ KANGZ: the setting
>white supremacist

Come on now.

>africanism are never OK
I agree.

>How well does the system actually work in practice?

It's incredibly easy to learn, and imho the most underrated system atm.

Online character creator makes the process really smooth, and it's generally easy to figure out your character based on your statistics. There's also a alignment-type deal in form of 30 tarot concepts ranging from "Protector", "Conqueror" to "Abomination" which define the core of your character while not committing him on being good or evil. Region lore is explored enough to give you an idea what people from x are generally like, but the cult lore is the most important. Each cult represents different kinds of virtues and prospects, and different ranks in their hierarchies gives you a ton of material to work with. Basically, there's an incredible chargen potential. That said, characters that want to start as a certain rank at the start will find themselves being almost identical in stats because of the rank requirements.

One think I also like is how interconnected skills are with game mechanics. While being skillchecks, BOD + Athletics is also your maximum movement speed, BOD + Force is your maximum carrying weight, BOD + Toughness is your HP and so on.

Combat is fun, if you like the idea that every savage with a basic weapon can very realistically kill you, almost certainly if there's two of them.

The only thing I don't like about combat is the retarded automatic fire rule.

It's good to hear that its fairly easy to learn, considering the other games which run off dice pools of Attribute+Skill, specifically Exalted. The lethality is definitely a plus, considering the general tone of the game.

Side note, what is the best cult and why is it Spitalians.

>it is too simple and unimaginative for the setting, like having a Suzuki engine for a Lamborghini. It IS usable, just doesn't worth the money.

What makes it "too simple", user? I don't feel like there's anything it lacks.

It has flaws, but I can't even imagine how simplicity could be considered a flaw if it's done right.

>Side note, what is the best cult and why is it Spitalians.

Spitalians are fun but I feel like the hierarchy needs some polishing. Some ranks just feel underwhelming, while the sole soldier tree feels the most exciting and rewarding.

>It has flaws, but I can't even imagine how simplicity could be considered a flaw if it's done right.

It would be done right if it was driving a generic post-apo setting. For that, having the most basic D6 pool would be sufficient and in-line with what the game wants to achieve.

However, Degenesis is literally built on originality. Heck, the creators even tried to meme a new concept (primal-punk) into existence just for it. And for that, they dared to pack the bleakest system possible. That's beyond bullshit, and an extremely counter-productive move that devaluates the whole game. This goes for double with Rebirth, because the first version of the game at least tried to be original mechanically.

You can say that Degenesis is an example of how you do simplicity wrong.

>You can say that Degenesis is an example of how you do simplicity wrong.

I really don't see it.

I think its system conveys everything it needs to. Social checks and good and diverse, combat is fun and challenging while not being overly complex, char gen is rich and smooth, HP/Trauma system works great... what would you accomplish by doing it differently? Originality doesn't necessarily transfer into good. You can come up with mechanics that represent something more realistically, more smoothly, more intuitively, etc. but I feel like this system already has it covered. It's already infinitely better than anything WEG and other D6 systems.

What the fuck IS the system anyway? Can somebody give a quick rundown?

It's basically WoD / Storyteller system but using D6s instead of D10s, and combat is hilariously lethal.

What this guy said, characters have six Attributes, Body, Agility, Charisma, Intellect, Psyche, Instinct. Each Attribute has 6 Skills associated with it, when you roll you roll an Action Number which is Attribute+Relevant Skill+-Modifiers. You roll a number of d6 equal to your action number, successes on a 4 up. If a 6 is rolled on a dice you get a Trigger, which grants some extra effects.

I really wish more people played this game. Not many settings have WW1 Germans, Autistic Techpriests and Vikings fighting WE WUZ KANGS Africans, Russian Wuxia Zombies, Supersoldiers powered by Memes, Bug wizards and alien weed.

And it somehow blends all this bullshit into a fairly coherent setting unlike say, Pathfinder or RIFTS™

Don't forget Vampires, Barbarians, Ancient Mummies....

I also like how much subversion it has going on. You can pretty much fit whatever you want into its world: France is Zombie Apocalypse, Germany is Fallout, Poland is Conan, Balkan is Game of Thrones, Italy is Berserk.. Africa is BLACKED.com, I'm not sure what Spain is...

Hybrispania is at war with the Africans with the help of the Psychonauts that see the future, because there's now a land bridge through the Gibraltar Straight. It wasn't hit that hard by the asteroids, so I guess other than being colder than it was present day it would be relatively normal. At least, that's what I'm reading from a google translated wiki.

>successes on a 4 up
Whoa, hold on now.
50% success chance?

>I really wish more people played this game.
You need to do a bit of digging for the pdfs, which is already more than most people are probably willing to do to try out a game, or fork over approximately $160 (if you live in the US, as I do) to get the books. Even the pdfs are pricey, and it's a lot to gamble on a game with a niche following.

There are some caveats to this. You roll a number of dice equal to your action number and 6s count as triggers, where the greater number of triggers the more outstanding or fantastical result you can get (all as mentioned in that other post, above). However, if you have more failures than successes, you fail the check. If the number of failed dice rolls also contains more 1s than the number of successful dice rolls, you critically fail the check and get fucked. Lastly, if you would roll more than 12 dice, any dice over 12 count as successes without triggers, and you cap your roll at 12 dice physically rolled.

The difficulty checks look something like this
>Successes Needed to Pass
>1, routine
>2, challenging
>4, difficult
>6, very difficult
>8, almost impossible
>10, desperate measure

The way stats and experience work, it is very rare that someone becomes outrageously proficient in very many things, and even getting proficient in a handful of things can take some dedicated work. So having a 50% chance isn't that bad when it's hard to amass the dice needed to even try something very difficult in the first place, much less pass it.

Here's the character generator. Play around in it, distribute some stats, and try rolling some dice against the difficulty chart above. See how it plays out for you. sixmorevodka.com/degenesis/character-en/

Interesting system and setting, beautiful book, designed by artists who just wanted to make a game if I recall so some things are kind of wonky.

I'm making a hellvetic gal with 8 dice in projectiles. Will I be able to oneshot most things with her?

If she's using a trailblazer it'll certainly hurt for sure if you hit, and if you have 8 dice in projectiles I'd not expect you to miss much.

If people want the rule books here you go.

Degenesis LARPs must be fun as fuck honestly, making a costume for them would basically just be scrounging together anything that looks vaguely useful from any scrap or junk you have, except for specific factions like Hellvetics that have decent kit.

Something I like a lot about Degenesis as a setting is how many different threats there are to human society.
>The Primer, to the north and south
>Psychonauts, either trying to destroy or subjugate whats left of civilization
>The Marauders, doing whatever it is they want to do
>Sleepers waking up and quietly taking over any society they can find
>The general state of the world, dealing with severe asteroid impacts
>Humanity's general tendency to fight eachother.

It lends a lot of areas for GMs to put their players and have some interesting conflict going, and it also really contributes to the feeling of hopelessness that the game is going for.

Some marauders actually work to save the humanity. I can count at least 2-3 from the base book. Gusev, the trigod or whatever he's called, and the other one is ambiguously non-evil.

Also, 1e was depression central. At list in the new version they made it a little more upbeat.

In what ways was it changed from 1e? I know that 1e had issues with cults struggling to work together, but its hard to think of things being even more bleak.

The tone is much brighter. People struggle to survive, but it seems that the darkest days are behind. Cults work together, some lost tech is being discovered, Spitalians fight back the alium menace. 1e is just everything fucked and bleak and will die soon. You have to read it to understand.

They introduced common threats. Some of the cults that now have to reluctantly get along used to be bitter enemies in 1e.

Keep in mind that a good GM will make sure that you will not regularly receive ammunition. A standard Hellvetic soldier gets five rounds a month and is expected to use them optimally.

This means you will only be able to use your AGI+Projectiles 8 with your Trailblazer five times in an in-game month. Keep in mind your superiors will likely frown upon you using any unauthorised sidearms to supplement your Trailblazer and realize just how rarely you'll be using those eight dice.

I qualified for the second rank, which gives me +15 (I think it's supposed to be cumulative?)

In Rebirth vs 1e, Chernobog made a major move on a fortifird city, removed the tyranical leader, and claimed it under his own rule. He now seeks to contnue his march East, if I recall everything correctly.

It is. In that case, you've got a bit more leeway but still remember to conserve your rounds.

Your GM might do things differently. You might not be able to requisition your monthly ration if you're not stationed near Hellvetica and you might be expected to subsist on a larger number for a longer period of time, or perhaps even the same number for a longer period of time. Worst case scenario, your GM will just let you requisition as much ammo as you like and you'll make all other combat characters redundant. The Trailblazer is hellishly expensive and the number of rounds are restricted for a reason. It's easily one of the best weapons in the game.

Even then, you have 20 shots a month rationed, and the supply drops must either be reached by you or a courier needs to reach you. Plus, 20 shots is still not aa whole lot for a month given all the threats out there.

Don't you still need to regularly report to the home base at that rank in order to stay in good graces for resupply? Maybe try to lead off the combat by firing from a reasonable distance, or as the enemy tries to close, and then switch to a knife or something as your teammates join the fray.

You also get regularly reviewed by your superiors when it comes to round expenditure. Regularly coming back with all of your rounds gone is likely to result in disciplinary action.

You could make a decent Spitalier outfit by just shaving your head and going to a fetish store

Don't forget to talc up your hairless body before slipping into your full-body combat condom.

>bald
>skintight bodysuit
>gas masks
>medical
>vaguely World War-era German aesthetics

Yup, this game was made by Germans alright

That trailer is awesome. I knew Lilja who made the soundtrack for it before it so I fapped fervoriously to the trailer.

Found my new excuse for going to the fetish store.
>"No, the bodysuit and gas mask are totally for my new cosplay, I swear!"

The obvious solution to the ammo problems is find another weapon to use instead of the Trailblazer that uses your projectile dice, since you're clearly focused on that aspect of combat.

Is it acceptable to have a character whose primary focus is to make sure the group gets from A to B without starving, freezing or stumbling into a gendo den?

As in, the character isn't particularly good at fighting, being the party face, crafting or even knowing a lot of setting knowledge. What it is good at is survival, path-finding and everything that falls under Instinct. It's able to find piles of food in anything but the most desolate wastelands, follow or avoid the tracks of anything that's been wandering through the area and more. Is this particularly useful in this setting and system, when the rest of the group's likely to have not specialized in that area, or am I just going to be dead weight?

Do you really think that Hellvetics are going to be happy about one of their own using inferior equipment and impairing their efficiency just for the sake of conserving ammunition?

There are like two billion Asians. You can't find a movie that displays all Asians as whatever because there is no movie displaying two billion people in detail.

One-note characters are almost always a bad idea, a face who can't do anything in combat will be bored in combat, a fighter who doesn't have the ability to contribute at least somewhat to out of combat scenes will be bored in our of combat scenes. It's a perfectly valid niche to build a character for, but make sure that the character can at least contribute in some way to another aspect of the game, even if it's not as much as a character built for it.

That's a good point, but with 8 dice in projectiles I doubt the character is gonna be much use at defusing a situation without violence, and carrying a sidearm that isn't a Trailblazer is good practice to conserve valuable ammo.

With a base Charisma of 4, it'd be able to function as a secondary face. It's also got AGI+Mobility 4, AGI+Projectiles 4, BOD+Toughness 4 and a bunch of other combat skills all at 4. Plus, with the assistance of tattoos and paints, the character can boost its PSY+Faith/Will up to 7 or its AGI+Stealth up to 7 when necessary.

I've put effort into making sure the character's able to function in other parts of the game but it's bound to get outshone by characters actually devoted to those roles. That's why I said primary role, I suppose. It's a jack of all trades with a specialty in Instinct.

That sounds pretty alright then, although I'd definitely confirm with your GM that you will actually be travelling around and using your survival skills, as I doubt it would be very useful to know how to avoid a Gendo from its tracks if your entire campaign was going to take place in Justitian or something like that.

Being able to fight helps a lot considering how many people or things will want you dead. That said, if you have high dexterity for crafting, you can at least get some good dice out of your DEX alone, so you could still help out a bit with ranged combat, even if you are a little soft.

Still, I think far too few players that I've tried to talk into playing the game appreciated non-combat options enough. Being able to pathfind, scavenge food in harsh lands, make camp, tracking or noticing enemy trails to sneak up on or avoid combat, etc. are all extremely useful. Still, you'll want to talk with the GM first to see if you're skills will actually be useful, or if you've taken skills in basket weaving for all the good they'll do wandering around just in cities and small towns.

The main issue is that it's a character specialized in a rather unusual area, even if it's capable of other stuff. So yes, I'll definitely only use it if the campaign warrants it and I'll resort to other ideas instead if the GM suggests it.

Speaking of which, is it just me or is it impossible to make Palers work as player characters? Multi-cult groups can be a bit dysfunctional but I just don't see how you can integrate a Paler into one without them getting shot.

I think Paler PCs can work, the Chronicler Stereotype towards them mentions that the Chroniclers recruit outcast Palers, and the general view of them on a quick flick through the different stereotypes is just a general distrust. Palers do have a lot of knowledge that would be valuable to anyone digging around in old bunkers, and they are looking for the lost bunkers and vaults that the Sleepers are in, so it's not out of the question that Palers would be joining up with other cults.

Forgot Pic

I haven't looked at the pdfs for this game, but how does party makeup look? Do the players cone from different cults/factions or?

The game works very well with a single cult party, but it's also perfectly valid to have more than one cult in the group. Some cults take a bit of wrangling to make them work with each other, but it is possible to make it work most of the time.

In the first edition, the cults did not play nice with each other, so parties tended to be composed of the same cult.

In Rebirth, however, that has been made much more lax, and (most) cults can find some reason to work with the others if your players want to mix and match a bit more freely. There don't need to be hard and fast rules, exactly, but generally there are cults that are commonly found in the regions you pick for your character's background, and a mapping of how each cult views - and is in turn viewed by - the other cults. This provides an easy short-list if you want to throw something together, although more exotic picks for what cults you might find in a certain region, or why certain cults would work together can be made to work if you provide a good background or a good story hook.

Early on in the game, players from the same cult are likely to feel kind of samey in terms of their rank (the class within a cult), since they won't have the required skill allocation or backgrounds to diversify or progress past the first rank or two.

To add onto what said, the Culture of the parties matters a bit too. Africa isnt well liked by many other cultures. Currently invading Hybrispania, has a large presence in Franka which rubs some of the nationalistic Frankans the wrong way, and they control part of Purgare. Africa and the Balkhans had a rough history but they give each other space now, and many Borcans don't like that wealthy Africans are coming across the pond to raid their ruins.

Not to mention you'd need reasons to justify different Europeans being in the same area, since Europe is literally split in two.

For example, what is your Hybrispanian doing in Pollen? What's inspired your Balkhan to venture West to Franka and fight the Pheromancers?

someone post that one image of rumor mills with the woman and the man sitting next to each other on the shitter with one of them had a dagger in their hands

Yeah alright give me a sec. Just gotta rip it out of my TKG pdf.

...

More like 3 to 4 billion. China and India have around 2,6 together.

I had to sauce some guy in a thread for this image and got called a shill for it, but I found the image amusing.

also, thanks for doing that

Why are Spitalian women so perfect?

No worries. The art's brilliant so I'm happy to share it if it gets people interested in the game.

Tight bodysuits. How can other girls even compete?

It's really convenient that they called white guilt cuck: the rpg something just shy of Degenerate lol

>white guilt cuck: the rpg
What?

>Spital is the best hope for fighting back the primer
>Chroniclers are slowly advancing towards rebuilding some form of internet
>Hybrespanians are fighting back the Scourgers to limit the flow of Africans i to Europe
>Africans are either seedy merchants that trade in slaves, artifacts looted from Europeans, or are current day militia that like to rape, murder, pillage and rape some more
>the Anubians aren't quite as awful as their compatriots, but do spend most of their time being layabouts and getting high off of alien jungle shrooms

Yeah, must be a real cuck game due to the Africans, right?

Favourite kind of Psychonaut? I like how the Pheromancers are a part of Frankan society now, even if it is low-key /d/-tier magical realm.

Pregnoctics. I really like the idea of an alliance that formed between the Hybrispaniards and the Psychonauts. The whole sketchy trade agreement of larval kids and just allowing people to go missing in exchange for burn and precog insight is just awesome. It shows how far the Hybrispaniards are willing to go to protect their homeland.

I think we're past the stage of Pheromancers being a part of Frankan society. Emphasis seems to be on them being the big villain, with the 'true' Frankans being the plucky underdogs of the Resistance.

True, things have shifted a bit to focus more on the resistance, but the majority of Frankans are under the influence of the Pheromancers.

I think the design for the Pheromancers is the most fucked up out of all of the Psychonauts, with the glands all over their body etc, pic related.

It's definitely the sort of /d/ I could get into, that's for sure.

My favorite is the George Costanza one.

This one always fucked with my head the most. The description in one of the books of the Anabaptist seeing it and watching the leperos sticking their hands into holes where the glands are to get to the pheromone jelly out always wigs me out.

>unironically liking daily penis inspections

>and India
Indians aren't Asian. They're Indian.

The design of the pheromancers is a trypophobiac's worst nightmare honestly, all those shops of people with lotus seed pods in their skin would make perfect icons for a pheromancer.

I am playing a campaign of Degenesis (the rebirth edition) and I have to say it's the most fun I ever had. Aside from the group being nice overall, the different cults and our stereotypes make for fun banter IC and we fit each other quite well. For instance, I am an Hellvetic and the Clanner of the Resistance has dubbed me "Brigand" since that's basically what they are.

The system is easy and pretty immediate to learn imo, and the setting is flexible enough to make your campaign fun (Meeting an AI driven tank who represents the hut of Baba Yaga was so awesome).

But fuck Jihammedians. Fuck them Sideways!

Half-mad ancient technoliches is my favorite part of the settings, hands-down.

What's up with Jehammedians?

They're a bunch of raving mad goatfuckers obviously.

>The system is easy and pretty immediate to learn imo, and the setting is flexible enough to make your campaign fun
The mechanics seem quick to pick up, but how did the group handle the lore? How much would you say was necessary to familiarize yourselves with beforehand for things to run smoothly?

I ask because I'd very much like to try it with my gaming group, but on the whole, they rarely bother with required reading, hardly even seem to bother with reading how character gen works, and one or two particularly bad offenders hardly remember what their spells or skills do from week to week.

They are not-Islamic nomads. Everything is centered around herding goats, being the firstborn son, never wanting to leave the tent villages, distrusting your family/neighbor/everyone that is an outsider, and forcibly bringing the word of Jehammed wherever your goats may roam. You can play exciting classes such as: firstborn son that gets a horse and a sword to die in combat against Jehammed's enemies, the first wife, a lesser extra wife, the disgraced wife, the unimportant sons that are meant to herd goats and have no ambition until they die, or the Rams that are recruited by an undying technolich that has you drink his nanite-blood to give you super strength/regen and a drunken rage frenzy.

You just think that because you're a fisherman that refuses to live a devout and humble life.

I'd really like to try out Degenesis, but it just seems to be a little too esoteric for the average band of hoodlums I play with to join in. Anyone have any particularly interesting tales I can use to lure them in?

>The mechanics seem quick to pick up, but how did the group handle the lore? How much would you say was necessary to familiarize yourselves with beforehand for things to run smoothly?

Bare minimum anyone should read before playing is Cult lore, except for clanners who can be literally anything, so all you need to roleplay is your character's stats and concept. A step beyond would be to read regional lore where the game takes place, but that one is optional if you want to keep them in the dark.

However, I don't think it's plausible to play Spitalian or Chronicler characters without knowing what's going on in the world. You'll have to work it out with people individually depending on what they want from the experiance so having a session 0 wouldn't be a terrible idea?

Dude...
Or show them a trailer:
youtube.com/watch?v=0Tw3KaMr8wk
Or tell them the general premise of KANGZ vs Europe vs Space Plants vs Gun Cavemen vs Mutants vs...

Although you'll need to explain the Africa part carefully or people will genuinely assume that it's unironic SJW propaganda.

Gonna have to cop some art from this for a 40k campaign

Aberrants are top tier Chaos inspo.

Some of it requires explanation though, like 'why has the Imperium suddenly gotten a fetish over white body suits and hairlessness.'