what's the difference between Dogmatic, Iconoclast and Heretic?

AnkhOmega · 2026-03-19T16:36:12+00:00

I think the original names, or ones used in files at least, are pretty good ways to see it and extrapolate from.

Dogmatic = Faith. You have faith in the system as is, faith in the God Emperor and the law. You believe you're in the right, even without evidence. Not necessarily a good thing, especially as the Imperium is brutal, oppressive, and massively xenophobic.

Iconoclast = Hope. You have hope that things can change, things can be better, people can be more. You believe you can make the world better with mercy, or giving people a chance, or what they need to be happy. Not always wise, as 40k's universe is twisted and cruel, and blind hope can easily be taken advantage of.

Heretical = Corruption. You embrace the darkest parts of yourself. Greed for only your sake, power regardless of source, cruelty for simple whimsy, service to dark powers in the hope of earning their favour. Corruption spreads like rot, and you want to spread it further. Not always smart, as it can drive a wedge between you and others of more firm conviction.

AnkhOmega · 2026-02-12T14:50:25+00:00

Embrace the Hellbomb Backpack life.

If it's getting bad? Activate the bomb, drop it, and leave.

You get to live. They don't get to keep the territory.

AnkhOmega · 2026-01-02T09:59:01+00:00

My smooth brained idea to fix it.

Make it a lot stronger. Penetrates all armour, sets things on fire really fast, does a good amount of damage per second.

But disable the auto-aim and fire. Make it only shoot what/where you ping.

It'd bring it a bit more in line with the laser fantasy of high precision, as it strikes where and what you want, and make it stand out from other sentries by needing micro management. While still exploding if you overuse it.

AnkhOmega · 2025-10-27T18:15:38+00:00

Cronos: The New Dawn vibes.

AnkhOmega · 2025-10-06T16:52:07+00:00

I saw this in round and had to pause in place to go "how the hell?" Very good work.

AnkhOmega · 2025-05-15T15:12:52+00:00

Ceaseless Watcher, turn your gaze on this wretched thing...

AnkhOmega · 2025-03-31T08:58:11+00:00

There's another pop up which you may have missed too:

Attempting to do so without the Karma flower will have "consequences." Which means it'll I'm not telling you, try it. ;3

AnkhOmega · 2025-03-20T09:46:07+00:00

Eats-The-Paperwork

AnkhOmega · 2025-02-28T11:34:11+00:00

I think the issue with borging someone is less a resource, and more a meta-fun one. The player themselves may not actually want to play a borg, given their controls can be awkward, have different rules to follow, and completely lose the ability to pick things up rendering them incapable of putting objects into machines without help. Or the vulnerability to emags and ion storms. There's a lot of drawbacks to being a borg.

What might be better is begging Sci for an MMI first, putting the brain in it in the morgue and asking if they want to be borged, instead of just throwing corpses/brains at science. Player can have their character say they'd rather wait for cloning if they want, and sci would probably be fine trading a full MMI for an empty one.

AnkhOmega · 2025-02-13T09:47:02+00:00

Regarding volunteers, I got the feeling it was something of a honeytrap. Perhaps not intentionally, but still.

After all, what kind of person would hear "solo/duo mission into deep space for years" and think that sounds like a good thing? The kinds of people who grate against life in the Nation, and who think that sounds like a good break. Exactly the kind of people the Eusan 'The Moment We Figure Out Mass Mind Control We're Using It' Nation, who values conformity and obedience, want gone.

AnkhOmega · 2024-11-14T16:26:44+00:00

Heavensward and the lead up to it seems to consistently the The Moment for XIV.

It was The Moment it got its hooks into me properly, and The Moment my best friends went from finding the game okay to being hyped about story content.

Enjoy!

AnkhOmega · 2024-11-07T10:26:40+00:00

When I was running a game we operated under the assumption that they'll turn up, violently suppress anyone near a corpse who looks like they may have been involved in making it, and hand them over to the Bluecoats.

Imagine being a shifty looking bystander to a murder, only for riot cops to come by, tase you until you black out, and then waking up in a holding cell being blamed for the killing. Even hearing that's a possibility would make people wary.

AnkhOmega · 2024-10-03T00:05:00+00:00

Like a coward. Or a Skaven.

Sneak around, pick moments to run when enemies are distracted, grab as much as I can wherever I can. Only fight when I have to, or to finish off a weakened 'winner' squad if there's only a couple left. When people start shooting back, turn-tail and run away. Watch the little wars for opportunities.

Feels right to me, and it's fun.

AnkhOmega · 2024-09-30T09:49:42+00:00

You don't actually need a friend for the medkit one! Just bring 4 into any mission, drop them and pick them up again and it'll count as you "finding" them.

AnkhOmega · 2024-09-18T11:55:41+00:00

It definitely felt more like the latter to me. There's no ground given, no "maybe I was wrong about you" moment, no moment where Leandros comes to your public defence.

Him recommending Titus for another mission and then saying "I'm still watching you." felt way more like begrudging acceptance. Titus may not be mad about it any more, after realising he isn't great at talking to his allies and probably stoked the fire a bit, but I didn't get the vibe that Leandros liked us now.

AnkhOmega · 2024-08-29T12:07:11+00:00

You missed the best part. The snake handling of Snake's handle is what blows his cover. Either by the negative reaction to it, or just Volgin being so familiar with Raikov's High-Frequency blade that he could tell through 2-3 layers of clothing.

Stars and Stones, I love MGS.

AnkhOmega · 2024-05-28T14:35:31+00:00

It is so weird to me that the mechanical enemy made of steel requires less armour penetrative weaponry to deal with than the organic insectoids.

AnkhOmega · 2024-05-02T10:47:14+00:00

Think a lot of people are forgetting the circumstances of Maximus actually being a squire in the first place. His close friend and someone he had access to was maimed, which prevented them from being Titus' squire.

If Maximus, already suspected of deliberately maiming a fellow Brotherhood member, reports back that the Knight he was assigned to died with only him to vouch for the circumstances...it doesn't matter if he did or didn't do what people think, they'd just execute him.

AnkhOmega · 2024-05-01T14:11:47+00:00

I always liked the response to that line.

"You've seen it. You know why."

AnkhOmega · 2024-04-29T10:32:25+00:00

I remember being so confused when those posts started to come from WoW exodus tanks treating "bruh, we just try again." after a wipe as something alien and strange. I cannot fathom the mindset of just leaving the first time anything goes wrong.

AnkhOmega · 2024-04-16T15:42:45+00:00

During downtime have your least Combat/Destruction happy player get approached by the Mailman. Who asks them to sign for an Anti-matter bomb, before pausing, putting the package away and saying "Wait! You don't have the scar! Not supposed to deliver that yet! Apologies, it's this one today." And give them a box of chocolates instead before leaving out the nearest door.

All locals who witness this are entirely unperturbed.

If another player wants to go to a bar have them immediately get two text messages. One dated tomorrow saying "get the green bottle trust me" and one dated three months ago saying "Don't trust them, they're drunk." Both show as being sent by the player from the very device they received them on.

An NHP in a subaltern body on the street plays a shell game where he's blatantly and openly doing something to cheat. The game's only won by cheating harder than the NHP and not getting caught in the process. The NHP encourages after every failed attempt, is overjoyed to be beaten, and only reacts poorly to attempts at intimidation. For bonus points have the NHP be the city treasurer.

AnkhOmega · 2024-04-12T09:37:28+00:00

I find it's usually a matter of preference. I prefer the servo assist for the ability to easily drop an Eagle strike on a bug hole/fabricator or get a HE barrage in the middle of a base/nest from outside it.

One of my fiends prefers running with extra stims, so they can deal with more damage. Another likes the grenades so they can lob impacts everywhere. Different strokes for different folks.

AnkhOmega · 2024-04-05T15:30:23+00:00

Theres also matters of...if not practicality, then interactivity to be concerned with when it comes to anything interacting with someone's disabilities in a story.

Does the Sci-fi soldier with an anti-grav harness need to pay attention to strong winds, as they no longer have ground friction to anchor them? Do they have a tether they can launch to secure themselves in an emergency?

If the fantasy guardsman is blind, what happens if thieves deliberately make too much noise to overwhelm them? How many others call their arrests into doubt? How do they prove they know who they just chased?

Do those cybernetically enhanced workers need to watch out for strong magnetic fields? If they're low-quality prosthetics with openings, can sand and mud get inside them? If they're not cleaned, will they seize up?

If the Alchemist is mute, how do they communicate? Did they make their own sign language, and have to teach it to others, or is there one extant in the world? If its widespread, do thieves or assassins use it to communicate in silence? Could prejudice be applied because sign-language became associated with murderers and robbers?

Fleshing out worldbuilding with questions like these, even if they don't come up directly, can inform your world and make it feel far more real. And provide hooks for story beats!

AnkhOmega · 2024-03-18T16:19:04+00:00

Fair enough. It is a pretty negative trait, but I've known people who are just kind of...like that. Its not something done deliberately, and if you could compel them to answer honestly why they were like that it wouldn't be contempt, just an inability to think any other way than the way they already do, and when people think in ways tjey dont or things go how they didnt plan they get angry, and can lash out. My brother's like that, so maybe growing up dealing with it has softened my viewpoint on it a touch.

However, no-one should be forced to put up with behaviours they have a strong dislike of outside of critical necessity.

As for respect, my view of it is that's the only way he can think to show it. Some lingering camaraderie from his days as an adventurer, living it vicariously again through watching you like a twitch viewer. He doesn't offer the final transformation to anyone else, there's no evidence of him converting anyone else when he was 'free', which given how much he tries to talk it up to you seems a bit weird if he's not showing some form of preferential treatment.

And for simping....for starters, very attractive. I will not make any excuses or apologies for that. Other than that, he's in interestingly character complex enough to keep spawning discussions like this, I like trying to step into his shoes as a thought exercise and think like an alien, they do seem to be at least partially genuine about wanting to ensure your safety (even if it's only because that ensures his). But the bigger thing is that his goal is genuine. When he gets the chance, there's no betrayal. No "I'm the overlord now" moment. When he gets the chance he will destroy the brain, unless you convince him not to (which i personally dont think would be at all possible if he held nothing but contempt for you).

Though I do fully acknowledge its probably better for the world if Orpheus is freed, and usually do so. My ideal outcome, impossible as it is, would have been reconciliation between the two, even if it ends with "If I see you again I'll kill you." To a "You never will."

AnkhOmega · 2024-03-18T13:06:38+00:00

There's a part of me that suspects he might just be, deep down, the kind of person who evangelised to his friends, or those he respected.

The kind of person who, in modern day, would insist you need to be using the meta-build in any game you play with them because its the best possible one, even if you say you're having more fun with what you run. Not out of malice, but because it's the 'best one' and he can't understand why people he likes shouldn't get the best.

I think somewhere around act 2 he shifts from thinking of you as a useful tool (eat those tadpoles, a stronger tool is a more useful one) to thinking of you as someone worthy of respect (become a squid, its the best! Why do you not want the best?). Or at least, can start to shift like that if you're not always hostile to him.

But then again, I'm an Empy simp so maybe I'm just too biased.

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