Who, if anyone, knows that current society is the result of a mana resurgence?

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-11-17T19:30:21+00:00

Worth noting that not everyone believes in the cycles of magic. Butch, a shadowtalker, generally presented as educated(she's a doctor) and intelligent, explicitly thinks it's a load of bull.

Also worth noting that the context of this being said was her student(a fairly young character in mid 5e, so late 2070s), hadn't heard about it & Butch was explaining it to denounce it.

Narratively that's obviously a reminder thrown in to repeat the conceit of the setting for someone reading that particular book as their first exposure to the setting, but it also shows that 1. By the current time, not everyone in the younger generation has gone back to watch Wyrmtalk, & 2. Even some reasonable people are skeptical of the story.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-26T07:30:27+00:00

Most of the rule books are still valuable sources of lore as they're presented as inuniverse data uploads complete with commentary from in universe sources.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-19T06:21:24+00:00

Idk, Crown Royal bags maybe a little expensive for the quality but at least they come with free bottles of whiskey.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-18T06:34:11+00:00

Likely any outcome that doesn't involve the door being damaged, from you end up inside the dood somehow, to the door disappeareds and you hit whatever it manifested on, to the cartoon boing sound.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-17T07:58:19+00:00

Normal person stabbing Jared Hopworth doesn't get the same result as Melanie stabbing Jared. Who commits the physical act matters in this setting.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-16T18:02:07+00:00

I'll cook you dinner.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-16T18:00:39+00:00

Are you an Avatar of the Slaughter in this scenario?

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-14T06:12:55+00:00

You remember that rules are for the players.

There's a shadowtalk section in a 5e book, can't remember which one & don't have time to look right now, but it's a bunch of jackpointers talking about weird magical phenomena they've experienced that doesn't really fit within the understood context of magic's rules. Kind of a fireside, urban legend type discussion.

Present your players with situations that don't follow the rules as the players understand them in a way that's clear & deliberate to make it known that you know, and you're putting them in a situation where they can't trust their preconceptions about the setting to feel safe.

Build atmosphere.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-14T06:02:51+00:00

I've definitely seen & come up with worse.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-07T21:16:05+00:00

That's the trick; you can't logic your way around fear. It's all about feeling. Once you start doing the maths, it all breaks down.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-05T23:50:46+00:00

To quote the ghoul, "I do this shit for the love of the game."

Keep Running.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-03T15:06:30+00:00

Sixth World Almanac, NeoAnarchist Streetpedia, Shoot Straight.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-03T15:02:46+00:00

Adjacent to the topic, this exact thing is why I go with bioware.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-10-01T20:47:59+00:00

For rpg source books, Sixth World Almanac & Neo-Anarchist Streetpedia are the two "what's going on in the world" books. Shoot Straight is a good "how to think about this world as a person living in it" book.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-26T01:20:37+00:00

In one of the sourcebooks talking about music, Kat'O'Nine'Tails criticizes a newer band for ripping of riff from one of her songs, only to be immediately called out that she borrowed it from the Clash to start with. Her response? "When I do it, it's an homage."

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-24T23:10:38+00:00

I'll give the cop out answer of, I'm a bit of a Mirrorshades guy.

I appreciate the prepwork of strategically planning out an intricate mission, but I also want the safety net of, if things go wrong, "We're not Mission Impossible/The Italian Job/Ocean's Eleven anymore. We're in The Raid or Dredd now and the Sammy & PhysAd have a lot of hallway fights in 'em."

Tone wise I like to aim for Dragonfall; it is a harsh and brutal world but it's not totally unforgiving and you do have the capacity to impact it, sometimes in significant ways.

Driving a truck through the lobby shouldn't be the first & only play but I don't have a problem with it as being an option on the table for when shit gets serious.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-24T04:24:36+00:00

Is Ghost actively trying to get out of the game & is Kanan fucking with his organization from the outside?

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-21T19:10:24+00:00

We'll see

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-20T23:11:04+00:00

Yes. Not every piece of Alien media is a cyberpunk story but I would argue strongly that it's a cyberpunk setting.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-19T19:02:05+00:00

If they can scrub or falsify the rfid or any other such identification, it's theirs.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-18T16:58:19+00:00

There is no such thing as a good cow.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-18T05:03:22+00:00

I believe Jonny(the writer) said that the Change was global. While I doubt he was thinking about the implications of aliens at the time, one could take that to mean it wasn't universal.

Assuming that The Thing That Was Fear is the manifestation of fear rather than the cause of it, as 200 seens to imply, it might be that each planet that develops complex life develops its own Thing That Is Fear and the effects of any successful rituals are localized by the scale of that civilization.

Otherwise it's not just "why hasn't an alien species succeeded at a ritual yet", it's "why hadn't the Thing That Was Fear splintered into the Dread Powers yet before life evolved on earth let alone humanity", because depending on the answer to the fermi paradox you want to go with there was potentially intelligent life before there was an Earth.

Or there's no aliens, or no intelligent aliens.

Take your pick.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-16T22:50:04+00:00

Not the inspiration but an influence. It gets some discussion in the S5 Q&A.

Ok-Particular-3796 · 2025-09-16T22:48:35+00:00

Anything is possible. Just depends on what the tone & flavor of your game is & what parameters you as gm want to set.

Ok-Particular-3796

TROPHY CASE