Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Some Dude" data-source="post: 7844064" data-attributes="member: 6980080">CHAPTER 4: LIBER ALCHEMIAEAt long last, I have made time to write up Main Gauche's fourth Chapter. This one is all about how you can achieve corruption, disfigurement and death better living through chemistry! Or Wytch-science, take your pick.This chapter expands upon ideas from the Zweihander core book, namely Materia Medica from Chapter 9, Hazards & Healing, and Wytchstone in Chapter 10, The Grimoire.Firstly, there is a brief passage that details how one goes about making Aetheric Fluid. This is used to animate and heal Golems. Further details on the creation of Golems will be given later in the book, we are told. As with the core book's 9th Chapter, there are instructions for what materials, amount of time, and Skill Test are required to create the Aetheric Fluid. Also listed are the results of success and failure when it is attempted.Next up, we have a section called "DECOCTIONS & PRIMA MATERIA". This part explains that the five "classical elements" are for plebs, and that those of keener intelligence see in all things (animal, mineral, vegetable, or worse) materials which contain potent and valuable ingredients. In the right hands, these ingredients can be used to brew "Decoctions", powerful potions that will temporarily boost one of a Character's Attributes by 9%.In order to begin, the Character must hunt, harvest or buy (this latter option being prohibitively expensive in most cases) the Prima Materia. There is a chart that lists the various Decoctions (one for each Attribute, remember), the Prima Materia required (Plant, Mineral or Creature - each decoction will require one or more of each. Furthermore, Prima Materia can have different degrees of rarity, kind of like Magic cards. Harvesting (or hunting) these ingredients will require a Survival Test...-Abundant: (Challenging -10% Survival Test)-Uncommon: (Hard -20% Survival Test)-Exotic: (Arduous -30% Survival Test)...and, as with other endeavours, each degree of rarity will require a longer amount of time to find (measured in hours). There are also benefits for success (Critical Success reduces time needed to find) and penalties for failure (no Prima Materia, and Critical causes Peril).Then, the Alchemist can brew the Decoction. Again, materials, time and a Successful Test are all needed. The stronger the Decoction (and stronger... lasts longer), the higher the Difficulty Rating.Assuming that all has gone well up to this point, the brew is ready for "Quaffing". In addition to having one's Attribute temporarily increased, he player doing the Quaffing must make a Successful Toughness Test, or suffer Peril. The stronger the Decoction, the more Peril you will face.After this, there is a full-page sidebar about how to play Dice Poker. Now, this seems at first like another oddly placed sidebar. But, I'm starting to think this is intentional, rather than haphazard. And, because of this, I'm starting to like it quite a bit. I know that Main Gauche is largely made up of bits that were excised from the core rulebook for reasons of liability (y'know, due to people dropping 12.5-poun books on their toe), er, space I mean. So, it makes sense that some of this stuff wouldn't need its own chapter, but is still worthy of inclusion. I can get behind that, and it's actually a neat way to include them. So, I'm gonna walk back my comments about previous sidebars here.As for the actual Dice Poker rules themselves, the book says that it's from The Witcher 2 video game. Each character playing will need 5d6. There are 9 "hands", listed from best to worst. A "play area" is selected, representing a table(a piece of paper or lid to a box, etc.) and any dice that land or fall out of this area after being rolled are not counted. This can be countered, that is to say, such "fallen" dice can be recovered by means of a successful Gamble Test. Characters first bid(and/or raise), then roll. They look at their hands, raise stakes if desired, and then may each re-roll from one to four dice. After the re-rolls, if any, highest hand wins. That's the gist, anyway. At first blush, this system is... OK. I can definitely see it being a nice change of pace. But one thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't really seem to take the Characters' Skill into account. You can use Skullduggery or Gambling, but only to "cheat" in various ways (failure brings n Peril and the potential of being found out). So, outside of using a Gamble test (and all repeated Tests made while playing get progressively harder) to recover a die that has landed outside of the play area, it seems that a Character who doesn't cheat is at a distinct disadvantage, and two characters who don't cheat are evenly matched, even if one has two Skill Ranks in Gamble, and the other has none, plus a low Attribute score to boot!So, I'm of two minds about the section on Dice Poker. Obviously, some thought went into it, which is cool. And it is a functional game that helps to take in-game Gambling from the purely abstract and into the practical. But I'm not a fan of its total randomness, when Gamble is a Skill in the game. I'll still try it, because if my players end up getting a kick out of it, that'd be great. But I'd love to see Skill play a bigger part outside of cheating.Well, I'm sorry I made y'all wait so long, and I'm even sorrier that I'm not gonna get to far tonight. There's a fair bit more of Chapter 4 to go (most of it, really), and in true Zweihander style, it's jam-packed. I'll keep plugging away at it, and hopefully with fewer(and shorter) gaps between posts.TO BE CONTINUED...</blockquote>

Verification