Slaine RPG from Mongoose Publishing

[MonkeyBoy]

all god points erekose,

as i said, i'm really in the process of ripping bits off here and there, so i've simply decided that IMC there will be "supernatural feats" - a PC gets one bonus feat at creation with which to either take a supernatural feat or a bonus normal one. (supernatural feats only available at creation or when the game situation warrants it; i.e. at my discretion)

To cut a long story short, Warped then becomes a supernatural feat, and at the moment i'm seing it as being a kind of "advanced rage", using similar rules to rage, but with different effects. (its all a bit vague at the moment, one thing is for sure, it won't cost magic points) I'd probably keep a warp effect table and roll, with some modifiers for situation, but if you could warp a certain number of times in a given period, i wouldn't have the spasm fizzle to nothing...

This keeps spasms rare (only unusual NPCs and PCs get the supernatural feats, and PCs will generally only get 1), but preserves the player being able to choose to play a warped character.

Currently other supernatural feats include a danger-sense type effect, fey-touched (only way to play a demi-human in the setting) and a second-sight effect. (which is ill-defined at this point)

 

[Ukko the Scribe]

The mass combat system is the OMCS from quintessential fighter.

There's tons of full-page colour art - too much IMO, and I've criticised this to the author Ian Sturrock over on uk.games.roleplay - the book has lots of info on gritty Celtic roleplaying, and lots of beautiful art, but it's thin and it has no NPC stats at all - not even for typical opponents, certainly no comic-character stats, which are scheduled to appear in supplements. Likewise no stats for elementals, dev-elsm cythrons and other higher-powered opponents, though it does have war dragon stats - not too bright, but very nasty, a 'classic' dragon that could well be used in other lower-fantasy worlds. The thing I missed most was stats for Skull Swords, the soldiers of the evil Drune Lords. For this reason - it's expensive enough it ought to have had space for these things - I'd rate it a 4* product rather than 5*.

While I would agree it doesn't have Elementals, (Included later in one or two page supplement for free), Dev-els, (A damn shame but I am working on my own with that one using Psychic-Vampires from the related Judge Dredd RPG. Alot of stuff in that book could make a great supplement for whatever else is missing from the Slaine RPG.) Cythrons, (There is a easy to find Sign & Portents article about Cythrons in one of those magazines that you download like the two page supplement about Elementals and there is also a article in another S&P mag with further information about Fomorians.) Higher-Power opponents. (Not sure about those, but I know that quite a bit more has happened in the Slaine comic since you have posted and the only beings I can think of there are the Archon's who defeated and imprisoned Cythron's either long ago or in the far future, since time in Slaine is like a circular spiral that repeats.)

Not sure what you mean about the lack of stats for Skulls Swords & Drune Lords. Is that what your saying? I"m sure they are in the books as well. But I will need to check again. It maybe that they are including in one of the other source books that you may have not purchased yet or back then...

 

[Ukko the Scribe]

MonkeyBoy - at last someone else with the book able to reply to my original post!

I agree with what you've written - but didn't want to colour any opinions by giving my view first!

My only real pet hate is the warp spasm. I always envisioned it as the equivalent of the barbarian's rage (but with a more visual effect!). The rules for them follow a similar pattern to rage but assign it as a race attribute. I could live with that except the Tribal Warrior can rage as well . . .

In essence I would prefer the "warp spasm/rage" to be either a class ability or a race ability and not a mixture of both.

Ideally I would prefer it as a class ability using the rage mechanic (in keeping with the barbarian) with perhaps a limited cause fear effect (radius and DC increasing with level).

I can only assume that rage and warp spasm were kept separate to enable berserkers to be Tribal Warriors rather than Warped Ones. However, from the relevant myths I don't recall the riastarthe being more powerful than the beserksgangr . . .

However, as I said in my last post the book gives a good basis for a DM to work with.

I never liked it that to get Warped, you needed to be one of the non or sub-human Warped-Ones. This is derived from knowledge that came up in Slaine the Secret Commonwealth. Not one of my favorite stories either, so I did try to ignore that Slaine is a throwback to race of beast-folk that intermingled with humans giving rise to the Warped-Ones or whatever name Pat Mills had for them.

However, I would prefer to get my players to roll a 1d100 and if they roll under 25%, then they can be a Warped-One if they so desire. This to me would cut down on everybody just simply choosing to be one of them. (I would allow one belonging to the Fir-Domain to roll under 50% on 1d100, to be Son of Cymidu.) They should be rare and the other thing is that I just don't like that idea of them being a separate race of beings in the first place. I always thought Slaine as a human destined to be champion by the Danu and given his Warp Spasm by her alone. Would it be more appropriate that it would be one of the benefits of having such a Geas placed on him by Cathbad when he prophesied about Slaine himself having to spend so much time with a dwarf (Ukko) in the near future....

 

[mamba]

20 years later, this got to be a new record… not sure anyone was waiting for these replies

 

[S'mon]

While I would agree it doesn't have Elementals, (Included later in one or two page supplement for free), Dev-els, (A damn shame but I am working on my own with that one using Psychic-Vampires from the related Judge Dredd RPG. Alot of stuff in that book could make a great supplement for whatever else is missing from the Slaine RPG.) Cythrons, (There is a easy to find Sign & Portents article about Cythrons in one of those magazines that you download like the two page supplement about Elementals and there is also a article in another S&P mag with further information about Fomorians.) Higher-Power opponents. (Not sure about those, but I know that quite a bit more has happened in the Slaine comic since you have posted and the only beings I can think of there are the Archon's who defeated and imprisoned Cythron's either long ago or in the far future, since time in Slaine is like a circular spiral that repeats.)

Not sure what you mean about the lack of stats for Skulls Swords & Drune Lords. Is that what your saying? I"m sure they are in the books as well. But I will need to check again. It maybe that they are including in one of the other source books that you may have not purchased yet or back then...

I think I gave my Slaine RPG book away years ago, sorry!

I've been adding Skull Swords in my 5e D&D game, as I recall I use MM Thug stats as the base. I bought the Warlord Games Skull Sword minis & a friend has been painting them.

 

[Ukko the Scribe]

Here is Signs & Portents 7 with Power Beyond Cognition. (A article about Cythrons), Signs & Portents 10, The Fomorians (Fomorians obviously...) and Born of Madness (With further information on the Paressi one of the tribes of the Drunes Lords.) and Slaine Elementals. All this is free, so it should be okay to share here. Just let me know if it isn't....

 

[Ukko the Scribe]

I think I gave my Slaine RPG book away years ago, sorry!

I've been adding Skull Swords in my 5e D&D game, as I recall I use MM Thug stats as the base. I bought the Warlord Games Skull Sword minis & a friend has been painting them.

I also have the Slaine Warlords game as well. It looks like great stuff, I just haven't got around to gluing them together & painting them. It's something I'm new to....painting miniatures and despite having set up painting table with most of necessary gear to get started. I just haven't done this yet. Everything is still in it's box... I also have the relevant Strontium Dog, & Judge Dredd games as well and I started collecting the Dr Who game, but Warlords had a big Dr Who miniatures sale and stopped producing miniatures for that one.