Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

Scream Aim Fire said:
I really need to watch these reviews again. Left-turn here, but is this the worst game you've reviewed on that channel, or was it something else?
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It's a classically terrible book similar to Wraeththu in that regard. Worst game is a pretty hard one to figure out since we covered some real stinkers.

Our Travelling Home it's probably a pretty good contender given that it's more of a lesson plan than a game. Ron Edwards' Sorcerer supplements were insufferably worthless. Beast the Primordial is just structurally ass and has shit lore too. We never bothered to finish extreme meat punks forever because it wasn't really a game.
 
Scream Aim Fire said:
So, question for everyone; has anyone actually played a Tiefling in DND, any edition? I know they're the fag race of the game, but I'm curious if anyone here has actually bit the bullet and either ran one themselves, or played with someone who has. Namely, have there been any "good" ones in your experiences - like someone who properly played a half-demon and not someone's fetish pet? And I don't mean the Reddit-tier take of "he was immediately killed by his own team because the only good Tiefnigger is a dead Tiefnigger" or whatever; I'm talking a full game/campaign with one, with a Tief that was actually played well.
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Not what you're looking for, but I had a Tiefling Warlock NPC show up as a reoccurring character. He was one of an early big-bad's "hired guns" and the fighter actually asked him to surrender. I think out of formality, but the guy was alone, outnumbered, and he and his fellows were in it for the money not idealism so he dropped his orb and said "OK". Fighter: Wait, really?. He readily gave the party everything he knew about the BB's operations, and was left with their allies. As part of his plea deal, he was let go, and ran into the party a few more times, and the party hired him once.
It was pretty fun, I played him pure lawful-evil and intelligent - so he never betrayed the party and held to his word, but that just made the party distrust him even more.

Teifling NPCs also played a significant role in one of my campaigns. The players were exploring a ruined city where the Tiefling and Dragonborn empire remnants had kept the war that destroyed their homelands going for the thousand-some years since their capitals fell. It was very fallout-esque, with nods to one of the Sci-Fi era Sliders episodes with.... well, the episode was garbage but the premise of "both sides continuing thier war well past any point" had potential I elt.
I was curious to see if the players would pick a side, or try to get the two sides to come to terms, but the campaign fell apart before they got much more into the intrique beyond transactional interactions.

No long term Tieflings. Honestly I've only seen horror stories from Faggit and a bunch of Teifling NPCs that were out of the module writer's Magical Realm.

Manly_Brony said:
You're obviously one of the good ones who wants to put in work but if some Lilith approached me with his quirky, flamboyant Tiefling's character sheet then the first question I'd ask would be how he would feel if he was running around with one of the Trump kids since they're the closest thing to devilspawn in his eyes.
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Agreed on this post. You should do something with your tiefling, which TBF the Tiefling Remnant setting did, and so did the recurring NPC.

Kyria the Great said:
Honestly a Cyberpunk campaign going to fight dirty wars for Diamond mines with colorful and depraved locals and mercenaries sounds amazing in Africa.
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The issue I have with that sort of thing is the economics of Diamond mines specifically, with diamonds not being all that valuable to the wholesaler.
I know you are using them as a generalized McGuffin but its hard in a cyberpunk world to get something of the level of blood diamonds where the question can't be asked "Why not just go literally anywhere else"?
that hired gun excerpt posted earlier was interesting, but it overlooks the fact that a society where selling your services to very likely die in war just to get enough to eat isn't a sustainable society and quickly comes apart.

Just as an asside, I've thought about doing a "Saharan Western" story, where there is a bounty to be tracked through the desert with a posse you can hire for $5/head per day.
 
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Ghostse said:
Agreed on this post. You should do something with your tiefling, which TBF the Tiefling Remnant setting did, and so did the recurring NPC.
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I thought about it and have some Tiefling character concepts who aren't fags or archvillains in the making:

The first one is the holy Tiefling usually a Paladin, Monk or a Cleric of a LG deity who strives to be the most devout and fights evil in its many forms so much that Grand Master or "Pope" is a foreseeable future title.
The second one is the wacky Tiefling who jestermaxxes all the time to prove their harmlessness to the community. Like Maurice from the movie Little Monsters (1989). This can get annoying but it isn't Elton John with horns yet.
The third one is the misogynist Tiefling who detests women because they open their legs to anything.
The fourth is the lonerish, outdoorsman Tiefling who rarely enters settlements to avoid harassment. Drizzt with horns.
The fifth is the emo Tiefling I detailed earlier.
And the final one is the devious Tiefling who likes to start bar brawls or duels for the lulz by just appearing in public, at a ball or in a tavern. Optional heart of gold.

I think Tieflings should be few and far between and never be mere farmers, potters, wainwrights or swineherds unless it's some weird, remote outlier village that's crucial to your adventure or campaign. Beggar is the only viable occupation for most of them if they aren't chased out of town or burned at the stake. I would probably never allow Tiefling rogues and bards. Putting a target on your back much? They're harder to grasp because they're demonic but also lean on the fantasy nations their mothers are from and you're fucked if it's not a pseudo IRL culture. You can't just put on a Scottish accent like someone playing a Dwarf and call it a day.
 
Manly_Brony said:
And the final one is the devious Tiefling who likes to start bar brawls or duels for the lulz by just appearing in public, at a ball or in a tavern. Optional heart of gold.
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Playing this guy as a wuxia protagonist can be interesting: a flamboyant bar brawler with a hatred against injustice and corruption, nice.

The issue with tieflings is the same issue with the drow, they are the edgy race for teenagers to self insert. Add goon-brained genderfreaks to the mix and you have the stupidity amped tenfold. Tieflings should be very rare unless your setting has a kingdom of them (something I dislike) or a criminal organization of sorts.
 
Manly_Brony said:
You're obviously one of the good ones who wants to put in work but if some Lilith approached me with his quirky, flamboyant Tiefling's character sheet then the first question I'd ask would be how he would feel if he was running around with one of the Trump kids since they're the closest thing to devilspawn in his eyes.
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God... I don't think anyone really understands just how much I hate the "le quirky" archetype these days. Way I see it, if you're going to make your character into a bland "lolsorandum" meme build and not put in any actual effort, then I think you probably shouldn't be playing the game at this rate. I get that games are supposed to be for fun, but... in a setting as roleplay-and-character-heavy as the typical DND session is, shoving a damn Fishmalk into everything just ruins it all - just take a look at Extreme Meatpunks Forever and Lianna. If the character's quirkiness actually meshes well with the rest of the crew and setting, then it works fairly well, but when you're a Chaotic Stupid retard that actively causes every problem in the plot, then... well, I wouldn't mind shooting you in the back.

Red Dragon said:
The issue with tieflings is the same issue with the drow, they are the edgy race for teenagers to self insert. Add goon-brained genderfreaks to the mix and you have the stupidity amped tenfold. Tieflings should be very rare unless your setting has a kingdom of them (something I dislike) or a criminal organization of sorts.
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That's my main gripe, too; a half-demon race has a LOT of potential, but they got reduced to the edgelord/gooner race. Hell, the pre-released version of the 2024 PHB was actually going to make the Tiefs into this "beloved by all" race before the backlash. You got people like myself, who actually want to put in the effort and make an interesting character, getting lumped in with tranny tards because the latter are a bunch of degenerates.

Adamska said:
Our Travelling Home it's probably a pretty good contender given that it's more of a lesson plan than a game. Ron Edwards' Sorcerer supplements were insufferably worthless. Beast the Primordial is just structurally ass and has shit lore too. We never bothered to finish extreme meat punks forever because it wasn't really a game.
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Looks like I have some more videos to take a look at soon enough. Don't feel bad about EMF, I've looked into it myself; you're not missing a damn thing. Believe it or not, the video game is arguably the better of the two, though that's not exactly much.
 
There's a great Pathfinder novel titled Hellknight which has a tiefling protagonist. She resents humanity for treating her differently and resents her ancestors for making her different, so she's grateful that her daughter passes for human. I recall her also being annoyed by what are essentially chasers, humans who hit on her very aggressively because of her scales and horns. I recommend it just as a good fantasy detective novel, RPG stuff aside.
 
Still messing with Traveller. Took a detour and looked at the Cepheus Engine, which is just OGL Classic Traveller/Mongoose Traveller 1E. There's a guy named Zozer whose releasing lots of content under the Cepheus Engine. Plus his own rulebook (Cepheus Universal) with EXTRA RULES. It's all very cool. https://www.zozergames.com/

Can anyone explain why people think the OGL 1.0a license was automatically going to get upgraded? The license doesn't say that. It seems pretty clear to me. It was brought up because people were concerned that Cepheus Engine was going to lose it's license status or something.

PS. I made I mistake saying armor is AC in an earlier post, it's actually damage reduction (which is better).
 
Scream Aim Fire said:
So, question for everyone; has anyone actually played a Tiefling in DND, any edition?
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I'm playing one in a 3.5 game my buddy's running since he explicitly put planar races on the table. He's a nitpicky factotum who talks like Christopher Lee and serves as the party strategist. Lawful neutral not out of any inherent want for a code, but because he has contract devil blood and suffers physical pain whenever he breaks a promise. Naturally, lawyer speak is his forte.
Red Dragon said:
The issue with tieflings is the same issue with the drow, they are the edgy race for teenagers to self insert.
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Listen, I will not apologize for liking the edgelord races. All I can say is I never made a Drizzt clone.
 
I guess I am a freakshit player. I have played genasi, undead, dhampirs, elves of all sorts, dragonborn, halflings, dwarves, warforged, an aasimar, lots of half orcs, and a few I am sure I am forgetting. I don't think I have ever played a gnome or a tiefling though. That isn't even to mention what I have played in sci fi.

As I have gotten older I have come to like playing humans more. I still like elves, dwarves and half orcs quite a lot, but I don't feel any compelling force behind it anymore. I think maybe I was hiding behind a worse ability to write an interesting character and instead supplanting that with "uniqueness" of race. I think those races can be played in a way that tells an interesting story, but I don't feel like I need it as much anymore. In some ways playing a human in such strange lands is pretty unique to itself. I have GMd so many tables for so many editions of D&D and other fantasy games over the years and honestly you almost never see an all human group.

Of course I am also really into Swords & Wizardry right now and it has a very limited race pool to pick from which is certainly skewing my groups choices towards human. Despite this the parties I am seeing are still not all human.
I won't fault someone for picking a weird race or odd class as long as they aren't making it other people's problems.
Part of the fun of ttrpgs is the idea of the fantasy of being something you aren't, doing something you can't and seeing places that will never exist.
 
Manly_Brony said:
This can get annoying but it isn't Elton John with horns yet.
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If I was to ever run a flamboyantly homosexual tiefling I would just go all the fucking way and make him Elton John with horns as a Bard and have him be a grade-A asshole who loves breaking the hearts of all the fag hags who fall for him. He may not want their love but he'll sure as shit take their coin.
 
Aside from my Guy Who Zaps character, I also had a tiefling city-state up by the Demon Wastes in an Eberron campaign. The tieflings didn't see themselves as anything but normal. They were warlike, heartless, and saw kindness as weakness. Basically they were what you'd think a whole society of devil-humans would be.
 
Ghostse said:
I know you are using them as a generalized McGuffin but its hard in a cyberpunk world to get something of the level of blood diamonds where the question can't be asked "Why not just go literally anywhere else"?
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Bushmeat smuggling to Europe is a booming business so they could hire your near future, chromed up ass as game reserve security so that the suits with African blood can eat organic zebra, bat and monkey regularly.
 
Manly_Brony said:
Bushmeat smuggling to Europe is a booming business so they could hire your near future, chromed up ass as game reserve security so that the suits with African blood can eat organic zebra, bat and monkey regularly.
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A job that gets complicated when a radical eco-terrorist front sends in assassins to collect some corpo scalps during a safari retreat....
 
MazonLabs Recruitment Rep said:
A job that gets complicated when a radical eco-terrorist front sends in assassins to collect some corpo scalps during a safari retreat....
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You're hired as security to escort some big game hunter and his guide in the bush. "These locals can't even point a gun in the right direction!" It turns out, however, that the "hunting ground" is a wildcat uranium mine, and your hunter is a radical anti-nuclear activist. He and the guide begin suiting up; Bwana's accent changes from Efrika to pure Dixie. "Y'all kin wait here, or you fellas kin hep out and git dat money!"

You look at the facility and remember that the treasury is geofencing this region against e-currency exchange to cut off funding to rebels, who have switched to gold and jewels. That's not just a mine in front of you. It's a piggy bank.
 
Red Dragon said:
It's ok man, I have a soft spot for Shadar-Kai.
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A what now?

For all the complaints about freakshit, old editions really went all in with the weird races. Though that ties in neatly with something I want to ask.


What are some of your favourite freakshit unique classes from older editions (or even 5e)?


Asking because I hear people wax nostaligic about Warlord a lot. I know little of them other than they're Charisma based fighters with support abilities. I have heard of ninjas in 2e I think? It makes me wonder if there's anything else out there.

Someone I used to know had what is basically an isekai game before that term was widely used. Their characters were transported into DnD but with classes opposite their personality. The shy, conservative one was a Warlord in a combat bikini. If that's normal for the class, it might explain why they never made the jump to 5e.

Another thing I'm told is Nimble's Commander class is basically a 5e-ised version of Warlord. They're a melee fighter, but they have abilities that grant other characters free movement or attacks, taunting enemies, that sort of thing.


I'm a big fan of Warlocks in 5e. They offer great character and story telling potential. I understand the criticism that they are just "zap: the class", and the constant need for rests is a pain. But the benefits are worth it imo. It's a bit of a shame I never got to try other variants like the blade (about summoning a sword) and the chain (familiar based stuff). You can kind of do that in other games, but none have it baked in like 5e does.
 
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