And today happened
Dec. 26th, 2019 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethtoday I have been mostly having a headache
which is very boring.
I tried sleeping through it but it only worked a little until the painkiller wore off.
It's not like a huge headache, just annoying and in the way.
So, not much thinking going on today.
I have been reading Pathfinder magic items.
I found https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/c-d/clockwork-prosthesis/ which is the non creeptastic ruleset for prosthetic limbs. You just have clockwork replacement parts, no horror rules attached, far as I can see.
Also found https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/e-g/elixir-of-sex-shifting/
2,250 gp alchemical or sor/wiz elixir based on polymorph, to change one's biology permanently to any set of sexual characteristics they choose. Not just binary, "Most races have a wide spectrum of sexual differentiation, some common, others more rare. Therefore, most creatures can decide how this elixir transforms them."
This is much better than the cursed belt that flips people. Can be used teice in a row if you feel like it, or many times if the price is met. Not characterised as a curse. And by simply existing makes it clear the curse on the belt was not getting to choose.
Better.
I made a big long list of magic items my character would want, and they are mostly for making food. Like, I understand most of the magic items rules are about surviving combat, but most of the people most of the time are going to find the food items more useful. So the Sustaining Spoon is the best item, until I found the Cauldron of Plenty, which feeds more people per day. Goblet of Quenching is also neat, giving a nice cool clean drink of water, but a Decanter of Endless Water is a world changer. So many places would be changed by 30 gallons of water every 6 seconds. So there are rules for adding a fountain to a settlement, based on a Decanter. Is neat.
I haven't read any yuletide or fiction or stuff that requires a brain and functioning to appreciate it. Just been paging through imaginary items.
I have noticed some things as should be obvious, like: I like the idea of being able to do many spells I like and use many magic items to help people, but I very much dislike the idea of bad guys having same resources. I mean they use them super mean. There's kingdoms in the world guide based on enslaved zombie armies, or some really nasty stuff about the torture god. And the same people who made kingdoms messed up places in the first place are often the ones still running them, like goa'uld system lords: all the rules for ignoring ageing and maybe being immortal seem nice until like Vandal Savage can also get it.
Actually Vandal Savage wiuld be a petty nothing much in this 'verse. That... puts them in perspective...
I was also thinking though that orcs have a bad reputation and it's probably not fair, even just using the stuff in the world guide for Golarion. Like, it says that when dwarves were created they were deep underground but they interpreted a certain event as a sign from gid and started digging for the surface, driving the orcs before them. And like, what had the orcs done? Lived? In the darklands? Minding their own business? But now there's dwarves, driving them out. Sucks to be orcs. And then they emerge, but in a land where the river only runs in season, and there's a 'sea' made of dust. Not great land. And their neighbours, dwarves very much included, don't let them out. Have a lot to say about orcs invading other lands. But they just? Arrived? Like everyone after the dark bit? Who let dwarves write the history here? And like, the story says that orcs are horrible violent short tempered brutes who can't cooperate, except then the river runs in its season and all the orcs get along. Make a truce for flood season. Great, so, they cam in fact cooperate, do get along, but most of the year there's not enough water let alone food and their whole society is shaped by the desperation that engenders. The river running all year could mean they act like flood season all year ie basically getting along okay.
Orcs aren't evil, they're desperately poor, having been driven out into badlands with insufficient water and no way out.
... except the rules say orcs are chaotic evil, but then this story does not support that.
Like the time the orcs all got organised under a tyrant? They get blamed for the tyrant? But he's a blue dragon, and also undead or something, he raises an u dead army, and organises the orcs. But if a dude with an undead army turns up you know you have two options: serve or serve whilst dead. I'm thinking the orcs, scattered and broke and disorganised, hadn't got a chance against an undead army that already converted the neighbours, so what are they meant to do? Die trying? Knowing that the neighbours will never come to the aid of orcs?
I mean maybe some did. You don't know. These are histories written by people who call them savages.
I am reading the story and it is not telling me what it seems to think it is telling me. Describe the land and the history and you've got orcs being driven out, trapped in the badlands, and enslaved by a dude with an undead army.
Maybe they could be nice guys if they had a chance.
I mean, if I was writing it obviously they could.
Also the rules that call them stupid are not entirely supported by the rules own numbers. Like yes, they take a -2 on Int stat, they are on average going to be a notch less smart than a human, and if they roll poorly they could in theory have the kind of Int that cannot learn a language. Thst's low. Yet any individual orc is going to have a lot of overlap with an individual human, because a lot of that number is random. And their time to get fully trained as a wizard is exactly the same as humans. So their Int isn't awesome, but they learn same as anyone.
They just don't live as long.
Though that does mean they take bonuses on their mental stats at much younger ages. That -2 will be gone away by the time they're 30. Granted they might only live to 42 and a human elder will still be on average smarter than an orc elder, but a lot of this 'stupid' depends on what you consider like for like comparison. They aren't very. So the reoutation is pants.
I am getting annoyed on behalf of orcs.
... I am in some respects predictable.
Okay, so, these aren't even new thoughts, I just sat down to write something.
My day was a bit boring but I'm still finding RPG worldbooks interesting.
Frustrating, but interesting.
I should find a game group.
... it has been a really long time since I did anything that interactive...
which is very boring.
I tried sleeping through it but it only worked a little until the painkiller wore off.
It's not like a huge headache, just annoying and in the way.
So, not much thinking going on today.
I have been reading Pathfinder magic items.
I found https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/c-d/clockwork-prosthesis/ which is the non creeptastic ruleset for prosthetic limbs. You just have clockwork replacement parts, no horror rules attached, far as I can see.
Also found https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/e-g/elixir-of-sex-shifting/
2,250 gp alchemical or sor/wiz elixir based on polymorph, to change one's biology permanently to any set of sexual characteristics they choose. Not just binary, "Most races have a wide spectrum of sexual differentiation, some common, others more rare. Therefore, most creatures can decide how this elixir transforms them."
This is much better than the cursed belt that flips people. Can be used teice in a row if you feel like it, or many times if the price is met. Not characterised as a curse. And by simply existing makes it clear the curse on the belt was not getting to choose.
Better.
I made a big long list of magic items my character would want, and they are mostly for making food. Like, I understand most of the magic items rules are about surviving combat, but most of the people most of the time are going to find the food items more useful. So the Sustaining Spoon is the best item, until I found the Cauldron of Plenty, which feeds more people per day. Goblet of Quenching is also neat, giving a nice cool clean drink of water, but a Decanter of Endless Water is a world changer. So many places would be changed by 30 gallons of water every 6 seconds. So there are rules for adding a fountain to a settlement, based on a Decanter. Is neat.
I haven't read any yuletide or fiction or stuff that requires a brain and functioning to appreciate it. Just been paging through imaginary items.
I have noticed some things as should be obvious, like: I like the idea of being able to do many spells I like and use many magic items to help people, but I very much dislike the idea of bad guys having same resources. I mean they use them super mean. There's kingdoms in the world guide based on enslaved zombie armies, or some really nasty stuff about the torture god. And the same people who made kingdoms messed up places in the first place are often the ones still running them, like goa'uld system lords: all the rules for ignoring ageing and maybe being immortal seem nice until like Vandal Savage can also get it.
Actually Vandal Savage wiuld be a petty nothing much in this 'verse. That... puts them in perspective...
I was also thinking though that orcs have a bad reputation and it's probably not fair, even just using the stuff in the world guide for Golarion. Like, it says that when dwarves were created they were deep underground but they interpreted a certain event as a sign from gid and started digging for the surface, driving the orcs before them. And like, what had the orcs done? Lived? In the darklands? Minding their own business? But now there's dwarves, driving them out. Sucks to be orcs. And then they emerge, but in a land where the river only runs in season, and there's a 'sea' made of dust. Not great land. And their neighbours, dwarves very much included, don't let them out. Have a lot to say about orcs invading other lands. But they just? Arrived? Like everyone after the dark bit? Who let dwarves write the history here? And like, the story says that orcs are horrible violent short tempered brutes who can't cooperate, except then the river runs in its season and all the orcs get along. Make a truce for flood season. Great, so, they cam in fact cooperate, do get along, but most of the year there's not enough water let alone food and their whole society is shaped by the desperation that engenders. The river running all year could mean they act like flood season all year ie basically getting along okay.
Orcs aren't evil, they're desperately poor, having been driven out into badlands with insufficient water and no way out.
... except the rules say orcs are chaotic evil, but then this story does not support that.
Like the time the orcs all got organised under a tyrant? They get blamed for the tyrant? But he's a blue dragon, and also undead or something, he raises an u dead army, and organises the orcs. But if a dude with an undead army turns up you know you have two options: serve or serve whilst dead. I'm thinking the orcs, scattered and broke and disorganised, hadn't got a chance against an undead army that already converted the neighbours, so what are they meant to do? Die trying? Knowing that the neighbours will never come to the aid of orcs?
I mean maybe some did. You don't know. These are histories written by people who call them savages.
I am reading the story and it is not telling me what it seems to think it is telling me. Describe the land and the history and you've got orcs being driven out, trapped in the badlands, and enslaved by a dude with an undead army.
Maybe they could be nice guys if they had a chance.
I mean, if I was writing it obviously they could.
Also the rules that call them stupid are not entirely supported by the rules own numbers. Like yes, they take a -2 on Int stat, they are on average going to be a notch less smart than a human, and if they roll poorly they could in theory have the kind of Int that cannot learn a language. Thst's low. Yet any individual orc is going to have a lot of overlap with an individual human, because a lot of that number is random. And their time to get fully trained as a wizard is exactly the same as humans. So their Int isn't awesome, but they learn same as anyone.
They just don't live as long.
Though that does mean they take bonuses on their mental stats at much younger ages. That -2 will be gone away by the time they're 30. Granted they might only live to 42 and a human elder will still be on average smarter than an orc elder, but a lot of this 'stupid' depends on what you consider like for like comparison. They aren't very. So the reoutation is pants.
I am getting annoyed on behalf of orcs.
... I am in some respects predictable.
Okay, so, these aren't even new thoughts, I just sat down to write something.
My day was a bit boring but I'm still finding RPG worldbooks interesting.
Frustrating, but interesting.
I should find a game group.
... it has been a really long time since I did anything that interactive...