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May. 30th, 2009 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geebsFinally got around to getting Armory Reloaded. Its a pretty good and comprehensive book on combat in NWOD. There's actually a wealth of useful stuff in here for any kind of NWOD campaign.
The first chapter is on "storied weapons". While the weapons they go over on this chapter (and "weapons" here is very broad- it ranges from the Spear of Destiny to the traditional possessed/intelligent weapon that entices its wielder to committing all sorts of butchery, to a friggin' possessed AH-1 Cobra gunship!!) have a touch of the supernatural, they're meant more as story hooks. Yeah, they're statted out and the PCs can use them, but a lot of these weapons are "cursed". Yeah, they provide insane bonuses, but they also have big drawbacks- often turning the wielder into a bloodthirsty maniac killing friend and foe alike, turning on their loved ones and hunted by the law until the weapon makes them meet a vicious end either by their own hand or by people trying to stop their rampages.
The second chapter is on fighting styles. This basically takes all the fighting styles ever introduced in NWOD and generalizes them so they can be adapted to represent this or that martial art of fighting style. I.e., it doesn't reproduce styles from the core rule book or armory (though they do list grappling from the adamantine arrow book since that's a more specialized book that people not running mage chronicles might not have), but rather has boxing and kung fu as variants of fighting style: striking and fencing (and the variation kenjutsu) as fighting style: light sword, etc. Thus, people who want to add a fighting style based on the use of a certain weapon or some martial art the like or think is cool have a better base with which to create them. They still do add some new fighting styles though, like sword and shield, aikido, krav mage, and muay thai. But they also add "supplemental styles", which basically enhance a fighting style. These supplemental styles basically exist to give more flavor to a character's combat method. Like the "berserker" style, for someone who wants to go for an "all out, max-damage, hard to stop", all Hulk-smash. Or the "combat art" style, for people who want to be all fancy and cocky going for more style than substance, like old movie style fencing. But it can also be used for characters who do a lot of stage combat or martial arts demonstrations. So while they can be combat effective, it can also represent their ability to show off for the crowd- to either intimidate an opponent, or fool a third party into thinking you and your ally are fighting for real to con them for some purpose.
The third chapter concerns "future weapons". Well, not all of them are "future weapons". It covers a lot of real world cutting edge weapons and gear like the corner shot, the aa-12 auto shotgun, the kriss smg, dragon skin armor, and the xm-29 OICW. But they do have stuff that's a little more in the realm of sci fi, I guess if you want to go for a near future cyberpunk/shadowrun kinda feel.
Chapter four, I think is the real meat and potatoes of the book, which are "combat hacks". Basically, they're suggestions on how to tweak the combat system to make things easier or more lethal. If you're going to have any combat whatsoever, this chapter is great for helping a storyteller adjust combat to suit the feel of their chronicle. If you want it to be more cinematic, with the PCs and their opponents able to take more damage, do more impressive feats, there are tweaks for that. If you want combat to be even more real world and deadly, there's tweaks for that as well.
Even more interesting, they cover general combat hacks, but hacks for each of the different supernatural templates. Tweaks to make werewolves even more combat effective- people say werewolves are supposed to be all bad-ass in NWOD, but it didn't seem that way looking at the werewolf core. Here, they have rules about extending the length they can be in their war form, or increase the amount of health they regenerate per round. Similarly, they have rules to make vampires even more deadly (like increasing the amount of blood they can consume from a victim per round so its easier for them to dispatch a mortal opponent like on TV and movies) or easier to stake and kill (like if its a hunter chronicle to make the vampires more manageable). Although speaking of hunters, there are hacks to make things they face easier to manage and survive since they are mere mortals trying to take on things far more powerful than them, but its no fun if they just get totally mauled in their first encounter.
There are some interesting hacks for changelings, making it easier or harder for an opponent to tell they're facing a changeling. Or hacks to make a mage's magic even more powerful, or make paradox even easier to occur and cause more havoc.
All in all, the first chapter is interesting for story ideas, the second is good for adding flavor to combat, and the third has a lot of "cool stuff". But its the fourth that may be the most useful aspect of the book, to help adjust combat to satisfy storyteller and player alike.
The first chapter is on "storied weapons". While the weapons they go over on this chapter (and "weapons" here is very broad- it ranges from the Spear of Destiny to the traditional possessed/intelligent weapon that entices its wielder to committing all sorts of butchery, to a friggin' possessed AH-1 Cobra gunship!!) have a touch of the supernatural, they're meant more as story hooks. Yeah, they're statted out and the PCs can use them, but a lot of these weapons are "cursed". Yeah, they provide insane bonuses, but they also have big drawbacks- often turning the wielder into a bloodthirsty maniac killing friend and foe alike, turning on their loved ones and hunted by the law until the weapon makes them meet a vicious end either by their own hand or by people trying to stop their rampages.
The second chapter is on fighting styles. This basically takes all the fighting styles ever introduced in NWOD and generalizes them so they can be adapted to represent this or that martial art of fighting style. I.e., it doesn't reproduce styles from the core rule book or armory (though they do list grappling from the adamantine arrow book since that's a more specialized book that people not running mage chronicles might not have), but rather has boxing and kung fu as variants of fighting style: striking and fencing (and the variation kenjutsu) as fighting style: light sword, etc. Thus, people who want to add a fighting style based on the use of a certain weapon or some martial art the like or think is cool have a better base with which to create them. They still do add some new fighting styles though, like sword and shield, aikido, krav mage, and muay thai. But they also add "supplemental styles", which basically enhance a fighting style. These supplemental styles basically exist to give more flavor to a character's combat method. Like the "berserker" style, for someone who wants to go for an "all out, max-damage, hard to stop", all Hulk-smash. Or the "combat art" style, for people who want to be all fancy and cocky going for more style than substance, like old movie style fencing. But it can also be used for characters who do a lot of stage combat or martial arts demonstrations. So while they can be combat effective, it can also represent their ability to show off for the crowd- to either intimidate an opponent, or fool a third party into thinking you and your ally are fighting for real to con them for some purpose.
The third chapter concerns "future weapons". Well, not all of them are "future weapons". It covers a lot of real world cutting edge weapons and gear like the corner shot, the aa-12 auto shotgun, the kriss smg, dragon skin armor, and the xm-29 OICW. But they do have stuff that's a little more in the realm of sci fi, I guess if you want to go for a near future cyberpunk/shadowrun kinda feel.
Chapter four, I think is the real meat and potatoes of the book, which are "combat hacks". Basically, they're suggestions on how to tweak the combat system to make things easier or more lethal. If you're going to have any combat whatsoever, this chapter is great for helping a storyteller adjust combat to suit the feel of their chronicle. If you want it to be more cinematic, with the PCs and their opponents able to take more damage, do more impressive feats, there are tweaks for that. If you want combat to be even more real world and deadly, there's tweaks for that as well.
Even more interesting, they cover general combat hacks, but hacks for each of the different supernatural templates. Tweaks to make werewolves even more combat effective- people say werewolves are supposed to be all bad-ass in NWOD, but it didn't seem that way looking at the werewolf core. Here, they have rules about extending the length they can be in their war form, or increase the amount of health they regenerate per round. Similarly, they have rules to make vampires even more deadly (like increasing the amount of blood they can consume from a victim per round so its easier for them to dispatch a mortal opponent like on TV and movies) or easier to stake and kill (like if its a hunter chronicle to make the vampires more manageable). Although speaking of hunters, there are hacks to make things they face easier to manage and survive since they are mere mortals trying to take on things far more powerful than them, but its no fun if they just get totally mauled in their first encounter.
There are some interesting hacks for changelings, making it easier or harder for an opponent to tell they're facing a changeling. Or hacks to make a mage's magic even more powerful, or make paradox even easier to occur and cause more havoc.
All in all, the first chapter is interesting for story ideas, the second is good for adding flavor to combat, and the third has a lot of "cool stuff". But its the fourth that may be the most useful aspect of the book, to help adjust combat to satisfy storyteller and player alike.
