POLL - Which famous codexers should be in the Project Eternity Codex squad?

[mondblut]

Why don't you guys go for something serious rather than an in-joke? The formidable, intimidating, and dangerous party that you always wanted to play in a RPG.

Seriousness is boring. It was new back when I was 16, now, I want my games to be all meta and references. Fuck immersion, I desire to laugh my ass off.

 

[mondblut]

Beholders and mind flayers are intellectual property of WotC.

I doubt "mind flayer" is. Are you sure it's not "Illithid" rather?

 

[Mrowak]

So, we are going for pointless cameos that won't tell anyone about anything? For all the talk about being prestigious and all, Codex cannot into meaningful character design and least of all into subtlety.

 

[DwarvenFood]

I would suggest a Western Civilisation Defence Squad expedition, operating far away from its pristine homeland. Its mission would be to examine and catalogue specimens of surrounding races, partially to gain greater insight into their nature, but ultimately to aid in the search of the true origin of their own superior ancestors.

Party members include:

The monocled gentleman - A pure-bred scholar, acting as the leader of the expedition. Knowledgeable and polite, he will inquire about races deemed to be particularly interesting, and offer to pay bounties for skulls or even live specimens (companions, peasants and whatnot).

The radical traditionalist - Curt, abrasive and dismissive of lesser beings, this fellow is primarily concerned with mysticism and spiritual matters. He will only talk to sufficiently intelligent males, and might agree to trade mystical items. Presumably some kind of mage.

The zealous missionary - A priest of an unpopular yet still significant faith. He will gladly preach about his god, but at the first sign of counter-arguments from the player, he will become angry and condemn him to eternal damnation. He might ask for donations and provisions, but will turn hostile if the player gives him bread.

The loyal crusader - This veteran warrior is a devoted adherent of the missionary's faith. He is about as charming as your typical Amnish soldier and is by all accounts the muscle of the operation. If engaged in dialogue, he will unleash a long stream of hostile remarks about pretty much everyone and everything he loathes in the world.

The depraved ranger - Acting as the scout and hunter of the party, this brooding northerner holds nothing but contempt for lesser (that is to say, other) races. Nevertheless, he might try to solicit charismatic and beautiful characters for unspeakable services.

The disgruntled dwarf - Pure mercenary rabble, hired as a pathfinder, labourer and supplementary guard. Characteristically greedy, this malicious little creature will eagerly reveal some party secrets in exchange for much-coveted potatoes. Information ranges from detailed accounts of the ranger taking some "less than tasteful" liberties with discarded specimens, to the location of a temple full of untold treasures (a lie, of course).

I would suggest the mission of the group would rather be finding the ring, because it needs to be equipped. No xeno shit like above.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Wyrmlord III I like the idea of a monster party.

I could also get behind the idea of DarkUnderlord leading such a party. You know, kinda like Werdna commanded a party of monsters in Wizardry IV. That should be memorable, at least, and without being too silly.

Gamefaqs > PC > Role-playing > Project Eternity

• Thread: help with Codex encountr

hoqw do i defeat the pokemon guy???

you have to equip the ring​

oh ok cool thx who are those guyse tho???​

dunno lol​

​

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prolly sum shity easter egg​

​

wtf is a codex​

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Wait, nevermind. Instead of a monster party, we have a group of men in ragged prisoner clothes, heads shaven and armed with shivs, pickaxes and other improvised weapons. When attacking, they yell "never again!", "they're not taking me back alive!", "We. Never. Back. Down!" and the like. Upon death, they drop pieces of yellow cloth, marked with the drawing of a watchtower inside a star.

 

[Jasede]

Please... don't stir up those horrible memories. It was a dark, tough time in Watchwiz. We didn't know if we'd ever return home. The moderators were merciless and turned all our slurs and cusswords into soap.

Never forget.

 

[attackfighter]

The monster party sounds incredibly dry and better suited as a mod.

Anyway, isn't this reward basically meant to be a joke? A brief cameo for forums to circle jerk over as they get their 1 minute of fame for all to see? Codex, as usual, seems to think it's too cool for this sort of thing. At the rate this thread is going, you'll end up adding something so subtle and bland that no one will even realise it's a forum-made encounter

I guess what I'd like to see done is to take all of the Codex pariahs (Andhaira, Volourn, Skyway, etc.) and then do something ridiculous with them that everyone can laugh over. I like some of DU's suggestions (the first three he listed on his last post) as well as the concept art of Cleve and Proverbius, although those things don't necessarily fit in with my vision.

 

[Stinger]

Maybe we could start with what archetypes/codex in jokes we would want in the game before coming up with the backstories. It would be easier to make up stories if we had a clear idea of what we'd want to see.

Personally I'd be content with a group of red trolls in blueish-grey armour holding up a central troll resembling DU's avatar like a group of palanquin bearers who worship a holy text they call the codex. The rest of the backstory could just be Crustybot's thing.

 

[Alex_Steel]

I doubt "mind flayer" is. Are you sure it's not "Illithid" rather?

It's the same creature, mind flayer is just the common name. It's not the name that is copyrighted but the whole package.

 

[maverick]

Codex archetypes please.

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

Here's my take. These bands of adventurers are probably going to be similar to those in BG1 (quite a lot of them, mostly mercenaries hired to kill yah or wandering groups prone to ridicule)/2 (them guys sitting around in various inns, or the guys in Athkatlan sewers) and IWD2, so I don't think that elaborate character quirks would work (no time to play them out properly, except maybe some basic banter.) At least it would seem so from the description of the reward tier - a rival band of adventurers for the player's party to have some fun fighting.

I like DU's idea of the party being on a quest to find a ring and equip it, or someshit, good enough I guess, should be sort of amusing even to non-codexers. The ring could be a mythical artifact required to thwart the decline of their homeland.

Some ideas. I'll be using concepts from D&D quite a bit, but that's due to lack of solid information on PE's systems at the time being:

- a dwarven fighter/barbarian/fighting-something with a stalwart, simple soul that never changes despite being the subject of ridicule (especially from his squadmates.) Not much finesse in his fighting style, just make sure he's got lots of HP and is a pain in the ass to get rid of. Is in the party because he just wouldn't go away. His loyal friends have him on suicidal meatshield duty, hoping he'll finally fuck off and die. Sociopathic dwarven stereotype. Wears pink.

- rapist rogue of a midget race. Hides in shadows and stabs, taunts the player's party he's gonna force them into consensual sex.

- some wizard dude with a decadent soul. Should anything akin to counterspelling be included in the game, he should basically just do that, maybe throw in some debuffs and a single powerful offensive spell at the right time.

- the party's newfag, a couple levels behind the rest of the lot. It'd be best if he were some crappy support class, like the AD&D bard without the nice BG2 character kits, or had one of them fractured souls. Keeps to the sidelines, tries to snipe with a shortbow or some other shite distance weapon, maybe tries to cast an annoying low-level spell or two in the meantime. Basically a nuisance that'd drop in a matter of seconds were the player's party to concentrate their attacks on him.

- some sort of tranny, why not. That's what the kids like these days, don't they? And it'd be totally LGTB inclusive. Or maybe a token black guy, dunno. Could be the party's healer, so that he/she could get the opportunity to use a lot of touch-ranged spells.

- some dude of one of those weird races that looks something like a potato and wears a cape. Speaks in semi-borken Common or whatever the fuck English is going to be called in the game. Fancies himself a monster-slayer, maybe some ranger-like class. High dexterity frontline fighter that chooses to fight cautiously, focusing on dodging and evasion. Would run to protect the wizard dude should he get overpowered.

You guys get a chance to design a nice encounter, and all you can think of is storyfaggotry. Shame on you all!

EDIT: Oh, and if RPGWatch managed to jump onto the "desing your own inn" reward tier, have the player find the codexian party locked up in their attic.

 

[Jaesun]

Nice suggestions, but again unless we make the 5000$ mark this is not going to happen. Period.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...-of-diversity-will-live-on-in-eternity.76239/

So make it happen Codex.

 

[mondblut]

I doubt "mind flayer" is. Are you sure it's not "Illithid" rather?

It's the same creature, mind flayer is just the common name. It's not the name that is copyrighted but the whole package.

How exactly does one copyright "the whole package"? Pretty much every fantasy game has a beholder derivative, from Master of Magic's "chaos spawn" to Ultima's "gazer" to HoMM's "evil eye" (and straight "beholder", too), all being a floating orb with tentacles and a huge eye.

Come to think of it, Dominions has Illithids as a part of R'Lyeh nation either. Still, copyrighting a word they invented might make sense, much like Tolkien Estate holds on balrogs and hobbits. "Mind flayers", otoh, seem to be referenced everywhere from Demon's Souls to WoW to Nethack after a quick google search.

 

[Alex_Steel]

How exactly does one copyright "the whole package"? Pretty much every fantasy game has a beholder derivative, from Master of Magic's "chaos spawn" to Ultima's "gazer" to HoMM's "evil eye" (and straight "beholder", too), all being a floating orb with tentacles and a huge eye.

Come to think of it, Dominions has Illithids as a part of R'Lyeh nation either. Still, copyrighting a word they invented might make sense, much like Tolkien Estate holds on balrogs and hobbits. "Mind flayers", otoh, seem to be referenced everywhere from Demon's Souls to WoW to Nethack after a quick google search.

I found out about it when I bought Pathfinder since the bestiary has neither beholder nor mindflayer.
I searched around and found that these creatures have no OGL and belong to WotC. Now, how exactly it works I don't know since I didn't care enough to read the law.
What I understood is that you can't have a floating creature with lots of eyes that is called a beholder and you can't have a creature with tentacles on its face that does psionics and is called an illithid(mind flayer) (I'm oversimplifying here their concepts). I believe whether they sue or not is up to how bitchy the company is (see Apple for example).

 

[Telengard]

1. A giant raging potato
2. A drunk head-bobbing parrot
3. A multi-headed monster with different kinds of buckets on each head
4. A huge gay Spartan who hides behind walls while everyone else is fighting
5. A torch-and-pitchfork wielding troll that wants everything to be burned with fire
6. And the codex that is secretly evil and has formed a secret sect to secretly destroy the world and has secretly enslaved them all. Secretly

If it's just one item, it should be a potato. With some unnameable substance on it that we can all claim is sauerkraut.

 

[Shannow]

Without knowing the actual systems and mechanics I'll put them in D&D terms. I'd stay serious about the whole affair and focus on building a difficult encounter instead of coming up with too many stupid codex references.

The Lurkers/Dwellers

In the deepest pit of the deepest cave you encounter the Lurkers.
A ragged looking bunch, dirty, but strangely intimidating. While mousing over them you can read "The Cleaver, The Lord, The Saint, The Rat, The Horror, The Abomination".
They start asking you who you are and why you've come to bother them. They've turned their backs on the decline of the modern world and simply want to be left alone. If you have a strong reputation or strong affiliations with major factions they ask you to leave and turn hostile if you persist in your wish to explore their domain. They'll also turn hostile if you mention reporting their whereabouts to anybody. If you're overall neutral and agree to keep their location secret, they let you leave in peace.

The Cleaver: See description and awesome concept art ITT. Melee Barbarian, near naked, but still tough, strong. High str, dex, con, int and cha. Very low wis. Wields the +3 two-handed cleaver "Truth". It casts "Doom" on hit. A golden baby doll, that gives him +4 against saves vs spells while in inventory. Boots of speed. Banter: "Doom is upon you!; You are inferior!"

The Lord: Leader of the group. Powerful wizard. Shrouded in darkness. Wears the A'ad-Min, a necklace that can summon "The hivemind" once per day and gives +15 magic resistance. "The hivemind" is a hydra that has monster abilities "confusion", "Tasha's hideous laughter" and "Greater Shout" and has a chance that the heads start attacking each other. Also has a staff that can cast "stop time" thrice per day. But his equipment cannot be looted.

The Saint: Powerful Warrior/Cleric. Wields the Ban-Hammer. +1 hammer that summoned creatures and extra planar creatures need to successfully save against or be banished. Wears +4 plate armor and the shield of proverbs. The shield gives a wis bonus of +4.

The Rat: Rogue. A rat-like humanoid creature. Dual-wields +2 daggers. Hides in shadows. Has rings of invisibility and non-detection. The book "Rat Diplomacy" can be looted off of him. The book grants +5 diplomacy with non-humans but -4 cha if it's in your inventory.

The Horror: A tentacled humanoid creature. Sorceror with many at will monster abilities (Fear, stench, regeneration, slime armor, etc). Has no equipment, but the character who kills it it, gets the feat "Survived the Horror" which gives +1 vs fear effects and is noted upon by some major NPC later. Banter:"I'll rape your corpse."

The Abomination: Bard. Wears a belt of male/female. Strong mind affecting spells and songs and corresponding eqipment. Also wields a short-bow of multiple arrows. +1 short-bow that requires no ammunition and shoots two arrows instead of one.

 

[mondblut]

I found out about it when I bought Pathfinder since the bestiary has neither beholder nor mindflayer.
I searched around and found that these creatures have no OGL and belong to WotC.

Yeah, I know they are "product identity" or something. I wonder if the sahuagin are, too, and all this is connected to the series of AD&D2 monster splatbooks they did back in mid-90s (on beholders, illithids and sahuagins). I am more interested in the particulars, i.e. to which extent may they copyright a common english word and/or its use in a given context - or a specific shape and looks of an imaginary creature.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

No Andyman? I want Andyman.

Why, you some kinda pervert?

Seriously though, if there's a horse in a game I'll pretend its me or a distant relative anyways.

 

[Telengard]

• Troll bearing a giant mole (mammalian) on its back a la Atlus and the world

• A female troll, a male dryad, a half-size half-orc, an ugly female elf, and a human male who insists on wearing only "armor briefs" all sitting around complaining about the lack of diversity in games, and how they never get featured, and how it's all a huge conspiracy

• A female paladin with an AC of 10 due to her (largely missing) armor.
• A boy fighter who can't lift his sword because it's so massive.
• A rogue so weighted down with sword, daggers, and armor that she can barely move
• A bard with tourettes and no charm or voice whatsoever

Because if you don't troll them for this feature, what's the point? Being nice for a cameo? Bah.

 

[Alex_Steel]

Yeah, I know they are "product identity" or something. I wonder if the sahuagin are, too, and all this is connected to the series of AD&D2 monster splatbooks they did back in mid-90s (on beholders, illithids and sahuagins). I am more interested in the particulars, i.e. to which extent may they copyright a common english word and/or its use in a given context - or a specific shape and looks of an imaginary creature.

I really don't know the exact answer to this. Patent/copyright/trademark laws are a huge mess. Lawyers and judges spend countless hours to solve an issue and I'm not planning to put my head inside that hole any time soon. Feel free to read the laws and post the answer here. :D

Judging purely from what I've seen during the years (if it's any worth), usually you have a case when there are conflicting interests. Probably they will leave you alone if you are not a competitor. The fact is, Paizo steered clear from the issue. You can never be sure with those corporate bastards.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/apl-apple-grocery-store_n_1873264.html

 

[Abraxas]

Sorry for keeping to push my own agenda calling to your inner graphic whores and to your love for our mascot. The Underlord (formerly the Saint) with his pet, and the Exotic Lady (a beautiful woman, a snake, and a meme):

 

[DwarvenFood]

Without knowing the actual systems and mechanics I'll put them in D&D terms. I'd stay serious about the whole affair and focus on building a difficult encounter instead of coming up with too many stupid codex references.

The Lurkers/Dwellers

In the deepest pit of the deepest cave you encounter the Lurkers.
A ragged looking bunch, dirty, but strangely intimidating. While mousing over them you can read "The Cleaver, The Lord, The Saint, The Rat, The Horror, The Abomination".
They start asking you who you are and why you've come to bother them. They've turned their backs on the decline of the modern world and simply want to be left alone. If you have a strong reputation or strong affiliations with major factions they ask you to leave and turn hostile if you persist in your wish to explore their domain. They'll also turn hostile if you mention reporting their whereabouts to anybody. If you're overall neutral and agree to keep their location secret, they let you leave in peace.

The Cleaver: See description and awesome concept art ITT. Melee Barbarian, near naked, but still tough, strong. High str, dex, con, int and cha. Very low wis. Wields the +3 two-handed cleaver "Truth". It casts "Doom" on hit. A golden baby doll, that gives him +4 against saves vs spells while in inventory. Boots of speed. Banter: "Doom is upon you!; You are inferior!"

The Lord: Leader of the group. Powerful wizard. Shrouded in darkness. Wears the A'ad-Min, a necklace that can summon "The hivemind" once per day and gives +15 magic resistance. "The hivemind" is a hydra that has monster abilities "confusion", "Tasha's hideous laughter" and "Greater Shout" and has a chance that the heads start attacking each other. Also has a staff that can cast "stop time" thrice per day. But his equipment cannot be looted.

The Saint: Powerful Warrior/Cleric. Wields the Ban-Hammer. +1 hammer that summoned creatures and extra planar creatures need to successfully save against or be banished. Wears +4 plate armor and the shield of proverbs. The shield gives a wis bonus of +4.

The Rat: Rogue. A rat-like humanoid creature. Dual-wields +2 daggers. Hides in shadows. Has rings of invisibility and non-detection. The book "Rat Diplomacy" can be looted off of him. The book grants +5 diplomacy with non-humans but -4 cha if it's in your inventory.

The Horror: A tentacled humanoid creature. Sorceror with many at will monster abilities (Fear, stench, regeneration, slime armor, etc). Has no equipment, but the character who kills it it, gets the feat "Survived the Horror" which gives +1 vs fear effects and is noted upon by some major NPC later. Banter:"I'll rape your corpse."

The Abomination: Bard. Wears a belt of male/female. Strong mind affecting spells and songs and corresponding eqipment. Also wields a short-bow of multiple arrows. +1 short-bow that requires no ammunition and shoots two arrows instead of one.

I like this a lot, but I suggest watching out with over-powerful items because we would not want to have them falling in player hands. (always considered un-lootable items a shitty way out). Also some references can be toned down a bit more, I'm talking about "hivemind" and "ban hammer". The Horrors banter should rather be prosperian in nature.

Also, Abraxas I love your concepts. No matter what happens with the end result, having The Cleaver with his baby doll would be something we all can appreciate I hope.

 

[felipepepe]

I vote Awor instead of Skyway on the "Everything is Shit" role.

 

[Melcar]

The archetypes idea sounds the best. I don't know, but putting in real Codexers sounds kind of lame and no one will be happy.