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Messages - AsaTJ

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DFRPG / Re: Historic Dresden Files
« on: July 22, 2010, 01:53:55 AM »
I wonder how far back Listens-to-Wind goes back?
Jim has hinted at LTW and Ebenezer meeting around the time of the French and Indian Wars, so at least that long.

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DFRPG / Re: Thaumaturgical Shapeshifting
« on: July 21, 2010, 08:56:40 PM »
Yes it was. He has True Shapeshifting and Modular Abilities. Magic that exactly duplicates other powers is purchased as those other powers. Iago and others have explicitly said as much.

Yeah, he said it directly to me.  I still have GM perogative to overrule it.  :P

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DFRPG / Re: Thaumaturgical Shapeshifting
« on: July 21, 2010, 08:09:19 PM »
Here's the way I, as a GM handle it- specifically with Listens-to-Wind's relative ease of shifting in mind (which clearly wasn't accounted for in the rules-as-written.)

The complexity of the spell is equal to (Total Refresh Cost of Powers Gained x2) +2.  It's simple, and while it may make shapeshifting too easy for some GMs' tastes, I found the alternatives basically unacceptable.

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Dude, nice!  Thrall is awesome in any system... I think you did him pretty well, except I'd almost say Doomhammer deserves to be an Item of Power.

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DFRPG / Re: Jade Court during the Great Depression
« on: July 17, 2010, 11:36:39 PM »
I've developed a very unique feeding system for the Jade Court in my game that is a lot different from any of the current vampires... though I guess it's closest to White out of the three of them.  It's also a pretty huge spoiler and I know my players get on here sometimes, so if you want me to share it with you shoot me a PM.

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DFRPG / Re: Norse Mythology and the Nevernever
« on: July 12, 2010, 09:11:52 AM »
And here comes my pet peeve...

Brythonic IS Celtic.
Celtic is NOT necessarily Brythonic.

Just had to clear that up. ;-)
Ah, I suppose you are right.  I just tend to separate out the Scottish/Irish tribes from the Welsh/Britannic tribes for no particular reason.  And also for no particular reason I think of the former as being "The Celts," though that's not really accurate.  I just tend to think of a Pict or a Gael when I hear "Celtic," and not a Welshman or a Brit.  :P  *Shrug*

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DFRPG / Re: Norse Mythology and the Nevernever
« on: July 12, 2010, 05:53:46 AM »
Yeah, I'm aware.  I just happen to be very interested in myths from a very specific region in a very specific time period.  I know that they ultimately came from older myths from other regions.  Heck, there's good evidence that Odin and Hermes/Mercury- who couldn't be less alike on the surface- were evolutions of the same Proto-Indo-European god.  I just choose to study a very small sliver of the expansive geographical and chronological scope of mythology.

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DFRPG / Re: Norse Mythology and the Nevernever
« on: July 11, 2010, 04:53:07 PM »
The Sagas are no longer the entirety of the mythology.
They are not, but my area of study is fairly strictly Scandinavian- i don't really branch out as you have into Norman/Orkney/Manx mythology, which is very cross-pollinated with Celtic and Brythonic elements.

Trolls may be the equivalent of giants, but are also often smaller in size.
Yes, in the Norse tradition they are described as smaller and uglier than other jotun, but they are a jotun tribe nonetheless.

Then there are the Vitterfolk, which are human-sized (huldrfolk, etc).
Indeed, the Vitter/Vetter/Vaettir (depending on dialect) are the closest thing in Norse lore to what the Fae are portrayed as in Dresden, though in reality they are more akin to the land spirits described by the Native Americans.  The Vaettir were tied to places and physical features.  Interestingly enough, 80% of the adult population of Iceland still claim to believe in Vaettir- even the Christians- and the nation's government has actually diverted highways so as not to disturb them.  :)

Elfquest in fact blurs the line between Dwarf and Troll IIRC.
XD
Maybe so, but I would not rely on that as a reliable source for studying mythology- interesting a world as it may be.

Orcs are mentioned in Anglo-Saxon sources, but even that is just on the very edge of my area of study, to be honest.  As far as Norse tradition goes, I have not heard mention of orcs or goblins.

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DFRPG / Re: Norse Mythology and the Nevernever
« on: July 11, 2010, 02:49:28 PM »
other Svartalfar such as goblins, trolls, and the like, had problems with sunlight instead

As far as I know, actually, trolls are usually lumped in with jotun-kind.  (The ugliest among them, as they are usually described.)  And I've personally never heard mention of the term "goblin" in any Norse saga.

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DFRPG / Re: Norse Mythology and the Nevernever
« on: July 10, 2010, 09:42:45 PM »
No apologies needed if no harm was done.  That's the way of the Norsemen.  ;)

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DFRPG / Re: Norse Mythology and the Nevernever
« on: July 10, 2010, 06:00:45 PM »
One of my players is big on norse mythology and his Wizard is very much centered on that theme but Norse is one area of lore that Im quite ignorant of. This thread has already been very informative! Is there any reccomended sources of reading?

Snorri Sturlusson's "Prose Edda" is essentially "The Beginner's Guide to Norse Lore."  Depending on the translation, it's also not terribly difficult to understand.  I use the Jesse L. Byock translation, which is more plain English than some of the other ones.

If you want more in-depth from there, you can check out the Poetic Edda.  It's much longer and much more difficult to understand without context.  I'd go with the Carroline Larrington translation for a beginner, but I ultimately much prefer the Lee M. Hollander one- he tries to preserve the poetic flow of the pieces, whereas Larrington just translates the lines dryly to try to make them understandable to English speakers.
There are probably half a dozen other translations, but those are the two I can vouch for.

If you still want more after that, "Saga of the Volsungs" is definitely the next one to check out.  It's the story of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer.  In Germany it is known as the Nibelungenleid and was the inspiration for Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Beyond those three, there are dozens of Icelandic sagas worth a read.  Njal's Saga and Egil's Saga are two of my favorites.

Deadmanwalking- Svartalfar actually are dwarves, and don't let White Wolf tell you any different.   :P

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DFRPG / Re: Norse Mythology and the Nevernever
« on: July 10, 2010, 01:02:37 AM »
I'm not going to attempt to call them by the proper terminology with a bona fide scholar of these matters looking at the thread
:D

The only thing "Bona fide" about me is that I'm a narcissistic douche, so Terminology away!  XD
I actually just call them Frost jotun in my game to keep it simple.  And my explanation for them is also simple, and not even very spoiler-y.  I basically just have it that most of what the Norsemen called the "Nine Worlds" are just parts of Faerie or the Greater Nevernever Metro Area.

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DFRPG / Re: Norse Mythology and the Nevernever
« on: July 09, 2010, 07:04:35 PM »
I don't think anything he's said so far is a spoiler, but I can see your point.

I am an avid scholar of Norse mythology- it occupies a significant portion of my life, and I'm glad to help.  However, up until now it just seems like you're just posting information and I'm not sure what, if anything, you need help with.

A note on Svartalfr- there's a bit of a lore debate still going on with these guys.  It's pretty clear at this point that "Svartalf" refers to the dwarves, but there are some who believe there is a separate race supported in the sagas of "Dokkralfr," true "dark elves" that are counterparts to the Alfar.  They would have their own realm, explaining why there are attested to be Nine Worlds, and yet most sources (including your post) only name eight.  As for what the Dokkralfr would look like... there really isn't anything in the lore describing them, so I guess it would be up to the GM to fill in those gaps.

Also, about your discussion of giants.  In Old Norse, -jur (pronounced "yoor," just as a note to anyone reading) is just a suffix that takes a male noun and makes it female.  So you could add -jur to the end of any of the jotun tribes to describe a female of that race and, probably, remove it to describe a male of the gygjur or ividjur.

For example, a female of the Aesir is called an Asynjur, and a female of the Vanir is called a Vanjur.
Reversing that rule with Gygjur and Ividjur to get the male counterparts, we'd have Gygir and Ividir.
That's more of a linguistics answer than a lore-supported answer, but for a roleplaying game I'd say it's close enough.  ;)

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DFRPG / Re: Has anyone else had a problem...
« on: July 05, 2010, 09:45:43 PM »
FWIW, I've had no problem with the binding.  And believe me, I abuse the hell out of a new corebook when I get it.  I stick notes in it, take it hiking with me on the trails near my house, stick it under my arm and haul it around anywhere I might have a free second to read- my World of Darkness corebook from 2005 has most of the back cover missing at this point.   :D

For a book its size, it's held up exceptionally well thus far.  More than happy to pay 50 bucks for something of such high quality.

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DFRPG / Re: Biomancy Question
« on: June 25, 2010, 12:23:06 AM »
Physical Adepts in Shadowrun have their powers on all the time, and no magical powers aside from the physical enhancement, so they'd just buy powers.
Ah, okay.  I fail for not knowing much about the setting he's trying to replicate.  >_<

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