Soldiers of Valhalla - nominations and discussion

[Dad_Scaper]

As I already wrote to LO privately, I just love this design. And I don't think the pre-SoV thread would have been the right place for it. It's not really consistent with the aesthetic of many of the contributors there.

I imagine the SoV voters will not have an easy time deciding what to do.

Thank you so much, LO, for sharing this design with all of us.

[Pumpkin_King]

There has to be another word for posthuman that would sort of fit with a cyberpunk theme like 2210/Microcorp stuff.

[Dad_Scaper]

I don't have any problem with post-human. I love it. Give her the home planet of Arctorus and she'd fit right in.

[caps]

Lazy Orang, this is the most unique submission I've seen a in a while. It is a great custom and I'm really glad you submitted it to us. I'm going to have think about how I feel about whether or not it fits in the canon.

Also, props for making customs for yourself rather than for SoV nomination. There was a time that SoV was just one part of a thriving customs community. I would like to see more of that.

[The Dewk]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

And I don't think the pre-SoV thread would have been the right place for it. It's not really consistent with the aesthetic of many of the contributors there.

Please elaborate on this.

[wriggz]

I'm going to have to vote no.

To me classic scape is a game of architypes with the glaring exception of superheroes. To me this custom runs too close to those world's and themes regardless of bio. I feel like the good doctor would be better fighting batman or iron man than orcs and elves.

I'm also not a huge fan of the name or mechanics of calculate the odds. I think there is a lot going on there and d20 manipulation is dangerous territory.

while the intellect devourer is not as well known as a gelatinous cube or displace beast it is a little weird to see it repurposed in a world with d&d creatures as something else to those familiar with the creature.

BTW I thing 3 range and mental powers are a great thematic match. This is so close to a Marro brain (reminiscent of brain bugs in starship troopers) that it hurts.

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by The Dewk

Please elaborate on this.

This unit is a wild departure from the norms in several directions. LO has acknowledged as much. The contributors to the pre-SoV thread are helping designers bring designs within norms, to round out edges. It’s a very smart approach and the one I would take if I’d ever developed my Sea Hag, who never even made it onto this board. But she was not outside the box.

LO has something way outside the box here that she doesn’t want sanded down to have an easier ride. I just don’t think it’s something that would benefit from that thread. People would offer well-intended advice that she doesn’t want and nobody would benefit from the experience.

[flameslayer93]

Good luck Lazy! A walking brain sound like fun.

[Kinseth]

I like everyhing other than it being a posthuman.

[Astroking112]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

I don't have any problem with post-human. I love it. Give her the home planet of Arctorus and she'd fit right in.

I admittedly don't know much about Arctorus or post-humans, but I'm not sure why they would hail from that planet.

That said, the race doesn't bother me much anyway (if it's really a problem, just update it to be some failed experiment or a new race on Marr or the like), and the design looks very different from what I generally see suggested. There are some minor problems that I could see with just outright adding skulls to a roll (mostly how it works with powers like Maul), but I'm sure that all of that can be ironed out. Good job, Lazy Orang!

[ollie]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Not planning to run it through the Workshopping thread - this isn't something I designed specifically with SoV in mind and I don't really plan to rework it, it's just a card I'm happy with and thought I'd try submitting.

Like DS, I like this attitude. On the other hand, I think it's just on the wrong side of canon-acceptable at the moment. A few small tweaks that wouldn't change the unit much could bring it in: stuff like switching the planet to Arcturos and striking "blanks". You could happily ignore the stuff like...

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Range of 3 I think should hopefully fall under the 'weird range' distinction the Varja has on account of being telepathic (seriously, why is this deemed a problem? The Varja's already gone there, and I swear the only reason it didn't appear officially is because the official designers didn't get around to designing anyone who they felt needed it.)

Two separate points here:

I think Range 2 or 3 needs more justification for the possible weird height differences. Range 4+ does not as that's where "normal" range just works like that. The Varja is a living electrical storm: these go all the way up to the sky. I don't see anything similar here.

Second, just because something has stretched the canon in a particular way once, does not mean that it's suddenly completely normal to do so in the same way again. The canon is knobbly with some weird outliers. That's good; there shouldn't be an immediate desire to make those outliers normal.

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

I tweaked the bio colour, btw.

Thanks! Cool bio.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by ollie

Two separate points here:

I think Range 2 or 3 needs more justification for the possible weird height differences. Range 4+ does not as that's where "normal" range just works like that. The Varja is a living electrical storm: these go all the way up to the sky. I don't see anything similar here.

Just very quickly going to say here that I don't think that issue applies here - the range is based on her telepathic abilities, I'm not seeing those getting stopped by a castle wall.