I had another set of videos from Middle Earth Shadow of War, but they're not liking the transition from my PS4 to PC, so here's a much later encounter with another oddball Orc captain, Bagga the Singer.
I already knew of the existence of Orcs who sings - I had already exerted my dominance over a poet who rhymes after all. So I presumed this Orc was much the same: Just a captain who does his usual Orc business with some quirky taunts.
I was not prepared for just how devoted he was to his craft. He doesn't just sing, he siiiiiiiiiings!
Check it out for yourself below:
Finally, the 18th and final (for the original 'core' set) of my custom Dungeon World classes for my dying earth urban nightmare setting. I felt it necessary to include so many options for each kind of warrior/spell-caster/rogue archetype to ensure my players had enough choices. Particularly because Dungeon World is designed with the intention that no two players could pick the same class for their characters.
That, and narrative focus of the moves combined with the simplicity of their math meant it was just too fun to write new classes. In this case, I took the opportunity to reintroduce spells and abilities left out by the lack of a Cleric or traditional Paladin, and specifically melded the Compendium's 'dark' versions: the Reaper and the Death Knight.
The results are a hybrid weapon-wielding tek-magik user, focused on restoration spell-codes and tapping into the life energy of their fallen enemies. They may be known in some places as necromancers or death-paladins, but I fell upon the poetic bluntness of Sarcotech: literally 'flesh technician'.
Most of the Advanced moves come from the Cleric/Reaper playbook but the result is a mostly even distribution of advancement options between the Mordant Weapon, death/healing-specific moves, and general spell-casting.
The Sarcotech's spellbook heavily cribs from the Cleric, as most Reaper spells were already covered by the Death Knight's ability to simply hold uses of spells such as Cause Fear, Darkness, and Consult Spirits. I took the opportunity to reintroduce dedicated healing and resurrection spells otherwise inappropriate for generalist tek-magik users.
This was also a good opportunity to write up a spell for creating a Revenant: a simulacra based on a specific dead person. This concept came from a short story I had been outlining before I started planing a Dungeon World campaign for this setting, where the protagonist's bodyguard was a near-indestructible replica of a person who only existed with a limited purpose and timeframe. I may have to reword the 'indestructible' part to avoid absurd exploitation.
So what next? I've actually got a lot of setting notes I want to write up for the prologue session, which will be introduced in a piecemeal way as they plan their PC and home settlement. In addition to that there's a bunch of minis and terrain pieces I'm 3D printing, as I want to help ground my campaign with visual references and DW is a light enough ruleset to throw them around without getting bogged down by range, line of sight, initiative, direction, and so on.
Finally, you could browse my collection of art I pulled from Pinterest that serves as a style guide for this setting. Think of it as a 300-image collage triangulating what look and feel I'm going for (there's a bit of body horror in the monsters, I should warn you). I'll make a separate post soon for what's in the works, so stay tuned as usual.
The Simulant is an Eidolon, a type of techno-magical creature summoned by machines out of elementary particles to perform specific tasks. Ages ago they served humans but most have broken their bonds or simply gone insane. the Simulant represents a rare example that has remained civilized only by siphoning off the sanity of other creatures.
The Phantom's playbook was something I churned out only in the last couple days while trying to tidy up the Cambion's potentially-limitless abilities, though the idea behind it was around while drafting the original list of classes earlier this summer. I actually had a lucid dream about its abilities the other morning, which is the official stamp of approval in this homebrew setting's core concepts (Along with planet-wide ruins, troll-mutants, mobile atmosphere processors, skin-wearers, and zombie fertilizer. They always called me an imaginative child).
In a nutshell, the Simulant can spend Sanity to deal damage or resist weaknesses, but also needs it to rest and heal, otherwise they generate Horror which can be used to make them do bad things. The weaknesses listed under the Simulated Person move are still a work in progress as I narrow down what thematically fits a hologrammatic mind-stealer.
The Cambion, like its namesake, is an amalgam of two utterly different origins. In this case, 50% human, 50% machine, 100% shunned by everybody. Beyond the various physical forms to choose from at character creation, the Cambion's sheer power and versatility comes from its ability to select multiple 'cybernetic' moves and unleash them with automatic success. No roll needed; just leap, fly, tear something to pieces, or shoot a freaking laser beam from their mouth.
The caveat to these machine-form powers is the character's built-in drive to understand and come to terms with their human side. In order to re-gain use of their Cybernetic moves after the beginning of a game session, they must willingly practice acts of empathy and kindness for others. Thus, the Cambion maintains a trade-off between never becoming a truly rogue machine nor a truly civil human.
Finally, I lied about this being the last custom class. In fact I drafted two more during the process of writing up the Cambion's Forms and Cybernetic move options. I'm pretty enthusiastic about what variety they add for player characters. Keep an eye out for the Phantom and the Sarcotech.
I may have given the wrong impression when I said the final character class would be 'weirder' than the rest. It's definitely an unusual and complicated one to redesign. But the second to last one, presented here, might be more bizarre and creepy.
The Chameleon is a skin-changer. Who they are and how they learned to craft technomagical disguises is a complete mystery. Their abilities are defined by which 'skin' they are currently wearing, and even their identity is attributed to the skin itself, rather than the wearer. The Chameleon can even craft skins to pass as other people, or briefly mimic their powers.
Most of the nightmare-fuel was provided by the original Compendium version of this class, the Mask Master. I primarily altered the theme to involve tek-magik circuitry suits that stretch to fit only the exact proportions of its creator. A few mask's functions were altered for the available situation types and I may add more during the game, as the player can make additional skins.
"Ok, so what's the last character class?" It's based on another Compendium class known as the Beast, which is some kind of monster-blooded human that can literally pick monster moves to use during play. This is especially powerful as monster moves are narrative descriptions like 'tear flesh apart', disappear into the shadows', 'attack from the air', 'or 'summon a frenzied horde'.
In my version, the Cambion is a machine-human hybrid, a seamless blend of metal and flesh. They come in several forms which helps guide the options for monster powers. I'm still working on which powers to provide and what base abilities to assign each form so it might be a while before it's ready to show off. But this covers the majority of the 'regular' player classes to choose from.
Not too much to say about these two classes. The Artificer opened up a logical option for tinkering upon and improving the technological enhancements present on equipment. Really didn't have to change much, although perhaps the encoded weapon entechments could probably use some snazzier themes between now and session 1.
Even with all the other warrior options, Berserker seemed like a perfect fit for bizarre talents that only have a place this far past civilized society. No need for armor, tremendous ability to shrug damage and injury, terrify their opponents, and straight-up break everything and everyone. Berserkers are people of pure destruction. Much more of a loner than the Savage or the Fighter, they don't belong anywhere outside of combat.
I'll make sure to show off one more character class this week: The enigmatic shape-shifting Chameleon. After that however I'll need more time to finalize the last one that has made it to a playbook, as it is unique enough to need some careful planning. Stay tuned.
The Charlatan was a bit of a late addition to my customized class, before I narrowed down the really weird classes to the two monstrous types I'll be showcasing last.
To increase their distinction from the Scavenger, I kept all the roguish social abilities from the Trickster and them some, resulting in a lying, swindling conman. Even with the Advanced moves pulled from other classes like the the Spy and Ranger it's not a strong class in combat, but a very strong manipulator once back in whatever settlements pass for civilization.
Update: After four play sessions with the Charlatan, we conceded that the Smoke Bomb was just too situational, had partial success consequences that hindered strategic usage, and was just too creatively narrow for what the player wanted to do. Distracting Lure was the result of
The Nomad, like the classic Barbarian it was lifted from, is an in-your-face reckless alternative to the Fighter or Cavalier. They're built to be more aggressive and hit harder, essentially rolling +1 towards any action while 'pursuing impulses'; the impulses mostly involve crushing skulls but that's mostly what you want the party savage to pursue in the first place. There's not a lot of pretense to this archetype, but it's right at home in the urban wastelands.
And as promised, here's a bit of an info dump to identity some key points of contexts to know about my custom-made setting:
-This world is set thousands of years- if not hundreds of thousands of years- in the future. How much time as passed or even if this is Earth itself is not clear.
-Human societies have regressed to a perpetual dark age. Civilization no longer exists outside of a few isolated city-states. Written language, civil institutions, centralized governments, even money and trade is uncommon among the scattered settlements of humanity.
-The entire world was urbanized before civilization collapsed. Entire continents were effectively paved over with a network of water/power infrastructure and a layer of transit lines and foundations. Many regions have been razed down to this level but there are still numerous abandoned cityscapes, tens of thousands of square miles in size. In fact only truly bare landscapes are mountain peaks, some exposed continental sea shelves, and recent or artificially-created deserts.
-Earth’s oceans have been partially evaporated/extracted, leaving sea levels around 3500m lower than modern levels and most continental shelves exposed.
-Green plants are extinct in the wild. There are no trees and most traditional flora consists of red/purple mosses and vines. Agriculture still exists due to massive hydroponic blocks still in existence; many settlements are centered around maintaining these. The atmosphere is kept regulated by mile-high atmospheric processors, ceaselessly pulling carbon out of the air and reintroducing other gasses and temperature balances.
-Now fragmented and malfunctioning, past civilizations’ pinnacle of technology was an augmented reality network. Interconnected with hologram projectors, matter converters, powerful Artificial Intelligences (Machine Intellects), and vast knowledge banks delivered directly into the brain, it is still largely powered by self-maintaining renewable energy generation. The system is still partially controllable using mental commands and gestures, via artificial genetic code found in the human genome.
-The majority of surviving species of biological megafauna are descended from genetically-altered human stock. The rest are mostly biomechanical hybrids, autonomous machines, and artificial creatures designed and replicated by machine-intellects. Also, lots of niches filled out by rats and roaches.
-The largest ecumenopolitan landscapes are habitation blocks and hydroponics farms, in various states of compromise and decay. Many are capped with wind/solar farms, radio towers, terraforming machines, and other forms of power collection and resource storage, where additional levels of civilization have built their cities. The most dangerous parts of the ecumenopolis are the partially-intact substructures; major infrastructural faults result in flooding, hazardous gasses, and erratic tech-magic aberrations.
I finally get to showcase the Gunslinger, which I'm glad was present in the Dungeon World Compendium as so many fantasy RPGs are allergic to firearms. In my setting's case, they're still available but are either slow and expensive (in the case of recently-made crude guns) or extremely expensive ancient weapon. A class centered around the possession of a unique gun is a good way to get around the medieval motif of firearms being powerful but very rare. In the case of the Gunslinger, their gun is an atypical artifact with several special features that nobody else knows how to use.
The class is obviously a take on the wild west outlaw, but here it ends up feeling like a ranged version of the Fighter (the standard weapon-focused one from the rulebook) with a set of personal edicts that also gives it a strong Paladin feel. I just wish I could find artwork examples that weren't either straight-up cowboys, post-apocalyptic raiders, or just tacky steampunk cosplay.
I ended up including the Warlord mostly on a whim, partly due to how little needed to be redesigned and partly for another combat-focused player option but one focused around hirelings, which is often overlooked in most campaigns. Despite the low populations in most settlements, being able to rally them together for a common cause should make for climactic battles.
While i'm at it, I should go over some of the items I revised for this setting, especially the armor options. A lot of characters included fantasy-specific racial food items, which inspired me to rename them:
Bluesmoke: Also known as magik smoke, or tek smoke (or tek-magik smoke?), it's made using self-igniting mechanical components within a metal pipe. You get a bonus to Parley with when you share some bluesmoke with someone.
Hulder Mead: The wild Hulder tribes are skilled in brewing strong drinks meant for all-night festivities. You can open a keg and share it to celebrate your recent victories for a Carousing bonus. Or you can keep it all for yourself and get extremely drunk.
Demiurge Hardtack: Easy-to-carry, difficult-to-chew travel rations, containing all the nutrition of human food without any of the flavor.
For some reason, lighting options were left out of the rulebook; I assume the Adventuring Gear isn't meant for this as you'd be expending uses just to pull a candle or torch each time you enter an underground ruin. I may modify the starting equipment to include torches, candles, lamps and electric lanterns, or just provide some for free when the players first set out.
Since I felt the original armor options were too derivative of modern RPGs, I revised them with a flair of verisimilitude, while keeping in line with the light ruleset. The most common armors that are still produced and traded in the wastelands:
Padded, Leather: This mainly includes gambesons woven from various linens and wool (some settlements maintain hydroponic gardens which produce hemp or flax-like materials, otherwise animal or even human hair is a common material). For hunter-gatherers, rawhides are typical while padded leather vests and coats are often made in communities living off of tended animals (or plain old cannibalism!). Hardened leather and full suits of leather are an expensive and very rare use for such material. Armor value: 1
Scale Mail: Scrap metal plates linked together into various armor components. This is a cheap option for solid full-body protection, as steel is an easy material to find and shape. It is not so easy to move around in and can be exhausting to wear over time. Armor value: 2
Chain Mail: A more expensive improvement over scale mail, chain links are crimped together into a tightly-woven mesh. Typically made into a knee-length long-sleeved vest known as a hauberk. It is less clumsy than scale armor. Armor value: 2
Plate Mail: A full suit of metal carefully shaped and fitted to the wearer's body. The best protection and most expensive option. Armor value: 3
Next time I'll try to share share some more general world information to hopefully pinpoint down what kind of setting I'm going for by making this an urban dying earth fantasy.
As a consequence of civilization not existing in this setting (outside of a few insular despotically-ruled cities), organized religion is not a prominent aspect in the world. It didn't make sense to include Cleric or Paladin character classes without divine powers, so I intended to simply leave them out of the original six or seven core classes I was converting.
Once I was pointed towards the Dungeon World Compendium, and all its classes designed by Peter Johansen, I set about re-integrating those roles under the guise of techno-magical and preternatural talents.
The Cavalier is a skilled guardian and well-trained steward, most likely to have previously been in the service of a town's elite guard, or now protecting the last survivor of an ruling family. Whereas the Fighter reflects more of a lone mercenary or isolationist warrior. I salvaged the Paladin's move Quest in order to give the Cavalier a proactive goal in addition to the designation of one party member as their protected 'ward'. In a way it made the Cavalier feel more like a wandering Samurai to me than a strictly medieval knight; I adjusted the starting chose of weaponry a bit to reflect this isn't a world of one traditional culture.
The Technomancer is the other big spell-caster of this setting, based upon the Shaman class and a good chunk from the Cleric too. Although greatly similar to the Spell-Coder, I would summarize their differences in two key ways:
1) Stylistically speaking, the Technomancer learns to call upon technology in a very ritualized and impassioned manner, relying upon totems and material components just as much as the specific phrases and gestures Spell-Coders memorize. They're more of a primitive tech-spirit medium counterpart to the Spell-Coder's austere armchair studies.
2) To reflect the above in game mechanics, Technomancers use their Wisdom stat when rolling to perform spells; Spell-Coders use Intelligence. They also gain new spells at different rates; while both prepare one spell plus an additional spell per level at a time, the Technomancer can chose from any in the entire list according to their level bracket. Spell-Coders only start off with three in their book, but gain a new one each level (in addition to any they acquire and copy during their adventures).
The default appearance options are meant to exemplify these difference, which should help paint the image of Technomancers as machine-idolizing shamans apart from the eccentric scholarly Spell-Coders.
"Just how many classes did you customize," you ask? Good question. The total is sixteen, so I have another eight to show off. Stay tuned.
As promised, here is the Spell-Coder class, serving the role of the de facto wizard of a dead technological nightmare-scape.
The Wizard was the first class I set about modifying from Dungeon World, once I had decided to pair it with my existing notes on my own future-fantasy setting. The major underlying theme of the setting is that humanity no longer has a grasp of technology, which long ago hit a peak in integrating and replacing the natural world. With the collapse of human civilization, this indistinguishable-from-magic environment has since fallen into a slow death of stagnation and sterility.
The Spell-Coder embodies that fragmentary grasp of an environment too robust to completely fail but too complex to fully understand. Their powers come in the form of a set of memorized commands, a sequence of gestures and phrases from extinct programming languages. I've likened it to my RPG group as "imagine every public space had its own holodeck and you know some powershell commands."
My real revisions to the original class was to flavor the names and descriptions of spell-casting so that magic and technology were seen as one and the same. I did add a few extra spell-codes to chose from at level 1, and more that can be found during play and added to the character's codebook.
The Hunter is a natural pathfinder and stalker of wild creatures. Unlike the Scavenger, they are hardier and capable of following close behind their prey, laying traps and staying just out of sight. The Hunter class was lifted almost verbatim from its incarnation in the Compendium. In that document, the Hunter was designed an alternate version of the Ranger with traps instead .of an animal companion. As I had already borrowed the animal companion moves for my prototype techno-druid (which eventually became the Machine-Speaker), the Hunter became the obvious replacement.
The only major change was actually just added today: upgrading the Camouflage move from an Advanced move to a Starting move, and borrowing an Advanced move from the Monk playbook to take its spot. There was a curiously lack of stealth moves among the standard classes, so I felt its addition to the Hunter gave them improved distinction as a 'silent killer' apart from the Scavenger's 'scrappy assistant'.
Should I elaborate more on the world these classes are meant to exist in, or should I just push straight to showing them off and let their moves speak for themselves? Surely, if you've read this far down you must have an option, and I'm not just throwing these into a digital void.
So I pitched my Dungeon World campaign to my regular RPG group and they are interested, which means I'll have to spend my ~2 month break from GMing ensuring I have things ready for the first session. I might as well ramp up the character sheet previews, so here's two of them at once: The Scavenger and the Skald.
I needed a support class that was useful out in the ruined buildings and substructures of an urban wasteland, someone focused on sneaking around, spotting dangers, and keeping the rest of the party out of trouble. The standard Thief in the Dungeon World rulebook was pretty close but seemed split between spotting traps and causing mischief in more populous, civilized environments.
The Scavenger ended up being a merger of both the Thief and the Spy class (from the Compendium), using the Spy's hardier hitpoints and lower base damage (made up in a higher backstab bonus) with the Thief's broader backstab options and trap skills. I ditched the Thief's poison-application and hidden morality moves to make way for the ability to find useful tools and food when the group sets up camp.
The result should be an adventurer who stays away from the spotlight or the front of the party, but is quite useful skulking around the edge of the light or just out of sight further along the path.
I still need to finalize the wording on the Improvised Gear advanced move. The intention is to be able to scrap together a mundane item to serve as a temporary weapon or tool of opportunity, but in a pinch you can also just throw it at something that's in your way for a +1 to defy danger.
Meanwhile, the Skald was a case of re-contextualizing the traditional abilities of the Bard into a broader fantasy archetype. In this world the Skald is foremost a storyteller; one who travels and collects bits of ancient knowledge and tech and weaves them into stories, a mix of morale-boosting epics, tactical anecdotes, and a smattering of technomagical spell-commands. The Skald is one of the last few romantics left in a post-civilization world, a drifter who believes in providing a positive experience.
Give me a day or two and I'll show off one of the two true experts in technology (or what passes for an expert for an environment too big to fail but too complex to understand): the Spell-Coder.
Switching gears, the Fighter is a more familiar and mundane player option; even in the far-flung future technomagical wastelands, there's a niche for being good at taking hits and hitting things back with something big, sharp, metal and pointy.
Initially I wasn't intending to change the standard Dungeon World Fighter playbook beyond some my custom motivations, race options, and stylistic word choices. But as I transcribed the moves to the custom template I found the Fighter was far too centered around this starting move:
Signature Weapon This is your weapon. There are many like it,
but this one is yours. Your weapon is your
best friend. It is your life. You master it as
you master your life. Your weapon, without
you, is useless. Without your weapon, you
are useless. You must wield your weapon
true.
Followed by several options for its appearance and enhancements. The only other starting moves let them break objects and wear armor without penalty. But this made the Fighter primarily a vehicle for the weapon and its backstory, rather than the Fighter's own preternatural abilities and training. Luckily, I stumbled upon an alternative playbook called the Peerless Fighter, which made just a few subtle alterations by swapping some Starting moves with Advanced moves and a thematic re-haul of Signature Weapon.
The Signature ability is now that of a unique personal fighting style, which can be applied to any weapon of the same type as the Fighter's starting weapon. For added creative flexibility, the Fighter now chooses essentially any kind of weapon they can think of (Hook Swords, Crossbows, Katars, Nunchucks, Spiked Shields, Oars, Yo-Yos, Buster Swords, Battle Spoons, etc). Go nuts, but if you lose it you'll have to find someone who knows how to make another, and skilled smiths are few and far between in this world.
I should note that I have since edited the options for Demiurge; they can add Forceful or Agile as part of the style. For those of you with knowledge of Warhammer 40,000 lore, you might be picturing 'Demiurge' as some kind of sci-fi dwarven species. This is not correct in this case, as I have co-opted the term (derived from the Greek "creator") to refer not to those who are builders but to those who were built. Here it is a catch-all for self-propagating androids with enough organic components to require food, water and be capable of natural healing, as well as communicate and interact with human communities. Most machine life is far less concerned with human needs.
I'd like to share a couple more homebrew classes next week, perhaps another contrasting pair of mundane skill-user vs technomagic-user. I think I have 16 in total? We'll see.
So, after 14 months and over 27 sessions my Star Wars roleplaying campaign (using Fantasy Flight's Star Wars Roleplaying Game system) has finished. I am taking a break to recharge my creative energy, which includes working on my next two planned RPG campaigns.
One of them will also use the Star Wars Roleplaying Game but be Jedi-focused, set over ten thousand years before the films (thus no Empire, No Sith, and maybe no real lightsabers?), but most of the groundwork for that has already been developed for several years now.
Occupying more of my attention for now is fleshing out a fictional setting of my own invention and adjusting another game system to utilize it: the Dungeon World RPG. DW is basically Dungeons & Dragons using modern indie-style rules with emphasis on letting the players take the lead on determining what they can do.
It's meant for traditional medieval high-fantasy elves & wizards kind of play, so the character classes don't exactly mesh with the world I've been writing, which chiefly falls into the 'dying earth' genre of far-future urban fantasy. Think 'Dark Sun-meets-Blame!', 'urban Kenshi', or 'Horizon Zero Down-meets-The Terminator'.
I'll spare the details for now, especially since the setting is inherently meant to be left largely uncatalogued, but picture an Earth utterly paved over by ruins and discarded infrastructure, rendered all but sterile and bereft of civilization. Every region that isn't an uninhabitable wasteland is infested by mutated creatures, autonomous machines and rogue augmented realities (imagine an outdoor holodeck from hell). Human settlements are scattered and transitory, trying to subsist off of underground hydroponics and hide among the ruins from nightmarish monsters.
Anyway, I've adapted over a dozen classes from Dungeon World's core book as well as its compendium. As a preview I'll share the current draft of the Druid, revised to have a machine-animal companion and be more of a future-fantasy robot mechanic: The Machine-Speaker.
It took a number of fights over the course of half an hour, with several near-deaths exchanged between us, but as seen in the video collection above I finally shamed Snafu enough to drop the Iron Will trait. Truth be told I haven't done much with Snafu Tasty since then, partially in fear that he might get himself killed again, but I suppose he's due for leading an assault on another fortress.
I have several more clips of strange encounters of other Orc captains, but so Snafu stands out the most as the weirdest and biggest pain to deal with. As usual, stay tuned.
So, I obtained a discounted copy of Middle-Earth: Shadow of War a while ago and just recently got into playing it. What I've really enjoyed about the open-ended gameplay in this title (and its prequel, Shadow of Mordor) is what the game calls the Nemesis system.
It's a procedural method of developing enemies that's sadly gone un-replicated by other major titles, but here it's used to turn nameless random Orc and Troll minions into experienced elite Captains and Warchiefs with titles, rare traits, a hierarchy and rivalry among others, both those serving the Dark Lord Sauron and those whom your character has bent to serve his own will. These characters have a penchant to become recurring villains as you quest and amass your own army.
Now, I've encountered a number of memorable Orcs particularly in the sequel, but the subject of this story has stood out in particular. This Orc was discovered as a mere level 19 Captain while I was tracking down another Captain I was attempting to dominate, via the player character's questionably-ethical use of a Ring of Power (It's fine, he's fine, don't ask).
The Orc's name is Snafu Tasty.
It was love at first sight. A confused, terrified love, but love nonetheless.
Bear in mind the game generates Captain's names using random syllables plus a title - usually it's something based on a character trait or skill, like "The Beheader", "Flame-Wielder", "The Bladesmith." But "Tasty?" I was obligated to find out why.
Sadly I did not capture video of my initial encounter with Snafu, but as you'll see from any subsequent footage he demonstrates the breadth and depth of his shtick with the frenetic immediacy of a small child who just learned a joke.
Snafu is obsessed with it; Whatever it is, it's tasty. It's soooo tasty, he can taste it, and it's gonna be tasty.
I fought him, defeated and bent his deranged one-track mind to my will, and sent him on a mission to defeat another Captain in an arena match, thinking not too much of it. Unfortunately, Snafu Tasty failed his very first match and was dealt a fatal blow. Briefly I was quite disappointed as I had been fond of his seemingly-unique quirk, but I moved on as Orcs were a dime a dozen in Mordor and I had a fortress to conquer.
I assigned another one of my own loyal Orc Captains to become the bodyguard of Ar-Karo the Troll, a Troll Warchief in charge of defenses within the fortress on the Plains of Gorgoroth. The plan was I would attack Ar-Karo and my Orc would fight alongside me, leaving the fortress largely without defenses once the Warchief was defeated.
However, as I was sneaking around inside the Fortress, looking for the Troll Warchief, I was ambushed by an unexpected villain:
It was Snafu Tasty! Back from defying death just like we left him, with a hatchet stuck in his head! Only this time he's gained fourteen levels from the experience. Not only that, but he decided to discard my domination and resume being a hostile flaming spear-wielding ass to me. Obviously I couldn't stand for this and had to bring him back under my domination. Which as the video shows did not initially work.
Now, the fun part of the Nemesis system is the always-onward progress it makes with its enemy characters, even when they stab you and kill you. Long story short, the player character can't die and is stuck coming back to life after time progresses. During this period of reloading, the Orc ranks change as dead Captains are replaced with newly-promoted Orcs, Captains complete missions and gain levels, and even challenge each other to gain favor among the fortress Warchiefs and hopefully make it into their lofty ranks, becoming one of the commanders directly under the sole ruler of the entire region: the Overlord.
So what does Snafu Tasty do as soon as he's killed me? He gains another two levels, challenges the Overlord of Gorgoroth and wins, becoming the new Overlord. Like an idiot's version of Saruman of Isengard.
I didn't even know they could challenge Overlords on their own. Well, now I definitely had to take down Sanfu.
The first step was getting back to taking out the Warchief Ar-Karo, as he was now serving under Snafu and maintaining what was now Snafu's fortress defenses. Luckily, the Warchief was feasting outside the fort among his minions and despite my sloppy playstyle I know how to take down a Troll.
This left the fortress ready for a quick siege, culminating in a one-on-one battle between me and my former servant. Frustratingly, part of Snafu Tasty's rise to high-level lordship included gaining the train Iron Will, which prevents me from dominating a foe until they lose it via a shame-induced loss of levels. I was forced to dismiss him like an unworthy sack of potatoes, dropping Snafu down by five levels.
I at least took the fortress, but taking back Snafu Tasty would require many further battles, which I will share later. Stay tuned.
I'm in the process of uploading some edited clips from the game Middle-Earth: Shadow of War to YouTube, but here's a quick preview of a little story I want to tell about my current most favorite Orc in this game; He's an awful deranged little monster who gave me a heck of a time after breaking my domination.
