I know it doesn't look like it's late, but I am on the end of a long day and not feeling too well, so I am going to attempt to wrap up and get some rest.
If it doesn't work, well, I apologize. If it does work, I should probably apologize anyway, but my apology will be less heart-felt.
Let me note for tomorrow that Brock is starting a character, and I have posts from Maxx, Harry, John 2, and Graeme.
--M. J. Young
JohnA1nut
Member
I know it doesn't look like it's late, but I am on the end of a long day and not feeling too well, so I am going to attempt to wrap up and get some rest.
Glad you got some rest, and I really hope your time travel theory can sort out why days are longer in New Jersey than on the rest of the world. (You know, like how things are "Heavy" in the future.) There could be a Nobel Prize in it for you.
Yeah, well, I wish I had gotten some rest. Now I only hope that I manage to get through all this in a timely fashion while also making and serving dinners.
Having answered a character generation post already, all this appears to be Maxx, Harry, John 2, and Graeme, which should work pretty well.
Maxx is definitely challenging me here. To my advantage, though, Eric Ashley created a somewhat similar skill some years back which is still on his character sheet, as a P1@4 Invade Dreams skill. The tricky difference here is that Maxx wants to do this by using lucid dreaming, not by some sort of telepathic mind reading. I think, though, that this means he loses touch with his senses for the duration, and so I'll treat it as a trance-like skill, +10 to perform, and roll: 99 is definitely going to botch, let's make a list:
I can complete the description of Harry's 1@1 Reliable Bloodhound Olfaction P5@1 (reduces other senses) one minute of concentration with eyes closed and deep rhythmic breathing +32SM and add that to his sheet. Let's set up the next scene.
John 2 missed part of the day, I think--one way or another--so we'll have to cover that before we can continue.
Graeme needs up to five rolls for the detect spell; I need to pick up the note that says what the protection level is 23; the scry spell is 1@1 SAL+15SM+2@2 BRA+2x7@ bias=62%, and he rolls 83, 65, 50, that's a success.
--M. J. Young
JohnA1nut
Member
MJ, I'm almost positive that Lauren didn't teach me any psionic skills. Post my psionic sheet that you have. (Just the psionic skills) and I'll let you know. I'm fine with just going to day 10 and learning whatever skills she has to offer that day. We did fighting, not psionics.
I have been pulled away a couple times tonight, and will be again, and am falling asleep at the keyboard in daylight; but there are only two posters at this point--Maxx and John 2--so I might as well see if I can keep my eyes open long enough to clear the boards.
Maxx thinks this was a good thing, but undoing it is not going to be so simple. Still, he might be concocting a solution already.
It looks like John 2 will allow us to remedy the oversight. On a roll of 42, Lauren projects the skill pattern for Clairaudience into his mind, and on a roll of 51 he learns it at 1@2 Clairaudience P3@5.
I'm still losing it here, but at least I've finished it before I lost it completely.
--M. J. Young
Maxx, Harry, and John 2 are in play.
Maxx is going to attempt a sort of psychic surgery, attempting to undo the fusion of minds that occurred in his previous botch. This is going to be dangerous, but he is doing a few things that are suggestive. I have a thousand questions--but perhaps I can ignore them, since we have a character with a 1@1 bias attempting to teach himself a 6@8 skill. Even given his 1@9 BRA and the 15@ world bias, his chance of success is in the red, and the real question is not what will happen if he succeeds, but what happens if he botches. The roll is 29, so I am comfortable that it is not a botch; just to assure everyone that my seat-of-the-pants estimation of chance of success is valid in this critical instance, I'll start with the 6@8 target bias, subtract the 1@1 character bias for 57, the 1@9 BRA for 38, and the 15@ world bias for 23--that's -23% chance of success. He's going to have to build up to that before he can accomplish anything--and meanwhile he has the problem that he is now joined with Lelach, and she is going to interfere with him in spots.
Harry gets a 13 Barely Good Enough GE roll, and so will get what he wants not so quickly in this case.
I was sort of hoping that I could put off the sparring one day--after all, Lauren would object to the same workout every day, particularly since John 2 is not much of a workout for her--but a GE roll of 8 means that she's available and willing to try it. As to the psionics lesson, she rolls 11 on her project skill pattern, and he rolls 60, which will give him 1@2 Clairolfaction P3@7.
I think that's the story.
--M. J. Young
JohnA1nut
Member
I was sort of hoping that I could put off the sparring one day--after all, Lauren would object to the same workout every day, particularly since John 2 is not much of a workout for her
Not much of a workout is better than no workout at all. Besides, 2 more new uses, and I'll be (literally) twice the opponent I am now.
Maxx is now running his game in two threads, but I'll assume it's not to confuse me but to help him. It's going to take me a bit of work, though, to figure out what to answer where. I also have Harry and John in play.
I am combining my answers to Maxx' two threads into one post; hopefully that will work for the moment.
Harry now has backup. Let's see what he does with it.
Lauren does have experience fighting in near total darkness, but unlike John 2 she compensates by using a skill to increase what she can see--either her magic cat's eye or her psionic sensory enhancements. She rolls 59, which means that she has very clear vision in the near total darkness. As to whether he can surprise her, that's going to be an intuition check on her part, which I will roll when he attempts the surprise--but since she can see, and she can also perform such a jump, it might be he who is surprised. She rolls 04 for getting into stance.
And that is, as they say, that.
--M. J. Young
Brock
Member
I feel for ya John. I also see better in the dark than most, because I spend all my time at home with the lights off. The only light in my house is from the computer monitor I'm staring at. I hadn't even considered that for a game effect, heh. I don't see well in light though-I am easy to blind, and I didn't even consider THAT for a weakness. Ah well, I'll mention it to MJ later....
Couldn't Lauren also use blind-fighting as well? That would mean there is a way to counteract darkness within every bias (NVGs for tech, or a flashlight). Is that the case with a lot of effects?
That would mean there is a way to counteract darkness within every bias (NVGs for tech, or a flashlight). Is that the case with a lot of effects?
Yes.
Depending on how narrowly you define them, that's the case with every effect.
John, you think it's unfair for her to use a skill at which she is pretty good to counter a detriment you have imposed on the conditions--but you have imposed that specific detriment on the conditions specifically because you want to practice a skill to counter it. Brock, Lauren does not have a blind fighting skill precisely because she has several magical and psionic ways of producing light or enhancing her vision in darkness, and no one has ever taught her a way to fight in darkness otherwise.
Oh, and John, you are relying on Blind Fighting, which is not "a natural ability I have to see in near darkness", but a trained skill to use the totality of sensory information including stereo location, tactile sense of wind currents, and olfaction, to determine the position and motion of an opponent you cannot see at all.
You want to practice your best chance for fighting in darkness; you don't want her to do the same? It's already clear that you're trying to find a way to prove you're better than she is. That wouldn't impress her even if it were true, and it's not true.
Be glad it's Lauren and not, say, Michael di Vars. He has very little patience for people who try to make themselves seem like more than they are.
I've already responded to Maxx' in-game journal and to Brock's character creation thread, so I'll finish with Maxx then see to Harry and John 2.
Maxx is in an interesting position, and I'm not certain what it will take to get him out of it. We'll see.
Harry is getting everyone into position.
John 2 needs to drop into stance, for which he rolls a successful 20, and he wants to check his 2@8 exceptional night vision for which his numbers are 2@8+2x7@+1@9=61%, and he rolls 78. He can roll his blind fighting once per round until it works, and then it lasts RS minutes and cancels -15 of the -20 penalty on his attacks. His first roll is 80, which fails.
--M. J. Young
JohnA1nut
Member
Be glad it's Lauren and not, say, Michael di Vars. He has very little patience for people who try to make themselves seem like more than they are.
I would be, if I were trying to make myself seem like more than I am. I know I don't have a chance against her, and I'm certainly not trying to make her think that I do. Maybe if we were at the shooting range, that might be on my mind, but a 1@1 with those 50 calibers of hers would still be much more impressive than my 2 9mms could ever be.
And besides, what makes you think I'm trying to impress Lauren? Is it the "OK honey, let's dance." talk? That's just fighting pep talk, to boost morale, not an attempt to impress someone that could have killed me a dozen times by now.
JohnA1nut
Member
Two Posts
Besides, a couple of years ago, I wrestled against a former Green Beret who was built like a brick wall. I got cocky with him, and he (literally) almost killed me for it. That's not something I would do again.
I must say though, he was quite cool about it, and admitted later that he was very impressed with how I handled him. His exact words were "Oh, you're a pretty decent wrestler." Which, coming from Dan, was UNBELIEVABLY high praise. (I think he thought I was going to be a pushover.) I learned my lesson from that. Now if I could just learn my lesson with authority figures......
(Doing Therapy)
JohnA1nut
Member
Multiple Posts
Yeah, I got a touch cocky with her at first, but that was because I thought I was going to be training her in boxing. After she beat me senseless that first time, all of my cockiness went right out the window. Now, my concentration is just on trying to keep her from doing that again.
Which makes me wonder, I would be practicing blocks like crazy. Would there be any defensive bonuses for that? My concentration would be on blocking her, not on attacking back. If it costs attack, forget it, but I would be focusing on defense more than offense.
(Doing Therapy)
Defense and offense are not split in this system, except if you're using the defenses as special maneuvers (which usually means they cost an attack but are used to counter specific attacks) or you have a separate defensive skill. When you improve, the big things that increase are your chance to hit, the number of attacks you can attempt in the minute, and your potential damage per attack.
O.K., maybe I am sleep-deprived, as discussed in that thread about Harry's anti-fatigue skill. I am not at all coming up with either a good fatal accident or a fun first world for Brock. Of course, just because I've run it for so many others before does not mean it isn't good or fun, so I guess we'll start with Brock in a new world, then Maxx, Harry, and John 2. It strikes me that I should probably move Maxx to the end of the line, because there is at least the possibility that the masked player has been playing longer than anyone else here, and it would be genuinely unfair to allow such a player to get to the front of the line by subterfuge. However, I don't think I'll do that today, at least.
So I think I have Brock started.
I don't really want to give Maxx too solid a reference point for the date of conception, particularly since I have been less attentive to the flow of days as they've been moving forward more quickly; but Lelach rolls 7 on her simple intellect check, so that should be something she could reference at least close enough. That means I have to backtrack to determine the current day. It was day 32 when he managed to contact Lach's mind; but that seems to be the last time I noted the exact day. I can say that it is not day 50, because that's when the baby begins to be able to move, and that has not yet happened. We'll put the botch on day 38, which makes this, the third day according to his journal, day 40.
I think Lelach will be resistant to any attempt to read Morani's mind, so we'll have a will power contest. Maxx rolls 24, which is a clear failure. He then rolls 11 to try to read the mental frequency of fabric, but she rolls 13, so she beats him on that. He's moved himself into a very difficult and awkward position, but I still have some hope that he can extract himself from this.
Harry is throwing a new spell at me--no, that did not come out right at all, did it? He wants to create a new version of Remove Fatigue that will impact those in the immediate area around him specifically to keep everyone attentive. He did not give me a duration, but I'm going to roll and then see what I've got. The roll is 71, which means I have to work for this. His bias is 3@1, this skill is 2@1, so that's +10; he's got the alliance +10 bonus, +13 for his magic, and +23 for his BRA. That puts him at 56% plus or minus the sit-mods for the skill, which I guess I have to crunch, since this is either really successful or problematically failed.
+5 appropriate words, sound not necessary, closed eye and left hand on sword and right hand on heart is two hands and a single eye, I'll give +4, +5 for the vigilance is necessary stipulation (a gift, really, because that's the only reason he would use it). The fact that it benefits as many people who are within thirty feet is problematic, because the baseline affects one single person, and you can cram a lot of "people" into thirty feet--particularly if, for example, they are all sprites flying in close formation. But let's count doublings to two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two people, which makes it -50. I'll give +10 because it only works at "night" or the equivalent, there is a gold coin for +3 destroyed in the casting for +3. Oh, he said half an hour, contrasted against 1 minute, so that's +50. That puts the sit-mod at +30, and makes it work. It also means that I have to copy out the ritual for reference: 1@2 Induce Alertness M+3@1 remove fatigue variant 30:00 TF removes fatigue from all within 30', speak appropriate words sotto voce, one eye closed for Odin, left hand on sword for Thor, right hand on heart for Baldur, and single gold piece in right palm for Loki, destroyed in the process, only works when vigilance is significant and caster is aware of that significance, must be night or local equivalent thereof, +30SM.
John 2 is going into combat blind. Lauren is not interested in this combat, so she's not really going to move until he does; and he's not moving until he knows where she is. So the minute passes, and we roll 63 on the night vision and 36 on the blind fighting.
--M. J. Young
Oh, it is not a good week; I am already falling asleep reading posts, and I have games to run for Brock, Maxx, Harry, and John 2. Well, there's nothing for it but to do it.
Brock is at this point pretty easy, because I've run this world before and he's not done anything surprising yet.
I think I've addressed most of Maxx' latest round of questions.
Harry is going to attempt to read the surface thoughts of three people. He can see them, so we'll roll for the captain first (the identifiable individual) and the other two in random order (since we don't have any way to identify them individually yet anyway): 20, and it occurs to me that he might not bother with the others if he gets the one (which he now has for twenty minutes) and won't want to risk a botch, so we'll leave it at that unless he says otherwise. The question, though, is how much is he going to get about what? That is, if he is reading surface thoughts, of what is his target thinking? It would have to be a pretty unlucky circumstance if the man did not think at all about what he was just doing, but his GE roll is 27, so it's not going to be a terribly informative reading--not as bad as it could be, but pretty useless.
John 2 rolls 04 on a great leap--which wasn't a great leap, but it did move him the requisite distance and direction. Lauren rolls 15 on a simple intuition check, so she is not even remotely surprised; rolling 06 she responds with a handspring that puts her where he is going. Her roll of 91, though, is not going to touch him. She gets four attacks to his one, and he just used his one for the jump, and she used one for the handspring and another that missed, but she rolls 26 and 68, which I'm sure enough is a hit and a miss, and anyway that works for now. I'll give John the +1 mark for the leap which makes his SAL 1@2. I will also raise his fighting blind by one mark to 1@2. I'm less inclined to raise his boxing just yet, because he has not only not landed a punch, he hasn't actually swung (he used his attack to leap behind her, which may be why he got the bonus there--he now knows that the leap will cost him an opportunity to attack even if it gives him better position).
I believe I can call it finished.
--M. J. Young
JohnA1nut
Member
MJ, it suddenly occurred to me that my fighting blind might not have been 1@1 when I got here. I was training Mr. Smith's apprentice William how to box. I did that long enough to go from 1@6 boxing to 1@10 boxing. That would have been after work, at dusk. I would imagine relatively low-light conditions, if not occasionally completely dark. Might that be worth a skill mark or two on my fighting blind? Since it's low light and not blind, I wouldn't expect more than half the skill marks if I had been training blind the whole time, but I just thought I would ask.
(Doing Therapy)
John, there is nothing to suggest that you attempted to teach William to box in the dark, and the sort of dusk conditions you suggest are not at all related to the skill.
Brock, Maxx, Harry, and John 2 are playing again.
The last guy who tried to look into the crater fell in. Let's hope things go better for Brock.
Maxx is pushing me to explore areas of my spritish culture that I never really developed; but we'll fill in gaps as we go, based on what I do know.
Harry has quite a fascinating idea brewing. I wonder if that's the way he should do this--but we'll see how it unfolds.
I'm not sure whether John 2 is continuing to fight or not; he's already diverted attention to stuff he's going to buy after the fight.
--M. J. Young
As much as I would like to get to Brock, Maxx, Harry, and John 2, and as sorry as I am that I did not get to you all last night (which I spent as visitor/driver in a hospital emergency room once again), it is too late tonight and I am wanted by family. I did address the other threads, and I anticipate returning tomorrow.
Sorry.
--M. J. Young
Brock
Member
Oh, that is quite all right MJ. I think you need a vacation anyway. scrolling back over all of the recent posts you have been making here, you have been saying how tired you are alarmingly frequently. When is the last time you took a break for something other than necessity?
Yes, Brock, the "other threads" are the ones that are not about playing the game. It's kind of odd, really--the forum existed for quite some time simply as a place to discuss Multiverser and related game ideas, and then one of the regulars suggested that having me run games here would be a boon to helping others understand how to run them, and that's been the dominant activity since then. I, though, still consider the games to be secondary, the important part being about answering the questions.
And with that, and a somewhat earlier start that is slated to be interrupted fairly soon, I will leap into posts from Brock, Maxx, Harry, and John 2.
I'm working Brock toward his first encounter, and his comments have inspired me to give consideration to a quick adjustment--I've posted a separate thread for that.
I'm going to move Maxx' calendar ahead three days, to day 43, day six on his journal.
Harry missed the point to which I was calling his attention, but we'll clarify and continue.
John 2 is going to use his out-of-sight telekinesis; he didn't say so, but if he's going to TK pulse something he can't see, that's what he's doing.
--M. J. Young
I really hate mouse-driven software. I've been through several operating systems, multiple motherboards and their accompanying BIOS', quite a few mouse programs, a forgotten number of the devices themselves, and always I have problems with the mouse freezing and running erratically. Sometimes defragging the system helps, but not always and never for long. So I had to reboot to get the mouse working again, because "point and click" is so much easier than tabbing through a hundred links to find the right one.
Now that I've finished grousing, let's turn our attention to Brock, Maxx, Harry, and John 2.
I've brought a future version of Scott into Brock's world, because I thought it would be fun; we'll see what the two of them do here.
Maxx wants to create this skill where he finds the "pattern" of material objects. I've been searching in my head intermittently over several days looking for something less dangerous than a P9@1 Analyze Chemistry, but I think I've found it: a P3@4 Detect Materials. I will give him +10 because the skill requires that he have psionically studied the type of material he wishes to find (he can't say that he's looking for gold unless he has already examined gold), and that plus his 1@9 BRA plus 1@1 bias plus the 15@ world area bias minus the target 3@4 skill gives him an 11% chance of success. He rolls 94, which is clearly a botch, and one I'm going to use to my advantage to solve a problem that has, in my opinion, been bogging down play somewhat and had little hope of being resolved.
Harry gets his report, and it might enlighten him.
We're continuing the sparring between John 2 and Lauren, and he wants to use his out-of-sight TK as a pulse to knock over a known object as a distraction. 82 fails. That means we move to initiative, John 93, Lauren 93, that's closer to success for her, so she goes first once again. 65, 73, and I'm missing her numbers here so I've got to rebuild them: John's got a -15 def SM and a 1@6 TV; Lauren has a 2@2 MSV, 2@8 BRA, 2@8 SAL, 2x7@ bias, and I think +5 SM, which is 97-31=66%, so that's a hit and a misse. John responds with 34, which might be his first touch, but I have to do the numbers for him, too. Lauren's defensive style gives her -10 SM (and -10 damage mod) in addition to her 1@10 TV, -30, against John's 1@10 MSV, 1@9 BRA, 2x7@ bias, 1@10 SAL, 73-30=43. She rolls 08, 58.
I think I'm done.
--M. J. Young
I never owned an 8-track player, but I did buy one for a girlfriend once. Problem really was that I never had money to spare, and when I did I spent it on instruments and amplifiers and such. As to music, I always listened to tapes on reel-to-reel, but my now college-aged son destroyed all the tapes when he was three, and both decks died somewhere along the way and have since been lost. So I record my own music on my computer using midi and wave software, burn it to CDs (but my CD burner is on the fritz again), and listen to it on a CD Walkman style player powered off the cigarette lighter and fed into the cassette player in the car.
Why is that relevant to anything?
I apologize for missing yet another game yesterday; see the http://gamingoutpost.com/blog/prime-time/ Prime Time blog entry. Now let's see what we can do for Brock, Maxx, Harry, and John 2.
Brock is having a lengthy conversation with Scott, which will not require much of me but that I read it and encourage it--oh, and note bits that were overlooked.
I am going to give Maxx +5 familiarity with Lelach; he's earned it, that's certain. He is also creating a new skill which is similar to the Psionic Focus skill Scott created not too long ago, so I'll cover it the same way as Meditation P1@0 one minute of mind relaxation gives +RS/10 to immediately subsequent psionic skill attempt, and I'll roll his chance of learning this, 47 rolled for a 1@0 skill against a 1@1 bias in a 15@ world with a 1@9 BRA is 45-10=35, failure here. However, he can still attempt the telepathy, for which he has a 1@1 bias, 15@ world, 1@9 BRA, and the +5 familiarity with Lelach, against a 1@3 skill, 37% chance of success, he rolls 29 and connects on the first try. We've got a 16 GE roll on her reaction.
Harry has a new and interesting plan, but it's going to require a bit of luck. Let's go for the GE roll: 26. This is not going to work as planned, but it is not completely impossible.
I have to answer a few questions for John 2, and now it strikes me that with all the questions I forgot that he was still fighting--well, next time, perhaps.
--M. J. Young
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