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Behind the Screens 2009

(651 posts) (10 voices)

Started 1 year ago by M. J. Young
Latest reply from JohnA1nut

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M. J. Young
Moderator

Kurt starts, and Nikolaj has a long post. John 2 has started a new thread because of posting problems on the old one, and Graeme is on cleanup again.

I've a question and an answer for Kurt.

I don't see any problem with someone with an 11@1 tech bias learning to wash clothes using a washboard. I am, however, less certain what the tech bias is of rubbing cloth against a rough metal washboard with a bit of soap--but given a roll of 41 I'll give him a 1@1 Wash Clothes with Washboard T2@1. More complicated, though, is his prayer. However, we have a skill--1@2 Dreams and Visions M7@6 usually as guidance or answers to prayers--which we can roll for a significant part of this. He and the world both have 7@ bias, and his BRA is his 1@8 intuition, plus he gets half his 1@8 Religion SAL and +10 for the alliance affiliation of the world. That comes to 63% chance of success, and the roll is 37. I think it's time for a dream. I also have to tread carefully here--my cosmology might not fit Nikolaj's exactly, but hopefully it will work with what he believes.

Lauren rolls 15 on her telepathy attempt to John 2. 59 is a successful project skill pattern roll, so John has a solid roll for that. John rolls 62 on learning it, which with all the bonuses (instructor, teacher, example) and his own bias means he's going to gain 1@2 Tap Language Center P1@1. Now we'll see whether John goes next or has Derek go next.

I'm going to give Graeme a simple persuasion check on this latest suggestion. I don't think that building such a building, or guarding it, is that big a deal for the Romans. It's still a matter that someone has to decide. The roll, though, is 23, against his 1@8 persuasion. I think that's close enough for a counter proposal.

All is looking well.

--M. J. Young

Thu Feb 19 2009 3:05 am #
Nikolaj
Member

Yeah, it was cool. But I think we differ on certain points. I think God would always want the worship. Yet here He doesn't seem to have created them but 'delegated' tha thing. Again, for game purposes it could be that that is why genesis record the creation of man as God saying 'let us make men/man. But that might make problems for other doctrines. But I think I can roll with this.

Thu Feb 19 2009 7:37 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I'm tight on time, but hoping to get some posts in before too much disrupts things. I am looking at Kurt, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam.

I will give Kurt a bonus to his animal magnetism based on copying James Bond, primarily because he is playing that part in this world. I'll need him to do something that requires a response, though, before I will roll it.

Nikolaj apparently wanted a response from Qormlach in connection with his brief synopsis of Christian faith. I'm not certain what else the orc would say, but we'll have him say something that fits his perception of reality.

I'm a bit amused by John 2. He talks about how valuable those blacksmithing skills are, and then when he has the opportunity to teach someone else about them, he denigrates them. Lauren won't think them useless skills, though; she might find a use for them yet.

I like Adam's joke, but I'm not certain whether when he said "me cook it" he was teasing her that she always winds up doing the cooking or teasing her that she can't cook so he has to do it. It doesn't really matter, though. Either way, he's teased her. Geneice rolls 42 on a TK pulse for her revenge. Adam rolls an 18 Agility check (simple), so he's good.

I'm good, too. I got this done in less time than I expected.

--M. J. Young

Thu Feb 19 2009 11:18 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

I'm a bit amused by John 2. He talks about how valuable those blacksmithing skills are, and then when he has the opportunity to teach someone else about them, he denigrates them. Lauren won't think them useless skills, though; she might find a use for them yet.

Well, when your objective is to learn psionics, blacksmithing isn't psionics.

Thu Feb 19 2009 11:20 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Ah, yes, but your objective is to learn psionics. Her objective is to share skills that will be useful to those who know them.

I apologize for missing yesterday. It was not so much a bad day as a seriously disrupted and exhausting one. I am making up for the absence by working today, and so will address the posts from Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2.

My recollection of Kurt's story is that the "mystery girl" was not that pleased to see the spy show up at the baccarat table. On the other hand, she did want to talk to him. Still, her objective at the moment is to get close to Steranko, and so if he's going to interfere with that, it will take some effort--his best interpersonal score against her 1@9 will power in comparitive difficult attribute checks. He has a 2@1 an-mag, bonused +5 because he is trying to do something very appropriate to the hero in this genre (get the attention of the girl) which makes it effectively 2@6. He rolls (d30+10=)15, which she can beat maybe, but her roll is 34, not a chance there.

The questions for Harry are 1) has Rob piloted the ship around the iceberg and 2) if not, are we in trouble? Since Harry has no control over this, I can use Rob's piloting skill against a general effects roll--not an easy combination to use, but an effective one. The GE roll is 9, very favorable conditions allowing a bonus on the piloting skill check, which is 94--not a botch but not a success either.

I've rolled a 17 simple persuasion check for Nikolaj, who has a 1@7 persuasion--we are right on the failure point. It's time for a difficult objection.

Derek will start to teach John 2 and Lauren some basic computer programming skill. He's got a lot of skill in that area, and a lot of related skills he can teach, but this is the place to start--if John wants to learn.

--M. J. Young

Sun Feb 22 2009 1:30 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I see Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2 in play.

I've actually been waiting for Harry to use his TK pulse against the iceberg--and now that I think of it, this might qualify as a new use, as he is attempting to move a freefloating object away from another floating object (one which is not exactly freefloating, since it is under sail and rudder). He said "poke" four times. I could take that as continue for four attempts or continue until there are four successes, but first let me calculate his chance of success and roll the first one. He has a 1@8 SAL and 1@9 BRA in a flatlined bias world, so that's 37%, and the first roll is 76, 15, 27, 55, that's two successes in four tries. I think I'll keep going on it, because I'm inclined to think that if he gets enough solid successes fast enough he can push the iceberg far enough out of the center of the stream that it will slow down. 77, 39, 15, 81, 92, 32, that's four.

I'm also going to roll for navigating into the harbor at Moon of Korg, because it's tricky there. Harry rolls 77, which is not good for him but not a botch. Someone else will take the helm.

I really like what Nikolaj is doing with this. He might be able to turn the scenario on its head by bringing the greater God to the lesser people--a really wonderful parable, in a way. Make the orcs the evangelists of the true faith, and the civilized people might discover that they are not superior after all.

John 2 wants to call out of work and then come in to use the facilities. That's going to take winning a comparitive difficult persuasion check, his persuasion against the 1@6 will power of his boss. That's 1@6 for each, but John has to make the roll or it preserves the status quo--which is "No". John rolls 18, very nearly successful but not good enough. His boss rolls 23, which is rather soft on the matter, so he's not going to be upset about it.

And that, as they say, is that.

--M. J. Young

Mon Feb 23 2009 12:41 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2 are my players today.

Kurt has bypassed an assassination attempt by yet another assassin, because he did not introduce himself at the table. However, Ziggy is still looking for him. I'm not sure where this takes us, but we'll see what he does when he gets his room, and go from there.

Harry may well have found a new way to use his ability to purify things. This indeed would work--not, perhaps, with exactly the same spell (which has elements strongly suggesting that it is about restoring food to freshness), but with another spell modeled on the same concept.

Nikolaj has attempted to speak with a spirit--something which in his definitions would be akin to an archangel. Whether I take it as a "non-talker" or an "off-world", it is a M+7@7 spell--within the bias, as it's something the clerics of Gaia do rather regularly. He is not asking any questions, and does not require a response, but merely wishes to send her his assurances that he is not her enemy, but a fellow-servant with her. I see this as a minimalist approach, but the baseline 3:00 TF for a "single question", +10 because there is no question but -20 for a 0:45 TF. He must kneel and touch the ground, +15, using appropriate words +5. We'll call it Send Message to Spirit Being, and roll: 54 is rolled, his bias is 7@9, his 1@8 religion gives him +9, there's +10 for the alliance world, and we've got a 1@8 BRA listed. I get 57% before adding the +10 SM for the skill, so that's a success, 1@2 Send Message to Spirit Being M+7@7, kneel and touch object connected to targeted being, speak the name of the being to whom you wish to speak, and speak the message, 0:45 TF +30SM. That means he has successfully commmunicated to Gaia. The question is, how will she respond? This being alliance holy magic, I think I should use a 2d10+1 GE roll, moderate results suggesting that she ignores him, good results giving some sort of favorable answer, bad results suggesting that she is offended or sulking. The roll is 12, Good Enough.

My question about his prayers reminds me of an aside:

A Catholic priest, a Pentecostal minister, and a Guru were conversing about prayer over lunch one day, while a telephone repairman was fighting with the circuits in the small cafe where they met. The Catholic said, "The best way to pray, of course, is kneeling with your head bowed and your eyes closed.

The Pentecostal replied, "I really don't agree. I find that the best position for me to pray is standing with my eyes and hands raised toward heaven."

The Guru offered, "No, one must prostrate oneself before the holy one, face down on the floor, to truly be heard."

At this point the telephone repairman interjected. "I know you guys are professionals and all," he said, "but really, I find that I've done my best praying hanging upside down by one foot from a telephone pole."

All right, enough of that.

John 2 is being impatient. Lauren is not.

--M. J. Young

Tue Feb 24 2009 4:06 am #
Nikolaj
Member

hahah, nice quote. I usually don't care much how I position myself to pray so I've given the most likely thing. Another thing I often do is go for a 'prayer-walk', in which I can often feel the presence as if He's walking besides me and we are conversing that way, sort of.

Tue Feb 24 2009 7:36 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

A taxi driver and a priest both die and are taken before God. God says "You both served me faithfully, and now you get your reward." The priest was rewarded with a brand new Volkswagen Beetle, while the taxi driver was rewarded with a brand new Lamborghini. The priest is understandably curious about this and asks "God, I spent my entire life serving you, and all I get is this Volkswagen, and that taxi driver gets the Lamborghini. What gives?" God replies "Here, we go with results. When you preached, people slept. When he drove, people prayed."

Tue Feb 24 2009 9:05 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium--but I'm probably the only one old enough here to pick up that reference, so before we get to our Belgian we will play games with Kurt and Harry, then turn to Nikolaj, and wrap up with John 2.

Kurt is off-script--a good thing, because if he were on script, one assassin would attempt to kill him with a scorpion while another would blow up his entire room with a rocket launcher. There is still a chance that Ziggy will come after him; but since he did not interfere with the baccarat game, Steranko still does not know who he is. More significantly, though, the mystery woman is trying to get to Steranko, and Kurt has not disrupted her plan, so we need a GE roll to figure out what happens. I think that Kurt would consider it bad if Steranko was killed, worse if the girl was killed, worst of all if he is attacked, best of the girl gets to his room unscathed, and the neutral result probably means that nothing happens for a while. His roll is 17, can't get more neutral than that, so everything goes into a holding pattern for a while.

My notes say that nothing untoward happens in Moon of Korg, so Harry can get himself drunk and sing and party with the locals and other sailors, and I'll let that go.

Nikolaj uses a kind of neat book and tells another joke, and asks a couple questions. How did Qormlach's talk with his father go? GE 14 says Not desired but generally favorable result.

John 2 has opened for an opportunity to expound, through the limitations of Lauren Hastings, on his problems with failure and botches in his prayers and psionics.

--M. J. Young

Wed Feb 25 2009 12:19 am #
Nikolaj
Member

Lol, now I've got to go rent that movie (long live google)

Wed Feb 25 2009 8:02 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Let me know if it's any good. I know what it's about (a whirlwind tour of Europe) but I never saw it, and it was long enough ago that I would not have recognized any of the actors' names at the time.

It's late, but I'm here, so let me see what I can do with Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2.

Kurt's GE roll set him up for a late night meeting, I think. Let's go forward with that.

Harry gives me an interesting challenge: he wants to speed the journey a bit on this last leg. I'll give him a five skill checks, and for each success I'll shave twelve hours off the time--but I'll add a day if he botches. The rolls are 87, 13, 78, 01, and 97, that's going to require a bit of checking. His BRA is 2@3, SAL is 1@4, world bias 7@, that's 51% which gives him a 4% chance to botch, and botch he did.

In an odd quirk, it appears that the post-fantasy universe which Nikolaj is visiting is less magical than the world from which he started: its 7@7 bias does not support his 7@9 discernment of Good and Evil Natures ability. Thus although he was able to receive a vision showing the relationship between Gaia and God, he was not able to sense her nature when he met her. Anyway, if he's going to raise difficult theological questions to a boy, he's going to get some in return.

John 2 mostly moves to the next day.

--M. J. Young

Thu Feb 26 2009 8:47 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I only feel like I'm late today, because I expected to be here earlier, and I am hoping to catch a couple of shows later. However, I should have ample opportunity to see what is happening with Kurt, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam.

Kurt describes what I would class a P5@0 Self Control skill, the ability to force himself into wakefulness. Under the circumstances it's not going to matter, but I will list it, considering "pretty good" to be a 1@8 SAL, and describing it as "slapping face softly to encourage wakefulness, allows second will power check on staying awake." It is the girl.

Nikolaj is getting close to having his first convert in this universe.

John 2 wants to change his shift. I figure that there are three possible answers in this case--no, the boss doesn't want to have anyone on that shift, or yes, that change is simple enough, or let's wait a couple weeks and see whether he thinks John can handle the shop without the boss' supervision. I'll use a GE roll to determine just how persuasive John needs to be: 18, not favorable. A successful simple check will give him the change in a couple weeks, but a successful difficult check (which I'll roll first) will do it now. The difficult check is 14, solidly within his 1@6 persuasion. Ah, but he seems to have forgotten that he's supposed to teach them first--in fact, he's a day behind, this is yesterday's lesson, and he already got yesterday's psionics lesson.

Adam and Geneice are being playful. We'll wrap that up and head into the next day, and back to the magic and psionics lessons soon.

--M. J. Young

Fri Feb 27 2009 1:45 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Most of the threads today are games, so let me wade in and start playing with Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam.

Kurt finally meets Mariska, and gets her version of the story. Since it fits pretty well with his, he's probably a step ahead on this.

There is a degree to which the success or failure of Harry's new spell does not matter, because he will not be there for it; there is another aspect, though, and that is that he is adding a spell to his abilities. His roll of 31 gives me no doubt that the spell will be learned, and will work. I'm just not that eager to crunch the numbers for it. Well, there's nothing for it--let me tackle this.

M3@1 remove impurities, 1:00 baseline TF against 5:00:00 casting is +80 to reach 4:16:00, and 0:44:00 is roughly 17% of that, so +2 more, -10 for the break in the casting, +10 for active holy ground, +10 because the holy ground is destroyed, +10 for the skill check on the sword swish (roll of 25 says he makes it successfully), +5 appropriateness, +5 for the inclusion of the Latin trigger word, +15 for complete body involvement, +30 for six uncut emeralds, +30 for sacrificing them, +2 for sacrificing a flower, and we're looking at +189 SM. Now I have to write it up: 1@1 Remove Impurities--delayed M+3@1 5:00:00TF plus trigger action, pace circle around holy ground, sword in hand, successful (skill check) sword swish, other hand upraised, left eye covered, sacrifice six emeralds and one flower, invoking Odin, Thor, and Frey. After any length of time, another individual may touch the holy ground and speak the Latin word "Novitas", causing all food products within the holy ground to be restored to freshness, +189SM.

This is not quite a conversion for Nikolaj, but I think we've got a miracle coming. I'm not going to roll for it right this moment, in part because I'm not sure I know how to handle it all (it is not a combined persons prayer, but more Nikolaj praying for something and Qormlach also praying for something, so I'll have to figure out exactly what that all means), and in any case the miracle won't happen instantly, I think. That gives me a day to think about it.

John 2 teaches some blacksmithing techniques, and the next installment is the lunchtime lessons.

I received a note not too long ago giving me some greatly appreciated help. The relevant portion reads:

If I’m reading right, the last spells Merlin taught Adam and Geneice before they left for London were Group Flight and Delayed Teleport, both M12@8. (Adam learned some more since then, but I don’t think any had a higher bias.) Adam had wanted to learn Create Pain, Feign Death, and Create Water, but Merlin won’t Create Pain and is only an amateur at Feign Death, so he decided to build his students’ magic skills by teaching them movement spells first.

That means that unless Adam has new ideas by now or Merlin decides to narrow the bias gap further, the next magic skill would be this one:

Feign Death M13@6

Arcane spell, mimic something in magic going wrong, and dies from it. Baseline effect, RSx3 minute duration, 0:06 casting time, appropriate words in Latin, sound is vital, words said forcefully. Caster uses whole body, foci in hand ok, ritual is not exhausting. Piece of paper with “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.” – Ezekiel 25:17 mixed with Revelations and “The Lord is My Shepherd”, which is consumed in the casting.

The most recent psionic skill was History of Object P11@2; after that the schedule went as follows: Danger Sense P12@1; Predict Major Event P12@6; Precognitive Scrying P12@9; Perceive Futures P12@10. Just before the London trip, Merlin seemed concerned that Adam needed to spend more time on retrocognition before moving on to precognition, so he may have planned to fill in another skill. Then again, page 18 of Behind the Screens 2008 says “there is good reason not to learn two ‘can you feel the vibrations’ skills too close together”, so Merlin may have wanted Adam to focus on other things for a while.

Adam had also planned to use the super-soldier serum he designed in Why Spy as a component of a spell which would produce the same effect magically. This, though, probably has to wait until well after Create Food.

If you want to review this information yourself, I’m getting it from pages 9 and 10 of Adam’s thread.
Again, I extend my thanks for that assistance.

The question then is outer or inner powers, and I think that the outer powers are more advanced, so more benefit can be gained from raising the inner powers. As to whether Merlin will jump from an 11@2 History of Object to a 12@1 Danger Sense is less clear. I am inclined to think that there would be an 11@3 History of Place (because it can be useful, certainly an 11@5 Read Person (which is a good way to know whether the "person" might or might not be human), maybe an 11@6 Perceive Cause or 11@7 Perceive Chain, which would give the wizard a clear history of how things came to be as they are. In any case, I can't imagine not including the Read Person, and the History of Place seems to be at least as useful as the History of Object.

--M. J. Young

Sat Feb 28 2009 12:58 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Wow, look at all the posts. I've already hit those that do not involve me in gameplay, and now I come to Kurt again starting us, Harry, the return of John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and Graeme. It's a big game today.

We'll bring Kurt's conversation to a dramatic movement.

Harry's proposed plan raises several questions. How soon can he get passage, and how direct is the trip? What will it cost, and will they let him work off part of the passage? Can he find the best option? Some considerations include that the prevailing current of the known route runs the opposite direction, but there must be ships that go the other way. That suggests that they loop out to sea some distance; but it makes more sense for them to run a long stretch from Sardic to Durnmist and then hit the other ports coming back in the current. Ships are unlikely to hire someone for part of the voyage, as it means having to replace them. On the other hand, I can see the Sardic Shipping Company running passenger lines and giving discounts to retiring crewmen. So with all that to consider, let's drop a GE roll: 16 falls right in the middle.

It took me a bit of study to get back to where we left John 3, but I think I've got it now. (I also made a trip through a blizzard to get some things from the grocery store before it closed, so it did not take me as long as the timestamps suggest.)

O.K., I'm piecing together what's happening with Nikolaj and Qormlach, and it seems to me that 1) Nikolaj is instructing Qormlach and providing him with an example, and 2) Nikolaj is praying that Qormlach's chance of success would be bonused, very specifically in connection with asking God to prove Himself. We have to tackle that second part first, to know how it impacts the first part.

It's a M+1@4 Bonus Skill Check by other for Getting God to Reveal Himself, and I am thinking that such a skill for a faith that is highly proselytizing would itself be at +10 (one of those nature of the faith bonuses). It requires contact, +20. The TF looks to me to be about 2:00, including overlap time with the other prayer. The usual TF is 1:00 so that's +10. Also, the duration is usually RS minutes, and this prayer effects others for let's say 5:00, so we'll give him +10 for that. We have appropriate words, +5, and the use of tongues which is itself a separate skill check +10 and means that part of the prayer is quite literally in a magical language, +5, but this means that the tongues roll must be successful. We have total body involvement for +15, no materials.

Nikolaj rolls 86 on the use of tongues, which is pretty unlikely even with his 1@8 religion--although it occurs to me that his grasp of the connections between Gaia and God, and of the place of the non-humans in this universe, represent an increase in his understanding of his faith, so I'm bumping it to 1@10, +10 to his chance of success, +10 for alliance world, +20 for a 1@10 SAL in tongues, +18 BRA, and 2x7@ bias equals 72% chance of success on the tongues. Failure on the tongues takes that skill off the table.

Qormlach still gets the benefits of being taught this skill. His bias is 0, and his BRA is probably 1@5. Nikolaj is giving him an example which is hard to categorize (I don't actually have a listing for a "God, prove you're there" skill), but I'll let him use his 1@10 religion for that. His BRA in magic is 1@8, but Qormlach only gets half of that, +9. Nikolaj does have 1@7 teaching skill, and it specifies an emphasis on children so I will let Nikolaj roll that skill for a possible bonus here, the roll is 27 so that will give another +5 (I'm using a straight value). The world bias adds another +7, and this is alliance holy magic for +10, all of which is set against the bias of the target skill, a M+7@7 Communicate Off-world (talking to God). Those bonuses come to 83.

We should check the spell against the baseline, but it's not a straightforward baseline. Communicating off-world can mean all kinds of things, but the simplest is usually 3:00 and even if we stretch Qormlach's prayer to 0:45 that's -20. We have +5 for appropriate words, +15 for kneeling, and that's really all, so we're at the baseline on those modifiers. Thus we are looking at 83 minus 77 leaves 6% chance that this will work as Nikolaj hopes. 39 is not a success here.

Nikolaj says that in this case he will pray another prayer. We'll allow that it is a 0:45TF attempt to do what he just suggested that Qormlach do, that God reveal Himself to Qormlach. This is much simpler for Nikolaj, except that we just assumed that he had a similar skill. I'm going to fudge on that a bit: Nikolaj clearly has a skill of talking to God, which he was trying to teach Qormlach. This is a skill of getting God to reveal Himself, a variant of the same 7@7 communicate off-world skill. We've got the same mods here (kneeling plus appropriate words against a shortened TF), but he starts with a 7@9 bias, 1@8 BRA, 1@10 religion, +10 for alliance, 40% chance that he will learn this skill on one attempt, and he rolls 85, the dice are just running very cold tonight--but then, Nikolaj is trying to convert a member of the only race not already devoted to an alliance deity, and we can easily explain the problem there.

John 2 apparently wants me to dig through his thread for information that he doesn't want to look for himself. Not doing that tonight; I've enough to do.

We'll get some initial interaction going between Graeme's three people, and see where that takes us.

--M. J. Young

Mon Mar 2 2009 3:33 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

John 2 apparently wants me to dig through his thread for information that he doesn't want to look for himself. Not doing that tonight; I've enough to do.

Oh, I assumed you kept notes on things like that. I'll look for it then.

Mon Mar 2 2009 3:40 am #
Nikolaj
Member

wow, I sure made you work on the numbers it seems.

Mon Mar 2 2009 1:07 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Nikolaj, I don't really mind working on the numbers, even when it's time consuming. When players throw mechanics problems at me (and particularly when they do it merely by having their characters do what they would do) I face the challenge of figuring out how the game can make that work. It's not always easy, but I usually manage.

Kurt, Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, and John 2 are my players.

Kurt makes a bold move, hugging Mariska; but I'm going to give it to him--he is, after all, the spy here, and a hug is not a major offense. He guessed wrong about Ziggy, but Mariska will put him right.

Harry and I are getting his finances in order.

John 3 requests information about the patient, and also wants his character sheet--not unreasonable, given how long it's been since he played. I've got a 17 GE on the patient's condition, which is right smack in the middle. His skill check is 33, which is a decent success for a healing.

Nikolaj is pushing the battle into the spiritual dimension. I need to pay close attention to detail here to resolve it.

John 2 has some questions, and Lauren has some answers. Lauren rolls 75 on projecting a skill pattern, but adding things up I get a chance of success of 74, unless there's a familiarity bonus that I've missed--and since there might be, and it's only 1% difference, I'll give it to him. He then rolls 51, an easy 1@2 Search Memories P1@1 success.

--M. J. Young

Tue Mar 3 2009 1:51 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

Isn't Lauren's roll of 75 a bonus on me learning it? Or does that only count if I roll the high number?

Tue Mar 3 2009 9:48 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Lauren's roll of 75 is a success to project the pattern, giving you of an example. The value of the example is equal to her skill ability level in the skill projected. You get that same value whether she rolls 1 or 75, as long as the skill pattern is successfully projected. But you made the skill learning roll anyway--what am I not understanding about your question?

Kurt, Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam are playing.

I suddenly remember a detail of Kurt's gear that I may have overlooked. It's not too late; I don't think he'd have used it yet.

Harry has a couple days to kill in the big city, but he's in good shape for it.

John 3 rolls an 18 GE on the condition of the next patient. That makes him a bit worse than the last neutral result. Pick a problem--I'm good.

I am going to crunch numbers on Nikolaj's prayers now. Based on his suggestion that he would pray for from fifteen minutes to an hour, I'm going to make the protection portion 15:00 and the information portion 45:00. I'm listing the latter as a skill he already has, a M+7@7 Seek Knowledge for which I'm giving him the highest amateur SAL I can, 1@10. I'm also stating that the answer comes through a M+7@6 Dreams and Visions, which is a separately rolled skill which means that he gets +10 to this one. He also gets +5 for appropriate words, and since he is asking one question in 15:00 instead of 3:00 that's +23 more. That makes this 1@10 Seek Knowledge M+7@7 pray for 15:00 for the answer to a question; the answer usually comes in the form of a M7@6 dreams and visions success. +38 SM, and in forty-five minutes he can pray it thrice.

First, though, he is going to pray for protection for 15:00. The question is, how long will it last? I'm looking at a baseline of 1:00 TF and 10:00 duration, but thinking that he doesn't need the protection until the attack comes. I'll increase the duration to 80:00 at -30, and then increase the TF to 15:00, 3 7/8 doublings, +39. He gets appropriate words, +5, and +5 because alliance powers favor protections. I'm also building in a delay at -10, such that this protection is triggered by an attack. That also means that normally I would not roll it until the attack is launched, but in this case it will be rolled now to see if he learns it (he will, I'm sure, but we need to know how well). The defensive value with be RS=SM against all incoming attacks. He rolls 48, 1@1 Protection against Spirit Powers M+1@6 pray 15:00 for protection, gives RS=SM against attacks by spirits for 80:00, duration tolls from first such attack, +9SM. He then rolls thrice for the information, 77, 75, 58; his chance of success is 1@10 SAL+38SM+10 religion SAL+10 alliance+14 bias+18 BRA=110%, but he still has to get the vision rolls successful actually to receive the information, so those rolls are against a 1@2 SAL with the same BRA, Religion, Alliance, and Bias making 64%, and the rolls are 66, 44, 01.

It happens that I have a villain in the spirit world here who would very much not want orcs turning to God, so he's become my choice. Nikolaj has made a powerful enemy, but he knew that was a possibility.

John 2 gets a 15 GE roll on the other holster.

Merlin rolls 60 and 29 on his skill projection skill, so Adam and Geneice both have solid examples of how to do a P11@3 History of Place.

--M. J. Young

Wed Mar 4 2009 12:25 am #
Nikolaj
Member

Lol, the first world that Eric put me in (Aquatica or something?) I also made an enemy for life, as I called God down and banished the ruling evil Squid or something, while versing myself because of seeing God face to face. That however had not been the intention, but was awesome cool non the less :P

Wed Mar 4 2009 1:20 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I'm running late; it was a busy day. However, let's see what we can do for Kurt, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam.

Kurt is going to take the bull by the horns, but he's got the tiger to help him now.

John 3 wonders about hospitality, but it doesn't seem to me as if that would be a problem under the circumstances.

Nikolaj again prays that protection prayer, but this time his roll is 98, which is going to be a botch. Thing is, I can handle this at least two ways. He already prayed this successfully. This can trigger the attack which triggers the protection already in place; or this can void the previous protection. I like the former better, but it's going to require a bit of thought to implement. Meanwhile, let's roll for the protection prayer prayed for Qormlach, 12 is good. There is also a prayer for God to reveal Himself to Qormlach--the prayer Qormlach prayed for himself, but this time Nikolaj is praying it for someone else. That's not already listed on his sheet, so I'm going to have to crunch a few numbers. It's a communicate off-world variant, M7@7, baseline TF probably 3:00 against a 15:00 prayer makes +23, words only is -10, appropriate is +5, and that's really all there is to this so let's roll, 39 will be a success. I'll have to deal with that separately.

Sarne could attack Nikolaj directly, or he could send one of his believers. The latter is unlikely, given the nature of the ranch. Unless Sarne chooses to manifest himself corporeally (leaving himself open for a lot more danger) he has to abide by the indig bias limits. (If he appears, he has to abide by the curve but not the level, like Nikolaj and all off-world visitors, but when he is not present he cannot send magic into that world that his priests could not use.) Since we have a 7@7 bias, a curve of 14, a 6@8 crusher is possible. He has the roll of 48 from last night's protection prayer. Sarne has an 2@5 strike value, 2@10 SAL, 2@10 BRA, 15@ bias limited to the world's 7@, -10 for anarch magic, 89 minus Nikolaj's defensive values, which include his -48 protection, and his Target Value. He doesn't have that yet, but I'm giving him a 1@6 agility, he already has a 1@8 intuition, and it's evident that he has a 1@1 density (because he does not have 2@ strength or stamina), so that's 1@5 TV. That's -63 for his defenses. The attack is base damaging +2DC makes it lethal, and the chance of success is 89-63=26. Sarne rolls 80. The attack is RF1, but because of his 2@ strike value and 2@ SAL he gets four attacks in the minute. The second roll is 73. Nikolaj is now fighting with a very real invisible enemy.

John 2's gunsshop owner roll is 17, right in the middle, so it's just chatter. Lauren rolls 64 on projecting the psionic skill pattern for projecting a psionic skill pattern, and John rolls 46 on learning it, so he's got that one 1@1 project psionic skill pattern P1@2.

Adam goes out to learn his skill, but there might be an adventure here, depending on what we all do.

--M. J. Young

Thu Mar 5 2009 8:00 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Kurt, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam are playing.

I can think of a way Kurt might get to Steranko; but there's more to this story ahead.

We can move through John 3's story fairly quickly. He should have a GE roll for the night--it could be that there's a bad storm and everyone is inside, even pinned down for the next day (a 30?), or that he winds up preaching all night and turning people to Christ (a 3?). The roll is a disappointing 20. He also has a skill check on his prayer--but wait, he usually does his prep time, and he did not mention that, so I'll check.

Nikolaj is fighting back. He is using his Bible, for which I will give him +4 (a specific book) as a material component, +5 for appropriate words, and we have the 1:00:00 TF but we're not sure what exactly is being done--that is, we know that this is both offensive and defensive (because the armor includes a weapon). Since it is targeting spirit powers, a M+1@10 Torture Spirit Power seems to be the best foundation; it has a 1:00 TF for a single attack. To this we add another protection, that for which Nikolaj is specifically praying, M+1@6. That means two effects, -10 for incorporating the second.

The big problem is figuring out the offense side, that is, how many attacks is Nikolaj getting. I'm thinking that what he describes would take about five minutes to do one time. If I make the protection concurrent with the casting, I'm cutting it from RS minutes (average can be as high as 50.5) to 5:00, for which I think +36 is an appropriate bonus. He also gets +23 for extending the time from 1:00 to 5:00 on the attack. The attack is base dangerous with pain requiring a will power check, RS=Simple/Difficult/None. Thus I will say that the spell takes five minutes, and if he is doing it for an hour he is doing it twelve times--perfectly reasonable, fighting against a wicked godling like Sarne. That also means that the first roll is a learning roll, but subsequent rolls are use. I want to look at the skill before finalizing it. The total sit-mods are +58, but I can take -10 from that and raise the base damage from dangerous to lethal, and another -10 to go from lethal to fatal. Let's do that.

The learning roll is 36, which gives us 1@1 Spirit Combat M+1@10 incorporates M+1@6 protection RS=SM with base fatal pain attack, will power check RS=S/D/N, pray, reading from a Bible, Ephesians 6:10-18, 5:00TF, protection concurrent with casting, attack at end of time, +38SM.

The -36 protection is cumulative with the existing -48 protection and his 1@5 TV, which makes -99 for the present. Sarne's attacks cannot penetrate, but he can botch, although now that this is combat those botches will only cost him an attack. To save myself the trouble, I will hold off on the attack rolls and simple describe the continued barrage.

Sarne is going to have a 2@ damage value, so the roll of 36 which would mean 18 intensities of damage at fatal gets cut to 9--still a significant impact. Sarne also has a 3@5 will power, so his simple check roll of 7 is a success, although a weak one.

Nikolaj's second roll is 70, and I'm going to have to crunch the numbers for that--and give him some. He's an artist, so we'll give him a 1@10 hand/eye. He has a 1@8 intuition. That means he has a 1@9 Ranged Strike Value, 1@8 BRA, +9 for religion, +10 for alliance, +1@1 for the SAL, +38 SM, +2x7@ bias=119, from which we subtract Sarne's defenses, which at present are not more than his TV, something in the 2@ range which is not sufficient to protect him against this attack. That's 35 intensities, divide by two and discard for 17, added to the previous 9 makes 26, a very solid problem for Sarne who will flee if he is able, but must make a difficult will power check to take action, the die roll of 1 equals 11, the weakest success he could have.

And hey, that gives me a solution to the question of how God reveals himself to Qormlach. I hope Nikolaj picks up the hints.

John 2 is constructing his knife.

This is one of the things I love about playing with good players. I was thinking that an abandoned castle would be a good hideout for bandits, and Adam reminds me that it might well be a good lair for a vampire. It's only been abandoned less than a year, since Uther died without heir, so it's not going to be too well fortified--but a vampire is a real possibility. I'm going to roll a GE roll now for what's actually there, but I'm almost thinking that Adam's hope is to fight something nasty. No, a good roll will be something useful in residence, and a neutral roll an empty building. 13 is barely good enough.

This has been particular fun today. Thanks to all for playing.

--M. J. Young

Thu Mar 5 2009 9:22 pm #
Nikolaj
Member

Yeah, wow. This is some action. I was wondering how you would get action in how my character act, but you seem to have found my trigger.

I hope I got all the hints as well. But since the being looked like a woman, she wouldn't really be Jesus, so I went for Gaia or an angelic being, coming to aid. The Gaia thing especially because of the greenish white glow.

Thu Mar 5 2009 9:55 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I have not been well today, so permit me to note that there are posts waiting from John 3, John 2, Nikolaj, Harry, and Adam, and to come back to answer them tomorrow. Maybe I'll read them now for inspiration, but I'm thinking that I need to get back to bed.

--M. J. Young

Sat Mar 7 2009 3:27 am #
Oak
Member

Get well soon, MJ! :)

Sat Mar 7 2009 7:22 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

I'm with Oak, Get well soon MJ.

Everybody, pray for MJ. Pray to whatever god you believe in.

Sat Mar 7 2009 7:38 am #
Nikolaj
Member

Yeah Mark, get well soon! And take plenty of rest and drink lots of water :)

Sat Mar 7 2009 8:47 am #
johnosevens
Member

Blessed be, chief. Here's to your health.

Sun Mar 8 2009 3:36 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Than you for your kind wishes. I've lost more time today than I expected, but I am here early enough that I ought to be able to finish what I should have started yesterday. I've got open threads for Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam, so let's get started.

Harry wants to get more information about the world in which he is staying. I probably should have (it occurs to me now) given him some information that he had already learned, but what he knows about Sardic is less important than what he learns about Durnmist, so we're probably good.

Checking on the ritual for the healing magic bonus for John 3, I find no required body actions, and thus he can perform this while walking through the woods. He rolls 13, which gives him +3 for the next 3:15:00, long enough to include his prayer upon arrival. 93, though, is too high a roll for the healing to work even with its +14SM and +3 bonus, I think. Let me check, just to be certain. He has a 12@ bias, but the world's bias is only 7@, so that's +14 for bias, +12 for half his 2@3 religion, his 2@2 BRA, and his 1@2 SAL, and +10 for alliance world=87%, terribly close.

He repeats the prayer sequence, this time rolling 22 on the quite time for +5 for 5:30:00, coming back with an 04 for a weakly successful healing. He's getting a reputation. This gets more interesting.

Nikolaj again opens a channel to speak to Gaia, a roll of 40 an easy success. It takes him 0:00:45 to do that, and then he wants to add a blessing. The simplest way to address it is to take it as a M+1@4 bonus checks applying particularly to supporting life, give it +10 for the limit to supporting life, +10 because contact must be made through the other skill, +15 for total body involvement, +5 for appropriate words, cut the 1:00 TF to 0:30 at -10, and roll 50 for a successful 1@1 Bless the Spirit of the Earth M+1@4 bonus checks related to supporting life, must first contact the spirit blessed (separate skill check M7@7 or comparable), kneel and touch the ground, and speak appropriate words of blessing, +30SM.

John 2 is still making his knife, and we're discussing the handle.

Adam rolls 67 on his 1@2 Detect Vampires and Ghouls M7@6 Arcane, 50’ Radius around Caster, Detect Vampires and Ghouls for RSx6 Minutes, 6 Second TF, Appropriate Words in Latin, Forcefully Said, Sound Vital, both arms and hands, foci may be used in hand, +13SM. I'm assuming that he will also roll to use the focus, 83, and I don't actually see a use focus spell but given his 15@ mag bias this will give him one, 1@3 Use Focus/Holy Symbol M+1@1 hold or wear object as appropriate while performing other magic, +RS/10 bonus to spells cast while focus is active, RS minutes. That gives him +9 along with his 1@2 SAL, 2x15@ bias, and 2@6 BRA=90%, so that's a good solid success. I need to know, now, whether there are vampires and/or ghouls about. I'm wondering whether he's hoping so or hoping not, but I think he'd enjoy a bit of a confrontation even though he's hoping the coast is clear. In any case, it's day, so if there are vampires in the area, they're not close at hand. My GE roll says 21, bad enough.

We might have a bit of a party there before we continue.

--M. J. Young

Sun Mar 8 2009 3:45 am #

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