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Ending a Decade Behind the Screens

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Started 8 months ago by M. J. Young
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M. J. Young
Moderator

I have already apologized for my complete confusion concerning days since the holiday; those who read the Blogless Lepolt entry Blame It On the Holiday have seen this. Here's hoping that with the new week in the new year I can get back on track. I am of course challenged by the fact that in my absence quite a few have managed to post, so I must catch up threads from Michael, Ahmetia, Brock, Maxx, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2. Here's hoping we can address them all.

Michael wants to know whether he can discern why Annie rarely says anything. There's a reason for that, really, but whether he can perceive it will require a simple intuition check: 7+16=23, too high.

Ahmetia is continuing her carriage conversation.

We'll also continue Brock's informative conversation with Ann.

Maxx and I are still working on the definitions and effects of his skills.

I wonder whether Mariska will think that Kurt is testing her knowledge, and if so how she will take that. Still, he's right to think that it would be good to get some instruction in the care and use of a 9mm pistol. This will give him an instructor and an example in repair of the gun (maintenance being low-level repair), and his roll of 48 says that he can learn it from that, 1@1 Repair Pistol T6@2 (9mm semiautomatic).

I have posted Harry's work schedule in its own thread, Harry's Firefighter Schedule, and pointed him to it as well as started his action forward anew.

Nikolaj is again challenging me to consider whether this is a combined skill or two individuals performing the same skill. I'm inclined toward the latter, and will handle it so. Nikolaj will go first, in what is another M+7@7 Prayer for Third Party Revelation. Our time factor is baseline, but there is a delayed effect for -10. We have +5 appropriate words, and I take "out loud" to mean that sound is necessary, +2. Having the eyes closed gives it an action component, but our total sit-mod is -3. He's got a 7@9 bias, +10 for religion, +10 for alliance, +BRA of 1@9, 118-80=48% chance of success. He rolls 20, good for 1@1 Prayer for Third Party Revelation M+7@7 pray aloud 15:00 for God to speak to people through the words and actions of the user and his companions, -3SM. The question of whether Bredd also learns it is more difficult. I am not certain of his bias.

Lauren rolls 39 on giving John 2 the pattern for the psionic slicer; he rolls 05 on learning it, 1@1 Slicer P10@6 Dangerous.

--M. J. Young

Sun Jan 3 2010 8:57 pm #
Nikolaj
Member

Yes, I meant it as two individual prayers (spoken at the same time). I will be more clear in the future (I hope)

Sun Jan 3 2010 9:02 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

MJ, my computer caught a nasty cold and I am using the spare computer I had laying around the house for emergencies. All of this is to say that I don't have my character sheet anymore. Help?

Sun Jan 3 2010 9:21 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

Strike that. I managed to recover the sheets I needed.

Sun Jan 3 2010 11:07 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator
John--I advise doing regular backups of all files that you cannot easily acquire from original install disks or Internet downloads.
I've got posts from Michael, Brock, Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2.

Michael's design is very simple, so I'm going to give him +30 on his polymers skill, and the roll is 62 which requires me to double-check. His Tech BRA is 2@2 and his SAL is 1@5, so 37+30=67, it's good I gave him as generous a bonus as I did. He will be tackling the psionic computer next--a tempting treat, really, but we'll see whether he finds it useful.

I'll continue giving Brock answers to questions.

I'm reversing the order of tasks in Maxx' thread because he was doing the force wall before he started talking to Lelach. He's going to attempt a 10@1 force wall, but a roll of 96 is not promising even with his 9@2 bias, 1@10 BRA, and 15@ world bias--a sum of 127 minus 101 is 26% chance of success, 74% chance of failure, 7% chance to botch, which is 94 and up. I had the opportunity to consult on this with the Psientist himself, and I think we've got a pretty decent set here:
1. Trapped in force cage
2. Explosion
3. Force object slices path ahead
4. Wall out of reach
5. Psionic Shock Wave
6. Neural Breakdown
7. Brain Burn
8. Pinned beneath force object
And he rolls the absolute coolest but possibly most dangerous of these, a 3. I need a GE roll for how bad a swath this cuts--hopefully no one will be in it. 24 is very bad, As Bad As Anticipated, but I think that won't get his mother.

I'll skip a bit and give him the answers to his questions, but I think there may be trouble from what he's done.

I notice that the new stopwatch loses the hundredth when it's been running for an hour, so I have to stop and restart it at this point. That's all right, because Harry mostly needs a GE roll to determine whether this fire is going to interrupt his rest ritual: and 27 is. Well, it could have been for something much worse.

Bredd's Mag bias is 0@0; his 1@1 Religion M1@0 religion gives him +6 for religion but nothing for bias (because @0 skills do not). He gets the +10 for alliance world, and a BRA which we'll allow is 1@6. Nikolaj instructed him giving half his 1@9 Mag BRA for +10, and is a 1@8 teacher, and provided the 1@1 example, all of which sums to 84, from which we subtract the 7@6 target and the -3 sit-mod on the skill for a 5% chance of success, and we roll the dice: 64 is nothing. Nikolaj's prayer had effect; it is unlikely that anyone will notice that Bredd's did not. Nikolaj now offers another prayer, and I will have to examine that one once I have the answer to another question.

The only real question for John 2 is what time today things happen; that is, does he get his psionics lesson before everything goes wrong, or not. 10 says yes, but there's not much left to teach him. He might overlook the advantage of knowing the skill she offers, but it's not an advantage she would be able to explain to him, and it's not one that will matter in this world anyway. Otherwise, he asks what I may not answer.

--M. J. Young
Tue Jan 5 2010 1:48 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

Hey MJ, I was wondering, the Millennium starts in 2001, so wouldn't the decade be 2011? Or is Millennium the only oddball?

And for the bonus round, who can tell me what a 5 year span is called? (I know this, I want to see if anyone else does)

(Doing Therapy)

Tue Jan 5 2010 2:43 am #
johnosevens
Member

Yes, technically the decade begins in 2011, but this is when we start calling things the "twenties" like "twenty-ten" and so forth, so it's still significant. I mean, it's 2010. Does anyone else feel like we're now officially living in the 'the future'?

Tue Jan 5 2010 3:04 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

Does anyone else feel like we're now officially living in the 'the future'?

"Welcome to the future"
Brad Paisley.

I never really thought about it like that. I remember when you could still buy 8 track tapes (and I feel so old saying that) I would be willing to bet some of our younger members have never seen one, and might not even know what they are.

I've heard it said that's one of the ways you know you're officially getting older. When you start beginning sentences with "I remember when...."

(Doing Therapy)

Tue Jan 5 2010 3:07 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

Two Posts

Regarding it "officially being the future" I keep thinking that it is 2010. In a scant 5 years, it will be 2015, the future year visited in Back to the Future 2. They better get cracking on those hover cars.

Or perhaps it will be like Demolition Man, where the last recorded murder took place in 2010, then it became an intolerably dull utopia.

(Doing Therapy)

Tue Jan 5 2010 6:14 am #
Brock
Member

Ahh! no more horror stories, please! No, civilization takes longer to change than that. Technology doesn't, and the more we know, the more we can find out, but people aren't that easy to change by that degree without a major global event. In Demolition man, that was the "Big One" (earthquake), coupled with all of the expanding crime and lack of governmental control, that allowed Cocteau to seize control, and change the civilization for "the better". Since I know I don't want a major event like that, I'll hope we progress normally.

Tue Jan 5 2010 9:27 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

Since I know I don't want a major event like that, I'll hope we progress normally.

Some Christians believe in The Rapture, where all of the faithful are taken to Heaven in one fell swoop. This would of course leave cars and planes unmanned, and reduce the medical staff, as well as about 1/3 of the earth's population. This event opens the door for the Antichrist to seize power. If that ever happens and you're still here, get to the nearest Christian church. You get another shot in 7 years (or so I've been told)

(Doing Therapy)

Tue Jan 5 2010 9:32 am #
Brock
Member

I've heard of it, but I don't care. All I would say to that is..."Hey, cool, the population problem is solved!"

Tue Jan 5 2010 9:55 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Sorry for the confusion, John. We are "ending the decade" because this is the last year of it--the last year of the "aughts", but no one ever seriously caught on to calling them that. Maybe that's because with today's literacy rates, people would have thought we meant the decade of the "oughts", and it's been rather difficult to tell anyone that there are any moral obligations in life since the sixties.

I'll be back to read forum posts and run games a bit later. I just had a few spare moments and thought I'd check what was happening in several places, and having run a few others wound up here.

--M. J. Young

Tue Jan 5 2010 7:02 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

That's right, it's Century which is the oddball. The century starts in the 00 year, not in the 01 year. I knew one of them was.

And since no one seemed to want to strike at it, a 5 year period is called a Pentad.

The last year of the "aughts" yeah, they used to say "Nineteen aught six" for 1906. It's also where the 30-06 gets it's name. "Thirty-aught-six" Thirty caliber rifle developed in 1906.

Tue Jan 5 2010 7:09 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I disagree with that definition of century. There being no year zero, the first century began with the year 1 and ended with the year 100, and the twentieth century began in 1901 and ended in 2000.

--M. J. Young

Tue Jan 5 2010 7:32 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

Then maybe I'm wrong. It wouldn't be the first time, and certainly won't be the last.

Tue Jan 5 2010 7:48 pm #
Tadeusz
Member

Brock,
I remember reading part of a SF novel that talked about how we were dealing with the Soviets in 2050, and this was the year before the Berlin Wall fell. Actually, society moves at a pretty crisp pace already.

John,
I do occasionally tell my wife that we live in a SF future. Granted, its not the one my grandfather expected, the one with everyone flying to work in helicopters in the year 2000, but its still The Future.

Tue Jan 5 2010 9:23 pm #
Tadeusz
Member

One of my theories (second post) is that we are laying the invisible groundwork that will perhaps in 2030 open the door for the really visible stuff. Looking at it from the perspective of a 2250 kid in school, he might say, 'yeah, some stuff happened then, but it was mostly dull. It was in 2030 when they built the skyhook, and the fusion generators and really started to colonize the solar system.'

After all, which do we remember better....double entry bookkeeping or the invention of the Spanish galleon?

Tue Jan 5 2010 9:27 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I suppose I have been offered an opening to post a link to one of my articles published on someone else's non-gaming web site: The Future, by me, at The Learning Fountain. Tracking it down and re-reading it impresses me with how relevant it still is a decade later (it was published in 1999 in anticipation 2000).

I hope you all benefit from that, but for now let me prognosticate the futures of Michael, Brock, Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2.

Michael is playing with a psionic device.

Brock gets a 14 GE roll on the morning, which is not exactly as he would like it but good enough.

Maxx is going to attempt to identify injured or trapped creatures in the area of devastation by using his heightened awareness or intuition. I think intuition probably is not good enough at this distance, and I'm going to assess a -10 penalty on the heightened awareness, but that still gives him 1@10 BRA+1@4 SAL+2x9@ bias-10=42% chance to notice something--assuming, based on a GE roll, that there is something to notice. He rolls 24, so he notices; the GE is 10, which under the circumstances is rather favorable. Still, Lelach is not going to be too comfortable in a place where some completely inexplicable destructive force plowed through the forest.

There's a wrinkle in Harry's fire battalion that neither of us considered: how do firefighters know where to go once those at the station take the wagon and go to the fire? I'm betting he'll come up with a clever idea right about now, but I don't pretend to know what it will be.

I am concluding from Nikolaj's description that his three requests are really one--that he is asking God to reveal Himself to those present. This is yet another application of M+7@7 third party revelation, but in this case there are some interesting wrinkles.

The first wrinkle is that a "crowd" is a stated necessary component of the skill, which makes it a material component. Crowds are not that difficult to get, particularly in worlds in which this would be a desirable skill to use, but it does mean that he could not use the skill to help in reaching two or three people, and certainly not one person. We'll give him +5 for this limitation. That he is standing with eyes closed I think will be worth +3 for physical involvement. He prays aloud, which I think means that sound is necessary, +2, and +5 for appropriate words. Time is now the significant point, but is also the complicating point--he is praying for five minutes, and all he wants is for God to "reveal himself" through the words and actions of himself and others who will be representing God. I think I'll give that as baseline on balance--there is no necessity for supernatural events here, beyond the supernatural bonuses to simple persuasion, although supernatural events could occur on a strong success. That means the internal sit-mod is +15, the difference between his 7@9 bias and the 7@7 skill +2, +10 for his religion and +10 for alliance and +20 for his BRA, and it all comes to 57% chance of success--oh, and the world bias, +10, for 67% chance. He rolls 80, so nothing comes of this prayer; but he's got another prayer already working for him from a couple posts back.

He wants people to talk about events related to the wordless book, and he gets a GE of 12, Good Enough, so he'll get a couple. The easy ones seem to be the black page and the red page.

John 2 really needs the pattern, but Lauren rolls 15, so he's got it. Her SAL is only 1@5 on this, but he also gets her 2@5 teaching SAL and and 2@8 psi BRA to add to his 10@6 bias, 2@2 BRA, and the 10@ world BRA, reaching 206 from which he has to subtract the 14@5 target bias, 61% chance of success, and he rolls 08, giving him 1@1 Age Control P14@5 enables character to slow his own aging.

Oops--once more I wrote his post in two places and posted the second half first. I'm editing to put the first half in front; hopefully he won't be so quick that he gets to it before I manage to finish the edit.

--M. J. Young

Wed Jan 6 2010 1:37 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

Oops--once more I wrote his post in two places and posted the second half first. I'm editing to put the first half in front; hopefully he won't be so quick that he gets to it before I manage to finish the edit.

Actually MJ, I did get there before you edited it. The site said "28 seconds" since your reply when I reloaded the page. Fortunately, I reloaded my game page because I figured you weren't finished.

(Doing Therapy)

Wed Jan 6 2010 1:40 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Let's see how much of this I can accomplish in the limited remainder of my time. Michael, Brock, Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2 are all waiting.

I need a new hook for the stopwatch; I'm always hunting for it when I need it. Well, I'll devise something. Meanwhile, Michael is trying to teach himself a P1@3 Use Telepathic Device with a 0@0 bias in a 0@ bias world with a 2@1 Persuasion as his BRA, so he's got an 8% chance of success. I'm going to give him +5 for closing his eyes, which makes a 13% chance. He rolls 89, not a botch. His other efforts are not going to reveal much but negatives.

It's not necessarily time for Brock to face an adventure, but it is time to roll a GE roll to see when it will be time. The roll is 22, which means something is going to happen, but in a controlled manner. We'll use the event with which I'm fairly familiar, the federation listening post.

Maxx asks an interesting question--whether his parents have siblings. I know that sprites tend to have children about a decade apart, and to marry within a few years of turning twenty, but not always having children immediately. I think of Lelach's parents as being older, and thus it seems likely that she is a second or third child; I think of Morani as having the personality of an "O", and thus being the first born in his family. The question is, does Maxx get better or worse than this? 13 is slightly better. As to whether he can try his skill again, it might be a day or two.

Although I would expect turnout to be low for Harry's fire, he rolls a 9 GE, and that means things are going to go well at this point. We'll give him a decent starting crew and a few more before he's finished.

Bredd rolls an 11 on a difficult persuasion check--a success on his part. The prayer which was answered called for God to reveal Himself through their words and deeds, so I'm going to flow with this at the moment, and God is going to be present. I'll figure out the conversions using a GE roll, 16, which is going to be rather dynamic given the successful check and the successful prayer. Nikolaj has some potent things happening here.

John 2 is running out of time.

--M. J. Young

Thu Jan 7 2010 3:23 am #
Nikolaj
Member

Cool! Can't wait.

Thu Jan 7 2010 6:50 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

I need a new hook for the stopwatch; I'm always hunting for it when I need it. Well, I'll devise something.

It came with a lanyard didn't it? Just hang it on the back of your chair.

Thu Jan 7 2010 7:09 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

My chair has a rounded back. My wall-mounted phone base has rounded corners. The curtain rod is out of reach and not that sturdy anyway. The computer monitor is the wrong shape. The printer has an extended catch arm for papers fed through the reader, but I have to stand up to reach it. If there were an easy answer, John, I'd have found it by now. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Let me see what I can do for Michael, Brock, Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2.

Michael wants to know if he has any sense that he's on the right track; with a roll of 89 against a 13% chance of success, the answer would be no, not at all. But he asks Paul for advice, so let's see whether this helps. Paul of course knows how to use the devices, and is also telepathic, which is very much how you use psionic devices, particularly telepathic ones. His Psi BRA is 2@4 and by now he has a high professional, say 2@8, SAL in telepathy to humans. (It's nearly infallible in communicating with Annie, because they share an extremely high familiarity.) That means he's got 52% chance chance of contacting Michael's mind, a chance probably worth taking. He rolls 40, a solid success. That will probably give Michael a boost in terms of an example--not a perfect example, since telepathy to humans and use telepathic device are related but not identical skills, but at least a bonus to what he hopes to do.

Brock asks what he should do in connection with the preparations for the raid, and the answer really is think about how to do the raid, so that when everyone discusses it you'll have some ideas to contribute.

Maxx asks me whether he knows the devastation is his fault; I think that's pretty obvious. More to the point, what he intends to do if he knows that is itself a challenge.

Harry asks Tarah what he should do, and she gives him the dangerous job.

Nikolaj asks Bredd whether Bredd remembers something; that's the better of an intellect or an ed lev check, but a roll of 20 does not work for either, even with a bit of a prompt.

John 2 is coming down to the wire. He makes a good case for an alternate means of stopping this disaster, but I think not quite good enough.

--M. J. Young

Thu Jan 7 2010 10:55 pm #
JohnA1nut
Member

If there were an easy answer, John, I'd have found it by now. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

You're just not thinking fourth dimensionally. If it were me, I would stick a screwdriver in the wall and hang the stopwatch from that if I had to. (Well it IS an easy answer!!!!)

(Doing Therapy)

Thu Jan 7 2010 11:17 pm #
johnosevens
Member

If there were an easy answer, John, I'd have found it by now. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

You're just not thinking fourth dimensionally.

It has a light side, it has a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

=^_^=

Fri Jan 8 2010 12:31 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Duct tape. I knew I heard it somewhere.

Let's see what I can do with Michael, Brock, Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2 in the brief time I have remaining today.

Michael runs a batch of questions about telepathy, and I give answers; he also is going to attempt to contact the computer again, so we'll give him +11 for Aaron's telepathic example and change of circumstances because of that experience, which means that with his eyes closed his chance of success is now 24%, and his roll is 05, he's got a 1@1 Operate Telepathic Device P1@3 with eyes closed (Computer) +5SM, and five minutes of contact time starting at level one.

I, in the person of extraordinary burglar Tom Titus, answer Brock's questions about the listening post.

Maxx might be moving toward making a world-ending mistake here; I'll steer him away from it if I can.

Harry gets his first view of the interior of the building; the fire is contained in the kitchen, but rather out of control there.

Nikolaj is still running on previous rolls, which were pretty good, so the meeting will continue strong.

John 2 has to be ready to go, but I don't want to go until I know everyone's ready.

--M. J. Young

Sat Jan 9 2010 3:52 am #
johnosevens
Member

What? It solves the whole "the monitor is the wrong shape" thing. Nothing is so ill-formed that you can't duct tape something to it.

Sat Jan 9 2010 4:12 am #
JohnA1nut
Member

I'm with Osevens MJ. Beats my Stick a Screwdriver in the wall idea. (My father would have done something like that too)

"A man's toolbox needs two things. WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, you use the WD-40. If it does move and it shouldn't, you use the duct tape."
Tim Allen

(Doing Therapy)

Sat Jan 9 2010 4:20 am #
johnosevens
Member

Ah, wisdom. Sounds like something my great-grandfather would have said. The man who made himself a muffler for his car out of empty beer cans, and wrapped his wrenches in weather stripping to protect himself from electric shock. Makes me wonder if Multiverser has an "Improvise Anything" skill. :D

Sat Jan 9 2010 5:06 am #

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