Atheists amuse me in a small way, John. Yes, that's condescending. What can I say, I have 2@5 at Condescension.
Ending a Decade Behind the Screens
(874 posts) (19 voices)-
Of Harry it was said,
And a while back you made the comment that Christians seemed to like you that met you online.
I don't recall him saying that, but if it's true I would like to observe that to the best of my recollection, we met live at Ubercon, and then he joined me here online.I've said it before, Harry: we Christians have our munchkins, power gamers, and rules lawyers, too. We'd like to disown them, but we have to admit that the really are among us. We'd rather not be judged by them. I'm sure you understand. In fact, when a religion or a hobby or any group, really, decides that it's going to be accepting of people who are not so easy to tolerate, it tends to attract a disproportionate number of such people. I don't think I'd thought of that before, but it explains a lot.
It appears that I forgot to mention anything I did for John 2 last time. I'll blame it on this persistent cold, noting that at the moment I don't remember what I did on his thread last time, and shall endeavor to make additional comments today to cover yesterday. I'm sure I can find something about John about which I can comment....
And with that tossed in the ring, let me turn my attention to Michael, Maxx, Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, Graeme, and Kyler.
Again Michael has to roll a successful skill check to beat the psionic computer. He rolls 05, a weak success. It might thwart him, though--he rather cleverly planned to lose, figuring that he was playing the octopus and the computer was playing the human, and by watching the human he could learn more about how he should fight than he could by operating the octopus. Since it's not a strong success we'll let the fight go a few minutes, which means I need his response.
I guess I have to figure out the details of two weddings, because apart from Harry's upcoming Durnmist nuptials I have Maxx questioning Lelach about her wedding to his sprite father. I'm going to give that a day to simmer.
In addition to fresh comments on the wedding creation thread, Harry needs a couple GE rolls--one to figure out the short-term for what happens while he is home (including whether a potential boarder appears), the other for the longer term consideration of what significant event follows next. The rolls are 17, 10.
I don't know whether John 3 has taken on more than he expected, but I think I know the argument against his position pretty well. I'm really interested in his response to this one.
Nikolaj asked about the time, so I'm checking it--it's later than he thinks.
What I should have posted yesterday for John 2 is that there were still questions about his equipment. Today we're going to get closer to the answers, with a GE roll of telling us 9+8+6=23 that nothing on the extras list came. (Yes, it could have been worse--he could have a mare's leg shotgun, a crate of special ammo, and a pack of det cord with detonators floating in space for the next dozen worlds, confusing his direction sense no end. He doesn't.)
And I managed once more to post the second half of his post first, and had to go back and pick up the first from the text editor and post it in edit mode. Hopefully he won't miss the opening part.
O.K., Graeme has given me an intriguing spell. It incorporates a 4@1 Manipulate Light skill, because one of his two material components absorbs light which the other radiates, as a way of informing him that the skill is working; -10 for the incorporated skill. This usually has a 0:24 TF with a 24:00 duration, but that's not going to be relevant I think.
The base skill is tougher to define. It might be an enchantment/control such as a M10@8 Physical Effects or a M10@9 Obedience/Enslavement. It might be taken to combine a M11@2 Attract Local Non-sentient Servant with a M11@1 Dispel Local Non-sentient. It could be a M13@5 Control Growth, but that the baseline for that skill expects accelerated growth at a rate doubling or halving the target mass every minute. On reflection, I most like the notion that he is dispelling the plants from one location and attracting them to the other. That makes it technically a M11@2 Attract Local Non-sentient Servant, which has a base :30 TF.
I'm going to have to ask him some questions. I've put to him the question of range. I was going to ask him about time factor, but it occurs to me that the movement of the wands over the course of ten minutes is part of the casting, because it directly the attract and dispel functions, and thus I'll give it a 10:00 TF. That's +43 for time. He has +5 appropriate words, +3 loud, +5 for his Latin, +3 for a second arm and we'll say another +3 because he might have to walk around. The wands are unique, but I'm going to have to ask a few more questions about them, I think.
Kyler is going to begin training his protege in martial arts. I'm not certain where this will lead, but I'm going to get a clearer picture of where it will start.
--M. J. Young
Fri Feb 12 2010 2:13 am # -
I really don't want to skip another game, but my cold is giving me a headache, and it's been compounded by frustrations because something has gone wrong with my web site (MJYoung.Net, not Multiverser.org, which is odd because they share just about everything). I couldn't access my e-mail which I should be answering, and if it's a problem I might not be able to get help until Monday, because I didn't find it until late.
The really odd part is that I was working on an article late this afternoon and accessed a page on the site, and then mere minutes later I attempted to access another page on the site from that page and was told that my ISP could not find my domain.
So I think I'm going to go see about supper, maybe attempt to begin work on The Last Mimzy, and try to get more sleep tonight.
--M. J. Young
Sat Feb 13 2010 1:22 am # -
JohnA1nut
MemberSo I think I'm going to go see about supper, maybe attempt to begin work on The Last Mimzy, and try to get more sleep tonight.
What are you doing with Mimzy? I can help. I did help, actually. Do you still have my notes on that? I don't have them anymore, but I can watch the movie again and redo them.
(Doing Therapy)
Sat Feb 13 2010 1:29 am # -
Tadeusz
MemberO7 said something about how Christians he met online just seemed to like him, and he was not sure why. My explanation was that a lot of Christians are used to getting beat up by non-Christians, and then along comes a friendly guy who's pagan, and they can't help but like him. Its the tale of the North Wind and the Sun and the bet over who can get a guy to remove his coat first.
Edit: As to MJ, my theory doesn't cover all situations.
Sat Feb 13 2010 5:43 am # -
JohnA1nut
MemberMJ, if it's Saturday, and you're here about to do games, I order you to go back to sleep. I don't want to see you posting again until Sunday at the earliest. I just got over one of those head and chest colds, and I know how you feel. Whatever time you're not here is time you can be resting. Make the most of it.
(Doing Therapy)
Sat Feb 13 2010 5:47 am # -
Concerning Mimzy, I do not have your notes, and I wound up not watching it Friday because it took too long to find it, and between that and making dinner it was too late to do much of anything else by the time I could. I did watch it Saturday, and took some notes which might be sufficient for me to tackle the film. It's not going to be as involved as the massive Terminator recapitulation and expansion currently posting, but it will be significant.
Incidentally, there is a major problem with the MJYoung.net domain at the moment, with the result that I am not getting any e-mail and the site is down. As it happens, you can access any MJYoung.net page by replacing the domain name with multiverser.org (because of the shared hosting server) so if you're looking for anything over the next few days that's the way to find it. It will not always be so, and I anticipate restoring the MJYoung.net domain fairly quickly. I am otherwise incommunicado but for this site, in the main, for the intervening interval.
I'm still not fully recuperated, but the longer I delay the more there is to do, so I'm going to tackle posts from Michael, Maxx, Kurt, Harry, John 3, Scott, Nikolaj, John 2, Graeme, Kyler, and Ryan, which should keep me busy.
I think that Michael didn't provide an offensive response to his attacker, but I'll see what he does next.
It did not really take me this long to finish a post for Maxx; there were multiple interruptions in there. However, I did not cover the last part of his post. I'm not yet ready to move forward to tonight.
Kurt is checking the status of his cat Harry. There are three possibilities. The good one is that Harry is fine. The bad one is that Harry is seriously injured. He also includes that Harry is dead, but if that's the case he won't find Harry, because Harry is already a verser, and will have versed out. I'm not sure, though, how to handle that on a GE roll--he doesn't want Harry to be gone. I'm inclined to think that Harry, being a cat, will have managed to care for himself; so a really bad roll will be a badly injured cat, but a moderately bad roll will be a versed out cat, and a neutral to moderately good roll a dazed and moderately injured cat, while a better roll will give us an uninjured cat. 27 is a very bad roll.
It also occurs to me that he's got bullet proof glass in this car. That means we're going to roll for whether he operates the gun in his present condition, and then throw another GE roll for what happens with the bullet. He rolls 46, with a 1@1 SAL+2x9@ bias+2@2 BRA=51%, one of the best shots he could have made, but it's going to deflect off the glass inside. On that, he rolls a 12 GE.
I had to check back to get a name for Harry, but it's probably inconsequential. He wasn't an inspector for long before he became a firefighter.
I'm noting that John 3 has made an excellent argument against asking the saints to intercede; but his argument against the continuous life of the believer is not so strong, and is a distraction to his more important claim. That's the spot Tuck will attack, even though if he sees it it's not the part that matters. John also seems to be praying, but I'm going to want more data on the prayer.
Scott is going to shift away from short order chef to magical masseuse over the next few weeks, I expect. That, anyway, seems to be the direction his thread is taking. It will be interesting to see how the psicops feel about whatever it is he is doing that they can't comprehend.
I read Nikolaj's post a couple days ago, and when I walked away from it I found myself wondering at the fact that we always assume that meetings ought to be weekly. New Testament meetings were, it appears, daily, probably over meals. But the question here is whether it's feasible with the ranch schedule to hold regular weekly meetings, and the GE is 16, very neutral.
I'm hoping that some of what I'm giving John 2 will intrigue him.
On consideration, it appears that Graeme's spell has no range but an area of effect with a ten foot radius, with him standing on the edge of it. I'll give him +10 for no range (since +20 would be the bonus for martial strike needed, and that's not the case). I'm going to make the wands worth 5 each, so that's +10 for the materials, and if I can track down the other details above, I get +72 inherent sit-mod, and this is going to work very easily for him. He rolls 21 on learning it, 1@1 Attract/Dispel Non-Sentient (Plant Growth) M11@2 caster loudly declares "Flora Imperium!", and for 10:00 uses specially prepared carved sticks with naturally inset gems, holding one in each hand, and pointing them at the targeted planet; as light (M4@1 manipulate light incorporated) transfers from the ruby gem to the diamond gem, plants are induced to grow (at their current rate) away from the area marked by the ruby wand and toward the area marked by the diamond wand +72SM.
I already gave some thought to what happens when one gem absorbs all the light around it and sends it to the other. I think the ruby side is way cool, as they say.
Kyler suggests that his new girl Kat might have some acrobatics background. Cartwheels are actually a tumbling skill, not an acrobatics. But I agree that there's a good chance an athletic fifth grade girl would have had some sort of acrobatics at some point, even if it's only balance beam. A GE roll of 21 says no, though, so we'll assume a 5@4 Multiple Hurdles as her defining bias. He's trying to teach her 7@1 Gazuntite martial arts style, and I'm creating space for her numbers, for which I'm giving her 1@7 Strength and 1@8 Agility and Will Power, which makes her BRA for Bod 1@8. So we're looking at 5@4+1@8+his 2@7 SAL example+half his 2@3 Bod BRA as instructor+his 1@8 martial arts training SAL+15@ world bias level-7@1 target skill=73% chance she'll learn it, and she rolls 05, for a 1@1 SAL in the skill.
Ryan is teaching Mitzu Clairaudience. The routine begins with Mitzu attempting to read the pattern in Ryan's mind. Ryan rolls 55 on doing the skill, which is a 1@2 SAL in a 2x7@ world with a 1@7 BRA=43% chance of success, not sufficient. He's going to do it daily, though, so the next day 86, and the next 02. Mitzu rolls 52, which is too high for his mind reading. The fallback is for Ryan to make the telepathic link and use that, 24 works for him, so the pattern is introduced. Mitzu now has a chance to learn based on a bunch of numbers, but his roll of 11 is so obviously successful I'm just going to note the 1@2 Clairaudience P3@5.
--M. J. Young
Mon Feb 15 2010 4:31 am # -
It will be interesting to see how the psicops feel about whatever it is he is doing that they can't comprehend.
I'm hoping it never comes to that; I'm one retrocog away from umpteen counts of tax evasion as it stands.
Mon Feb 15 2010 6:24 am # -
Concerning Oak opening yet another can of worms. Follow this link for info on purgatory: http://pontifications.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/clarifying-purgatory/. I'm not sure when they are playing, but apparently, the dogma of purgatory was officially recognized by Rome in the 15th century. This of course does not mean the idea wasn't already around. But not officially taught by Rome up until then.
Mon Feb 15 2010 9:53 pm # -
Thanks, Nikolaj; you're one step ahead of me on that. For the record, Robin Hood is a legendary character from the reign of King Richard I, the Lionhearted, who was off fighting the Crusades and leaving his younger brother Prince John, c.1192. I might mention that Westminster Abbey was built by the Normans in 1050, although it was demolished in 1245 and replaced with a new structure of the same name; the original Canterbury Cathedral burned down in 1067 but replaced by the Normans, and only twenty years ago or so, in 1170, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket was murdered and buried there. That church was damaged by fire in 1174 and rebuilt by William of Sens, the French master mason. The huge sanctuary and Trinity Chapel still standing today were built then, but without the Bell Harry and the stained glass. The Nave, the entrance, was simpler than the present one. It is the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope's designated head of the church in England. There are some fights looming between the monarchy and the papacy, but we're still more than a decade out from these.
I am considering ways to lighten the burden of the forum game. Top of the list is for players who have been in games for a while to pick up other players I roll off to their care. Alternatives include limiting the number of game posts to which I will respond in a day, and so rotating who gets screen time based on whose thread has been waiting longest. I'm looking for other options, since the first has not worked in the past and the second doesn't feel right to me. For the moment, though, I will today address threads from Michael, Maxx, Kurt, Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and Kyler.
I think it's time for Michael's fight to end. We already established that he won, and he's picked up a few tricks since then.
I hadn't mentioned yet to Maxx that sprite marriages are arranged by the parents. I'm not sure how he'll take that, but there's more information about it if he wants it. Meanwhile, he's moving to that effort to generate a psionic OBE. I'm not sure how to do that, but I've got a few options to explore. Ah, my explorations have uncovered a little-used listing, P5@10 Non-corporeality, which covers both the ability to make the body non-material and the ability to separate the spirit from the body. It is this latter he is attempting.
He's using that 30:00 preparatory concentration, but he hasn't defined a few parameters.
Kurt has not recognized the full extent of his problem. His car shut down. Everything is fully computerized. It's not certain whether he can either start the car or open the windows in the present circumstance. We'll give him a GE roll, though: 11 is good but below expectations.
We're moving forward on Harry's wedding, and at this point everything is pushing forward in the jaws of what my bride called the Great Wedding Bells Machine.
If John 3 alludes to a doctrine that is just an idea at the time he's visiting, then the people with whom he is speaking aren't necessarily going to know what he means. I think there's an immediate answer, though, which Tuck can give without prejudicing the case either way.
Nikolaj finds something I couldn't find before (and I was thinking it was a six-day cycle, but an eight-day cycle actually makes a bit more sense), so he can schedule his meeting accordingly.
John 2 is going through a slow process, but I want him to experience it, so I'm not going to rush it.
Kyler wants me to continue, but I'm not certain in which direction.
--M. J. Young
Tue Feb 16 2010 12:52 am # -
JohnA1nut
MemberI am considering ways to lighten the burden of the forum game. Top of the list is for players who have been in games for a while to pick up other players I roll off to their care.
MJ, I've said before that I would love to run a player. I would prefer it though if that player were themselves a seasoned referee that could kind of talk me through what to do if I needed it. I think that leaves Kyler from the current list, and I'm willing to bet that you'd rather run your son yourself.
Tue Feb 16 2010 4:20 am # -
I am on a steady schedule now - I work full-time, but I don't bring my work home with me and I have few responsibilities otherwise - so I imagine that once I were to work a new player into that schedule, I could be relied upon to post for him with regularity.
I mention this because my track record for steady posting on this board has so far been spotty (with the exceptions of my initial gather and most of my cameo in Brock's game) and all of my current players' threads are stalled and have been for months, which, taken together, would suggest that I would not be a good choice for auxiliary ref. However, my current players are all stalled because no one involved in any of those games (myself included) has actually completed a summary recently*; I wouldn't be playing live with one of your players, so the problem wouldn't arise.
Short version: I'm not exactly asking for a player, but if you want to shed one, I'm offering to take one while rescinding the caveats I've expressed in the past concerning my potential unreliability.
__
*though I am impressed with James for taking the initiative recently and doing his half of one...Tue Feb 16 2010 5:40 am # -
JohnA1nut
MemberScott, MJ was talking about you running me. You know the rules to this better than most folks here. Perhaps you could run my game and I could run you? You would certainly qualify as a seasoned referee, and I know you and I get along fairly well. Just a thought.
(Doing Therapy)
Tue Feb 16 2010 6:58 am # -
John - If I take anyone, I'll take whoever ends up being most convenient for MJ, based on a great variety of factors. That might turn out to be you, but I suspect he'll want to keep you for at least this world; he seemed excited about the idea for it.
Tue Feb 16 2010 7:58 am # -
Oak
MemberI am considering ways to lighten the burden of the forum game. Top of the list is for players who have been in games for a while to pick up other players I roll off to their care. Alternatives include limiting the number of game posts to which I will respond in a day, and so rotating who gets screen time based on whose thread has been waiting longest. I'm looking for other options, since the first has not worked in the past and the second doesn't feel right to me.
I've been filling in for Eric by GMing his game at RPoL.net since mid-May.
I was able to keep up a near-daily schedule through the summer, with as many as nine players (out of twelve) active on any given day, but I had a lot more trouble once my teaching began again in the fall.
I (and the game) ultimately survived by my decreasing the posting frequency to something I could keep up with, which has been averaging about once a week.
Instead of posting as I complete a response, I compose my responses off line as and when I am able, and then update the threads all at once when ready, so that everyone is waiting around for the same amount of time.
A few folks have faded away, whether or not due to the decreased frequency of updates, but we still have a half-dozen active players that respond quickly when a GM update does happen.
I would like to post more frequently, and do so when I can, but sometimes Real Life gets too squeezy. Sometimes, something has to give. And as my players have pointed out, they prefer to have a decreased frequency than a discontinued game.
Part of the reason I took a break from being a player here was that I could tell that the load was too much for you MJ, and I didn't want to add to it.
Eric GMed at RPoL.net for many a year, but finally hit a burn-out point, and needed to step away for an extended period of time.
For the health of the overall game and the enjoyability of that game for all concerned, a sustainable GM pace is essential.
And slowing down to a sustainable pace can also serve to catalyze your other option. If people realize that sticking with the main GM (MJ) means a slower game, then they might be more motivated to try (either being or posting under) an assistant GM with a faster posting frequency... :)
Tue Feb 16 2010 3:56 pm # -
It appears that the MJYoung.net site and all its mailboxes will be down for about a week while restoration proceeds apace. Meanwhile, I am watching the traveler@multiverser.org box--but I get enough Spam there already and do not wish to make that a regular contact box for people on this site. The other boxes should be restored by next week, and although it distresses me that e-mail is being lost, it is on another level a relief to know that it is not backing up waiting for me.
Scott, I hope you'll drop me a note at that address to discuss this further; Oak, if you're saying that you could pick up a player, that might also help. I prefer to transfer players to new referees at verse-outs, because that way you don't have to learn what the other guy was doing, but it might be possible to do the shift sooner, which is what I'll want to explore. John C., I'd like to get you refereeing, but I don't know that I have anyone who fits your profile. I am going to give it more thought, though, and if I give you someone who does not know the game well you can still bring your questions and complications to me (and Scott and Oak and Graeme and Eric and all the other experienced people here) via the forum. Also, let me know what worlds/worldbooks you have, as that will help.
My errand was scuttled into tomorrow, so now it is tomorrow that my presence here is in doubt (although today I seem to be late because the non-errand still required a lot of attention and other errands arose). So today let's do what we can with Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Graeme.
Maxx is still working on the out-of-body skill.
Harry is hurtling toward that wedding, so if you haven't contributed to the Planning a Durnmist (Alpha) Wedding thread, please do.
Nikolaj has finished the baptismal service, and is moving forward from there.
I have avoided actually confirming that John 2 is being Zygoted, but really, that's not the best part. But then, I shouldn't even confirm the Zygote aspect were it not that somewhere I have to track it. On Day 14 he transitions from blastocyst to embryo, and so for the first time he looks like a human child. The next day his mother misses her period--maybe, as spotting frequently occurs and many mothers particularly with irregular periods conclude that they are not pregnant at this point. However, none of this is known to John, given his situation. I don't want to rush him, but I don't want it to drag, either, and since he is well persuaded that he can do nothing, we'll move to Day 24, on which he gets an intuition check. John retains his 2@2 intuition, so a simple check has a decent chance of working (roughly 50/50), but 17+9=26, so he doesn't notice anything.
Graeme has a fascinating concept up next. He casts the spell to cause a seed or sapling of a potentially large tree to grow quickly. The first question really, though, is whether there are such seeds or whether he can easily identify such a sapling. Seeds tend to be seasonal, even in jungles. 9 on a GE roll gives him pretty solid options. He rolls 27 on the growth skill, which given its +31 sit-mod is going to work. He rolls 87 on the attract/dispel trick, but given the +72 sit-mod in that I don't think number crunching is needed. He's going to have to repeat the process multiple times, but that's allowed. 81 is the next roll for the growth skill, which will require me to find out what his numbers are: 1@1 SAL+31SM+2x13@ bias+2@2 BRA=90%. I'm inclined to raise the SAL one intensity for new use (he didn't do this with a seed before, I think), but I'd better confirm the SAL before I confuse myself by changing it. He rolls 40 on the formation spell. That will bring us to maybe discus size, and another pair of rolls, 68, 12, to manhole cover size, 56, 93 to tractor tire size, and at this point we'll get more direction.
--M. J. Young
Wed Feb 17 2010 2:20 am # -
JohnA1nut
MemberI don't want to rush him, but I don't want it to drag, either, and since he is well persuaded that he can do nothing
Well, what CAN I do? No body, no tech devices, and flatlined psionics and magic. You tell me what I could do here. Psionic healing might speed things up, but that could cause serious problems, I can't throw a TK pulse since I can't see, and raising a psionic force field would probably cut the umbilical cord. You tell me what I could do here.
Wed Feb 17 2010 2:30 am # -
Oak
MemberOak, if you're saying that you could pick up a player, that might also help.
I already have Kurt and Nikolaj and Ed from GO (and Eric and Adam, albeit inactive right just now), though that doesn't help when they are running separate copies of themselves at GO and RPoL... :p
My GMing plate is full with the MV game at RPoL, so I would have difficulty doing anything separate here.
However, if anyone here wishes to join the game I am running there (which, as Kurt and Nikolaj and Eric can tell you, is a rather unique Gather), I am not closed to taking a few more folks aboard. :)
Wed Feb 17 2010 3:52 am # -
JohnA1nut
MemberDay 24, on which he gets an intuition check. John retains his 2@2 intuition, so a simple check has a decent chance of working (roughly 50/50), but 17+9=26, so he doesn't notice anything.
And what exactly would there be to notice? My ability to gather sensory data is at the moment pretty limited.
(Doing Therapy)
Wed Feb 17 2010 11:31 pm # -
Kurt W.
MemberWhy not try to use some of those psionics to meditate, and spend the entire time training your psionic capabilities? Also, you could try to forge a psychic connection with the mother. Of course, these are suggestions, I'm not telling you what to do. And I'm not even sure that it fits in with your skillset or personal actions. Don't do what you don't already want to do.
Thu Feb 18 2010 11:36 pm # -
John, if I told you what options might be open to you, I would be giving hints based on my knowledge and making more work for myself. Ride it out.
As for what you didn't notice, well, eventually you probably will.
My e-mail did not take as long as I anticipated, although some of it I admit to marking for later consideration.
I hope to get through posts from Michael, Maxx, Kurt (who just missed me last time), Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, Kyler, and Ryan.
The light panel is deceptive; it looks simple enough, but is actually an energy creation device, which puts the bias at 1@10. Thus although Michael thinks he is just using another psi device, he is learning a new skill considerably tougher than the ones he has already learned. His current bias is 1@3 and his BRA is 2@1, which gives him +34-20=14% chance to learn this new skill. He rolls 83, so it's not happening. He specifies two attempts, so we'll assume he comes back and tries again, once he realizes that it is not quite the same thing. He rolls 27, also failed.
He turns his attention to the telepathic lifter the next day, 05 an easy success for learning a P1@7 (we just calculated 14 as the target for a P1@10 so it's 3% better, 17%), and increasing his bias accordingly.
Maxx and I are still struggling with his out-of-body skill. There's also a separate thread in which I try to address the Spirits versus Souls problem.
I don't know whether Kurt knows just how hard it is actually to commit suicide, even with the full knowledge that death is only a doorway to another and probably better world. It requires a successful difficult will power check, d30+10, and his will power is 1@10, and the die roll is 14, which means 24, not within the range that allows him to succeed at this.
Harry is very much involved in wedding preparations. It undoubtedly helps that he does not need to sleep.
Looking back, Nikolaj rolled 68 on the prayer for third-party revelation for Mr. Kucher--a strong success, but not, I think, one that will invoke the immediate appearance of a supernatural being in the middle of the day. So he will have to await the next day.
John 2 is making guesses about what is to happen to him, and it is so difficult that I cannot tell him anything more than I have told him; but he will continue to grow. The thing he missed was that his heart was beating; since we're going to advance him to Day 32, it is no longer going to be particularly important.
Kyler is continuing to train his new protege.
Ryan is also training someone, and I've spent a bit of time putting together a reference sheet for Mitzu, but I'll roll for the new psi skills. It's first Ryan's skill attempt, then Mitzu's mind reading, then if that fails Ryan's telepathy, then Mitzu's learning roll. But the TK pulse is an instantaneous thing, so we have to do it the other way around, starting with establishing the link and then attempting the trick. 61 means Takano fails to connect, and 46 is doubtful for Ryan with a 1@2 SAL+1@7 BRA+2x7@ world bias giving 43%. Next day is 93, I've got to crunch numbers on Mitzu who has a 1@10 BRA+1@1 SAL+2x3@ bias=37%, 6% chance to botch, we're good. Ryan responds with a telepathy attempt, 96, that is a botch. Telepathy botches are fascinating, sometimes. Let's create a list--in another thread, A Telepathy Botch List.
--M. J. Young
Fri Feb 19 2010 4:33 am # -
I have dealt with a stack of rather time-intensive posts apart from the games, including that I've wrapped up the botch list thread with a determination of the nature and severity of the botch (the details are still to come in the play thread), but as I look on the one hand at the time and on the other hand at the list of players including Michael, Maxx, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2 (not to mention the need to finish a thought for Ryan), I despair and determine that this will have to be added to my workload for tomorrow.
Hopefully I will manage to cover it all then. Again, I apologize.
--M. J. Young
Sat Feb 20 2010 3:47 am # -
It looks like the list has not changed since yesterday--Michael, Maxx, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and cover that botch for Ryan.
I really didn't expect the target of the telekinetic lifter to be a problem, but I'm afraid Michael picked a non-existent object--I can't even use a GE roll for finding such a thing, because they simply do not exist. He'll have to find something else.
Maxx and I are still arguing about his OBE efforts.
Kurt is not going to be able to hop out of the car and start shooting, given the position of everything; we'll move this forward.
Harry is getting married for as long as they both shall live.
Nikolaj has suggested that they give thanks for the food (at least he didn't use the expression "say grace", which would really have caused confusion, I'm sure). That's not part of the human religious experience in this world, I think, so he's introducing it.
I'm going to give John 2 an intuition check on the languages, not because there's any chance he can hear enough to know anything, but because he might recognize something about the patterns. It will be a simple check, and the dice say 9+12=21, against a 2@2 intuition, that's as solid a success as you can find.
I've settled on a severe temporary insanity for Mitzu as the consequence of Ryan's botch. I'm going with a fear impulse, because it's pretty easy to run for a non-player character and very dramatic in play. Whether he will scream and run at this point depends on a difficult will power check, 28+10=38 which is a failure against almost anybody's will power.
That is almost everything I have to do here today.
--M. J. Young
Sun Feb 21 2010 12:36 am # -
Note to self:
Since John 3 is getting so deep into the theological discussions with Friar Tuck, I think it will be helpful for me to put a few people down here so I know when they appeared.
- Anselm of Canterbury, Italian assigned Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to his death in 1109. Founder of scholasticism, originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God.
- Abelard of Paris, sometimes called the twelfth centuries most brilliant theologian and logician, began teaching in his own school in 1101, and in other schools around France intermittently through his death in 1142, denounced by Bernard of Clairveaux for heterodox views but never condemned.
- Bernard of Clairveaux, Cistercian monk and in some ways the most powerful Catholic of the twelfth century, founded a monastery in 1115, outlined the Rule of Knights Templar in 1128, died 1153.
- Peter Lombard, student of Bernard of Clairveaux, taught in Reims prior to taking a position at Notre Dame in 1134, had some contact with Peter Abelard (and Hugh of St. Victor) there, becoming Bishop of Paris in 1159, died 1160, wrote the Four Books of Sentences on which all scholastic interpretation was framed thereafter.
- Joachim of Floris, b.1145, Cistercian monk in Casamari near Rome, became Abbot of another monastery in 1177, died 1202, challenged Augustine's conception of history (in which the church age is the millennium and the end toward which history was always headed) with a three-part system in which the Spirit age was dawning, in which everyone would adopt the lifestyles of monks, identified as a prophet by the Franciscans.
- Francis of Assisi, b.~1181, d.1226, founded Franciscan orders in 1209 which included laymen as the the "tertiaries". Sometime after 1205 began working to rebuild churches in Italy, and in 1209 devoted life to poverty, died 1226.
- Dominic of Osma founded the Dominicans 1215, finished theological studies in 1191, became and Augustinian monk 1195, debated against the heretical Cathars beginning in 1204, established followers in a house in 1215 and as an official Order of Preachers in 1216. d.1221.
--M. J. Young
Sun Feb 21 2010 1:22 am # -
LOL--well, John, I had some concern that I needed a broader base of information, and I was recently picking up bits from Tillich's history of Christian theology for my online bible class, so it was handy enough that I figured I should pick up some twelfth century background so I would have a better idea of what Tuck might know and what he couldn't possibly know. In fact, I was finishing up the section today, and thought I should probably add two people said to have impacted Wycliff (who in turn impacted Hus, who in turn impacted Luther):
- Thomas Bradwardine, not born until 1290 or 1300, d.1349, received his BA in 1321, briefly Archbishop of Canterbury from 1348 to his death the following year, too late to matter in our scenario.
- Anonymous of York, identity still unknown, published a paper in 1100 in connection with the Investiture Controversy in which he asserted that the King of England was effectively Christ for England (that is, standing in the place of the Pope, who by this construction is stripped of authority over civil governments). He is also called The Norman Anonymous or Anonymous of Rouen.
I appreciate the effort; yours is not one of the heavier games in my workload, but it does help not to have to post every day to every thread.
Harry, start a thread in "Off Topic" or ask me in a spare moment at Ubercon--if there is such a thing. I was just re-reading a summary of Aquinas' arguments (again in Tillich) but it would be better for you to explain them as you understand them so the group can participate.
Now, let's see what we can do with the game threads for Michael, Maxx, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2.
I recall that Michael managed to get that telekinetic lifter running on a roll of 02 (imagine me remembering that all this time), so he's got two minutes to play with it. I see on checking that my memory is not that good--he rolled five, so he has five minutes.
Maxx has determined to do the out-of-body experiment without a clairsentient link back to the body. It is thus a 5@10 skill without penalty, and he's doing thirty minutes of concentration--oops, no, he's doing something called "concentrated sleep". I'm going to have to investigate this before I make assumptions about it.
Kurt is fighting, presumably using his 1@10 Fisticuffs style B7@1 fast aggressive weapon-adverse attx3 +5 att SM -5 def SM hands. Rolling to activate the style, 90 plays against him. We'll also give the other side an intuition check for surprise, 10+13=23, they will be surprised, so he gets to make an attack without the benefit of the style, MSV+BRA+2xbias-TV, that's 1@9+1@10+2x7@-1@6=37% on an annoying attack, 09 means he landed a blow. The surprise means we come around to the beginning of the next minute, he gets another shot at activating his style, and the fight continues. Unfortunately, he rolls 90 on activating his style, and he's fighting two opponents both of whom will have 1@5 SALs in simple weaponless styles with 1@8 BRAs, 1@7 MSVs, and 2x7@ biases, their rolls for activation are 90 and 80, so they're no better than he at this moment.
For initiative, he rolls 15, they 62, I'm sure they can't hit him on a 62, so he gets the first crack. He rolls 37, the best annoying hit he can make. They respond with attempts to grapple, 05, 18. He's not getting the rolls, as 77 won't get him into style, 52 is still bad for one of them but the other rolls 11. Initiative for their side is bonused by the style, and the rolls are 86, 43, they go first. The one in style will attempt an incapacitating choke hold, 71 out of range; the other rolls 61, still not in style so no luck there. Kurt rolls 58, which misses. The guy in style gets two attacks, and goes for a punch, but 83 misses.
Again, 02 finally gets him in style, giving him three attacks in the minute and a bonus on his chance of success, 11 puts the other guy in style. We need initiative, 83, 68, they failed by less, so they (each) get one, he gets two, they get one, he gets one. They roll 24, 33. He's going to take 2 intensities, and the choke hold is going to connect. 83 and 14 are his rolls, the latter going to hurt the guy behind him a bit--one intensity. The guy holding the choke hold cannot attack otherwise, so there's only one incoming, 58, and now I need to know the numbers because that's not too far outside anything. I wrote
1@5 SALs in simple weaponless styles with 1@8 BRAs, 1@7 MSVs, and 2x7@ biases
which means 1@5+1@8+1@7+2x7@-1@6 TV=48% to hit, this is a miss. Kurt gets one more attack in the minute, 21, which does 2 intensities on the guy behind him (I'm assuming he's focused on that one), and then we're back to initiative.11, 77, it will be 1-1-1-1-1 this time, so Kurt gets a strike before he has to make his first stamina check, 64 means I have to check his revised numbers, with the 1@10 SAL+1@9+1@10+2x7@+5 SM-1@6=the old number of 37 plus 15=52%. Now he makes the stamina check, 17+20 is all she wrote.
I've got Harry's wedding finished, but that will start next time.
I've a thought about who would volunteer to give thanks in Nikolaj's situation, but I think it would require a particularly good GE roll for that to happen; thus a neutral GE roll will be one of the unidentified new believers, and a bad roll only that it falls to him to do it. The roll is 19, so it's one of the men. I'll devise something that is not really terribly prayer-like, but it should work.
John 2 attempts to get his 1@2 Intensify Senses P5@1 by shifting sensory resources in the brain active, so we'll roll 52, which fails this time. He's going to keep at it, though, and he has little sense of day or night and lots of periods of sleep, so we'll try again, and let's make sure we have a target number: 1@2 SAL+2@2 BRA in a flatlined bias is 34%, rolling 64, 74, if he botches he might come out here and take back that stopwatch he gave me, 36, 58, 52, 33. He gets a GE roll of 16.
--M. J. Young
Mon Feb 22 2010 12:52 am # -
I just hope you don't verse me out with a botch before I'm even born.
Heh. You'd better quit getting fancy while you're ahead, then . . .
Mon Feb 22 2010 5:34 am # -
I am entirely surprised at how quickly I got through the e-mail from the weekend, but then I probably left some of it for tomorrow, because I think I told it to download on Sunday and just worked my way through that stuff. That means I'll have an overload again tomorrow, but at least I am here now and can address game posts from Michael, Maxx, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2.
Michael needs a roll for using the new forcefield generator rod, which is a new skill because it is a force generative, not a telekinetic (it has a telekinetic component, but since force generative devices are the higher bias, it has to be listed there). He rolls 77, which is not going to succeed.
Maxx has caused me to wonder about a detail that has appeared in several skills which in this particular case might not make sense at all: how does he know how long is thirty minutes?
- I am going to digress, because I really like this bit from For Better or Worse. Bob Slade, traveling with previous companions including Shella, says that they should remain in hiding for twenty minutes to be certain that those seeking them are far enough distant. He then wonders how he could know when twenty minutes had elapsed, not having a watch, and the only answer that comes to him is that he could count slowly to one thousand two hundred, which he thought was just ridiculous and he was not going to do it. A bit later Shella informs him that it had been twenty minutes, and he wanted to ask how she knew, but didn't because he didn't want to be told that she counted to one thousand two hundred.
The big question for Kurt is whether the plan worked: did Mariska manage to get into the compound undetected, and is she hiding somewhere such that she can make a difference in the events ahead? Since that is outside his control but differs from the "script", it relies on a GE roll. 14 indicates that it's not what he wants, but it is favorable. That means at least she has not been captured.
As with real weddings, there are always more details to cover; and for better or worse, with Harry we aren't really pressing against a looming deadline, because we can always slow time enough to cover the rest of the details.
It seems to me that it was very natural for the earliest Christian worship and fellowship gatherings to be centered around meals, and I'm starting to see just how natural it would be for that to happen in Nikolaj's situation--except, of course, that the orcs and humans are segregated at meals, which is another problem he might have to address somehow.
I'm going to need another GE roll for John 2, because he might be getting a crucial bit of information that will blow his situation wide open to him, or he might just get a lot of routine nonsense, or nothing comprehensible at all. The roll is 5+8+10=23, nearly as bad as anticipated. Sorry, John, the big secret does not yet get spilled.
--M. J. Young
Tue Feb 23 2010 11:53 pm # -
Oak
MemberA few folks have faded away, whether or not due to the decreased frequency of updates, but we still have a half-dozen active players that respond quickly when a GM update does happen.
No less than three of my prodigal players have returned over the last week (two within the last twenty-four hours), so I am back up to GMing nine active players in RPoL's MV game.
Therefore, I may be giving MJ even more rest between my GO player posts than I had previously planned... :o
Wed Feb 24 2010 12:08 am # -
John, when Maxx harassed me into letting him play as a zygote without revealing his true identity (which I will admit still annoys me), I zygoted him in as a sprite. When Whisp annoyed his referee so much by constantly making every game about picking up girls, Ed zygoted him in as a girl. We've talked about zygoting people in as Timba, The Lion King, or as elves or members of alien races. You might be a Klingon. Even stranger, you might be a Canadian. It might be that the voice you hear is not your mother, but that your mother is a cat and you're hearing your mother's owner.
So the mystery in almost every Zygote Experience I run isn't whether you're an unborn child--most of my players figure that out a lot faster than the character in the novel who went through it--but who or what unborn child you are. And that is the real secret, and the real reason why I zygoted you. Sure, death by vacuum is justification for a zygote experience, but it doesn't require it. I wanted you to be not John Cross, or more specifically I wanted you to be someone or something in particular that is not John Cross, and this was the way to do it.
I don't know whether you'll love it or hate it, but you're stuck with it now--and I asked someone if he was willing to take over the job, and he said he'd rather take over someone else and not have to deal with the very convoluted world into which you are being born.
Which is already more than I should say, but it's not unfun to taunt you a bit about it. So before I get to you, I see that I have threads from Michael, Brock, Maxx, Kurt, Harry, and then you, John 2.
Michael tries again to activate the forcefield lifter rod, 58 still well above his chance of success. He's got all day, though, so he'll try again later. 46 is closer, but with a 2@1 BRA and 1@7 bias the chance to learn to operate a 1@8 force generative is 20%. His next roll is 61. We'll give him four tries today, the fourth roll being 55, so nothing.
Brock gets a bit of feedback on his plan from the captain. That will give him some opportunity to make revisions to his ideas before we get to the meeting.
I think it's time finally to roll for Maxx' out-of-body effort; I'm assuming he will accept the terms as outlined. The roll is 37, which is 1@1 Spirit Travel P5@10 with 30:00 preparatory concentration in which body is placed on sleep-like autonomic process time measured by mental countdown, allows spirit to sever all connection with body and travel independently for RS minutes or until terminated, +59SM. Now let's see what he does with it.
Interestingly, Kurt has a skill that provides strength for his next psionic skill check, but he has no psionic skills other than awakening himself. I'll roll it anyway, 12 is a success first try. There's no sense to a second attempt, so I'll flag him on that.
Harry and I still haven't finalized the form of the bracelets, but we can start the service, I think.
John 2 wants to continue listening, but at present everything is in a language he does not know, so he's going to be disappointed for a while. More significantly, though, he will continue growing--we'll move forward to day 50. He wants a GE roll for whether the Architect happened to mention the zygote experience to him years ago. I don't think it likely, but if he gets a three on a GE roll, I'll give him a GE roll for the chance that this was mentioned, which would have happened had he gotten a three on that second roll. The first roll is 15, so we're nowhere near a second roll.
--M. J. Young
Thu Feb 25 2010 1:06 am #
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