I learned a valuable lesson with Jhiaxus. Its okay to let them ask for who they want, but you have to control the power level. Its really not much fun, IMO, if the heros job consists of ducking while his NPC allies do all the work.
The Peanut Gallery
(635 posts) (16 voices)-
Glantri
Member@John running me:
I've been enjoying myself a lot, thus the rapid responses. (rapid in the sense of responding at the 1 hour marker) This tends to be a good sign from a player when they are eager to respond.I've got what I think is a clever plan for killing zombies that I think you might like by the way John, it won't happen for a while though. This is sort of like a series finale cliff hanger, you know something interesting is going to happen you just have to wait to see it. :)
Fri Sep 24 2010 5:59 am # -
Jhiaxus
Member@Eric, took 5 worlds from heartwar, but I have my phasers, I'm happy :P. Unless one of those full heal units pops up, I won't be asking about much equipment anymore in this world, my only real regret is not having the weight limit to take Stalin's body with me to make something out of it. I would love down the road to use that and the scans of Samas's Armor to make it with that. I do like this world, very enjoyable.
Fri Sep 24 2010 8:22 pm # -
Tadeusz
MemberYasmin is dark Arab. Ron King is C. Rose is pale-skinned with epicanthic folds with pale red hair. Mr. Bahdur looks dark pale/epicanthic folds. There's supposed to be a blonde chick around...so she's probably C.
Thanks for helping.
And so far, it seems five at least.
Fri Sep 24 2010 9:07 pm # -
Four heroes? How much time do you have to think about it? I'm thinking Casey Ribeck, John McClane, John Rambo, and John Kruger, although I might swap one of them for Charly Baltimore a.k.a. Samantha Caine.
But then again, I might be too locked into the possible. Maybe I need someone like Obi-wan Kenobi, or Peter Parker or Clark Kent.
I think I'd need seriously defined parameters before I could make that kind of decision.
--M. J. Young
Sat Sep 25 2010 7:00 am # -
hahah, Dora! I never actually seen it since it only became popular over here after I moved out of my parental house. I don't have a television now, and not regretting it either.
Wow, I just looked up who Snuffalupagus was and the general shape is almost what I was going for with the main characters in the story-book like world.
Sat Sep 25 2010 12:15 pm # -
Tadeusz
MemberSo far the parameters are...
1. A fictional or real character already made (which the referee can modify because the hero may come form an alternative reality). No characters made up for the occasion.
2. On the side of Decency. Unless of course, the verser is Evil. Then he picks from Team Scum.
3. About the power level of the character or less. This is flexible. I would not let MJ have Clark Kent for this reason. I'd be iffy about the Doctor for Niko, but then his other character choices are weaker.I am bad about giving my players decent ranged weapons. MJ had that dif as well.
As to Kyler...that's horrible. :)
Sat Sep 25 2010 2:39 pm # -
Glantri
Member@Adam's game with Eric:
OOC:
Skill level 2@1, and this is a jump to 5@6 so -35
Psi Book Example 1@1 so +11
Doubling of world bias or skill bias whichever's lower...2@1 is definitely lower than 15@10 so +42
+10 Bonus
+5 for being prepared and ready.
Best Relevant Attribute Intuition 2@9 so +29
63 or less for a quick add....rolled 53. 1@3 skill. You're healed.Wasn't sure whether to put another thread for this, put it here or just post it in the game thread, so I figured this worked well enough.
Adam pointed out that 1@3 is from 80+ skill learning roll, but I was under the impression that during skill learning roll you get the worlds bias level, regardless of your bias (this is how MJ has been doing it for me) so he would be getting +15, not the 42 cited. Then in cases of skill use he gets twice the lower of the world or his bias level.
So with a 2@ bias and 15@ world bias it would be 4.
I could be wrong, and if I am wanted to correct my own knowledge.
Sat Sep 25 2010 4:26 pm # -
Tadeusz
MemberGlantri,
If it comes to Evolution, Politics, or Gamemastering, you'd be wise to listen to me. If I give you advice about the game system or other game systems, get out a teaspoonfull of salt, or if you're real cautious, just plug your ears. /smile.Game system experts around here...
1. MJ
2. Wodium
3. Kyler I guess
4. Jhiaxus I guess
5. John
75. EricI don't know enough to rank the others.
Sat Sep 25 2010 4:43 pm # -
Jhiaxus
MemberGlantri might be right, but since my highest Psi Skill is a Heavy TK I believe is a 4@3 skill, might be one or two more or less, and a math mistake it should have been:
OOC:
Skill level 4@3, and this is a jump to 5@6 so -13
Psi Book Example 1@1 so +11
Doubling of world bias or skill bias whichever's lower...2@1 is definitely lower than 15@10 so +15
+10 Bonus
+5 for being prepared and ready.
Best Relevant Attribute Intuition 2@9 so +29
63 or less for a quick add....rolled 53. 1@3 skill. You're healed.Looks to me the bonuses added to: +57, roll was a 53 for a 1@2. It's funny how one mistake on each end making them almost cancel out.
Sat Sep 25 2010 4:57 pm # -
Michael, you are correct, in skill learning you would use the doubled world bias level. Never break rule 1, though: if you notice the referee makes a mistake and you reap the rewards from it, don't tell him (hahaha). Do tell if you end up with the shorter end of the stick on account of a numbers mistake. edit: my mistake in answering mistakenly here, you do subtract the bias of the skill attempting to be learned from the world bias.
Sat Sep 25 2010 4:59 pm # -
Adam, so you know that I'm not always out to pull a fast one, here are a few things that didn't quite "click" with me when they happened; 1. learning a P10@ telekinetic force skill (tk bludgeon) with a very low character bias in my first world. 2. gaining more than one incremental bonus to more than one attribute at a time seemingly with no skill check. 3. an rf 3 weapon-dependent style. 4. finding my equipment in only 2 - 3 days journey when it was 1000 miles from my starting location. If you want to take back any of these for any reason, by all means, please, and we can continue from the point we have already gotten to or whatever point you like.
Sat Sep 25 2010 11:53 pm # -
Jhiaxus
MemberI am indisposed to GM right now, but we'll go over the list:
1) You didn't get a 10@ skill, I gave you a 4@ tk skill :P
2) I was going to keep this a fun surprise, but all the skills you got here are bestow temporary ability
3) See number 2
4) Your stuff moved :PSun Sep 26 2010 12:40 am # -
Ok, that all makes sense, then. Just in case you hadn't seen my earlier post, using my phone to post to the forum, while convenient, seems to prevent me from making a post when that post would add a new page to the thread. So, when you're ready to continue, if you could just bump the thread to the next page for me, I'd be more than happy to post my response. edit: ..... I have no idea why sometimes it just works and sometimes it just doesn't.
Sun Sep 26 2010 11:21 am # -
@ "the picture" in John 2's game w Eric: Never got a chance to see that til now -- wait a second, that's little Ky. haha. Looks like Isky and Baron both wised up and left him; not impossible to imagine, given the direction his character arc has been heading. I really do love playing him. He's very quirky.
Sun Sep 26 2010 10:28 pm # -
So far the parameters are...
1. A fictional or real character already made (which the referee can modify because the hero may come form an alternative reality). No characters made up for the occasion.
2. On the side of Decency. Unless of course, the verser is Evil. Then he picks from Team Scum.
3. About the power level of the character or less. This is flexible. I would not let MJ have Clark Kent for this reason. I'd be iffy about the Doctor for Niko, but then his other character choices are weaker.Hmmm--if I'm playing the Architect, I would probably choose Michael di Vars and the Psientist. Those both have the feature (which you might consider as a requirement, depending on how you're doing it) that my character knows of his own personal experience that both exist. I might also pick Whisp, although I've worked with Whisp and he's very flighty and difficult to lead--I've had to rescue him from situations he created by his own foolishness. I would also be inclined to pick the Kid with the Stick, but that's a personal favoritism thing--I'd like to have my sons working with me--and it faces the problem that there's to date no evidence that the Architect is aware that the Kid with the Stick is in the verse, never mind that they're related. Adam Keller would also be high on my list, except that he, too, is a complete stranger to me.
I think again that the way to do it is either to limit it to people the player character actually knows and reasonably believes would answer his summons to help him, or to open it wide and make the choice subject to a GE roll. The latter is how we do it in Why Spy's Tower scenario: you get to make a list of exactly who you want, any way you want to make that list (bearing in mind the biases of that world, I would think), and then once the list is made the referee rolls a GE roll. If it's the worst possible roll, you hit the scene and they tell you that you've got to go now and this old guy with almost no other skills is your bomb specialist who can defuse the device, so take care of him. If it's the best possible roll you get what you requested along with some extra skills you did not anticipate. Between those extremes--well, that depends on exactly what you requested. You'll get a decent team on an average roll.
I was under the impression that during skill learning roll you get the worlds bias level, regardless of your bias (this is how MJ has been doing it for me) so he would be getting +15, not the 42 cited. Then in cases of skill use he gets twice the lower of the world or his bias level.
Yes, that seems to be a confusion.
If you are learning a new skill, you always get:
- Your bias in that bias area, decimalized thus: if you have a 9@10 skill, that's +100.
- Your BRA for that bias area, also decimalized: if you have a 2@10 BRA, that's +30.
- The level, and only the level, of the world bias in that area, so if the bias is 15@10 you get +15.
- The SAL of any example you are citing. If you are citing an example from a work of fiction (and not a world you've visited, for example), it's usually assumed that the author of that work did not really have the skill so it's a 1@1 SAL, +11. A referee might take into account knowledge of the author's actual skills--a former law enforcement officer describing how to use a gun might be a better example, although because it's in writing and not a demonstration that would be less than the author's actual skill.
- Half of the BRA in that bias area of anyone acting as an instructor. To act as an instructor simply means that someone is explaining to you how to do it. It can be in a book or by a video or in person; it can be specifically directed to you or generally directed to a non-specific audience. Instruction can also be example, but the two are distinguished. If your instructor in how to fire a gun has a 2@1 Ed Lev and that's his BRA, you get +11 for half of that.
- If the person instructing you (or one of the persons instructing you) has skill at P0@1 teaching or training in the field, you get the SAL of the teacher. Thus an average amateur 1@5 teacher gives his student +15 to learn.
- If your attempt to learn the skill directly involves attempting to do it--such as shooting a gun at a target--all the sit-mods that would apply to an attempt to perform the skill (range, target size, target value, ranged strike value, cover value, movement, targeting skill bonuses, avoidance skill penalties, et cetera) also apply to your attempt to learn the skill. This is tricky, because on the one hand it means that if you're trying to teach yourself a skill in a situation in which there are strong penalties against it, the fact that you are probably going to fail this time means you probably aren't going to learn it, either, and it might be better to attempt to learn the skill without doing it and then do the skill once you've learned it. On the other hand, it also means that you can increase the probability of learning a skill by heavily bonusing the circumstances--bring the target to point blank range for +20, for example, and use a target with a large size and low density so you won't miss.
- All of this is set against the decimalized bias of the target skill. If you're trying to learn to fire a cannon, a 6@1 skill, you subtract 61 from the total, and that gives you your chance of successfully learning the skill.
And yes, successful skill learning rolls greater than 50 (which means at least 51) give 1@2 SALs, and those greater than 80 (at least 81) give 1@3. In theory, if you could work positive die mods into the numbers and roll greater than 100 (at least 101) and be successful, that would give you 1@4, but no one has ever done so in my experience.
Skill use is simpler:
- Skill ability level, obvious, decimalized, so if you have a 1@1 skill ability level that's +11.
- Best revelant attribute, again decimalized, so a 2@1 BRA gives you +21.
- Bias level, level only, of whichever is lesser of the character or the world, doubled. Thus if you have a 15@ bias but you're in a 6@ world you get +12, and if you have the 6@ bias in a 15@ world you again get +12. You only get the +15 if both you and the world have 15@ biases.
- Sit-mods as previously discussed which would apply to performance of the skill. Sit-mod is short for situation modifier, and ultimately means that the referee can and should bonus or penalize chance of success based on circumstances, difficulty of the task being attempted, and similar factors.
As to the Doctor. The tenth doctor is a pacifist :P
I think they all were, to some degree. The first Doctor wasn't so much a pacifist as a pragmatist, and although the second, third, and fourth worked for UNIT (some United Nations military division for the protection of the planet) they were never combatants. Sylvester McCoy (#8?) would work to set enemies against each other, but then I think that all the doctors did that in one way or another.
Being a pacifist, though, doesn't mean you don't find a way to stop the aggressor.
On the subject of playing little Kyler: one of your brothers (I think it was Adam?) this week complimented you on being able to retain the feel of being a child in the play of your character. And I agree that he's lots of fun.
I never did four characters for me in my forum game persona. Well, I'm not sure he's met four people that he would choose--Jefferson, maybe, because he is intelligent and resourceful. I probably met a good wizard or two in Haston, but I don't remember them. Daedalus has promise; I'd go for the girl with the brush, but I think her power was limited to Northgate so that's not helpful. I might pick Twilight, but that's because we worked so closely together; Mentat and Icarus are really the only other two I knew well enough to ask.
And it would really depend on what we were supposed to do and what the biases were going to be.
As for my character's power level, his defeat of that non-corporeal guy no one could touch (pun incidental) certainly causes the people in Northgate to think him a lot more powerful than he really was.
--M. J. Young
Mon Sep 27 2010 2:22 am # -
Tadeusz
MemberKyler w/ MJ...
Daedalus, given his, err personality, is unlikely to tell anyone secrets he did not tell intentionally. Icarus, being more American, although having some security consciousness, and aware of super heroes needing secret ID's is a different case.
As to MJ's picks for the Iron Plains of Kharigen aka Warworld...
Di Vars would obviously love being chosen...after all, Kharigen is the prelude, the skirmishes, that lead up to the Ragnarok of Ragnaroks (maybe).
The Architect has certainly met other versers, and I suspect one of the chief topics of conversation between chance met versers is 'so what other versers have you met?' So he may have heard of the Kid with the Stick, and he's certainly capable of deducing a great deal.
So you meet the Psientist and he says 'hey, good to see ya'. I met, mmmm, since we met last, this married couple, Captain Chris and Lil Miss Sure Shot, and they told me they'd met this guy Jhiaxus with his Drow bud who is very good with his swords, and some Wolfrider named Krill, and he'd met some guy called Tadeusz, really scary, and T. met this Kid with a Stick who had a New Joisey accent."
Something like that happens a few times and you start to build up a map in your head.
The GE roll is a good idea, if you preset decent to what the ref finds reasonable. And the biases in Kharigen are 15@10 across the board with the area above the clouds being a Border Supernatural, I think.
Mon Sep 27 2010 1:36 pm # -
Little Ky would probably have difficulty with sch a list; but then, he categorizes people are previously stated. If they weren't too powerful for him, he'd be bound to choose between versers on his own cycle other than John Pharaoh, better known as Kaiser Sozei, better known as John 1 on this board. That would mean Chris, Bill, and Tristan; his exposure to fantasy in popular entertainment was rich, and he might suprise me by wanting Usagi Yojimbo or something, but I would expect the former rather than the latter.
Mon Sep 27 2010 3:14 pm # -
he tried to kill mariska. she ended up getting him, but it's highly unlikely he'd willingly come help. edit: to clarify, in an ooc sense I consider John 1 to be the best closest friend I've ever had, and agree oocly that trying to kill Mariska was the IC thing for him to do in light of my character's actions.
Mon Sep 27 2010 3:23 pm # -
...met this Kid with a Stick who had a New Joisey accent.
He doesn't have a "New Joisey" accent now--and anyway, there really isn't any such thing. The one you've caricatured is a "Joisey City" area accent, but not found in the suburbs there. Get over to Hudson County and you've got the accent of our former governor Brendan Byrne, who used to repeat the promotional slogan "Niew Juhzee an' yiou: puhfect t'gethuh." The most distinctive feature in South Jersey accents is the nasality (hard to capture that).
But none of my kids has any of the accents of their native state. They are much closer to the idiolect of their parents, which is pretty close to standard network television English. On my side, it comes from the fact that my father came from Mississippi and managed to discard the accent entirely within three weeks of living in New York, and my mother was so isolated from her peers (graduated college at 19) that she got most of her pronunciations from radio, so I grew up in a house with very non-regionalized speech. Their mother discarded the south Jersey accent when she attended college in North Jersey, I think, but I didn't know her before them--her mother had a very nasal accent, although her father did not have much of that.
The point is, Eric, you could tell he was a Yankee and that he wasn't from Bastan, or New Yawk, or New Joisey, or Niew Jushee, but I don't think anyone could tell from his speech patterns where he was from.
...Chris, Bill, and Tristan;
You forgot Dorian, who was also part of that starting group; also, I'm ninety-eight percent certain Ryan (early Psientist version) visited you all at Umak Tek. You wouldn't think of him as a lot more powerful than you, because by the time you'd finished the D&D world you had the magic and the martial arts going for you, so you were probably equal to where he was when you last saw him.
I don't know whether Mariska would count or not--she's your associate already, so one might argue you expect her to be there as a matter of course, but Eric would have the right to exclude an associate if he so chose, so you might need to choose her to include her. You also met Miralla, although I don't know that you'd have any interest in bringing her.
I'm also omitting Aaron and Anna (Paul and Annie, for the rest of you), as it's difficult to say whether or not they would count as versers (never having left Umak Tek).
...brings a smile on my face that he missed a point blank double barrel shotgun blast to the skull of another being.
Yeah, well, in fairness, she was much more skilled at ambush and surprise situations than he was, and he thought he could catch off guard someone who is never off guard.
--M. J. Young
Tue Sep 28 2010 2:14 am # -
Yeah, but, no offense against Dorian, I'd be more likely to try to get Chris, Bill, and Tristan. (edit: Besides, even though we were on the same cycle, I don't believe we ever met in person) The Psientist, of course, would be an excellent choice, and I suspect would be eliminated from my choices by how strong he is. Mariska is great to have around, and probably would be my character's first choice, and Baron his second, solely because of his personal responsibility to them.
Tue Sep 28 2010 11:36 am #
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