just FYI, it should be late 1900 :-)
Thanks to Shawn for the date confirmation, and he goes first tonight, followed by Ryan.
I've got a map of Europe circa 1900 which will be useful for the present. Ruritania is of course not on it, but is presumed squeezed between France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria-Hungary somewhere. This will matter, because I have to consider the route the train will travel this time.
Ryan plans to fly to this safe point, which does not particularly interest me unless he botches, and with 09 he's not going to botch. I'm interested in what he does with the transmuted solanadon.
I'm also interested in getting some sleep tonight, so it looks like I'm ready to depart.
--M. J. Young
I must have been a bit out of it yesterday, because I know that I saw that Eric had posted to the thread he shares with Ed, but I never opened it to read what he wrote. Shawn has also bounced back for another turn, and I expect this is where his current venture "ad"s something of interest.
If I am reading Eric aright, he has a 2@1 Remove Spiritual Fatigue M2@1 1:30 TF vocalized prayer with latin conclusion, appropriate words, eyes closed, physically still, alliance magic +30SM, but he is not using that. Instead, he is using a more complicated skill which incorporates a 1@4 bonus checks skill within it. That's a strange sort of incorporation, as the sense would seem to be that if the skill check is successful, the chance of success is bonused; it also makes it considerably less likely to work, because it will then be a 2@3 skill (to catch the 1@4 bias incorporated skill in the curve), when what he really wants is simply to enhance the ritual enough to make it work, which can be done simply by knowing a longer version of the same skill.
He rolls 85. The +30 SM and his religion score plus a 2@2 BRA and 2@1 SAL is going to make that a strong success. I've got a 57 rolled for the physical fatigue relief, which will work there also. I'm not rolling for the bonus skill, because it will not work in this bias.
He also has a limited damage repair skill, but he doesn't give me an SAL on it. I'm giving him +5 for the 3x per day limitation and +5 for the stipulation that the user must be a paladin, and requiring contact. His roll of 44 works even without knowing the SAL, but I will need the SAL to know how well it works (because the base damage increases with level). He rolls 35 for Ed, which will also succeed. The amount of healing will be determined after he answers the next question.
Shawn gets his bit of trouble--I'm not exactly certain how much trouble it would be for him to pass through Germany with the Duchess Olga, but we will see how that is managed before we reach any solid conclusions.
--M. J. Young
We've got a good turnout today, and Ed and Eric start cleaning up their mess, Adam returns from his tournament, Shawn continues his rail trip, and Graeme finally gets a computer back--which confuses real people and characters quite a bit, but I think everyone knows which is which where it matters.
Ed is going to use the explosives against the body of the beast, and Eric is going to observe and advise; I'll need more information.
I never rolled that GE roll for Adam, so now would be a good time: 14 is reasonably favorable.
Shawn has to pass through Germany, but as his party was not expected it is unlikely that there would be any trouble at the border. It's still potentially hazardous, as the German leadership do regard him as a thorn in their flesh, and the fact that a Russian Grand Duchess is traveling with them is going to get something mentioned somewhere. We will see how it proceeds from here, however.
Graeme gets a solid look at the shape of the world. Maybe he'll figure out why Heph is considered so odd around here.
--M. J. Young
What tournament, was just busy. Adam
Oh, my error. I remember John saying on Saturday that you (both) had to leave because there was some important game on Sunday for which you had to prepare, and when you did not appear in Monday's session I assumed that was the reason. In any case, you, Adam, are first today, followed by Shawn.
I've been working toward this moment for a while, so Adam and Geneice finally meet the man they seek. If they work this right, they might learn quite a bit.
Shawn, meanwhile, is still riding on a bad GE roll that's going to lead to consequences eventually. I think those consequences come late this afternoon.
I also think I got more done more quickly than anticipated, and should probably go do that quick shopping trip I've got scheduled.
--M. J. Young
As we head into the weekend, I've got Scott finally deciding to post again, then Adam, Graeme, and Ryan.
Scott is going to cast the darkness spell again, and with its +27 sit-mod and 2@6 mag BRA the 1@1 SAL in a flatlined 0@ bias gives him 64% chance of success. 30 succeeds. Now the question is whether he will also succeed in creating light--as I go by the expectations of the character as to what will happen, and the character expects to create light. This is a tough one, although Scott's numbers are helpful. I'm a fan of spells that use gemstones, and this one seems to be used very prominently, so it's +8 for that as material. That gives him +62, which he is going to need for this because his base chance is his 2@6 BRA plus 4@1 bias minus the 9@1 bias of the target skill. My addition gives me 129, and then the subtraction comes to 38 (for a moment I thought I was too tired to successfully complete a third grade math problem in my head, so if that's wrong, someone can flag me on it), and the roll is 66, failure.
I pulled the character Adam just met from a movie, and his inclination would be to send the stranger packing; but I'll let a simple persuasion check tip the balance one way or the other, 11+7=18 against a 2@6 persuasion, he's in there.
Graeme does a lot of easily answered things, and maybe learns a bit more about his world situation.
Ryan gets an 18 GE on his sleep, which is just over the line but not too bad. He rolls 30 on a simple intuition check for recognizing the emotion of a known alien, which is well outside his intuition, so he's not going to understand right away.
I'm going to accelerate his situation; a 7 GE accelerates it quite favorably. I've also got a 28 on a morphing skill check, which means the thing will learn how to morph quite abruptly.
--M. J. Young
finally deciding to post again,
Apologies. I have trouble focusing on more than one thing at a time, and lately I've been trying to arrange to go back to school this spring. I've also got this niggling fear that my players will band together and lynch me if I leave two-week gaps in their game threads while also posting daily to my own.
I will be picking up John II's game again, but I'm not certain where the thread for it is so tonight that won't be happening. Scott would be first anyway, and I also have Adam and Shawn awaiting.
I will for the moment assume that Scott's changes amount to no value change in the ritual, and thus that he has the same 38% chance of teaching himself this create light skill. The roll is 41, which is close.
Adam is conversing with our local grower, and might get work from this.
Shawn had a bad GE roll a while back for the trip, and it has just hit here. It might be something he can resolve easily, but we'll have to see what steps he takes and how they respond.
--M. J. Young
The thread is "Kyler, where ya at buddy?" That's what we were using for the game. I appreciate you picking it up again, but what's wrong with Kyler? I hope he's OK.
Concerning "what's wrong with Kyler", he has an opportunity to do something important that will have him too busy to do anything else for about a month, and he is hoping it will begin within the next few days, in in the interim he is trying to get in as much time as he can with his girlfriend so he is nowhere near a computer. Those who know Kyler well enough that they have a right to more information can fill in the gaps from their own knowledge, and those who don't should respect his privacy in this matter. He is hoping that this will solve some of his pressing problems.
I feel silly that I did not recognize that I was posting to the thread that was the game; the title didn't fit. In any event, I'm posting now, starting with Ed and Eric, then picking up John II, and wrapping up with Shawn.
I've put most of the mechanics stuff in the play thread, because they have to do with what skills Ed has and what equipment Eric handed him.
I think I'm getting into what Kyler was doing with John II. There are a couple of odd decisions in his posts, but they shouldn't pose a problem.
The complication in Shawn's story has come to full force, and he now has his opportunity to resolve it.
--M. J. Young
Well, let Kyler know that I hope all is well, and I hope to see him back soon.
I've taken over the game for John II, who comes first today. Adam follows, and Graeme is last.
My inclination is that the blacksmith is not going to like having something "magical" anywhere near his shop, and the more so if it is also "dangerous" and likely to "get angry". On the other hand, it is a medieval world and there might be magic around, so I can certainly see the possibility that someone would argue otherwise. The GE roll of 20 favors my view, though, so John II has just perhaps unnecessarily opened a can of worms for himself.
Adam will need to do a bit more to persuade this cautious businessman that he's not the law--particularly since he is the law, he just isn't interested in busting drug dealers.
I don't see any computer use skills on Graeme's character sheet; that has to be an oversight. Also, I note he's made the assumption that the barbarians are also human; I should have sent him to Orc Rising, to dispel such assumptions. It happens that they are, but they are still very different.
--M. J. Young
Hey MJ. You were saying something a while ago, about the order you answer gaming posts. You used to do them in the order they were posted. Now you do them in a specific order, because of people complaining about the old system? Just wondering. If that is the case, I just want to say that you do it however you see best. I think people should just stop worrying about the posting order. I mean you are taking time out of your day to do this for us. You answer posts however is most-easy for you. And I'm saying that as one of the people from the gather, which was almost always answered last in the old system. Do it however is easiest for you. When you picked my game back up, it made me think about that. I'm not going to complain about how you do it.
The difference in order is purely due the differences in how the posts are displayed in the new forum format.
Oh, I thought people were complaining about it. No matter what the reason is, I still say MJ should do it however is easiest for him.
The event you are referring to took place a month ago John. MJ addressed it in the appropriate thread and IIRC it had to do with people complaining about others posting in their story.
It also had to do with people posting to other peoples threads to bump themselves up.
The only thing I found odd about it was this: One of the first things MJ said when I started this game was that by no means should you post to anyone's game thread unless you ask. His reversal of position and annoyance at those who only wanted this followed caught me by surprise, but is his game and he can do what he wants with it.
However, I have long had the policy that only Tad, Graeme, David and MJ can post comments to my game threads. Any other threads are fair game, though I have never complained about people who do occasionally put in their two cents worth - so long as it's constructive.
As for people complaining about when their thread gets posted - we all get forgotten on occasion - it's a game after all and there is real life to consider. I agree that MJ should do it his way, but I'm sure he already does that - so I'm not sure that any of our posts telling him to do so are relevant.
I dunno, posting that comment just kind of seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
I'm not saying you shouldn't post your support, I'm just saying that I'm pretty certain MJ will do what he needs to to make the game work best for him.
Shawn, I don't actually remember having said people shouldn't post on each other's game threads. Mea culpa if that's the case, but I've been running this forum game for a lot of years (Eric recently observed that he took a break from play back when his now seven-year-old was born), and so if I forgot, oops.
Graeme, it actually was because of a blow-up that happened shortly after we moved here, and because of a few tiffs that had erupted before that. One player in particular (who is currently not active) had said some rather rude things to people who posted on his thread, which I were embarrassing to me and entirely inappropriate--and I ascertained from his private statements on the matter that he did not like being bumped out of line. Another player used to joke about that, and it annoyed me then. The person who complained on this board says that his objection was not about being bumped out of line but about having the flow of his thread disrupted. I will take him at his word on that. However, at the time the board was not marking unread threads, and there had been this complaint, so I made the shift. The argument is that the point is to introduce new players to the game, so new players go first. (You're not last on the list--Ryan and Kyler are both after you, and Eric and David would also be were they to resume their games with me.)
Thus, John II is first tonight, then Shawn, then Graeme, and as always I do my own game last--which, I should emphasize, is just my system, and no one else should feel slighted if his/her referee does not do it that way.
John will have to acclimate a bit to medieval society--"cake" generally requires fine ground wheat flour, and the bread and baked goods made by peasants are made from stone ground rye flour, most commonly. He'll have to look elsewhere for cake.
One thing I learned in law school is that the argument you think weakest might well be the one that carries the case. Thus we will give Shawn persuasion checks for each individual argument, relative success against will power checks by the man in the suit, who will have a 1@8 will power as a civil authority. The first argument roll is 33; second 29; third 32; fourth 16, against a will power check of 28, which is success for Shawn.
Given Graeme's computer background (not to mention that he's an engineer, and young enough that he had to use computers to get through school), I'm going to put him down with 2@8 Computer Use T11@0 and 2@3 Computer Programming: Basic, Visual Basic, Pascal, Fortran T11@1. The first is the one that counts in this situation, with his 11@ bias doubled and his 2@3 Tech BRA, 73% chance of success. His first roll, for "Entertainer", is 67; the second, for "Engineer", 29; the third, "Magician", 44; the fourth, "Carpenter", 88. That's kind of odd, but we'll go with it.
That's good for now; I'll be back tomorrow.
--M. J. Young
He's six, but otherwise spot on.
Time flies...or simulium temporis, the scientific name of time flies....buzzes about when in the process of enjoyment.
Actually, it just took me aback. I joined the game before moving to DC in 2002ish, so I don't expect you to remember everything at all. If it seemed I did then I apologise.
The apology is not necessary; I just did not remember having made that rule, and more recently it seemed as if the cross-talk was something like kibbutzing at the table (which we do all the time), the social interaction between the players. I suppose I ought to have made that sticky with the rules on it long ago, but then, it would be stuck on the other board now.
I should apologize for the interruption in my presence here. If I remember, I'll detail it in the Blogless Lepolt entry for tomorrow.
Despite my absence, I'm still looking at John II, Adam, Shawn, and Graeme, so let me wade into the fray and see what I can accomplish while I still have my consciousness.
John jumps from saying that he's carrying magic to saying that there's no such thing. He might want to consider a middle ground here somewhere.
I can't imagine that Adam could fail to get into Ku Fung, and a roll of 15 puts him in stance easily. The problem is, his drug dealer doesn't really know very much. Still, he'll know a bit.
Shawn doesn't need any roll to get tea in Europe, I think, particularly not in Russia. However, the GE roll on cake for the grand duchess comes to 15, which in a small border check point is not going to yield cake, exactly.
Graeme is running two more searches on the want ads, but I'm going to have to penalize these. 53 for Augur and 08 for Druid will both turn up something.
--M. J. Young
Well, after that not so brief interruption, let me see what I can do with Ed and Eric, Adam, and Graeme, before I collapse for my all-too-brief Sabbath.
We've established some skill numbers for Ed's explosives use, 1@3 SAL+2@6 BRA+2x14@ bias (thanks to his recently learned plasma cannon skill), and we're bonusing +20 for Tadeusz' oversight, and the roll is 83, which is a solid roll for the circumstance. I see each charge as having Fatal damage, so fatal plus three fatal dependent riders, that's 42 intensities four times, and the creature is already dead, so I'm not going to put too much effort into determining what the damage is.
I don't see Adam having any more trouble.
I'm not sure what Graeme will do in the temple, but in case it's just thank the man and leave I'll jump a bit ahead to the hotel room, and give him some options there.
--M. J. Young
You forgot to answer my thread MJ. No big deal, I'm sure you were wiped out. Just don't let it happen again, if you know what's good for you, little man!!!! (kidding of course)
Please tell Ed and David that I'm going to out of town for a long weekend. Feel free to continue my game with Tad as an NPC.
Aquarium and amusement park, ho!
Tadeusz
Have a good time. From everything you've been pumping out, it looks like you need a break.
It appears that I missed a couple of threads on Friday; mea culpa. Even so, Scott was not one of the threads I answered, so I don't feel too guilty about letting him jump to the front of the line before I attend to John II and Shawn.
Scott is throwing an even more complicated ritual at me to create light--so complicated at this point I don't want to attempt to reconstruct it at least until I know whether it works. He is using five gemstones instead of one, but I will give him +8 for each with the stipulation that they have to be these specific gem types (sapphire, emerald, opal, amethyst, garnet--some of those are not as precious, thus perhaps not as rare, but given the stipulation that they must be these types I'll stay with it). That gives him +99 on his chance of success, again against the significant penalty created by the bias difference. His roll is 60. My notes say that when he was at +62 he had a 38% chance of success; +99 is +37 over that, which means 75%, and that's a success, 1@2 Create Light.
Before I congratulate him, though, it catches my attention that he was going to cast it to dispel the darkness which will have dissipated on its own 30 minutes after it was cast (based on what I assume is RS minutes, I saved the roll), so it won't be there the next day when he has composed his new spell.
It also catches me as humorous that he has been trying to create light in order to dispel darkness, when it would be so much easier simply to dispel the darkness he created. It reflects a techological view of light and dark (in which the latter is merely the lack of the former) rather than a magical one (in which they are competing energies). However, there is no one there who can tell him this, so he'll just have to continue under that error.
John II probably is not himself confusing psionics with technology, but simply trying to make it seem that way to his superstitious blacksmith friend. His roll of 61 does not work anyway, with 1@5 SAL and 2@2 BRA in a flatlined psi bias, but 37% chance is not so bad that he is taking big risks here. 16 is the second roll.
Shawn will reach his destination without further incident, and things are better in Russia than they would have been without his efforts, so I'm sure it's a positive meeting.
I'll see what everyone does tomorrow.
--M. J. Young
Great, another FLATLINE world!!!!!! The skill level on the TK pulse is 1@8. Your sheet is old. I had 2 new uses, and a boatload of practice in Pearl Harbor. My TK pulse is 1@8, not 1@5. Kyler had 1@6, but trust me, it is 1@8.
MJ, I realize that you are the referee now, but I don't think Kyler intended this to be a flatline psionics world. When I first arrived, I tried simple TK, Kyler rolled, and told me that it failed. If it was flatline, he wouldn't have rolled for it. I don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but you may want to call Kyler and ask what kind of biases he was using, because I'm pretty sure it wasn't flatline for psionics. Besides, I was kinda hoping for a duel between my psionics and their magic.
Actually, dispelling the darkness directly did occur to me - but sadly, my only reference for "real" magic is D&D, wherein dispelling magic is a much more difficult endeavor than simple evocation of light. Plus, as early in my education as "Basic Dungeons and Dragons," a Light spell was the equal and opposite counter of a Darkness spell, and vice-versa. I might work "up" to dispelling later, though.
Edit: I posted to my game thread before checking here, but then I went back to the first page of Behind the Screens and found this,
1@1 Create Darkness M4@1 . . . The darkness is total, affecting the visual spectrum only. arcane magic, 0:42, lasts 7:00, sound vital, +27SM.
which I assume is based on a 1:10 TF:duration ratio. As a player, I'm perfectly happy with RS minutes, but seeing as the duration of the second spell wasn't important for anything other than V-me's knowledge of his own magic, I also have no objection to treating the skill as written.
If I'm paying attention aright (given that it's almost three in the morning and I've been going for a while), I've got Scott, John II, Adam, Shawn, and Graeme waiting. If I missed anyone, I'll know it eventually.
We have it straight that Scott is going to cast the light spell before he again casts the darkness spell, so he's now succeeded with the light spell. He wants to do the darkness skill again, so I have to roll for that. 04 works. There is a significant disparity between this roll and the 60 rolled for the light, so the light will be stronger this time.
I will explain to John II a bit about the mechanics and the behind the screens thread. I will also correct the value of his TK pulse on my sheet. I think most people on this board already know what world John is visiting, and already know what the biases are, so I'm not going to debate what they ought to be. John, please don't bombard me with messages about what's wrong with how I'm running the game. If your character chooses to address this without using magic, that's fine--let him use his guns, if you like.
Now, about those dragons....
Adam gets a 17 GE roll on his ride south.
I don't want to rush Shawn in any particular direction, but I don't want to stall him, either. I know he has the gift to give to the Czar, and I think that at least mentioning a tour of the pistol factory would be a good idea, and then we'll head back to Ruritania. I'm also wondering whether Bismarck might take the opportunity to attack Ruritania while Count Shawn is not there to direct his troops, or whether the close ties between Shawn and the Czar would cause him to hesitate, but I'll look to the dice for that when I need to know.
As always, Graeme surprises me. Let's roll for the skill of the priest; he's elderly, so he's probably good at this. 83, though, is pretty high. Figure +14 for bias, a 2@2 BRA and 2@8 SAL, probably a ritual using incense burned, singing, half his 2@8 religion SAL, +10 for being done in the temple, and I think it's a strong success.
I think, too, that I'm almost ready to call it a night.
--M. J. Young
Scott, John II, and Adam have bounced back for another session.
We get Scott straight on those spells, and move forward.
John II finally gets some notion of the problem in the palace. He might even recognize this story.
Adam has chosen a new tactic that just might work for him. We'll see how it unfolds after he gets settled.
--M. J. Young
I have five players tonight, Ed, Scott, John II, Adam, and Shawn, and they all look like rather short post games.
Ed wants to know what's next, but I think that's for him to decide. His notion of getting away from the scene of the action might be good, though.
Scott has asked a question which I surprise myself in saying I'd not really considered the matter: is there a Bible here? I've read the book 1984, and in true socialist fashion the writer ignores religion entirely; but that doesn't mean it would not exist, and this actually is not that world. My inclination is that it does not exist; I do not know whether Scott would prefer one way or the other, but with a GE roll of 16, I can go with my gut.
John II gets a 19 GE roll on the "handcuffs". Of course, I already know that they wouldn't know that word, but they would understand the concept of manacles, so what I need to know is whether this blacksmith is sufficiently skilled and informed to make them, and whether he will teach the skill today. I think with a 19 GE and the fact that I already know it's late in the day, we'll push it to the next day.
What Adam describes sounds a lot more like civilization than he's got out here where he is, so we'll double back for that, and make sure we're on the same page before we do anything else.
Shawn gets settled in the palace. It suddenly occurs to me that I think this might be the Kremlin--maybe I'm not remembering aright. I've not been there.
--M. J. Young
So, a 19 means that he knows what manacles are, but cannot make them today. A 3 would mean that he not only knows how to make them, they are his specialty, and he has a few pairs already? I guess a 30 would be that he is appalled at the suggestion I'm making and decides to flatten my fingers instead of the metal? Something like that?
Yes, BTW, it is the Kremlin.
John, you're probably right about the 3. As to the 30, he probably would not have understood that by handcuffs you meant manacles, and probably if you managed to communicate that to him, he'd have pointed out that blacksmiths don't make torture devices--these are made by specialist metalworkers.
Thanks, Shawn, for confirming that; that's what I thought.
And as it happens, John II and Shawn are tonight's players.
John is nearing the end of the day--not yet there, but getting close.
For Shawn, I'm hoping to focus a bit more on anticipation of the trouble ahead. Of course, Russia's troubles built over years to a climax, and already Shawn is steering them away from that; but Ruritania's troubles are something he cannot so easily predict.
--M. J. Young
Our players tonight are John II and Adam.
John rolls 98 on learning to make manacles. That's not really such a bad roll, given that he has a 10@2 tech bias, 2@2 BRA, plus a 2@5 example and an instructor with a 1@7 BRA for +9 who is also an experienced 1@8 trainer in blacksmithing/metalworking. All of that comes to 176 minus the 5@3 skill level for the top of the package, greater than 100% chance of success, so he's got a 1@3 SAL in the blacksmithing package. I'll include his first set of manacles in that roll.
Adam needs the revolution to happen sooner rather than later, and to happen in a way that he can observe and become involved. 19 is not thwarting but generally unfavorable, so he's going to be settled for a couple months, but it will happen soon enough.
I'm sure there's still stuff on my plate for tonight, but things are happening.
--M. J. Young
Kewl Mr. Young.
I get it MJ. You're teaching me about the tech biases. Most tech things I try to do here will be easy to learn, but quite useful later. Give me the exact specifics on the 1@3 blacksmithing. The @ levels. I need to update my sheet.