My explanations for my absence have been posted in a few other threads already, so I will abbreviate the apologies and dive into the play. Kurt, Harry, John 2, and Adam have all been very patient, and I thank you for your patience during my technical difficulties.
On Kurt's recommendation, I'm listing a 1@4 Drive T8@0 skill on his sheet. He's also got a presumed 10 or 11@ tech bias and a 2@2 BRA. That puts his chance of success in any driving skill check at at least 56 and not more than 58, so I'll do the first check and ask about computer skills.
The first thing is, he's trying to outrun two pursuers he can't identify. 70 is a failed roll. I don't think Kurt can read lips, but I'll describe the lips to him.
I've got a bit of a confusing problem concerning Harry's holy ground skills. I see three skills, and I remember when/why he created each of them. They are
- 1@8 Consecrate Holy Ground M+1@1 creates consecrated circle 8 feet in diameter, 2:00:00 TF, lengthy appropriate words calling the four corners, calling upon Njordr, god of the sea, to bless the space, Odin, in his capacity as god of wisdom, to guide the casting, and Freya, goddess of magic and patron of sorcerers, to lend strength and valor, with my sword Soulmourn in right hand, sound matters, in English, concentration not interrupted during casting, and limited so that if I am dismissed from the Mary Piper the circle will be rendered useless; add that five minute calling the corners and invoking the gods must be said inside the space before it can be used for casting, +32SM
- 1@8 Consecrate Holy Ground M+1@1 creates consecrated area of 300 square feet, 2:00:00 TF, lengthy appropriate words calling the four corners, calling upon Njordr, god of the sea, to bless the space, Odin, in his capacity as god of wisdom, to guide the casting, and Freya, goddess of magic and patron of sorcerers, to lend strength and valor, with my sword Soulmourn in right hand, sound matters, in English, concentration not interrupted during casting, and limited so that if I am dismissed from the Mary Piper the circle will be rendered useless; add that five minute calling the corners and invoking the gods must be said inside the space before it can be used for casting, -3SM
- 1@1 Sanctify large area of ground M+1@1 walk, kneel at four corners, singing praises and giving thanks to the gods, invoking them (Heimdall the Guardian, Thor who protects travelers, Odin who sees all, and Freya who guides sorcerers), and pacing the entire perimeter of the area. Appropriate words spoken aloud in English so the sound matters, 8 hours casting time, my named-unique sword in hand, walking and kneeling, sacrifice six uncut emeralds, casting the husks of the spent emeralds away ground must be activated to use +95SM
I've noticed a few points about these while I've been trying to figure this out, but first, I should note that there is only one activation ritual:
- 1@10 Activate (Existing) Holy Ground M+1@1 5:00TF calling four corners by element and position, declaring purpose to work magic, say "Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the east. Keepers of water, the rolling ocean, I call to you. Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the south. Keepers of air, the rushing gales, I call to you. Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the west. Keepers of earth, the eternal mountains, I call to you. Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the north. Keepers of fire, the glory of dawn, I call to you. It is my purpose in this space to work magic. I humbly ask that I be allowed to use this gift, given me by the gods and shaped by my will and theirs. Odin, my patron, grant me wisdom, that I be rightly guided in this space. Freya, queen of all sorcerers, grant me power, your will and mine be one. Njordr, lord of the sea, keep steady this holy space, and look favorably on us as we go." Turn to each corner in turn, stand or sit with hands hip-height, palms open while declaring purpose, then with arms open while invoking the gods, skills which do not require holy ground to cast are bonused RS/20 if cast on activated holy ground, +28SM +1
Now, I also note that in his post, Harry says
the one on the deck I leave on constantly. It has to be activated, but it also has to be manually discharged - just using it to cast a spell doesn't discharge this one like it does the others, except for the big bulk-combat spell because the holy ground itself is part of that spell. So I activated it once long ago, and haven't turned it off since.
I have two problems with this.
- I do not see a deactivation ritual, and therefore I must assume that he does not have the skill to deactivate any holy ground.
- I do not see anything in any of these skills that suggest that the effect is either permanent or temporary; the default is usually temporary, and the bonus for the restriction that the area must be activated to be used is based on the assumption that in use it has to be activated to be used--thus a permanent activation would either be a more difficult skill or would significantly reduce the bonus for requiring it.
I also reason thus:
- The skills that created the sanctified space in his cabin (#1) and in the cargo hold (#2) are both effectively permanent in the sense that he uses the holy ground but it remains holy ground.
- The skill used to consecrate the deck is not different in this regard; it remains holy ground no matter how many times it is activated or how long it remains inactive.
- Therefore, whether the ground is activated temporarily or permanently must be in the activation ritual.
- Since there is only one activation ritual listed, the activation must be the same in both cases.
- It is not argued that once activated the other holy ground locations remaind continuously active; it is admitted that these must be activated to be used, and that at some point after being used they become inactive.
- It must therefore be the same for the activation of the larger area.
- The duration of activation would be tolled either by a "reasonable" period of time or by a number of uses of the area; that number would almost certainly be one, so the first time the activated holy ground was used for anything it would become deactivated. That being unreasonable given the function here, I am inclined to think that the activation ritual maintains the holy ground for ten times the casting time of the activation ritual, which is five minutes, so we're talking about something close to an hour.
I thus conclude that unless Harry has cast the activation ritual within the past fifty minutes, the holy ground that comprises the deck is not active, even if he believes that it is.
It comes into my head that he has a spell that probably has to be cast on holy ground (or at least benefits from it) that has a break in it--that he can cast most of it and finish it in a few seconds with the final piece. My inclination is to allow that since the ground was active when he cast the first part, he gets the bonus for it even if he does not activate the ground for the final part. However, the other aspects of the holy ground would require that an activation ritual have been performed.
Since he just got off an eight-hour shift piloting, it seems unlikely to me that he would have cast the activation ritual within the past hour.
This is not a final judgment; this is a reasoning process. I am going to let Harry argue his side now that he knows what I am seeing.
Thus with that I move to John 2.
John is going to be really angry with me; but hey, he's the one who is trying to tamper directly with game mechanics. He is praying:
"God, please eliminate any unexpected results in the psionics (or magic, as the case may be) that I am about to attempt. The expected results would be success or failure. Anything outside of that (read "botch") I ask you to negate and nulify. Prevent any and all unexpected results (read "botch") from happening." Pray for 5 minutes
He wants it to work on magic and psionics, so I'm thinking it's not a M4@8 Manipulate Magic but a M4@10 Energy Control NOS, comprising a manipulate magic and manipulate psionics in the same skill. I'm thinking that this is particularly difficult to do, but I'll give it a -30 sit-mod for that; it might only work once, but once is all I expect for him to want to use it. He previously specified that he was going to drop to his knees, which is total body involvement for +15. I've got -10 for covering both magic and psionics (a variable over which he has control: the nature of the energy). I think that this would be a 1 minute ritual and he says 5, so that's +22. +5 for appropriate words, and now to get the total: +2. He has a 12@6 bias and 2@2 BRA, so it looks like this is going to work. He rolls 72 and gives himself a 1@2 Prevent Personal Psionic/Magic Power Release M4@10 kneel and pray "God, please eliminate any unexpected results in the psionics (or magic, as the case may be) that I am about to attempt. The expected results would be success or failure. Anything outside of that (read "botch") I ask you to negate and nulify. Prevent any and all unexpected results (read "botch") from happening." Pray for 5 minutes, +2SM That means I do not have to roll for the use of the skill.
Hey, if I'm working on an amplifier and I want a guarantee that I will not be shocked, I unplug it. The only way to make a botch impossible is to shut off the power supply to it, and that's what John has done. He cannot botch if he prays this prayer before attempting a skill, because he cannot tap the power. It is as if the skill were curved out for him.
Adam's weaponsmith rolls 12 on constructing the sword, so again it is a well-made but not exceptional weapon. Adam is going to do more with it after that, so it's not that important. I do need to get a description of it onto the character papers, though. Thus far it is Focus/Holy Symbol: Sword, silver blade, inscribed with Celtic runes against undead, amethyst inset stone, gold crosspiece hilt. The rest I think still has to be done.
I think it's time to post.
--M. J. Young
Hey, if I'm working on an amplifier and I want a guarantee that I will not be shocked, I unplug it. The only way to make a botch impossible is to shut off the power supply to it, and that's what John has done. He cannot botch if he prays this prayer before attempting a skill, because he cannot tap the power. It is as if the skill were curved out for him.
A completely unanticipated, but somehow not unexpected reaction from you, MJ. Now to modify it to work in my favor.......
For most of my Holy Ground rituals, we've established that they remain active until used. It was my intention that the one on the Deck should only discharge when it was used for something BIG, otherwise it would linger until manually shut off. (Compare with how the other two holy grounds automatically discharge when I use their surface area as the radius-of-effect for a spell - a spell that is, by definition, as big as the Holy Ground can hold).
I will grant that I have not yet introduced a deactivation ritual (although, like with the activation ritual, I do know one in real life and would port that one to MultiVerser for convenience).
I will also grant that I have not had a chance to recast the activation ritual in the last hour, but I've mentioned more than once that I leave it active. If it were NOT active - if it were intended all along that it cannot linger more than an hour, despite rituals that take plural hours requiring its use, including a sixteen-hour ritual that requires an active holy ground to store it - there have been weeks of time in which I could have been notified of that.
(In real life, breaking the sense of magical space - discharging the holy ground - is a good way to lose the ritual altogether. Compare what would happen if you were in the middle of a church service and someone kept cracking snarky jokes at the pastor. The sense of holiness would be ruined, and everybody would notice, to the detriment of all. SImilarly compare how it seems a bit less holy when the preacher bores the entire congregation until nobody is listening to him. The holy space wears off, and the ritual is GONE, and everyone notices.)
My contention is that either I would have known the need for it, and thus would have designed a longer-lasting, much more secure activation ritual (at least for the one on deck) or I would have noticed the lack of need for it, in which case there is no argument here because it lingers like I've been mentioning.
Either way, the holy ground bonus is, what, +10? I'm confident I can get a Bonus Skill Use spell off without it given everything ELSE I've got going, especially considering I still get my big bulk combat bonus spell either way, but it would be much better if my divine magic worked more or less how I intended - the gods know my heart, and all.
A1Nut - Modify it to work on someone else, or on an area-of-effect, and you've got the makings of a Counterspell or Antimagic Field. Granted, there's probably an easier way to do either than a 4@10 spell, but you go with what you've got.A completely unanticipated, but somehow not unexpected reaction from you, MJ. Now to modify to to work in my favor.......
A1Nut - Modify it to work on someone else, or on an area-of-effect, and you've got the makings of a Counterspell or Antimagic Field. Granted, there's probably an easier way to do either than a 4@10 spell, but you go with what you've got.
Yeah, that's the logic my character would follow. He is now trying to see what happens with other psionics. I hope I can get him to realize what happened.
And no MJ. I'm not angry at all. I should have seen this coming a mile away.
After working through this problem with Harry, I will turn my attention to John 2 and Adam.
All right, Harry, the "standard" for your holy ground activations is that they work for one spell, but you wanted this big one to be activated for more than one spell. I'm thinking that the big one simply made the area larger, such that you could be standing anywhere within it, and more pointedly such that any spell that affected "everyone within the holy ground" would affect more people.
Since the activation ritual remains the same, the difference in the magic must be in the consecration ritual. I don't see anything in the consecration ritual that makes it different in that way. To my mind, then, once it has been activated it remains active until it is called upon to bonus something. No, this is getting much too confusing--It seems to me that it was clear in the intentions that you were supposed to be able to use spells that would both protect the crew and bonus their abilities, based on them being in the active area. Still, the stated limitation is that it must be activated to be used, and that inherently suggests that it deactivates either after being used or after the time tolls.
Harry has an almost fair point that he would know that it had deactivated; but I'm not at all certain I agree. I think it plausible that he might intuitively suspect that it deactivated if he attempted to perform magic within it it and it was not active. His activation ritual has a +28 sit-mod, nearly all of which is probably attributable to the five minute time factor (at least, a one minute time factor would be about 22 or 23 points lower). So had he cast any spells in that space he would have had the opportunity to notice that the space had deactivated--that is, he should have been allowed an intuition check for it. Yet I have no evidence that he cast any spells during that time, so I have no reason to believe it would have been deactivated until the moment he used it for something in the current combat. The question, though, is when is that moment? Obviously, if he casts a spell that can only be cast in holy ground, that will do it. It seems to me, though, that if he casts a spell that is bonused if cast in holy ground, that, too, would do it. What leaves me uncertain is whether he did that. He botched on the bonus strike, but there is nothing in that which connects to the holy ground. The first use of holy ground in a spell description is the one he was just creating; thus I'll take it that he activated the holy ground and has not used it.
Having said all that, I now look beyond that to the remainder of the spell. He wants what is in essence a bonus check spell which will work on skills that are not combat attacks. That makes it a 1@4 skill, above the curve for this world, so I'll not pursue it further. The die roll would not be relevant.
Before anyone complains that I delayed the game this long to determine a factor that would not be relevant, I believe that Harry has spells that do require holy ground that do work, which he is likely to use in the present circumstance, and it is much better to establish the facts beforehand. The next TK pulse roll is 66, which is a failure.
My feeling concerning John 2's prayer is that it would prevent the operation of the next skill he attempted, and that it would do so for a reasonably immediate period or until the affected character changed to a different skill. Thus it will prevent him from becoming non-corporeal until he gives up and tries to do something else. He rolls 38 on his TK pulse attempt, on which he has a 2@2 SAL and 2@2 BRA, 44% in a flatlined world (and this is not a flatlined world--it's more complicated than that). He shifts to simple TK, and an 82 is a failed roll, but a 14 is successful. By now the preventative has been cancelled, so as he returns to the non-corporeality his roll of 28 will be successful. He does not botch, but he might have done.
I really feel like telling John about the time Paul prayed that God would let him go to Rome now. God did, in fact, answer that prayer. He took Paul back to Jerusalem, threw him in jail for three years, and then had him escorted under guard to Rome at the expense of the Roman government. John prayed for a teacher to come. Those events have been set in motion. There are a lot of events and contingencies tied into their fulfillment, and they have to play out in order. The teacher is on the way; Derek's arrival is part of that, but Derek has to be positioned properly before the teacher can get there, because God's not going to bring the teacher into that world without having prepared the world for the teacher. That's happening.
Geneice rolls 56 on learning the quality transfer skill, which means she's got a 1@2 on the same skill--Merlin will be her example and Adam will be her teacher, and between them she's got a substantial enough bonus that I'm not going to bother crunching the numbers. I'm also giving Adam marks in teaching and in the skill, which raises the skill to 1@4 for him and gives him a 3@5 +2marks on Teaching.
The object is a Focus/Holy Symbol: Sword, silver blade, inscribed with Celtic runes against undead, amethyst inset stone, gold crosspiece hilt magically given the hardness of a diamond.
I'm terribly tired here; I'm having trouble recalling what we're doing next. Right, we're doing the sword for the stone. I'll get Merlin to do the hardening (he had to demonstrate the spell for Geneice anyway, and he's not likely to fail). I've not spent a lot of time thinking about it, but I haven't been able to come up with a one-word name for the property of resistance to corrosion they want to confer on the sword. If they can do that, they've got an easy spell to do it; if not, they're going to have to do it a different way. I'll give Adam a shot at coming up with such a word.
--M. J. Young
"I really feel like telling John about the time Paul prayed that God would let him go to Rome now. God did, in fact, answer that prayer. He took Paul back to Jerusalem, threw him in jail for three years, and then had him escorted under guard to Rome at the expense of the Roman government. John prayed for a teacher to come. Those events have been set in motion. There are a lot of events and contingencies tied into their fulfillment, and they have to play out in order. The teacher is on the way; Derek's arrival is part of that, but Derek has to be positioned properly before the teacher can get there, because God's not going to bring the teacher into that world without having prepared the world for the teacher. That's happening."
What we had there was me getting into character, by going out of character. I know what my character would be thinking "Where's that verser teacher????????" I was imagining it through the eyes of my character, and trying to put myself into his head. That's was what my character would be thinking. I just expressed it by making an out of character suggestion. I realize I probably shouldn't have, but it was my way of staying in character. If that makes any sense at all.
Sorry, mistake
Hot and tired I am, with several things that did not work as hoped today, but hoping to address posts from Harry, John 2, and Adam.
Harry is jumping in with three prayers as he runs to the rail. I can see several candidates, so I'm going to confirm that he means the three I think.
I don't think I can object to the use of an attribute check to determine whether the character figures out something that the player reads behind the screen. It this case, though, I think it would be a difficult intellect check--and a roll of 27 fails, so John 2 is none the wiser. I'm not sure whether Lauren would have figured out what it was John did, and I'm really sure that Derek, who knows no psionics or magic at all at this point, would not know what happened.
We're moving forward on the Sword in the Stone; Adam has suggested some excellent words that broke the dam, so I could think of some others. Let's go for the casting, and then the next step.
--M. J. Young
I am again looking at posts from Harry, John 2, and Adam.
Harry confirms the three prayers he means to pray, so I'll run them in the order stated. The first two are 0:06 TF, so he can pray them quickly; the third is RF1, so he can pray it as quickly but cannot pray another until the rest of the minute tolls. He rolls 47, 41, 38, which by the seat of my pants look to be three successes but close enough to check. The baseline for these is a 2@3 Mag BRA plus 13 for half of his 2@6 Religion skill makes 36, plus SAL plus or minus sit-mods. The first skill is a 1@2 SAL and +6 SM, 36+12+6=54. He gets +5 with his sword for the next 5 minutes. The second has a 1@2 SAL which makes 48, and then there is the question of whether he prayed it "before/while engaging in a risky action in honorable combat", but since that makes the difference between +5 and -5, it's a success either way and he penalizes attacks against him by -5 for one minute. The third is 1@3 SAL and no sit-mod, 49%, which gives him -4 on incoming attacks for 13 minutes. Now the question is, what does he find?
It also comes into my mind that he botched a moment ago several days back, giving all enemy attacks +10 for ten minutes. I would bet he would most like to get a pirate holding a rope, and his GE roll is good enough at 12. Glancing at his martial arts, I note that he gets four attacks in the style but only two with the sword, which means he must have something else he can do with the style. He does have a feint, but it's not that reliable. In any case, we'll give him a target and roll; because he has a weapon-dependent style, a successful attack with the sword is sufficient to activate the style. He rolls 34, and glancing at his numbers I have no doubt that this is a successful hit. I think he gets +2DC on a dangerous weapon here, which means RS/2 intensities of damage, 17, one intensity shy of full damage value; let me quickly crunch his numbers so I know what rolls he needs: 2@1 SAL (Smallsword or style), +15SM (style), +2x7@ bias (bod), +2@2 BRA (bod), +1@7 MSV=89, minus1@7 enemy TV=72, for the baseline here. Additionally, he is on this attack +5 and -10, so at present his chance to hit is 67, but it will change. We'll let him define his next action.
John 2 needs to open the door from the inside; that's simple enough, but he might not want to do it for a variety of reasons.
Adam chooses well on who casts the spell, but Geneice rolls 79, which will not succeed. Let's try it on another day. 09 does work. That's also a new use, because it's a new quality, so she increases to 1@3 SAL.
I suddenly wonder that I've not seen Graeme for a while; but his life gets like that sometimes, so I won't worry about it.
--M. J. Young
I have Harry, John 2, Adam, and hopefully enough time to get them all in play.
Harry rolls 55 on the kiai, which in a flatlined psi bias is a failure. He rolls 61 on the groin kick, but that's going to require checking. The maneuver SAL is 1@6, the Bod bias is 2x7@, he gets his +15 attack SM, +2@2 BRA+1@7 MSV-1@7 TV and -10 for the botch, and his magical +5 only applies to attacks with the sword, so he has a 57% chance of success, a very near miss which puts him off balance. The next sword swipe is 67, which is again a success that will slice the man horribly.
John 2 has realized he cannot open the door without leaving his identity behind; he'll let Derek tackle it alone.
Adam is going to do a bit of traveling.
--M. J. Young
Kurt, Harry, John 2, and Adam are today's guests.
Kurt rolls 4 on a simple intuition check; that's a weak success, but a lot better than a failure.
Harry's first choice is for the pirate to have a pistol--a slightly less than likely possibility. His second choice is for another pirate to be in striking range, and his third choice to be able to use his double lunge maneuver to close on a pirate. He gets a 16 GE roll, so I'll go with the double lunge. The roll is 20, which will hit for dangerous +DC=lethal damage, and I think since he's using his special sword there should be another +DC, so we're looking at a fatal damage attack, 10 intensities. He gets only one other attack, but presumably will use the sword, 23 at fatal level doing 12 more, more than any pirate can survive. It's time, though, for them to make trouble for him, too. The pirates are boarding, and he's made himself an obvious threat. Initiative goes 46 for him, 84 for the pirates; they can't hit with an 84, so he gets the next move.
John 2 starts his new job.
Merlin will want to have a werewolf come to speak with them, but it makes more sense for him to have his students do the summoning, particularly since they both have psionic summoning skill and only need the new pattern. I'll ask Adam whether either of them ever contacted a werewolf psionically; I don't remember it happening, but my memory's not always perfect.
--M. J. Young
I see Harry, John 2, and Adam.
I have this feeling that I remembered something in Harry's scenario that I've been overlooking, but cannot recall exactly what that was. In any case, he's developing a new maneuver--a sort of tactical maneuver that is part parry, and redirects the enemy attack to his companion. I'm going to place it loosely under the Cause Auto-injury category, B7@8 maneuvers by which a skilled user moves such that the enemy injures himself. These typically burn two attacks, but we'll say it uses two attacks but only one must be a sword attack. Now I have to think through some of the details. The damage will be based on the amount of damage the attacker can do. It's like an attack on a weapon, and so the target value of the weapon is the user's SAL+MSV+the weapon's density, all over 3. The density of a sword will be between 2@6 and 4@8 depending on the material and quality; these are probably 3@2 swords. The pirates have 1@9 MSVs and 1@9 SALs, so that's 70/3=2@3 TV for hitting the sword. If the maneuver is a success, the attacker against which it was used rolls his attack roll as if against the designated alternate target; if it is reflexive (against himself) he has -10 to hit, but if it is against another there is no penalty. It is a targeted attack, so Harry includes his 1@7 MSV as one of his sit-mods; it is a skill learning roll, so we need to begin with his 7@7 bias+2@2 BRA+13@ world bias=112+1@7 MSV=129-2@3 TV=106, and then from that we subtract the skill bias of 7@8=28%. Harry rolls 31, and does not manage to learn the skill; he still spends the two attacks. The opponent comes in with a roll of 59, which takes his 1@9 MSV+2x6@ bias+1@6 BRA+1@9 SAL-Harry's 1@7 TV, and the pirates are still working with a +10 bonus, so that's a solid hit with a damaging weapon, 3 intensities of damage.
John 2 is working in a junkyard and wants to know more about the job.
Merlin has to attempt to transmit to Adam or Geneice what a werewolf "looks like" telepathically. 38 is a successful transmission to Adam. Adam rolls 85, not a success at the skill use. Merlin rolls 79 on an attempt to transmit the image to Geneice, which is also a success, and she rolls 54--I'm going to have to check this. Her Psi BRA is 2@3, her bias 2x10@, and her SAL for the summoning 1@3. That is indeed a success--I make her chance 56%.
I know that they are on the edge of werewolf country, but it's big territory. A GE roll seems appropriate for how far the wolf has to travel, and how important or capable a wolf it is. 24 is not that good a GE roll; but there are wolves in the area, it's just a matter of time before they arrive.
--M. J. Young
Shouldn't Harry's magical attack bonuses and penalties factor into his on-the-job skill learning attempt? I forget what those were, but I seem to recall there were a few, possibly from blessings or botches or what have you. (Edit: I checked back, and it's a net penalty, so it's not important this time.)
Also: if I were Harry's referee and I hypothetically found it implausible that he could learn such a skill on the fly in the thick of combat, what would be an appropriate response? A small penalty on the roll, perhaps?
I don't suppose I could claim an "I saw Errol Flynn do it in a movie one" as an example to score those last 3% ? :)
And, Wodium, I have combat modifiers enhancing my own attack rolls. The net penalty against me comes from the botch that gave the pirate crew a +10 to their attacks, but that botch isn't influencing me directly.
Mind you, I'm /fully/ using this as one of those "learning a botch" examples, for my next big spell...
I was looking at a part of MJ's post where he calculated your chance of success at an attack, saying
Additionally, he is on this attack +5 and -10, so at present his chance to hit is 67, but it will change. We'll let him define his next action.
I assumed that both modifiers still applied, but neither is reflected in the most recent calculation. I'm pretty sure the +5 comes from the blessing, but I'm uncertain of the -10. Perhaps it is from the botch, or perhaps it is an error, or perhaps there's something else I'm missing.
[disregard/delete]
I'm honestly not sure where that -10 came from. As far as I know I have no penalties to hit working against me. Unless it's because I took some damage? Does MV do wound penalties?
Um--yes, and this is one of the problems with the online game: I don't have notes on the table in front of me that take me from attack to attack, so I rely on the players to keep me aware of their bonuses and penalties, of which they are not always aware themselves.
As near as I can figure, the -10 is my mistake; I was misremembering the botch, which is a bonus to all pirate attacks, not a penalty to all Piper attacks. Whether the +5 applies is a judgment call; the question is whether this is technically an attack or a parry, since if it is an attack, the bonus strike benefit would apply but if it is a parry it would be covered by bonus defense spells. However, I think it best to treat it as an attack under the circumstances, as it is written that way, and Harry should get the bonus. This changes everything, of course, because now he made it, and I've got to redo that scene.
For what it's worth, it is quite reasonable to argue that he ought also to get the +15 attack sit-mod for his style, or at least the +5 defensive sit-mod, because he is acting in style. Thus even if the -10 penalty should apply he probably has enough to make it anyway, and I'll have to redo that scene.
Concerning Errol Flynn--I've told this before, but I'll tell it again in Concerning Errol Flynn and let you talk about my feelings there.
Concerning Scott's concern--it is inherent in the game that characters sometimes manage to teach themselves incredible tricks in the thick of combat; it is inherent to much of the adventure genre, I think. Because of the difference between the skill learning roll and the skill success roll, it is often the case that a player will have a better chance of success the first time he attempts something than he will when he attempts to repeat it. Thus you must expect that a certain amount of "implausible" is going to happen in these situations.
On the other hand, if you have specific articulable objections, you can penalize for those. For example, if Harry were standing between two Piper security guards you could say that the close quarters make it difficult to reach beyond the one attacker's sword to deflect it inward toward the other, and assess a -10 penalty for that. Also, one thing that played in Harry's favor was that he had the initiative here (I had assumed that he was going to strike again with the sword, but I believe the initiative roll was still successful for the skill he actually attempted). If he did not have the initiative, you would simply have said that the enemy manages to attempt his strike before Harry can target his sword, and roll the enemy's attack first. This would require that Harry choose a different action. Technically, given that the pirates each have one attack and Harry has four, you could let both of them strike before he gets his first response if they have the initiative, and this then prevents him from attempting the maneuver unless either he gets the initiative in the next round or he decides to use his last attacks in this round to perform the maneuver against them and sacrifices the initiative in the next round so that he can target their attacks. Either way he is suffering a penalty of sorts in combat based in his tactical decisions, in the hope that he will gain the benefit of the other attack.
Now, let me address threads from Kurt, John 4, Harry, John 2, and Adam.
Kurt has to figure out who is who as the action starts.
John 4 has goofed: according to Wikipedia, Basin Street Blues wasn't published until 1926 and wasn't recorded by Satchmo until 1928. It's 1920 where he is now, so none of these people will have heard of it. I wonder if he knew that, though--he didn't have them start it.
As discussed above, Harry actually succeeded instead of failed on that last maneuver learning attempt. That means we add 1@1 Divert Attack B7@8 cause auto-injury, character parries such that the attacker's blow is diverted to attack another opponent, -10 if the attackers blow is diverted against himself, skill is rolled as attack against weapon (TV=[user's SAL+MSV+weapon's density]/3), if successful opponent's attack is rolled normally against chosen adjacent character, uses two attacks at least one of those of the sword used. That also means that the attack I rolled against Harry goes instead against the other pirate, doing -3 intensities to him.
We'll move John 2 forward. He asks me my least favorite question--what's his name? I don't know, pick something. I've picked something.
As Adam begins his trip, we have a 20 GE roll, just bad enough--I think we'll have some inclement weather. I should roll for Merlin's skill use--03 is certainly a success, but not a very good one.
--M. J. Young
We'll move John 2 forward. He asks me my least favorite question--what's his name? I don't know, pick something. I've picked something.
I hate not knowing the names of people I'm interacting with. How Stephen King picks names is out of the Maine State phone directory. Try it!!!!
<p>I'm looking at Harry, John 2, and Adam, and pressing obligations.
<p>The names point is addressed in the new thread Non-player Character Names.
<p>O.K., I lost several hours--but in the process I remembered what it was I had previously remembered about Harry's scenario. First, though, he gets to attempt his attacks. He's going for the kick first, 58 rolled, the numbers say 1@7 MSV+2@2 BRA+2x7@ bias+15 Style SM+1@6 SAL=71-1@7 TV=54; checking the bonuses, the attack bonus applies only to attacks with the sword, so this is a very near miss, so his opponent gets +15 on the next attack (built into the skill). His sword attack roll is 60 which is a clear success at a fatal level of damage, so he's finished off the other character with 30 intensities. The remaining slightly injured pirate rolls 69, but with all his bonuses at the moment it's probable that that is a hit: he has +15 from the opening provided by the kick, -5 for the style defensive sit-mod, +10 for the mag botch, +1@9 MSV+1@6 BRA+2x6@ bias+1@9 SAL-1@7 TV=69 on the money, 4 intensities of damage.
<p>It has been a while since John 2 discussed martial arts schools, so I have to find those notes--in the old thread. He was looking for Fast-defensive, weapon-utilizing martial arts, specializing in blunt instruments; Derek managed to find a few:
"I can find four places that sound like they offer something like that. This looks like the biggest; they teach several styles, including two that might be what you want." He pushes the screen, opening a side window and half reading while he talks.John then said<p>"One, Tsing-Tsing, looks like a sort of wrestling style but also uses the bo stick, which is like a quarter staff. The other, Gulk, teaches the use of the three-piece rod, which if I remember my kung fu movies is actually a rather large weapon. It also teaches the sai. The style itself appears to be oriented toward nerve combat, poking the opponent where it will cause pain or do damage. Looking at these others," he closes that window and opens another one, "Gazuntite looks like another wrestling style, and it also teaches the bo stick but also the spear." He replaces that window, and continues, "Okydoky Smoky--goofy name, but you wouldn't have to call it that when you left this world--is another that's about hitting the sensitive spots, and it teaches something that looks like a studded baseball bat and something else that looks like a bent tapered piece of pipe. Finally, this Slammed Unk style," he changes to the last school on his list, "uses something called the gunsen, but I don't know what that is. It seems to be based on throws.
I would be looking for a kick based defensive martial art first. I have 1@10 boxing, so I must be decent at throwing punches. Let's work on the legs. Blunt instrument weapon utilizing, if possible, but not required. Sword and knife type weapons are completely out of the picture. If its design is to draw blood, I'll pass. I don't want to kill or permanently injure anyone, if it can be avoided. Collapsible baton is perfect. Something I can always carry. What was that metal chain thing? Kau sin Kee or something? That or a staff would be also be ideal.Then from Derek:
styles that use the feet and also include weapons. I see--two places that teach anything like that, and they're about the same distance from the shop, a couple miles. This one," he opens a window, "Foo Tsor, looks to be hard-hitting, fast, and it teaches the bo stick, which is really just a staff with a foreign name, although you hold it different, plus something called the lajatang, but I don't know what that is. This other," he changes views, "Sah Skwatch, very defensive, also teaches the lajatang and the kau sin ke--oh, I know what that is, Lauren uses it. It's a sort of chain of connected metal bars. Hard to find, but if they teach how to use it, they must have them. I might join you there. It would be cool to be able to use Lauren's favorite weapon--although I doubt anyone would ever be able to use it the way she does, unless it's Raiden, her teacher. I don't see collapsible baton as something taught anywhere, although maybe they would have collapsible bo sticks in this world. That would be kind of neat."Then from John:
Aggressive styles are lower. Weapon dependent styles (aggressive or defensive) are lowest on the list. Perhaps I can take more than one at the same time? My preference would be defensive weapon utilizing. Completely exclude any martial arts style which employs bladed weapons of any kind. I don't want to cut or injure anyone. Knocking them out is good enough for me. The organization would beThen from me:<p>1)
<p>Weapon utilizing
<p>No weapons at all
<p>Weapon dependant.<p>2)
<p>Fast
<p>Slow<p>3)
<p>Defensive
<p>Aggressive
John, you may go to The Martial Arts Style Collection and peruse the styles that are there.He responded<p>I have already determined by die roll these details:
- There is a school that teaches Tsing-Tsing and Gulk
- There is a school that teaches Gazuntite
- There is a school that teaches Okydoky Smoky
- There is a school that teaches Slammed Unk
- There is a school that teaches Foo Tsor
- There is a school that teaches Sah Skwatch
- No school teaches Mitzu Assault or the other Mitzu styles
- No school teaches Miyagido
<p>Beyond that, I am not going to create a definitive list of all the schools and what they teach, because I don't run this world that way. You're going to imagine that you're looking over a list, and you're going to ask me whether particular styles on the other site are included. Otherwise I would be writing another web site to cover what is in this mall, as you're asking me to do something on the order of listing all the self-defense classes available in New York City, and I can't do that.
<p>Be warned that the summary chart has some errors in it; go by the individual style descriptions pages.
Martial Arts Style: Hee CuppI responded
<p>Martial Arts Style: Judo/Doju
<p>Martial Arts Style: Kung Fu/Ku Fung
<p>Martial Arts Style: Okydoky Smoky
<p>Martial Arts Style: Won Ton<p>These would be my choices.
There is a school that teaches Doju and Won Ton, and of course you already know that there is a school that teaches Okydoky Smoky.I continued in response to another question:
The one that teaches both styles is on a higher level but farther across the floor, while the other is nearer your hotel in terms of lateral distance but quite a few levels down.
What we are looking at, then, is whether the Okydoky Smoky school is the nearest to his place of employment or whether there is a school that does not fit his preferences closer. 17 is the GE roll, which is sort of in the middle.
Adam is going to use his pyrogenesis to light a fire; I see a 1@3 SAL, 2x10@ bias, and 2@9 BRA, so he's got a 62% chance of success and wants a high roll in that range. 78 is close enough to produce heat but not fire. Merlin being a teacher will offer him an alternate approach, a M9@2 Create Fire. I'm looking at a baseline damaging with an RF 1/3 and ranges of 10':30':60':120':+5/6', and I don't need anywhere near that. Collapsing the damage category to annoying gives me +10, and at +60 I've got the range down to 1.875', within reach. I'll also note a duration of 6 seconds, which also bonuses this significantly by +32 (assuming a 1:10 TF:duration baseline ratio). It has only movement components, but requires the use of the right hand, so it's -10 because it has no other components. There is nothing particularly appropriate about the action, so I think I'm finished. I've accumulated +92SM on chance of success, and it's already below Adam's bias, so it should be pretty much automatic assuming he goes ahead and tries it.
I think we're done.
--M. J. Young
I apologize for missing yesterday; it was a day shattered in a million bits by one thing after another. I am posting today to make up for that. Kurt, Harry, John 2, and Adam are waiting.
Kurt gets an 18 GE roll, which is a not favorable result, but not really that bad. He also gets a 23 intuition check, which fails.
The effect of Harry's kiai is to create a single sit-mod to the enemy's next action or defense; since I have not yet rolled for initiative, I will attach the penalty to his attack for the purpose of determining initiative, but shift it to his defense if he loses that. Rolling Harry first, the initiative rolls are 24, 64; I know that the enemy cannot hit with a 64, so he's failed and Harry strikes first. -10 to the defender is +10 to the attacker, of course, and Harry's 37 attack roll is certainly successful for 19 intensities of damage, enough to finish a pirate. A 21 GE roll says that the pirates are still gaining ground, however.
We'll give John 2 an overview of the school he's investigating.
I gave Adam the chance to modify the skill if he wished, but he's doing it straight. I recall that it has an incredibly high sit-mod anyway, so we'll roll: 30 is successful for a 1@1 Create Fire M9@2 annoying, snap fingers of right hand such that thumb extends upward, flame appears above thumb, RF1 0:06 duration +92SM. We'll also throw some food into the mix.
Since I missed yesterday, I'm back tomorrow.
--M. J. Young
You're probably wondering what happened to me. Sunday night I wrote a response to Kurt's post, fully expecting to continue with Harry, John 2, and Adam, and then when I went to post it the connection was refused. I was unable to relink to the site and it was late and I was tired and cranky, so I gave up and dealt with the rest of what I needed to do. Then yesterday my day was smashed into so many fragments that I am embarrassed at the lack of accomplishment. I am in no way ready for Ubercon, but am doing my best to get there.
In that regard, because this week promises to continue to be a disaster, If you hope to play at Ubercon XI, do not respond to tonight's posts with a character action. Instead, please post the statement that you hope to be able to play at Ubercon this weekend, and I will respond by attempting to post your character papers and print what I need of your game threads so I will be able to include you.
Now let me see if I can recreate what I'd written to Kurt. There was this confusion in my mind concerning exactly what he thought he was doing.
I thought Harry was on the main deck; that would put the aftcastle of the pirate ship above him, in all probability, and obscure any view he might have of the pilot. He has listed several other possibilities; we'll use a GE roll to determine which, assuming the order given is an order of preference. Who knows? Maybe on a really great roll (something better than 7) he actually will have a shot at the helmsman. His roll is not something better than 7--it's 21, bad enough. I don't think that's so bad as to have Ronny be injured, but I do think it's going to mean that his choices are limited.
I will answer John 2's questions, based on my knowledge of the situation.
Adam is continuing to learn spells, but I don't see Merlin jumping to a 14@5 create edibles so quickly even though Adam has that jump spell. I also see some other spells that will fill in some of the lower bias levels, and we'll also try to remember to roll some GE rolls for events along the way--although they're still in werewolf country, so things won't be too bad.
--M. J. Young
Kurt and John 2 are in play today; Adam's post is alerting me to his expectation of being at Ubercon, and I have already posted his sheet, which I will also do for Harry before I am done.
The question for Kurt is whether he can figure out how to use the onboard machine gun system. This will be a Tech 6@1 skill, so we'll roll the dice; the better his success the faster he deduces it. He rolls 03, so he's going to figure it out, but at the last possible useful moment. This will also be a hit on his target, but since his target is a car we need a GE roll to determine what sort of damage he did. Generally, good (low) rolls are structural damage, medium rolls are general damage, and bad (high) rolls are cosmetic damage, blended as the referee sees fit. The GE roll is 9, which is on the line between general and structural.
Zig rolls 05 on his driving skill, so he's going to keep control of his car, sort of; 52 on his shot is going to look threatening but not going to get through the extremely good cover value here.
John 2 has several questions I can answer.
--M. J. Young
Hi guys,
I've been thinking about everyone and thought I'd drop in to apologise for my absence lately - especially to Kelly and MJ who I've left hanging with their games. Especially, especially Kelly because I know MJ has his other games to deal with.
I'm just really swamped with my school work right now. There is so much to re-learn! On top of that, classes and other duties break up my computer time, so that when I do sit down at it I have to make the best use of my time and can't afford the few minutes that I used to when I was working at my desk all day.
Anyway, still alive, doing well, and wishing you all luck in your endeavours. Maybe the winter solstice will bring some quiet time when I can come back to the multiverse.
Well, I've just made my first actual post as a referee, and it was for Ric. I still have to consult with MJ regarding Dave's game, so I'm not going to update him, in large part because I would have to reread his thread before I could, and I want to be sure the Boss is OK with letting me.
As for Ric, he's in one of those somewhat unfortunate positions where he really doesn't have much to do right now. The Elder is still interested in him, though. Foreigners are a curiosity and he is duly curious, especially because of Eric's knives. Stainless steel of any reasonable quality isn't exactly common in Japan, where they don't have a lot of iron and what they do have is of fairly awful quality, so he'll ask a question that might poke Eric in a direction, or it might not. Either way, the world is out there.
I made one note in his thread, about the Samurai wearing uniform red-and-gold armor and faceless masks, and I'll make another note here: When Eric met my alt/future Verser self on the Tropical Island, he was given a copy of the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Players' Handbook. We'll add this to his equipment list. On it's own it's not good for much, but it's one of those curious little things that might come in handy once he figures out why it's not useless.
It also bears mentioning that, like us all, he did Verse out of the Tropical Island. Among other things this increases his Scriff capacity to 220 pounds, which doesn't matter yet, and entitles him to a Flexibility check to see if he increases a Stage. He didn't write it down, but we had established that he warranted a 1@5 Flexibility. His roll of 25 will not get him Stage 2.
Graeme, it is good to know you are alive. As much as I miss my weekends with Daisy, your schoolwork is more important.
Harry, what I believe I said concerning Dave is that I prefer not to pass a player to another referee in the middle of running a world--it's hard on both player and referee, because neither is quite entirely sure what is and is not true about the world. So as long as Dave posts in his Starship Destiny thread (a world for which you do not have a copy yet) I will run him and look for opportunities to put him in danger.
I was seriously considering crashing for the night; it is already late. However, it looks like I might be able to address posts from Kurt, Harry, John 2, and Adam relatively quickly and then get to bed, and that will work for now.
Of course, that also means I have to figure out where I packed my dice, unpack them, and find a safe way to contain them on my desk since I've misplaced the disk cases I was using. There they are. Kurt rolls a decent 39 on his driving skill check, and he's got the superior machine and is obviously attempting to escape; Zig rolls 64, which will succeed, a superior success.
I am updating Harry's sheet with a 1@10 +1 SAL in Use Telescope and 1@7 Telescopic Vision.
I need to give John 2 a bit of a tour of the Slammed Unk school.
Adam wants his gear, but he's finally got a good way to get it. He rolls 76 on his learning skill check and so has a 1@2 SAL and a very nice delivery. Unfortunately, I don't have the notes from the weekend (he does) so I can't write up the description beyond that it's a Teleport Object In.
Get me some rest.
--M. J. Young
I should be on the road already, but someone is supposed to be here to babysit someone and I shouldn't leave until that's been settled. So I'm making the best of my time in the interim. That means I'm going to tackle the posts from Harry and John 2 if I have enough time.
Harry is throwing two things my direction: getting a new sword and finding a cute girl. A city like Durnmist is highly likely to have both. The problem is figuring out when and where to look, but we'll ask him what he thinks on those counts.
John 2 has decided to look for Derek. Since I know what's happened to Derek, I don't have to roll anything yet.
--M. J. Young
I'll have to poke Dave to get him posting again. For now, my only player is Ric, though I may have another friend joining us soon. As per JohnA1Nut's poke, I remember that today is Tuesday and I do, in fact, owe Ric an update.
Ric offered to work, and the Large elder (I want to name him but I just know I'll forget if I do) is going to put him to work. Ric will be working closely enough with this blacksmith for a while that I feel alright naming him. I dub him Higashi. Other than that, we get a glimpse of daily life. Unless Eric decides to wander off, or ask for a different job, he'll be at the blacksmith's before long - it's not that big a town.
Harry, in an Asian setting you can often get away with "silly mnemonic" names--like this big guy might be Hu Jarm. I don't know if you want specifically to avoid such things, but challenge yourself, How Long is a Chinese name, and if that's true then you can get away with quite a bit with these punnish devices.
Or not, of course. Wherever my article is on Names, it has a lot of suggestions including just referencing people by title or position. You can call him "the elder" and everyone will know who he is a lot faster than if you give him a name.
And with that said, I'll turn my attention to Harry's thread, then John 2's, then Adam's.
Harry gets a 14 GE on his search for a girl and an 11 on his search for a sword; perhaps he'd have preferred the reverse, but we can go with this. It's the not desired but generally favorable result, and that can be fun.
John 2 wants to get answers, but he already has a skill that does this: 1@3 Communicate with Deity M+7@7 10:00 TF kneeling with hands folded by bed, appropriate words asking questions, 5:00 worth of answers concurrent with second half of prayer, +30SM. Oh, but that requires being by his bed, and he's not there. This, I suppose, is the example for the new skill. The mag bias in this world is funky--low level, high intensity, makes a lot of things difficult. A roll of 25 is going to work for this, and that means I have to devise the details of the new skill as well: 1@1 Communicate with Deity M+7@7 5:00 TF fold hands and pray appropriate words including desired information. The base time is 3:00 for a single question, but he's asking two questions, but 15:00 is sufficient for a conversation, so I'll allow two questions in five minutes as baseline. He's got both hands committed, so that's +5, and he's got appropriate words for +5, so that's +10SM.
Adam has given me quite a bit to do, but I told him we could do this swiftly this way, so we're going to cover it all in as much detail as I can manage here.
--M. J. Young
After an evening in AIM with Ric I post his update tonight as a massive transcript, and leave it as still "my turn", as it were. He needed only one roll in there, an Intuition check to see if he figured out the significance of the PHB. It's a pretty obscure clue, so I'm making this a difficult check, and a 45 is getting him nowhere. The only other thing he attempted which might have required a roll was his attempt to stick the stick in the mat (I didn't realize he had kept that stick, but, sure, why not?). That is a Psi 9@2 Soften Object skill, curved out here. It bears noting that he sited my unwitting example of it - figuring out how I did that will serve him as a 1@8 example of that skill sometime later, if he remember he saw me do it by then.
Edit: He also seems to know his way around a kitchen, so I'll put him down as a 1@5 Cooking (Japanese) ... What bias is Cooking? Magic because it's an art form? Tech because it involves fire and technique?
Cooking is tech, level one for fire, and a difficult check is usually 1d30+10. Of course you're well within your rights to roll ad-hoc attribute checks to better reflect a task's true difficulty, but 3d20 is going to fail over half the time even for attributes in the low 3@'s.
Wodium - thought I read a Difficult check was 3d20 in the book, as opposed to a normal one at 2d20. alright. I'll give him 1d30+10 from now on.
3d20 would have the same curve as a 3d10 GE roll, ranging from 3 to 60, wouldn't it? With 28 and 29 being the median (and most likely) numbers. That would fail a lot more than half the time. When rolling 2 six sided dice, you have a total of 36 possible combinations, 6 of which will come up 7.
O7s - It seemed like an easy mistake to make, which is why I spoke up. You're right that the simple check is 2d20.
A1 - The average roll for 3d20 would be closer to 31 or 32, with an equal chance of either (10+10+11=31 or 10+11+11=32). Thus, someone with a 3@2 attribute would fail a 3d20 check exactly half the time, and everyone with lower scores would fail a lot more often. With a d30+10, the score that fails exactly half the time is 2@6; also, the scale is linear instead of bell curved, which makes it easier to calculate relative success.
Not sure I need to say anything at all about the side discussion; the game seems to be progressing well. But here are a few thoughts.
- Inside a blacksmith shop, the coals would never be allowed to burn out. If they were low at quitting time, some would be added to keep it burning overnight--it would take too much time to build a fire to the necessary temperatures in the morning, even with a forge. I mention it because there would be that dull glow of a large bed of red coals and the loft of the shop would be warm from it.
- Speaking of forges, what makes a forge what it is is the forced draft, usually accomplished by a bellows--a way of forcing air into the fire. You probably knew that.
- By now you've probably also checked the T1@ fire skills to find the intensity for cooking; you may have noticed that the forge and the oven are also there.
- John, the curve for 3d20 (if you ever had reason to use it) is a bell curve similar to the 3d10 curve. The endpoints are (1+1+1=)3 and (20+20+20=)60, each of which appears exactly once. There are (20x20x20=)8000 possible outcomes, so the probability of rolling 1 or 60 is (1/8000=)0.0125%, one eighth the 0.1% probability of rolling 1 or 30 on 3d10. Of those, 300 permutations equal 32, or (300/8000=)3.75%; that puts 7.5% of all rolls on the center two points, the same probability of rolling either 16 or 17 on 3d10. So you've got a lot more numbers and a much smaller probability of hitting any one of them.
- It does not work well as an attribute check, for reasons cited by Scott. If you want something with a different curve than the d30+10 difficult check or the 2d20 simple check, check the appendix on Basic Dice Curves (3, I think) and you'll find the numbers for a 4d10 curve and for using a sliding percentile.
Now let's look at Harry, John 2, and Adam.
Harry thinks himself fortunate to have found a matchmaker instead of a girl; she'll make him a decent match, I'm sure. We'll let it play.
For John 2 we have a couple die rolls to make. First, there is the matter of whether having reported his watch stolen he can withdraw the charges--after all, either it was a true report or a false report or a mistake (that is, the watch was not actually stolen)--but we know it was not a mistake of that sort, because the boy was caught with the watch, so either the boy had permission to use it or he stole it or someone else stole it and he acquired it some other way. Legal systems fascinate me, and on a GE roll of 22 it's not going to be as simple as that. As for the TK Pulse idea, it does not work that way. He has found an interesting new way to practice by not releasing the power, and I'll roll twice for that and give him a mark if it works either time, 41 against a 2@2 BRA and 2@2 SAL is a strong success. 76 fails on the second roll, but then he's going for an attempt to use all that collected energy in a knock-out punch, 28 being an ordinary TK pulse. That will move someone, but it's not clear how much; a 13 GE roll is barely good enough, but the target rolls 7 on a simple agility check, stumbling but keeping to his feet. That gives him +2 marks on his 2@2 SAL.
Now we tackle Adam's new spells. He's given me the data to plug into the worksheet key for each.
His Confusion spell is targeted at an area rather than an individual, but since a 10' cube is likely to have a single person and unlikely to have more than four persons in most circumstances, we'll make that -10. It normally has a one-to-ten TF to duration ratio, which he is stretching, using a 0:06 TF and an RSx6:00 duration. We're looking 2.5 doubles to get to 6:00, and then 2.25 to reach the average possible duration from there, but we'll make it 2, so that's -45 for duration. +5 for appropriate words, +3 for forceful, +5 for Latin, +2 for vital sound, +3 for second hand (I've miscalculated that a couple times, but those who benefited from my +5 will keep the benefit of my error), and now I have to determine the material value of a "logic puzzle", a Soduku on paper, as part of the skill. I've already decided that the creation of the puzzle requires a skill check, so that would mean +10; however, it is not stated in the spell that he must create the puzzle--he could purchase a book of logic puzzles and tear one out for the purpose--so I will make it +5. It is destroyed, so it counts twice, another +5. It's also physically exhausting for +5. That's +33 against -55, inherent sit-mod of -22. His roll is 63, and he has a 15@1 Bias+2@6 BRA+15@ world bias+3@5 example (from Merlin)+18 for half instructor's BRA+3@5 for teaching-10@2 target bias-22 inherent SM=156% chance of success for him. He's solid.
- 1@2 Confusions M10@2 Arcane, 10’ Cube, 6 Second TF, RSx6:00 duration, Appropriate words in Latin, Forcefully spoken, Sound Vital, both Arms, Foci is ok, Exhausting, Logic Puzzle Needed, Puzzle Destroyed, will power save RS=S/D/N -22SM
Next, the 10@9 Obedience skill. We have the same -45 for the duration, against +5 for appropriate, +3 for forceful, +5 for Latin, +2 for vital sound, +3 for second arm. There are no materials and no other factors, but it is limited to a single individual (not an area), so we have a -28 SM. Adam rolls 00; Geneice rolls 03. Since Adam's chance of success is still greater than 100%, he learns it at 1@3, Geneice at 1@1.
- 1@3 Obedience and Enslavements M10@9 Arcane, One Person, 0:06 TF, RSx6:00 duration, Appropriate words in Latin, Forcefully spoken, Sound Vital, both Arms, Foci is ok, will power save RS=S/D/N, -28SM
Next is the Attract Local Sentient Informer skill, an 11@5 skill. We have the baseline TF, +5 for appropriate words, +5 for Latin, +3 for force and +2 for sound vital, +3 for the second arm, all coming to +18SM, and no penalties. It will be tougher for Geniece, whose bias is now 10@9, but Merlin will let Adam teach her given those benefits and his example. Adam rolls 60,
- 1@2 Attract Local Sentient Informer M11@5 Arcane, One Person, 3:00 TF, Appropriate words in Latin, Forcefully said, Sound Vital, both Arms, Foci is ok, +18 SM
I note that my sheet does not include the fact that Geneice knows the 11@5 Find Familiar skill which Adam apparently taught her before because she has a familiar, so I'm fixing that. I don't think her lower bias has yet made a difference, and now it won't matter.
I'm going to interrupt because having summoned a local sentient informer Adam is sort of going to find it necessary to interact with her.
--M. J. Young
So is it not possible to build up the collected energy of the TK pulses and use it the way I described, or did the dice just not like me, so it didn't work this time? If it's not possible, then I'll stop trying, but if it's just a matter of needing better dice rolls, then I'll try again.
A1Nut - You might try doing it as a Mind Over Matter variant rather than a TK Pulse new use. Not sure if you can get away with using Mind Over Matter to substitute for a Bonus Skill Check (which is what you would be trying to do) but it seems like that's what it's there for. If I were your referee, I'd do it that way - making one check dependent upon another seems like a standard "you get a bonus for that" from what I've seen so far.
I must apologize to Ric - due to my need to prepare to leave for MangaNEXT at an hour I consider obnoxiously early tomorrow (8am! The sun's not even up yet!) I simply don't have the time to do your thread justice. If I see you at the Con, though, I'll be more than happy to run you. Standard rule applies: Newbies first, bring your character sheet or print a new one, blah blah blah.
Osevens, I botched on a TK pulse and knocked a guy out. You were asking some time ago about learning from your botches. That's what I'm trying to do. If I can knock a guy out with a TK pulse on a botch, then I can do it on purpose.