Behind the Screens 2008 · Page 16

I'm coming to the end of a long day, and looking at posts from Harry, John 2, and Adam. I apologize for missing yesterday; when I attempted to get here the connection was refused several times, and today I had to log in afresh (on both sides).

Harry continues to wait out the time aboard the ship while repairs are made.

John 2 is attempting to practice by exceeding his own fire rate. Since the rules stipulate how fast he can load, aim, and fire the crossbow based on the weapon's speed, his SAL, and his RSV, I must assume that if he attempt to exceed that rate he sacrifices something--and the only thing he can sacrifice is aiming, so he is no longer taking aim before shooting. I won't roll for shots that aren't aimed, unless I roll untargeted rolls to see whether the crossbow works (which I could do--failure then would mean that he tried to fire before the weapon was loaded). But we'll keep things within reason.

Adam has suggested a deer for the blood for his ritual, and Merlin is going to summon one, but it will be up to Adam to figure out how to catch it.

--M. J. Young

I'm coming to the end of a long day, and looking at posts from Harry, John 2, and Adam.

Same 24 hours as every other day MJ......

I apologize for missing yesterday; when I attempted to get here the connection was refused several times, and today I had to log in afresh (on both sides).

Don't feel bad, I had the same problem.

Actually, John, the day is longer when

• I wind up staying up until four the night before because my wife got home late and needs my help.
• I have to get up at five thirty, thirty minutes earlier than normal, because the father of the kid who catches the early bus is in the hospital.
• I have to get up again mid-morning because my own kid missed the bus and needs to get a ride to school late.
• I have to get up again before noon because the hospitalized father is being discharged.
• I wind up with several other tasks dropped in my lap because I'm the guy who both has transportation and does not have a fixed schedule.
• I wind up not getting to my work until after my wife gets home from hers.

Don't give me that quip again. You've said it several times before, and it's not only annoying, it's not really true.

I should be in bed now, but I'm still trying to catch up from yesterday (which was even worse) so I'm going to tackle the game threads of Harry, maybe John 2, and probably Adam.

My first, and correct, reaction to Harry's notion of creating a thermal imaging vision is that this is a distinct kind of skill, not a reprocessing of the available sensory data but a change in the data collected (visual receptors do not register in the infrared range). However, that Altered Sensation skill is also a P5@1, so he can still learn it. 61 is the roll; let's check the math. There's a 1@9 BRA+5@1 bias against a 5@1 skill, and everything else comes to 0, so that's a failure.

Because the security team has to cover things around the clock, at least one of them will be in quarters at any given moment, and more commonly two will be resting. Harry rolls a 21 GE roll, so I'm going to guess that only two men are on deck when he casts his spell (two sleeping, one in the galley). Also, he plans to use the map room so that he won't be seen, but just because they're in port doesn't mean that one of the navigators won't want to use that room--and indeed, that seems to be the case. The roll for success is 58, which is a certain success.

There are a few loose ends to tie up in John 2's thread, so I'll do that.

Adam's martial arts do not actually include a knock-out blow; the nearest he has is an immobilizing grapple, which does not render unconscious and would be a bit tricky to use on a deer (although not impossible). I think it best to let him roll to teach himself this technique. It will be a special damage attack, and the victim will get a stamina check RS=S/D/N to resist. The roll is 60, so I'm going to have to do a bit of checking here. A roll of 16 means he is in style, and Chow En Lai gives him +20 sit-mod on attacks, which will help. His bias is 10@2, BRA 3@1, MSV 2@9, and since the deer does not have a 2@ TV that 60 means the deer has to make a difficult stamina check; it probably does have a 1@9 stamina, but the roll is 27 and it goes down. The skill is 1@2 Knock-out Blow B7@7 punch to head renders unconscious RS/5 minutes, stamina check counters RS=S/D/N. I don't recall the granola, but it's not unreasonable that they would pack something like that for their journey, even if it's only biscuit.

The healing roll is 74. I'm assuming it's the magical 1@3 SAL skill mentioned, to which I would add 2x15@ bias+2@6 BRA+1/2 1@2 Religion+10 for alliance world, and that actually might make it--yes, 85%, so he does the healing. I'm also going to increase his SAL to 1@4, because I'm sure he's never cured a deer before.

Let me get out of here; it's much too late.

--M. J. Young

It is late again; I was here earlier, but had to run an overlong errand. I left windows open for Harry, John 2, and Adam, so I guess now it's time to crawl through them....

We'll wrap up Harry's time at Tristar and move toward Haven.

Having established that I had not already said that there was mithril in John 2's universe, I give him the benefit of the possibility that on a particularly good GE roll this metal which generally appears in fantasy worlds would be known in a science fiction setting--but a 19 is not even moderately favorable.

Adam's warding spell--I'm uncertain whether he means one spell or two, but I think that one is more consistent with what he's done to this point, because the blood cannot burn if not in the fire, so we have a rather elaborate ritual. It will be a M11@3 Dispel Off-world Sentient variant, specific to Vampires, Ghouls, and Undead. I write it up thus: Ward versus Vampires, Ghouls, and Undead M11@3 clear and trench a ring around the warded area, with grass, leaves, or similar flammable debris between the trenches. Mix 4z blood from a living creature into oil sufficient to pour an unbroken stream around the complete circle. Light the oil afire. As the fire burns, speak the words "With this flame, with this blood, protect us from Vampires, from Ghouls, from the hosts of the undead." 0:30:00 TF, 10:00:00 duration, will power check to cross, RS=S/D/N +23SM

Now for the math. The base time factor is 0:00:24, but that's not going to matter much because it's intended for an instantaneous effect and here we want an ongoing one. We'll assume the one to ten TF to Duration ratio. Three hundred minutes is five hours, which we are doubling to ten hours (I was going to do twelve hours, but it's easier to make it ten) at -10. We have +5 for appropriate words, +15 for total body involvement, and I will give +3 for the blood and +3 for the oil and +1 for the fire, of which the first two are destroyed, so that's +13 for material components, and a total sit-mod of +23. Adam rolls 66; with his 15@1 bias against an 11@3 skill that's +38 for 61, and he's got his BRA on top of that, so he's learned it at 1@2, and protected the camp for the night.

There is a 17 GE on the night's events, which means nothing happens good or bad.

--M. J. Young

Ok, Ric wants to go clover hunting. I'm going to combine a GE roll (to see if there's a four-leaf clover there for him to find) with an Intuition check to see if he finds it. A GE roll of 12 is good enough to say that there's a clover there for him to find. An Intuition check of 22 means he will not find it today.
He wants to know if there is a smith. Well, they teach swordsmanship and the use of grappling hooks and they have farming tools, it makes sense that there should be a smith.
As for Tsuyoshi, he'll fight just about anybody, and as Ric predicted, he's all about the cheap shots. However, an Intuition check of 19 will give Ric some information.
Between Ric and Sayuri, they can probably get someone to talk about Tsuyoshi and his goons. I'm not even sure what I would roll to check that - does MultiVerser have an equivalent to D&D's "Gather Information" skill?
And he wants paper. Well, they have scrolls, and they do grow rice, so paper shouldn't be impossible to come by, though he'll be "writing" with a paint brush.

I would say that the "gather information" skill is a shortcut skill package in D&D--a collection of skills whose relationship is that they fit together in achieving a result. To emulate the same thing in Multiverser, I would

• depend mostly in role play interaction between the player character an non-player characters;
• use his personality scores for his ability to persuade or charm people into speaking with him;
• possibly consider a P3@0 Perception variant geared specifically to "reading between the lines" if it seems like a significant part of the job; and
• let the player do his own thinking about who and what to ask and what it all means.

I apologize for missing last night; I decided to push at least part of the work into tonight, and even though it is later than I'd hoped I'm sticking with that plan. John 4 returns to join Harry, John 2, and Adam.

John 4 rolls a 41 on his drumming skill--and dang, but I have no attributes for him at all yet. That, though, only means that none of them were 2@, and with a 2@5 SAL in drums he needs nothing better than a 1@6 BRA to make that a strong success. Drums are a Magic skill. My recollection of John from college is of the center of attention in his clique but not always the leader of the pack, and I'll give him a 1@9 animal magnetism. This suddenly strikes me as weird--why don't I have an intuition for him? I'll have to check that, but not at the moment because I don't have time for thread hunting.

His GE roll is 18, so although his performance is impressive there aren't a lot of open spots.

Harry has clear sailing, quite literally, to Haven. We need to know who is going ashore and where, but we'll give Harry the chance to decide that for himself.

John 2 asks for Derek's story, and gets it, in brief.

The back of my mind recalls that I was expecting Adam to encounter trouble on the road before he reached London. That happens today.

And today I come to the end of today.

--M. J. Young

Everyone has bounced back with another post, so let's see what John 4, Harry, John 2, and Adam have in store for me today.

I have to create a venue for John 4's band, but that shouldn't be too difficult.

Harry is trying to get oriented to the city of Haven. He'd had such clear memories of Tempest I figured I would see what he remembered before telling him too much, but a quick answer to his questions should give him enough on which to base his decisions.

John 2 finishes his dinner with Derek and checks out a few other things.

Ghouls have humanoid minds, which are -10 on mind reading attempts. Of course, Adam has a 2@10 Psi BRA, and an 11@ bias, so with his 1@5 SAL that comes to 57-10=45% chance that he can do this anyway. Rolls are 74, 54, 37--that's as far as he needs to go.

Let's shut this down for the night.

--M. J. Young

I do not recall the last time I was so completely disrupted from my routine; I apologize to all for my absence and my failure to communicate the circumstances to you. The dust is still settling from this past week, not all of it due to the holiday, but I hope to get back to the routine now.

Nikolaj is returning, and I have addressed the problems of re-launching his character under unusual circumstances. Now let me see what I can do for Harry, John 2, Adam, and Graeme.

Harry gets a solid 7 GE roll on finding a play, so I'd say he finds a good play at a good price. There is an event rolled for this city which could go very badly or could be merely a nasty brush-up, but it does not directly involve him and his choice to go to the theatre probably puts him away from any indirect involvement yet. There is a 2d10+10 modified GE roll on this, and the severity is 22, not as bad as anticipated. That will have to unfold in the posts ahead.

John 2 has questions.

Adam is going to use his 1@2 Throw Fireball M9@2 RF 1/3 ranges 10':30':60'120':+5/6', fatal to 10' radius -DC per 10' radius, appropriate words in Latin, Sound is Vital, words said forcefully, caster thrusts both arms out, as if shooting the fireball out, foci in hand ok, 6z Bat Guano, destroyed in casting, -4SM. He has a 15@ bias and 2@6 BRA. I roll a 16 GE roll, so I'll put the group at 50'--close enough that he gets only a -10 medium range penalty, far enough that he's not going to be within the blast radius. He's got a 58% chance of having it work, and he rolls 13, so it does. It's doing fatal damage at the center, 7 intensities; lethal damage around that, 3 more, and we need a GE roll to determine how many of his opponents fall in each area: again 16 is the GE roll, so we'll do three and three, everyone hit.

Ghouls are notoriously tough, average DV 2@3, high density bodies. That means that they're going to divide damage by two and discard fractions, so the inner three take 3 intensities each and the lead three get singed for 1.

Merlin will have the same (or a remarkably similar) spell at 2@9. This gives him an 89% chance of success, I'd guestimate, and a damage category bonus, plus a faster fire rate. A roll of 38 does 38 intensities in the annihilating area, 19 in the fatal area, 8 in the lethal area, and of course the enemy reduces all by half--but again we need a GE roll for how many we hit, and the roll is 19, for which we'll do two, two, and two. We'll also divide them (just to make more work for me?) such that each pair is one from each of the original groups. Thus we have Ghouls numbered:

1. 3+19=22
2. 1+19=20
3. 3+9=12
4. 1+9=10
5. 3+8=11
6. 1+8=9

Geneice is more likely to go with something more, in her mind, reliable--let's go with a gun. Her 2@5 BRA combines with a 2@7 RSV; although she has a 12@ tech bias this is limited by the 5@ bias of the world. She's 3@10 with the FN57, RF10 dangerous. I don't have ranges on it, but if no one objects I'll borrow the ranges from Shawn's Beretta, 10':75':150':300':+1/3', so that makes this short range, no modifier. The targets, being dense, have high TVs, say 1@9. That's 102-19=83% chance to hit, ten attacks in the minute which she triples to thirty (using both guns helps), +2DC+10 makes them fatal with +10 points. She rolls

1. 55 which becomes 65 and comes to 33, reduces to 16, finishes the first;
2. 49 becomes 59 is 30 becomes 15, and the second falls.
3. 19 becomes 29 is 15 is 7, added to 12 is 19
4. 15 is 25 is 13 is 6 adds to 16
5. 03 is 13 is 7 is 3 adds to 14
6. 43 is 53 is 27 is 13 added to 22.

She is still firing:

1. not at this target, as it's finished;
2. nor at this target, also finished;
3. 37 is 47 is 24 is 12 added makes 31, amply dead;
4. 14 is 24 is 12 is 6 added makes 22;
5. 83 is 93 is 47 is 23 which would render a fully healthy opponent dead;
6. 60 is 70 is 35 is 17, dead.

There is only one left standing, and she has fired ten times, but once more is not going to hurt. 68 actually is going to hurt--but not her.

Graeme gets a sort of lesson in magic, and is shown how to perform a spell the way the Azmayincans would do it--which is not something I'd yet detailed, because I was not really expecting him to be involved with them yet, maybe not ever, but he got the right rolls to get this.

--M. J. Young

I do not recall the last time I was so completely disrupted from my routine; I apologize to all for my absence and my failure to communicate the circumstances to you. The dust is still settling from this past week, not all of it due to the holiday, but I hope to get back to the routine now.

Welcome back MJ. I don't think any of us begrudge you a few days away from the forum during Christmas time. I know I don't. You obviously had far more important family matters to take care of, just because of Christmas. Not to mention whatever other drama your life managed to throw at you. I'm glad to see you back, and I hope your Christmas was at least a 9 GE roll, as good as expected. Mine was a 12, good enough.

I don't know how far I will get in the bit of time that remains for me to get something done tonight, but let's tackle the thread by Harry, John 2, and Adam.

Harry is asking exactly the sorts of questions security would be asking him.

Most of John 2's post is about the gun, so most of mine is also about the gun.

We'll move Adam the rest of the way to London and get him settled.

--M. J. Young

I'm about ready to re-start Nikolaj, but for the moment my players are Harry, John 2, and Adam.

Harry rolls 85 on the olfactory skill, which is not going to work this time. I'm not going to shut him out from trying to be involved, but I'm not going to make anything contingent on him here, except to the degree that his efforts will influence the outcome of the efforts of others.

John 2 has a couple projects on his agenda.

Adam brings up something I had forgotten--and don't see on his sheet, although I know he made it. The question is whether he has it, and whether it can be used effectively in this world. He's got an interesting answer for that, though--using it as a spell component. It would be an appropriate element, and would be rather rare as it probably does not exist in very many worlds. We'll explore that idea with him.

--M. J. Young

It seems the new year is bringing old people back--Kurt has reappeared, and after we address his play and Harry, we have the return of Nikolaj to a new world, John 2, and Adam.

Kurt doesn't have to roll to back down a ramp slowly; but if he wants to do it quickly that will require a skill check on his driving. We'll wait to see whether he wants to do that at all.

Harry gets a 20 GE on whether the guard noticed which way the missing man went, which is just bad enough. We'll move things forward so we can reach the point where something is uncovered a bit more quickly.

A 31 flexibility check means Nikolaj is still at stage 1 when he verses to the next world. That's probably best, under the circumstances.

John 2 is working on his grappling hook, but I'm not getting it.

Adam gets through the night, I add his item to his equipment sheet, and we'll go for the next day.

--M. J. Young

I'm tackling games with KurtKurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam tonight. Happy New Year to all.

Kurt is checking the trunk. I'll assess whether what he is doing is dangerous after I know where he thinks he is parking his car.

Harry will find out about the missing Deck Chief when he awakens.

Nikolaj is not alone. I'm surprised he didn't register the sounds I mentioned, but we'll mention them afresh.

We'll pick up the pace a bit for John 2, as a scarf will take him several days and he's falling into a routine for the present, at least until he starts his martial arts training.

Adam gets a 19 GE roll on seeing someone try to pull the sword--which means that he probably won't see that if he doesn't wait several hours. But that's up to him and his companions, and it's a beautiful day, what else do they have to do?

--M. J. Young

Happy 2009 everyone.

Yeah, Happy New Year.

I'm going to try my hand back at the taxi driving (New Year's Resolution) Please pray for me

A happy new year to all. I did register the sounds, and I would have gone after the woodcutting place when I'd recollected my stuff.

I hope that everyone will find 2009 an improvement over 2008.

I'm not feeling particularly well tonight, so if you will excuse me (and even if you will not) I am going to put off answering tonight's posts until tomorrow. Thank you.

--M. J. Young

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. Never run when you can walk, never walk when you can stand, never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lay down, and if you can lay down, ALWAYS take a nap.

Words to live by.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can get someone else to do today.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can get out of doing altogether.

Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off indefinitely.

Yeah, I know them all. I probably wrote some of those myself. But Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam all want to play, and I'm the guy that has to make that happen, so let's do it.

My concern for Kurt is that Ziggy has left a very dangerous situation here--I can easily imagine a tractor trailer coming down the offramp and crashing into the sideways vehicle while Kurt is examining it. Fortunately, the GE roll is 12, Good Enough, so that's not going to happen. Ziggy is known to use a lot of weapons, so I can't imagine that there aren't some in the car somewhere, and he'll find them.

Harry rolls 45 on his remove fatigue, so that will work. I remember rolling a GE roll already on the condition of the victim, and it's not good but not fatal. It's not likely that the medical staff are going to let every single crewman visit their unconscious patient, but they'll do their best to provide answers.

I played the ukelele before my fingers got too big for the fretboard, so I've a pretty good idea how loud it is. Usually it's played with a felt pick on nylon strings. It won't really compete with chopping and sawing, particularly through the undergrowth at that distance--but we'll give Nikolaj a GE roll for exactly what happens, and the number is 19, Not Thwarting but Generally Unfavorable Result. That's tough, but I think I can manage it.

John 2 reaches his day off and his first martial arts lesson.

Adam is trying to move away from London, but Merlin came to see someone attempt to pull the sword, and Merlin's 29 will power check is a success while Adam's 30 persuasion check is a failure (barely), so Merlin will stay the day whether Adam does or not.

I think I'll call it a night.

It's a night.

--M. J. Young

We again have Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam.

Kurt makes a phone call; someone will answer it.

Harry wants an opportunity to see the injured and comatose Roman. I can see that happening--on a good GE, the medical staff would let him in because he's obviously a friend, and on a mediocre GE they would ask if he were family (and he could try to talk his way in from there). But a 23 is not a good nor even a mediocre GE, so they're not going to invite him in tonight. It's not so bad that there's no chance, though--it just might require a very different sort of chance.

Nikolaj is facing a bit of a battle--a skirmish is the best word I have for it. He has a 12 GE roll, so it will disperse quickly and he will be unscathed, at least physically.

John 2 gets a 13 Barely Good Enough roll on getting time with Derek. He'll have the time, but in the opposite order. I had to backtrack to recall which style it was that he was learning--Okydoky Smoky is the style. He rolls 56 on a skill learning roll, which with his bod bias already 7@5 and a teacher and example in the mix means he will start with 1@2 Okydoky Smoky martial arts style B7@1 Fast Defensive Weapon-utilizing Poke-based -10 Def SM -20 Def Dam mod Att x2 no offensive mods hand and foot primary.

He also gets a 28 GE roll on finding his friend there; that's going to mean no, not for a while.

My previous GE roll tells me that Adam will see someone attempt to pull the sword before the end of the day, but not much before then. Since he's agreed to wait, we'll make the show worthwhile, and then we'll go back to training mode.

--M. J. Young

Shouldn't you be starting a Behind the Screens 2009?

Funny, that--I thought of that the last week of 2008, but it was too soon; and then I didn't think of it again. Of course, I have started these threads at all sorts of random intervals, and never really intended this one to last all year (I just wasn't sure what I was going to call the next one). However, since you mention it, we'll begin a new thread, Behind the Screens 2009.

--M. J. Young