That makes sense Scott. The thing is that I told MJ exactly what the prayer was. He insisted that I word it like a prayer. All I did was reword my previous post as a prayer. Nothing different, really. No more information, as far as I can tell. Just something that confused me. It's OK, I still have quite a lot to learn about this game.
I must again thank Scott for putting clearly and succinctly what I needed to say. The point, John, is that you are trying to pray for something that is really a complicated collection of several different skills--make you younger, increase your stamina, return you to a previous age without removing what you have learned since then, all rather complicated in themselves and somewhat in conflict with each other in places. How you word it will have a significant impact on what happens and what does not happen--do you get your old body, and lose subsequently gained body skills? Do you regain your former attributes but not your youth? Do you become younger but keep the same attributes? Exactly what you say is going to matter.
Andrew, Harry, John II, Adam, and John I are playing.
Survival on a tropical island is considerably easier than survival in a forest, so even though Andrew has only amateur skill at the former and ought to take a penalty for the unfamiliar location, I'm letting him build his shelter and mattress fairly easily, without a roll. I will have to roll for his efforts to teach himself to use his sword, but that will happen after I know what he's doing and on what he is basing his efforts.
We now have the details we need to roll Harry's feint, which I'm placing at 1@7 SAL. It is an untargeted roll, which means SAL+BRA+2xBias, and he rolls 49. His SAL is 1@7, BRA 2@2, and bias 7, doubled for 14, so 53 was his chance of success. He's got +49 on his next attack, and does not sacrifice initiative or use an attack for it, so that means he rolls that attack next and wants a rather high roll: 31 would have been a success anyway, I think, but it's going to be a good shot. Checking back, Harry has +2DC on a damaging weapon, making it a lethal attack, 7 intensities. He has already hit this guy with his signature kick, which as I check my notes did 9 intensities, so this guy is now up to 16 against 1@8, so he's not eager to continue and will go for a strike-and-run also, 27 rolled, and even with the -10 penalty for the strike-and-run he's got a 34% chance to hit Harry, so that's good for another 3 intensities, bringing Harry down -8 total against a 1@6 DV, and the man penalizes Harry's next attack, as Harry must pursue to get another blow.
O.K., finally I think I can parse John II's prayer. The critical concept seems to be that of restoring attributes and skills, which means we are performing a base spell M+2@10 recover lost attributes, piggybacking a M+2@10 recover lost skills, and dropping in a 13@5 control growth. This last has a 1 minute TF, which as compared with the restorations will be insigifnicant, but its primary impact will be on the bias; the spell has to be 13@5 to incorporate the youthening aspect, the other two skills fitting under a curve of 12. The baseline for the youthening effect is RS/10 years, which is not sufficient to get him back to 17 so we'll double it at -10, which makes it RS/5 years.
He expects to restore his Stamina +2 intensities and his Agility +4; that's two attributes, which is -10. The base time for the skill is 30 minutes, and his prayer is 20 minutes, which is only 66% as long, so that's -3 for shortened time. He is also including two skills, but the skill restoration spell has a base TF half that of the attributes, so they will count as if one attribute, and thus -5 (because it would be two more attributes for another doubling). Since there are three skills combined here, it is -10 for the second and -5 for the third. I think that's all the penalties. I see a 13@5 skill with -10-10-3-5-10-5=-43, and now we look at the positives.
He has +10 for being in an alliance world, and +9 for his religion skill; those are sit-mods to performing the skill but not inherent to the skill itself. He has +5 for appropriate words, +15 for total physical commitment, +5 for the location requirement (must be done in his base), and I'll give him Pedro's religion bonus as well--Pedro is an above average professional, 2@8 religion, so that's +14, but the priest is a required part of the ritual. That means +25 inherent and +14 for the priest's religion score, +54 total, -43=+11 for this skill.
John's bias is 11@7, to which we add his 2@2 BRA, the 15@ world bias, and stretching the assumption that a messenger of God has put him on this project +10 for that. That means 175-135=40% chance that this will work, and each 10% or part thereof represents one intensity in each of his four targeted areas, each 5% or part thereof one year of youthening. I don't know about you, but I'm holding my breath as the electronic dice hit the silicon table: 43 is so very close, he's going to scream.
It is much easier to address Adam's post tonight; he will be escorted to meet a king who is too self-important to worry about courtesies.
I find myself wondering whether Ruth Mekita will believe John I's story. We'll make it his persuasion against her ed lev, the latter being 2@2, the former 2@3, difficult checks with his first, 22, she can't even tie that, and her 26 fails anyway.
--M. J. Young
Why couldn't you have hit that button 0.003 seconds faster????? That would have been a perfect success. I'm not screaming, I'm laughing.
Scott, I hope you're checking this. I asked about how equipment ages in the Multiverse. You said that it wears, but does not age. Batteries wouldn't die from sitting in a bag for a century. I was just thinking that means that equipment should last a lot longer. The handle on one of my knives is made out of compressed leather. That leather is not going to dry rot, although it will wear out from being gripped. Interesting.
Yeah--call it referee laziness, if you like, but equipment does not suffer from ordinary aging. We'll justify it on the basis that the conditions of each world will be different, the calendars and even the lengths of days are different, and figuring out how, with any fairness, your ordinary gear would wear out is just too much trouble. So it doesn't. Batteries present their own problems, because of course in addition to being dependent on amount of use they're also dependent on bias--batteries work better in high tech bias worlds--so it's entirely possible that the reason your device doesn't work in one world is that the batteries don't have enough power, but then in the next world they work fine.
Andrew, Harry, John II, Adam, and John I are playing.
I don't know if I have sufficient numbers to calculate Andrew's chance to learn--there's no agility, and his strength is listed as 1@8. Thus either he has a 1@8 BRA or his agility is better than that. I note that his bias is 7@1, as he already has an average amateur ability in military hand-to-hand. The world bod bias is at least 8@, because there are birds flying; it might be higher, based on the fact that most insects, and particularly flying ones, go through a 13@1 morph to same race at some point in life. I can also give him a slight bonus for the example from the book, probably 1@1 (pretty standard for any book description of a skill, unless there is good reason to think that this is the best way to learn the skill). However, his best relevant attribute is going to matter here, so I'd better confirm it before I roll. I'm looking at 42%, but it might be 44% if his agility is a bit higher, and as we saw yesterday, a couple percentage points can be critical.
Very wisely, Harry prioritizes getting together with the medic. Most of his questions can be answered by a GE roll, and the roll is 18, which is that just over the middle Not Favorable Result. That's going to mean that they're winning but they've not won. The medic rolls 82, which in this bias is not sufficient to fix injuries in the field, so he's going to pull Harry from the combat back to medical. The rest he can repeat if he wants to try it on the move.
John II has confused me with his statements that he is going to finish three to five days worth of work in one morning, so I need to get that clarified.
He gets a 23 GE on the gambling thing.
Adam gets his meeting with Uther. I think I can get this guy on paper. Anyway, it's fun trying. I can almost see Brian Blessed in the role.
John I is pulling out all the stops on charming this woman. He rolls 36, which despite his strong attributes is not in danger of succeeding and she need not roll against it.
I'm being called away, but I'm pretty much done here, so I guess I can go.
--M. J. Young
Let's see if I can squeeze in Andrew, Harry, John II, Adam, and John I before I have to go.
Our numbers for Andrew are confirmed, so it's time to roll whether he learns the first skill, the Kenjutsu, and the roll is 82, which does not work. For the other, Iaido, he rolls 99, which is a botch, with a sword. Here's a botch list:
- Cuts self, damaging use hit location.
- Damages sword, 2d10+10 GE for severity.
- Damages hilt, 2d10+10 GE for severity.
- Learns incorrect technique, will lose initiative on use.
- Lose sword, thrown.
- Embed blade in nearby object, tree.
Harry goes to see the doctor, who is going to stitch him up and keep him in medical for a few days. That's not a life-threatening scenario, but what's of greater interest is he is hoping the Piper will take the pirate ship as a prize. 17 is the GE roll, which is right smack in the middle.
John II asked a question I didn't recognize; I've addressed it. Meanwhile, he's working on boom sticks, and there's a 15 GE on today's work.
Adam's conversation with Uther continues.
It is possible that Ruth would not understand John I's gesture of the offered arm; it is possible that she would recognize another of his efforts to be charming. The former is an ed lev check on her part, the latter an an-mag check on his. She rolls 37, so she has never seen nor heard of this gesture before.
--M. J. Young
I've got active players and a lot of irregular demands on my time, so I'm doing the best I can here. Andrew, Harry, John II, Adam, Graeme, and John I are all waiting.
Andrew gets to use his first aid skill. He's got a 1@5 SAL, but that's at 7@1 CPR and he's doing a simple wound bandage, so he gets bonused on his ability there. His bias is 11@, but he doesn't know the tech bias of this world--I had to look it up, and it is not favorable, although that is not surprising. His Intellect and Ed Lev are both 2@1, so that's his BRA whichever he uses. 85 is outside anything he can do with it. A quick check of di Vars materials reminds me that he really does not have much in the way of medical skills.
Harry speculates on what the captain is likely to do next, but the captain doesn't really have options--the company has rules. I'm sure someone will explain them, so I will.
John II might be getting a new skill, or he might be getting a new use of an old skill--he and I are going to have to come to agreement on which.
The conversation between Adam and Uther continues a bit longer.
Graeme has a number of people involved in his life, and his conversations are going to matter to some of them.
John I rolls 85 on his mind reading attempt, which is not successful.
I'm on my way, and might get some sleep tonight.
--M. J. Young
He's gonna sell my ship... *sniffs sadly* It's like finding a kitten and being told you can't keep him even though he followed you home and he's really cute and everything...
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Birthday A1Nut!
*has no cake, so gives him a cookie instead*
Thanks, did you ever check your email Osevens? I'd kinda like to get your thoughts on somethings.
The thing you sent me about God? I replied to that... a while ago. I don't have those emails any more, but I did write back to you.
No, this was 3 or 4 days ago.
Happy Birthday, John. I was going to say something yesterday, but by the time I got here I had forgotten; I've got to replenish my post-its pads, so I can stick more reminders on my monitor.
Andrew opens, Harry continues, John II, Adam, and Graeme conclude our game tonight.
I should roll for his knife use on making the spear, but if he botches again he's not going to be happy. I don't see any knife skill on his sheet other than the bayonet use, which is not really the sort of thing that applies here, but I suspect he's got at least an average amateur ability. The roll is 27, which is an easy success no matter how we approach it.
I need to check how injured Harry is to work out how long he's going to be in treatment. It's -8 intensities, but he's under the care of a an expert physician, rolling 72 followed by 21.
I promised to explain the statement, "He tells you its name." This is that explanation.
- Decades back I had a group of teens in an OAD&D game. They encountered many creatures, some of them friendly, some not so. A couple times they asked for the names of these creatures--that is, not what kind of creature, but the personal name of this dwarf, that gnome. I gave names to some of them; I had long lists of names I had collected over the years (regrettably lost since then), and could pull names and assign them. However, I found it difficult to keep track of all the names, and particularly since for many of these characters they were never going to be seen again. Thus it developed in play that when the player characters asked the name of such a person, I would respond, "He tells you his name." Thereafter it was assumed that the character knew the name, and no one had to try to remember what the name was, and I didn't use up my lists of names on throwaways.
In the present context, the ship in question is going to be taken to port, sold, and then vanish from play, probably forever. Sure, it would be interesting to bring it back at some point, but it's unlikely to happen--and if it does, it can easily be identified as "that ship". In the reality of the game world, it needs and indeed has a name; in the reality of the players' world, it does not need a name.
Harry, if you wish for the ship to have a name, you are free to name it whatever seems appropriate within the milieu and will be easy enough for us to remember, so that you can reference it later by that name. Personally, it doesn't matter to me whether you call it PT109 or The Love Boat or The Minnow (although you probably should shy away from such names as these, since you might wind up on a well-known boat sometime). It has a name, and your character knows the name. If you want to use a name for it, I'm good with pretty much any (decent) thing you'd care to call it.
John II has agreed that he has never done anything quite like what he's doing with this spear. He rolls 05, which means it works but doesn't do a heck of a lot of damage. I figure shotguns are probably lethal ordinarily (maybe the big ones are fatal, but I shy away from making hand-carried weapons that potent because of the damage category bonuses), and that without the benefits of a gun barrel this is reduced to dangerous. Either way, it's going to do one intensity of damage to the sack of dirt. He has a 1@1 Operate Explosive-tip Spears T6@1. A GE roll on the condition of the spear is 8+8+9=25, which means it's not going to be easily salvaged.
I get to play several characters, so the conversations Adam has with Uther and Geneice require me to talk for both of them. Geneice might not be so gentle in her words as Adam has been, but then, as a woman she might get away with it.
Finally Graeme gets to the matter transmitter.
--M. J. Young
John, somewhere you asked whether I turned off comments on my blog. I did not, and am not certain why you had trouble commenting. However, I have noticed that you frequently comment anonymously but signed--which means you're not logged in when you post your comments. It might be that the new software won't let you post to the blogs if you're not logged in, as a way of deterring Spam. Try logging in and see if that works. Besides, I'd rather see that the comment is from you than that it's from "anonymous" anyway, as those "anonymous" comments are often not worth reading.
Let's tackle the game with Andrew, Harry, John II, Adam, and John I.
I'm adding a 1@5 Carving/Whittling T3@3 to Andrew's sheet. He needs a couple of GE rolls--one for finding coconuts and bananas on the ground, the other for finding the sort of rock that is useful for making arrow and axe heads. The former is actually going to be somewhat bonused, since there are coconuts and bananas and they do fall when ripe enough, so a roll of 14 is plenty good enough to find some. The latter, though, is more difficult to assess--the entire island is formed of cooled lava, topsoil courtesy of a few centuries of plant life breaking it down and decaying atop it. However, a 12 is good enough, so he'll find something. I've also got to make note that although Andrew did a good job of getting on Michael's good side, somehow he's gotten the impression that the man is more helpful than he really is--and this despite the fact that Michael has twice offered to kill him.
Harry is still focused on keeping this ship. I don't see that happening. More significantly, I do see him praying for healing, a M+2@1 where in all of this chaos is my book oh there it is Limited Damage Repair, and he's got a 1@10 bias, 2@3 BRA, 2@5 religion score (for +13) and a +10 bonus for doing alliance magic in an alliance world. The base time is 1 minute and he's doing this for 20 minutes, so five and a quarter doublings of the time factor for +53. He must be lying in his own bed, it must be night, and he must have his hands folded. I will give him +15 for total body involvement, +5 for place, +5 for time. He has appropriate words which is another +5. That means the attached sit-mod for this skill is +83, and I'm going to have to talk to him about this.
John II is going to build some more boom sticks. These will be fun when he uses them in combat, I think.
I'm not sure whether Adam's post contains a typo or not, so I'm going to have to get clarification before we continue.
John I also made a posting mistake--said nineteenth century instead of nineteen hundreds--but what makes it the more humorous is that nothing else he said would contradict that (his parents were a chemical engineer and a nurse, and he traveled and fathered a child out of wedlock but that was not uncommon) and no one alive would know that he was wrong (neither Bob nor Miralla know anything about the nineteenth or twentieth centuries on earth, and the rest of the crew does not know him well enough to know what he brought from home versus what he picked up along the way). But now he asks about Ruth. Did I give her planet a name yet? Yes, there it is--Sirius Four.
--M. J. Young
I can't figure out how to log in to post blog comments. Can someone tell me?
John, I've posted something for Aaron on the subject; pick up the question on that thread.
Andrew, Harry, Edward, John II, Adam, and John I are all active today.
The uncertainty for Andrew is how many days he has on this island paradise before it turns into a disaster flick; the General Effects Roll says 16, which means that he has another day at least before I check again. He also has to tell me how many days will pass before he does his spear fishing.
Harry has created a Limited Damage Repair M+2@1 TF 20 minutes, must be lying in his own bed, it must be night, must have his hands folded, appropriate words which, base fatal, +83 SM, and with a roll of 24 he gives himself a 1@1 SAL and five intensities healing, which will finish the job started by the doctor.
As to persuading the captain to hold the ship until he reaches Sardic, that's going to be a difficult persuasion check against a difficult will power check, and the captain is going to have his already high will power bonused +5 because he will be violating company rules and making his trip more difficult and more dangerous. That doesn't mean Harry can't succeed, but his roll of 30+10 is as bad as it could be.
Edward is headed into the darkness; I'm pretty sure that someone would suggest he take a light.
John II has some questions. For the one concerning martial arts, there's a 21 GE roll. For the completion of the boom sticks, he rolls 24, which is pretty bad.
A famous song says that a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest, and Uther is exactly that sort of man. I think Adam may have said too much about his own abilities, and now is going to have to be much more diplomatic to get out of this.
John I rolls 48 on his read minds attempt, which given that his chance of success is 49 is a really solid success.
That completes today's game.
--M. J. Young
There was no roll that I saw on Father Pedro having metal working skills. I'm serious about that. It was not uncommon in some medieval societies for priests, monks, even nuns to have "real jobs" to pay bills on time. God may have an awesome retirement plan, but he kind of leaves paying your day-to-day bills up to you, ya know?
Father Pedro is my character, and to some degree I have already defined the parameters of what he can do. He is a scholar and demon fighter. Quite apart from that, although probably his monastery is replete with those who know how to farm, make wine, and do other tasks that every peasant can do, the idea that any one of them would be a blacksmith is comparable today to the notion that the elderly priest at your local Catholic diocese is also a computer systems designer: the number of people who have these skills is small enough that they constitute a profession, and it is not easy to learn them if you are not headed for the profession.
I've addressed Carl's skills thread, and left quite a few questions, so let me turn my attention to Andrew Harry, John II, Adam, Graeme, and John I.
I've let a day pass for the GE roll Andrew got, but on the next day I will need another roll. 8 is such a good roll that I'm going to give him several days before rolling again.
Harry gets his wish--on a GE of 20 Tristar is rumbling, and there is no shore leave and no special cargo, so the captured ship will be taken to New Haven. There's also a Tristar event on his event sheet--one of the security officers, Douglas, jumps ship.
John II is starting toward the castle.
Adam is getting something of a lesson into the mind of a medieval monarch.
The transmats are operated by high-level professionals in a high-bias world, so they have very little chance of failure and virtually no chance to botch--and with the various safeties and interfaces we reduce that to negligible. A roll of 71 is a solid success. Graeme will get his first experience, but it will be a bit unusual in this world--they have a decently high mag bias along with their incredibly high tech bias.
John I is exploring the mind of a leader, but I'm going to have to consider how he is exploring it.
I'm not doing too badly here; I might be done before bedtime at the rate I'm moving.
--M. J. Young
Father Pedro is my character, and to some degree I have already defined the parameters of what he can do. He is a scholar and demon fighter. Quite apart from that, although probably his monastery is replete with those who know how to farm, make wine, and do other tasks that every peasant can do, the idea that any one of them would be a blacksmith is comparable today to the notion that the elderly priest at your local Catholic diocese is also a computer systems designer: the number of people who have these skills is small enough that they constitute a profession, and it is not easy to learn them if you are not headed for the profession.
I understand this. It was just something I was thinking about. I kind of envision monasteries and the like as being relatively self-sustaining. Almost a world to themselves. I was thinking there would be the Farmer Priest, the Blacksmith Priest, etc. I just thought I might get lucky that Pedro was also the Blacksmith Priest.
Your characterization of monasteries is not that bad, really--but "the blacksmith priest" is something on the order of "the lawyer priest" or "the cavalier priest" or "the genetic engineer priest". Blacksmithing is a profession, and its practitioners do not share their secrets outside the profession. Besides, most members of such orders are drawn from the upper nobility classes (traditional feudal familial order: first son gets the land, the titles, and the task of being soldier, second enters holy orders, third becomes a lawyer, and fourth is a layabout mooching off his eldest brother's estates). Nobles do not know blacksmithing; it's a trade profession.
I'm making progress with Carl's character sheet, so now I turn to Andrew, Harry, Edward, John II, Adam, and John I.
Andrew is going to teach himself spear fishing, which is a T3@1 skill with targeting involved, essentially a combat attack on a fish in water. The water provides some cover for the fish (because it resists the spear), but an 09 is going to hit the fish for damaging damage, not enough to kill it. It is, however, going to give him his skill, 1@1 Spear Fishing T3@1.
Harry makes it to Haven, and something is going to happen here. I've given him a GE roll, which is 9, which means he has the opportunity to be close to these events or not, depending on his choice.
Edward's comments are excellent, very in character, really clever--but he didn't mention whether he was going to use something to light the darkness, so I can't really proceed yet.
I'll give John II the only answer to his question I think he can get in his situation; I don't know whether it will work, but that will be up to the dice when he attempts to do it.
Adam has gotten out of the pinch from Uther, but still is involved in conversation, and now must describe his fictitious homeland.
John I has probably done the right thing, letting Mekita's mind wander by leaving her alone; he gets an 8 GE roll on her thoughts. This should dispel his doubts about her intentions.
--M. J. Young
Andrew, Harry, John II, Adam, and Graeme get to play today.
I'll make a mental note that Andrew is exercising; he's not going to be here long enough for it to make much difference, but it's good to get started. Anyway, if he keeps this world interesting for a while longer, I'll bring Carl into it too, and that will give them more time to do interesting things before the inevitable--depending on how the dice go. Meanwhile, we've got to make a few more shots at fish until we do enough damage to skewer one. His chance of success here is not that good, because the tech bias on the Tropical Island is pretty low, but he's got his 1@1 SAL+2@1 BRA+an MSV that's probably around 1@7 (he has a 1@8 strength and 1@6 intuition, so only his hand/eye is missing, against the protections of a fish, which is a small target for -10 (less than two square feet, more than one and a half square feet) probably with a low agility and intuition, 1@2 TV, and a DV around 1@1. His chance to hit it is 27, but if he gets at least 20 that will be enough of a hit to pin it to the bottom. 64 is not that roll, 01 is not that roll, 40, 98--that's bad news, but I'll count this as combat, so he gets it stuck in the sand. 38, 52, 28--so close--79, 12, 58, 53, 41, 68, 82, 57, 76, 96--again, stuck in the sand--58, 28, 42, 25--finally. I'll give him a significant bonus on finishing the thing, 94 does not work, but 55 will.
Harry is looking at a 21 GE roll for the company. I seem not to have noted the particular days on which he originally learned his two practiced psi skills, but it's time to increase them, 1@3 TK Pulse P4@1 and 1@2 Telescopic Vision P5@1.
John II is conversing with Pedro on the way, and I don't want to curtail that.
Adam's imaginary city is interesting enough that I just might send him there sometime (insert appropriate emoticon here). Anyway, Uther will ask about some of the odd things he claims for it.
Graeme has arrived; we'll let him plot his course from here.
--M. J. Young
I'm a bit off balance tonight, but I'll manage.
I just realized what it is: the clock on my computer has shifted an hour, and I didn't realize it. I do hope my wife wasn't late for work. I've been looking at clocks an hour apart and trying to figure out what time it is. I guess staying up late to finish that book wasn't all that good an idea. Well, it's done now. I wonder what caused the clock to change; it's not Saturday night, and it's not the last weekend in March, so I'm confused.
I'm not too confused, however, to turn my attention to Andrew, Harry, Edward, John II, Adam, and John I.
Andrew's day passes uneventfully, due largely to a previous GE roll and the fact that he's not doing anything particularly hazardous.
Harry is in the middle of an event that only impacts him peripherally.
Edward gets a 21 GE on his little venture behind the walls; but the demon is unlikely to be able to do anything even here. 93 says that whatever it tried did not work. Still, something is not good.
John II continues to get oriented for his battle. Blast, I forgot to answer his question about dinner. I've got to go back and do that.
Adam's conversation with Uther is probably almost finished. I think it has been enlightening, but he's the one who might have been enlightened.
John I might have insulted Ishara, but Ishara has his own way of dealing with such things. We'll see which of them actually is better, but maybe John will show himself a worthy fighter.
I expect to be here Sunday, but it is Easter, so there might be complications.
--M. J. Young
May I wish a happy Easter Weekend to everyone who is observing, and likewise a hearty "blessed be!" to anyone who cares to join me for a drink tonight, in honor of the spring equinox. And a boisterous HUZZAH to the company, my fine friends, either way.
Indeed, appropriate holiday greetings to all.
Andrew, Harry, John II, Adam, and John I are playing tonight.
I should roll for Andrew's cooking/survival efforts, being reminded that a failure doesn't mean he didn't cook it, only that he didn't cook it all that well (depending on how badly he fails). Of course, there's also the part about building the fire--but he made a successful wilderness survival roll a while back, and 35 is within his chance of success (which is about 37 or so, on a quick check), so this worked really well.
I see that I rolled 9 on Harry's involvement in the events, so as he goes to talk to security we'll piece together some of what happened.
I think I can answer most of John II's questions fairly easily.
Adam seems to have gotten exactly the right impression of King Uther. I'm sure he now understands why Merlin did not think it important for them to meet. Now we move forward.
John I has chosen to spar with someone who has a 106% chance minus defensive values of injuring someone with just anything he happens to find lying around--and better than that with weapons with which he is already familiar. He'd better set his groundrules carefully.
I guess I've finished tonight's posts. I'm on my way elsewhere.
--M. J. Young
I see Andrew, Harry, Edward, John II, Adam, and John I, and I'm getting started. However, just so there's no question about it, if I fall asleep at the keyboard (something I have done in the past, and this seems a likely night for me to do so again), I'm wrapping up there and coming back whenever it is I get back.
I'm inclined to shift Andrew from multiple skill checks for his spear fishing to a general effects roll. In this case, I already know that he's about 6% likely to botch, maybe 20% likely to actually spear a fish (15% to wound one), so I can pop that into the probabilities on the general effects roll--which, for those wondering, are included in Appendix 3: Dice Curves in the back of the book. 6.9% of all rolls are 24 or higher, so that will be the botch; 20.5% of rolls are 12 Good Enough or lower, so that will get him a fish, and 13.2% of rolls are 13 or 14 for a near catch. Of course, he gets to keep trying when he's in the water, which increases the chance of everything--including the botch--so barely good enough 13 will get him a fish, and bad enough 21 or worse will get him trouble. His roll is 20. I must be mindful that he has a few good days before I have to roll for conditions on the island, thanks to a previous good roll, and that this really is only day two.
Harry is trying to find ways to help the arrested crewman, and doing a decent job so far.
What I have anticipated as trouble for Edward is not at all the sort of trouble he anticipates.
If memory serves, I've been giving John II +10 on skills that can only be done in his home base. That means that if I remove that part, and I then have 1@1 Bless up to 150 weapons to increase damage against demons M+1@3 kneel and pray with appropriate words over chosen weapons to confer +DC on all weapons so blessed for use in next battle with demons, it's -12 SM. Given his 11@7 bias, that's not going to hinder him much on learning it, particularly as I'll also give him his own example as a 1@3 example. He rolls 90, which will work this time and give him 1@3 SAL at this.
I'm concerned about the possibility of things happening in Adam's world, but a 9 GE says that only good things happen tonight.
We'll give a time and place to John I's dea--er, sparring match with an assassin, and go from there.
--M. J. Young
I have Andrew, Harry, Edward, John II, Adam, and John I in play.
I'm surprised that Andrew didn't bite on Michael's strange look, but that's not a problem, and it was only for color. Meanwhile, he'll be doing several things this week. One is building that shelter, for which a 22 check on his survival skill is quite adequate for what he intends. One is he's searching for another fresh water source, 17 being a neutral roll which I think will give him one pretty far from here. This time his GE roll on the fishing is 10, and he's covering several days with it. He gets a 15 GE roll on his remaining time here.
I love the interactivity of this game. I started with "character arrested for crime". Harry asked questions, and as the questions and answers flow, the nature of the situation comes into focus. I now know what happened, because of Harry's investigations.
Edward misinterpretted his scene, but he has company to put him right.
John II gets a good solid day of travel, thanks to an 11 GE roll.
Adam on the other hand gets a 23 GE on his day.
I can't resist teasing John I at least a bit here, but I do need to know his plans before the sparring event all the same.
Hey, wow, I'm done.
--M. J. Young
Andrew, Harry, John II, Adam, Graeme, and John I are tonight's players--plus me, once I get that far.
Andrew is watching the volcano and washing clothes. That doesn't give me too much to do, although I can answer his question. I should also do another GE roll on the volcano: 10 stretches our time significantly once again.
Harry continues to investigate, and he's got some solid leads already.
John II is doing a bit of asset restructuring.
I've some very clear ideas in my head concerning how Merlin teaches magic. One of the first things he does with those who already know some magic is get them to teach everything they know--to him, or to someone. This will cause them to understand their own magic better, and lay the foundation for learning more. So Adam is going to spend some time teaching Geneice all his magic and psionic skills. Don't worry, I'll reward him--a couple of skill marks in teaching, and marks in every skill he teaches, as I think that in this case figuring out how to teach someone else while under Merlin's supervision is a "new use" of the skill in a completely unexpected way.
Graeme rolls 19 on a simple check against his 2@3 education level (bonused, too, because he is an engineer) as he examines the scriff bullet. I'm really curious what he's going to say to this.
John I wants to do his out-of-body scrying to get a bead on what Ishara does in preparation for the fight. He rolls 80, but over the course of a day he'll have more than one chance--but on the other hand, he doesn't know when Ishara will be training, so if the skill works he still needs a GE roll for finding the guy and figuring what he's doing. 36 will work, as he has a 59% chance of success, but 24 says this was a bad time. We get a 33 later, with a 23 GE. Again later he rolls 39, with a 20 GE. I've rolled once more, 97, but that will be a botch, and I don't know if John would do one more attempt or not, so I'm going to ask him.
I'm gone.
--M. J. Young
I am surprised. I was not that late yesterday, nor am I that early today, yet I have only Harry, John II, and John I posting in that gap. This makes for a relatively short game, but not an unenjoyable one.
Harry seems fairly clear in his mind that this is a frame-up, but uncertain what steps to take next. That's all right--I can put some steps in front of him.
John II needs a decent GE roll to get a gold merchant around who can sell him gold. He gets a 9, which is good but not great. I bit of research on diamonds gives me a handle on some of his questions.
I am content that John I did not peek back here to see that his "one more try" would be a botch. Now I need a botch list:
- Wrong target
- Brain burn
- Neural breakdown
- Sensory shutdown
- Psionic shockwave
- Teleport self
- Hypersensitized senses
- Parallel universe view
It will be interesting to see what he does with that.
--M. J. Young
MJ, I think you missed Edward "Did Some Get the Number of that Lizard?" Just to let you know.
Thanks, John, but actually Edward was not there when I opened all the threads and started answering them--it just took me longer to finish my first post than it took him to get posted. Today, after I get through Andrew and Harry, I'll turn my attention to Edward, then John II, then Adam, and finally John I. That's going to be slow going, though--already I've been asked to divert resources to some other errand.
I've had people build rafts before, but I'm not at all certain what it is that Andrew is thinking. Trees and vines he has aplenty, although larger fallen ones near the beach might require a bit of luck; so will finding a reef offshore, and that will require a bit more than just a bit of luck, since islands in this world don't last all that long. 17 is his first GE roll, which puts his fallen trees inland quite a bit. He gets a 13, barely good enough, for the reef, which puts things in a different perspective.
Harry wants to talk to the captain; he's got a 19 GE roll in what are admittedly difficult circumstances.
I'll give Edward his door; he'll have to figure out what to do with it himself.
John II engages in some financial transactions, which we'll resolve.
Adam might not have the patience to go through his skills in-game, but I have to do it anyway, because I have to roll for Geneice, so we'll take it apace. The first on his list is 1@4 Read Surface Thoughts P1@1, and Geneice has no psi bias at this point, but a 2@3 BRA, the benefit of Adam's teaching and example, and a roll of 16, which gives her a 1@1 in the same skill and kicks her bias up to 1@1 for the next trick. That's a 1@4 Invisibility P1@5. The roll is 54, and while I think that will be successful, I want to check the numbers: 1@1 bias+2@3 BRA+1@4 example+(2@9/2) instructor BRA+3@5 teaching skill+15@ world bias-1@4 target bias=why am I bothering with the math, she has a 1@2 SAL.
Next is his 1@2 Jedi Mind Trick P1@5 suggestion requires that the suggested thoughts/actions be voiced in hearing of the target +10SM for which she rolls 63, another 1@2 SAL. I'm going to have to get some feedback before we move to the next skill.
I suppose I could rule that John II's loss of all sensation is a mind or brain disorder, curable by a P6@8 skill; but then, he has not attempted to diagnose the cause of the problem, merely to cure it directly--and that strongly suggests the P14@2 curatives by fiat. That fits John's personality better, anyway, and if he can manage it he'll have upped his bias and given himself a very powerful skill in the process. I'm resisting the urge to roll until I've crafted the numbers, although perhaps I ought to ask some questions. His bias is 7@4, his BRA is 2@3, he gets +15 for the world area bias, and we're looking at 112 against 142, he needs thirty more points before he's got no chance at all. However, let me ask him those questions.
Let me also get a few more things done and get to bed.
--M. J. Young
If I miss someone tonight, scold me soundly; it is exactly the sort of night on which I could miss someone--lots of threads, half of them not gameplay, and I'm late and it's tired, as they say. However, I have identified Andrew, Harry, Edward, John II, Adam, and John I as having posted by the time I opened this board, so I'm going to attempt to be coherent as I address these posts. I might not make it tomorrow, as I have a rather oversized errand scheduled, but I'm going to make the attempt at least.
Andrew swims; I'll put him down as a 1@9 amateur, Limb-assisted Swimming B1@2. A quick calculation gives me an island perimeter.
Harry continues his investigation.
Edward has addressed his airflow problem, but still has the securing of the door (if he's not satisfied with what's there), and some thoughts on the path ahead.
I don't need to roll to determine whether this town in which John II finds himself happens to have a blacksmith; this is a bigger town, and it would have all the ordinary services.
Adam is teaching Geneice how to do a possession, and she rolls 27; but that means he makes a simple will power check to counter it, 12+3=15, and his will power is considerably more potent than that. She learns it, 1@1 Possession P1@10 resisted with will power RS=S/D/N, but she doesn't actually succeed in grabbing control of him. The lessons will continue, but they are working on two levels, so it's time for Merlin to ask some questions.
John I has no chance at all of pulling off a "fiat" sort of healing; the question is whether 79 is a botch. That would require that his chance of failure be above 210%, which it isn't, so that's all right.
I'm almost done, and might even get to bed tonight.
--M. J. Young
Despite my missed day, I have but four players, and not even all the most active ones. Andrew opens, John II continues, Adam attends, and John I bats cleanup.
Did I roll for reefs yet? My recollection is that I did not, because I wished first to know what Andrew was doing about looking for them. No, there's the roll in my notes--13, barely good enough. He'll be looking for a while. He's also started building the raft, which I think is not really part of his survival skill, so we've got to extrapolate a bit.
John II needs a GE roll for what is written on the coins. They might, of course, be South African, as those were popular for a while; 13 is Barely Good Enough, so he'll get something close to what he wants.
I have neglected to do something which I fully intend to do: as Adam teaches Geneice each skill, his own ability improves in that skill by one mark. He also gets a mark in Teaching, but that makes it 3@5 Teaching P0@1 +1m so it's not going to make that much difference. The other skills are now:
- 1@5 Read Surface Thoughts P1@1
1@5 Invisibility P1@5
1@3 Jedi Mind Trick P1@5 suggestion requires that the suggested thoughts/actions be voiced in hearing of the target +10SM
1@3 Possession P1@10 resisted with will power RS=S/D/N
We'll continue with the clairsentient/detect skills.
- 33 gives Geneice 1@1 Detect Life P3@1, and raises Adam to 1@3 Detect Life P3@1
- 84 gives her 1@3 Clairaudience P3@5 and raises his to 1@4
- 60 gives her 1@2 Clairvoyance P3@6 and raises his SAL to 1@5
- 04 gives her 1@1 Remote Sensory Presence P3@10 and raises him to 1@4.
That's quite a bit of teaching for a stretch. There's more to come, of course, but this is a good chunk.
John I still sounds like he's trying to fix things by fiat, but I could be mistaken. I'm not at all certain what he means by what he says.
But he can clear that up in time for tomorrow's game, I expect, and I'll see you all then, Lord willing.
--M. J. Young
I seem to have a substantial gathering here today--Harry and Edward both of whom missed me yesterday, John II and Adam both of whom are good at bouncing back for the next post, Graeme who has been terribly busy elsewhere of late, and John I who is very worried about his situation.
I'm thinking that Harry needs a GE roll for whether they spot the girl. If it's very bad they're clueless, but if it's only bad a difficult intuition check would probably point them to someone they recognize as having been with the girl, and if it's moderately good a simple intuition check would spot the girl or someone who can connect them. Only a particularly good roll would mean they quickly recognize the girl. 16 is right in the middle, so I'm giving a simple intuition check for spotting someone who knows the girl. 4+2=6, well within anyone's intuition.
I've a rough idea of the layout of a confessional, so I'll give a description of this one to Edward and let him think through his next move.
John II is trying to come up with a plan, hampered by the fact that his companion is not willing to lie for him.
Adam continues teaching Geneice, with an 82 on the TK pulse which gives her 1@3 Simple Telekinetic Pulse P4@1 and raises his skill to 1@4. 85 gives her 1@3 Out-of-Sight TK P4@3 and again raises him to 1@4. The roll of 60 makes it 1@2 Marionette P4@6 and again raises his SAL to 1@4.
Graeme has stepped into the heart of the weapons program, and challenged it quite reasonably. Let's see if he can put their doubts to rest.
John I's new approach is much more like a 6@8 curative, and so he has a much better chance of success--+7@4+2@3+15-6@8=40%. The first try, on his vision, will not succeed with a roll of 85, but he has four other senses, so we will roll again for hearing, 98, which is a botch again. Poor John is having a lot of trouble; but maybe he's finished with this world, and I can dream up some other adventures for him. Let's get a botch list:
- Neural Breakdown
- Hypersensitization
- Brain Burn
- Psionic Shockwave
- Injure self
- Connect to wrong hearing (Miralla)
- Misconnect sensory paths--hearing to imaging
Let's see how long it takes for him to figure out what's happening.
--M. J. Young
So John 1 psi-botched and is now hearing through someone else's ears?
See that's the kind of thing I'm thinking of when somebody produces something really awesome on a botch and makes you think "I'd like to be able to do that on purpose". Kinda like my 1@1 Microscopic Vision P5@1.
Scott and I were playing with metal wing nuts in our first world, and we botched. One of the botches was "Transmute metal to gold." You're damn right I'd like to know how to do that on purpose.
Yeah, well, that's actually not that tough to do on purpose. Keep it in mind if you find yourself in a situation where it would work--but remember, you can't use John's botch as an example (although he could), because you were never aware of it.
Andrew, Harry, Edward, John II, Adam, Graeme, and John I are all awaiting my attention.
20 is a success for Andrew's 1@1 Build Small Boat T3@1 skill, and it gives him something of a working vessel with a week's work. He also gets a 16 GE on the volcano.
Harry has made some progress in his investigation. Let's see what he does with it.
I'm watching Edward's use of the plasma cannon for a botch, and 73 is not that, so I'm not going to worry about it more than that. I'm curious as to what's happened in his absence myself, and a GE of 20 suggests that it's just bad enough--but given the limitations on the enemy, I'm not sure how back that is. A roll of 75 is going to fail at anything it might attempt, and so is an 89, so I'll guess that things are not significantly changed--except perhaps for that feeling a place has. By now the enemy will be attempting to whittle down the defenses, but those rolls aren't going to do it.
John II has put his plan in place.
Adam continues to teach Geneice. She rolls 43 on the burn resistance, a solid roll for a 1@1 Resist Burn Damage P5@1. He goes to 1@5, and she is not injured. A roll of 15 is less effective, but still gives her the 1@1 Resist Kinetic Damage P5@1 and raises him to 1@4, although she'll feel it. He's got a damaging punch thanks to his 2@ Strike Value, and he rolls 23, so she's going to reduce that roll to 8, which is still an intensity of damage. 31 does the 1@1 Microscopic Vision P5@1 and raises his to 1@3.
She rolls 03 on learning the 1@1 Diagnose Medical Problem P6@1, as he moves to 1@3; 27 is the roll for 1@1 Heal Damage to Self B6@1, and he moves to 1@4.
More next time on that.
I don't want to keep Graeme from saying or doing anything else, because I can see there being a moment of silence and then discussion of what to do next--but I can't really tell him not to say anything during their moment of silence, so we'll bounce the ball back to him for now.
John I has not yet realized that he does not have his own hearing back, so he's continuing with smell, 88, failure, taste, 94, not a botch (6% is 95 or higher), and touch, 35, the first success, and the acquisition of the skill, 1@1 Restore Damaged Sensory Paths P6@8. This means he has a new chance to try those he failed, 1@1 SAL+2@3 BRA+2x7@ bias=48%, and he rolls 28. He's got his sight back and a skill mark making 1@2 SAL in the skill for a new use. He also should discover at this point that he's not hearing what he thinks he's hearing.
Let's see what he does with that.
--M. J. Young
No MJ, Transmute Metal to Gold was a botch option. The actual botch was Psionic Shock Waves. (I wouldn't mind knowing how to do that on purpose, actually) I don't have an example.
Right. You can't use the fact that there was a transmute option on the botch table as an example, because it never happened. That doesn't mean you can't ask yourself whether this is something you can do, and trying to figure out how you would do it, but that's true of just about any skill you can imagine.
Harry heads up today's list, Edward adds something, John II jumps forward, Adam addresses his situation, Graeme goes in the penultimate position, and John I generates our conclusion.
I know what I think would be the situation with Miranda, but I should give him the benefit of the GE roll: 16 puts it in the no effect category, so I know what's happening but the girls do not.
Edward is certainly right about night vigils being long, and boring. This one has held my interest, but I'm hoping we can bring it to an end. My GE roll is 18, that Not Favorable Result that is just over the edge from neutral. I'll go with that, and Eric's imminent success with this skill (despite the fact that the blaster has not been fired continuously), and roll the dice for daybreak: 02 is going to make a very slight difference. Eric had packed a couple of damage category bonuses into this, but we'll give everyone a couple of intensities of healing.
I can't see Pedro using any of John II's weapons. Also, although I can imagine a magic that would repair the exploding spears as soon as they've done their damage, that's a very powerful magic, and I can't imagine that Pedro could imagine it. It may be up to John to decide whether that's something he can do.
Adam has two energy-manipulative skills in his psionic arsenal, so those will be next on the list to each Geneice. 45 gives her 1@1 Pyrogenesis P7@4 and raises his SAL to 1@3; 16 gives her 1@1 Redirect Energy P7@6 and again raises him to 1@3. He then skips a level again, and that will catch Merlin's attention.
Graeme gets a long conversation about the politics of this world.
John is going to attempt to heal his hearing again, having botched on an attempt to heal his hearing. 28 will work, even with a penalty.
I've got to turn my attention to my own game, but I've also got some errands being stacked on me, so I'm not sure how to fit everything in to the time that remains.
--M. J. Young
Andrew is back again, along with Harry, Edward, John II, Adam, and John I.
Andrew needs another GE roll for the situation on his island: 13 is barely good enough.
Harry has an idea, but I'm not sure what it is.
I need to get Edward to make some plans and decisions. Eric is right; to this point, the stronger character has been calling the shots, and it's necessary for the player to take over the action.
I see now what John II is after: it's not necessary for him that the shotgun shells would be reusable, only that the spear frames would. This is a tricky bit of a prayer, but I think fortunately I don't really have to know whether it works until he uses it in combat. Thus I will ask him to describe the prayer in detail, and I will save the details for some future moment when it matters. As I do with Graeme's language comp spells, I'll roll for whether it works when the thing actually happens.
I'm rolling for whether Adam succeeds in using the molecular manipulation skills, because a botch in these circumstances could be very serious--he has reached the level of psionic ability where a mistake can destroy the world. He rolls 46 on the weaken molecular structure skill, which will work. She rolls 32 on learning it, so she has a 1@1 Weaken Molecular Structure P9@1, and his increases to 1@2. Now he tries the strengthen skill, 86 probably does not work--he has a 60% chance to succeed on a 1@1 skill, which is quite good but not quite good enough. 89, 79, 29 finally is successful. She rolls 37, and so picks it up again, 1@1 Strengthen Molecular Structure P9@2, his going to 1@2. That leaves only the force shield. He rolls 23, she rolls 89, that means she's picked it up as 1@3 Force Shield P10@1 fixed to self, five foot curved shell forward, one-way kinetic protection, while his is raised to 1@2. He's still better at it than she is, because his 2@9 BRA gives him six points over her 2@3, so her one point advantage in the SAL means he's got a 5% better chance of success.
That also finishes his psionics. He probably needs to teach Geneice something about religion, something about magic, in order for her to do what he does in that realm.
John I is going to use his new skill in restoring damaged sensory paths to fix his olfaction and gustation; he has a 50% chance of success at this point, so 55 does not work for the smell; 03 works for the taste, raising his SAL to 1@4 for new use and giving him changed circumstances for going back to try the sense of smell again, 35 successful. His SAL is now 1@5, and he'll have to think of some clever new uses if he wants to continue improving it that way.
--M. J. Young