It was suggested that it might be time to retire our previous mechanics thread, Behind the Screens 2008, so we did. And perhaps fittingly we've quite a group today for whom to do it--Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, Adam, and Graeme all posting.
Oddly, Kurt does not identify himself to the operator; but then, it's entirely likely that agents sometimes cannot do so, so they probably have provision for that.
Harry confused me--somehow he got to the patient's bedside, but I didn't see that happen. (That, incidentally, means that it hasn't happened yet, because we have to agree as to what's happening.)
Nikolaj rolls 50 on his medical diagnosis, but bandaging wounds is a 2@ bias level so he's got +5 for the difference in level, +1@1 SAL, +2@1 BRA, +2x5@ world tech bias--that's 47, not successful here. More significantly, he's going to have to give some sort of account of himself.
John 2 rolls 49 on a skill learning attempt for the use of the laser blaster. He's got the advantage of Derek's 1@8 teaching SAL, 2@6 example, and 2@3 tech BRA, so that's a success on a 1@1 Use Laser Blaster T12@1 (borrowed from Derek Brown) skill. He's getting a bit impatient about the teacher; don't worry, the teacher is coming. Let's first get a few skills under his belt. Next time I'll roll skill advancement checks for him.
Geneice rolls 66 on her emergency teleport skill, and so bounces back to the grove. I think that's the first time she's used it from beyond sight of the grove (it was learned by designing it locally, at a 1@3 SAL for her), so we'll call it new use and give her 1@4. Hey, I couldn't resist--and anyway the code was Adam's idea.
Graeme is going to attempt to copy an Azmayincan spell. This should be interesting, as I didn't really put too much effort into creating the spell and have no idea how the numbers play. But I can see what he's doing and have a pretty good idea of how I designed the skill on the fly, so let's crunch some numbers. Oh, but I have some questions to which I will need answers.
Hopefully that won't delay the game too long.
--M. J. Young
Harry, you've got me very curious on a point in Ric's game: what is your theory about the language? Normally I would just have said that the reason he understands them is that they are speaking English, but you seem to have something else happening here. Ric has guessed that it is psionic, but that he is doing it subconsciously (which would be rather strange for him to have learned thus, but not impossible)--but I would expect that there would be periodic rolls to determine whether it is still working. I can see the possibility that it is magical, that someone has cast a spell on him enabling him to comprehend spoken language for an extended period, but I didn't see that happen (which is perfectly reasonable--for one thing I wasn't watching that closely, for another you've had several sessions away from the board, and for a third if you'd rather Ric not know why he can understand foreign speech you would have fair basis not to speak of it here).
I apologize for missing yesterday. I thought I was going to be taking my mother-in-law to the bank and the store, but instead I went to the bank for her and then took her to the hospital. That's oversimplifying it into a falsehood--the ambulance took her and I met them there. She broke the other hip. I was occupied with that for about a dozen hours yesterday. On the bright side, I made progress reading through one of C. J. Henderson's books, which I had the foresight to bring with me when I left the house.
So let me catch up with Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, Adam, and Graeme.
Kurt gets a 9 GE roll on the hotel accepting pets.
Harry takes something of a risk planning to perform his curative back on the ship--after all, it's possible that Doc Evan will decide that Roman has a better chance of recovery left in a medical facility here than he does in sickbay. However, that GE roll that covered this event means things aren't all bad, so I'll have him moved back to the ship.
Nikolaj is moving from the conflict area to the peaceful section, where he can try to learn more about this world.
John 2 gets his equipment delivered. There is a roll of 60 on the training check; the trainers undoubtedly have 7@ bod bias, 2@2 Psi BRA, 2@10 training SAL, which makes 66% chance of success on a skill training roll.
I'll laugh at Adam's quip, but Merlin won't understand it--and Merlin does not like not knowing things, so he will ask.
Hopefully I now have sufficient information to adjudicate Graeme's version of the Azmayincan writing spell. A base TF twice the time it would take to speak the words seems appropriate, taking this as a M7@1 Magical Writings variant (it will also mean that at expert level he will be chanting them faster than he can pronounce them, but I'm not uncomfortable with that). He is using both hands to indicate the positions of the words on the wall. I'm giving +3 for singing/chanting the words and deciding that the sound is vital for +2 more. +3 is added because it requires a second hand. That gives the spell a +8 sit-mod, and his roll is 91, which is not promising here, but that he has a 12@9 bias (a gate to off world spell) and a 2@2 BRA. He also has a 2@5 professional level example and an instructor who is not a teacher, the BRA which will be a slightly above average 1@7, so we've got 129+22+25+17+8-71=more than enough, 1@3 Write on Surfaces M7@1 chant words desired in intended language while using both hands to position words as desired on smooth surface, image etches, sound is necessary, +8SM.
--M. J. Young
OK I'm officially gobsmacked. Can someone take a look at what Ric just did and tell me WTF Ric just did? It's something Psionic. I'm sure there is something in there about psionically borrowing someone else's skills. But I'm pretty sure in a flatlined Psi world it's going nowhere fast. I just want to be sure. (Remember that the translation effect he's working under is magical, not psionic.)
I don't know if he's doing just one thing or two things. My suspicion is that the first thing is possible, but the rest (if he's trying anything else) is not.
First thing:
As the student reads to me, I'm going to try to reach out to his mind with my own . . . I understand that there is a part of the brain that processes language and words and such. My goal is to try to synchronize his language center with mine, so while I have said link, I'm able to read what he can read.
The Architect likes to talk about a skill of his that does this. It's a Psi 1@1 Read Minds varient, P1@1 Tap Language Center, and it does exactly what Ric says. He reads the man's mind, specifically his Werneke's Area and Broca's Area (and whatever else)- so, Ric doesn't know the man's surface thoughts, but he can process language using the other guy's brain. Because it's an @1 skill, it's possible in a flatlined world. Chance of success with no teacher or example is Ric's decimalized Psi BRA minus eleven (assuming Ric's Psi bias is 0@0, which it is unless he has skill at teaching or psychic powers).
The rest of his post is either elaborating on that (unnecessarily, in my mind) or is a description of another action he's trying to take if the mind-reading works. I'm not sure which. I recommend rolling for skill learning for the P1@1 Tap Language Center part, and then if that works tell him he currently has a link to the other person's mind that's letting him use that mind to understand the written language and admit confusion about what he's trying to do from there.
___
Edit: Ric seems to think that the magical translation effect he is experiencing should somehow help him to perform this task. My inclination is to treat this as suitable basis for attempting to learn the Psi skill (inspiration, basically - "oh, hey, X is true, so Y should be possible, let me invent a technique for Y"), but not to give any bonuses to skill learning for it. Put another why, I would be strongly disinclined to treat the "Babelfish effect" as an example for purposes of skill learning. Firstly, he has no idea how it works, and secondly, it is of a fundamentally different nature than what he is attempting (magic instead of psi).
You could do it if you were feeling really nice, though.
John 2 gets his equipment delivered. There is a roll of 60 on the training check; the trainers undoubtedly have 7@ bod bias, 2@2 Psi BRA, 2@10 training SAL, which makes 66% chance of success on a skill training roll.
60 out of 66 is a high successful roll. Are there any bonuses for that? (Ya know, like you get 1@3 if the 90 is successful) Just curious.
Two Posts
I apologize for missing yesterday. I thought I was going to be taking my mother-in-law to the bank and the store, but instead I went to the bank for her and then took her to the hospital. That's oversimplifying it into a falsehood--the ambulance took her and I met them there. She broke the other hip. I was occupied with that for about a dozen hours yesterday. On the bright side, I made progress reading through one of C. J. Henderson's books, which I had the foresight to bring with me when I left the house.
This kind of reminds me of what you said in your Frequency analysis. "Dad died, but at least the Yankees won the series." It's equal to "My wife's mom broke her hip, but at least I got to finish reading my book."
Just an aside, Mother in Law is an anagram of "Woman Hitler".
60 out of 66 is a high successful roll. Are there any bonuses for that? (Ya know, like you get 1@3 if the 90 is successful) Just curious.
Not really. On the bright side, a training roll of 01 isn't any worse.
I could envision a rule system for training that treated high successful rolls differently from low successful ones, but honestly, I would never want to use it. There's quite enough bookkeeping in the system as it stands, especially when you're training in multiple unrelated skills at one time. Fifty rolls of yes/no/botch is a lot easier than fifty rolls of fair/good/excellent/fail/botch.
Scott's pretty much nailed what Ric is trying to do, and it should be possible if he can learn a 1@1 psionic skill (the numbers Scott gave). Again, the complication here is that Ric says he is attempting to do with written language whatever it is that is making it possible for him to communicate with them in what is to him an unknown spoken language--and he doesn't understand how it is that he is able to do that. (I don't understand it, either, which was the point of my question in my previous post.) As Scott says, though, he can't really derive an example from something if he doesn't know how it's done, and if it is not being done in something of a similar way (that is, by his mind contacting the minds of others around him to use their language centers to translate everything he hears and says) then it can't really be an example for what he says he's attempting.
You haven't, as far as I am aware, mentioned the psi bias of this world. If it's 0@ and Ric has no psionic skills that are above 0@ and at least @1 (e.g., 8@0 does not count, and 0@2 does not count), then his chance of successfully learning the skill is his Psionics Best Relevant Attribute minus the 1@1 bias of the skill--probably less than 10%, unless he happens to have a 2@ intuition, persuasion, or will power.
All the posts today are play, so let's get playing. Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, Adam, and Graeme are all waiting.
We'll start having two conversations at once for Kurt, and he can add what he wants to either.
Harry gets an 11 GE roll. I was thinking that there were a lot of questions--whether Evan would be in sick bay watching Roman, whether Harry would be scheduled to take the helm coming out of port, stuff of that sort. However, with an 11 GE roll I think most of that can be cleared aside.
I'll move Nikolaj to the ranch, but delay the next surprise until he's had a bit more opportunity to acclimate himself to the setting.
John 2 wants to know if he can have new use for knitting a scarf, which means I have to roll his skill check to see whether he has done it successfully. The roll is 65, and his numbers are 2x12@ bias+1@2 knit+2@2 BRA=58% chance of success, so he hasn't succeeded in knitting the scarf and he hasn't got his new use credit. (This is one of the advantages of using practice: you aren't at the mercy of the dice for advancement.) I think, too, that he may have put me in an uncertainty: he wants to improve his boxing skill, he wants play to accelerate to allow him to do this, and he wants the teacher to arrive. But if the teacher arrives after the next twenty-five days, when his next training roll is made, it is unlikely that he will have time to advance his boxing skill to the next level. My best choice at this point is probably to pause and determine whether he is going to go for the boxing improvement or not. If yes, I'll give him the hundred days (and probably also some improvement in some other skills, not to mention rolls in the new martial arts lessons). If no, we'll move this puppy along and bring in the teacher, which will get him some psionics lessons and then an adventure he can't reasonably refuse.
I love playing with the ridiculous aspects of our culture by viewing them from outside, so Merlin is going to continue to ask Adam about mowing lawns. We'll wrap up the venture.
Graeme moves to the Mongol-Chin contact. This guy will roll his tap language center read minds skill, and a 12 will work.
Let's call it a day and see where it takes us.
--M. J. Young
If no, we'll move this puppy along and bring in the teacher, which will get him some psionics lessons and then an adventure he can't reasonably refuse.
Since when have you ever known me to be reasonable?
Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam are today's players.
Kurt is looking for the CIA haven; but his onboard computer doesn't work exactly that way--it finds him the nearest haven to his present location or the nearest in his present direction. A 25 GE roll is not going to give him what he wants.
I somehow missed the fact that Harry had described a new magic skill. It is a M2@1 limited damage repair with a lethal base (-10), requires touch (+20), TF 20:00 (+43), invokes Freya for appropriate words (+5). He sacrifices a flower (+1, doubled) and keeps his left eye closed (for which +3 as a necessary extra body part, I think). Actually, kneeling is total body involvement, so that's +15, but under the circumstances I'm going to allow the eye as an extra. Sound matters for +2. However, I do need to establish what he means by a "mirror", what he means by "forcefully but not loudly", and whether the spell is exhausting or not.
I promised to give Nikolaj a peek at more of this world, and thanks to his questions he's gotten quite a bit more than that.
I've landed a roll of 12, Good Enough, for John 2's events. I think that will mean he gets one more shot on the training rolls and then we take the next step. The fifty day roll on Okydoky Smoky is 90, so that's no improvement; he will improve on day 75, if he's still practicing. The other skills will take a hundred days to improve from practice, because he has no help. Things are happening of which he is not immediately aware, but I'll bring them to his attention next time--which gives me time to resolve in my own mind exactly how that happens.
I'll increase Adam's SAL on his emergency teleport to 1@2, as I increased Geneice for her first real use. I'll also continue to banter--pizza, eh? I wonder what they'd use for toppings.
--M. J. Young
I'm also wondering what they'll use for sauce, since tomatoes are South American in origin and didn't see European cultivation until well into the 1500s.
Honey might work, though. Or applesauce.
__
Oh, and a question on this bit from John's thread:
Normal practice will not allow you to reach professional level of ability in any skill. To become a professional you must practice like a professional, which is four times as hard as practicing like an amateur.
That's not the way I heard it first. I wouldn't exactly mind a ruling like that, and it matches the way attributes work (which makes it easy to remember), but I could've sworn that skills were different. Looking through the book, I found my recollection supported on page 36 (first edition, second printing; emphasis not mine):
Although it is still four times as hard to improve level 2 skills and twenty-seven times as hard to improve level 3 skills, credit may be accumulated. A character who works sixty hours over one hundred days gains one skill mark, or mark. If he continues at this rate (3 hours every 5 days), he will gain a level 2 intensity in 400 days or a level 3 intensity in 2700 days.
My cooking skill in Scott Frees the Oppressed was being treated this way, as I recall - even though I was 2@1 as a short-order cook, I wanted to advance to professional in a new concentration (exactly which concentration to be determined if I was skill practicing at the end of the 400 days).
Of course, that's over a year of practice at the amateur level for a single professional intensity, and over seven years of practice for someone already at the expert level, so the accelerated programs are still the only real option for people with less patience than a granite cliff face.
Edit: Okay, so that wasn't really a question, but it was a still question when I started writing it out because I hadn't looked it up yet.
Scott, you are correct. I'm afraid I oversimplified my answer to John because I didn't want to go into that kind of detail--and because I didn't want to find myself counting out four hundred days on every skill he decided to push to professional levels. Besides, although I don't have a "plan" exactly, I'm pretty sure he does not have that time (over a year) in this world. The next step has hit, and a General Effects roll is going to determine whether he has a few days or a few months or something between the two. I should have said, "Yes, but it will take you an incredibly long time to advance with a normal training regimen, to the point that it does not seem to you as if you are gaining any benefit from it." I'm sure that would have led to a longer discussion about how long and so on, and I already had the separate issue of whether I could let him advance for "practice" when he was focused on advancing for "new use"--problem for me, because of what I consider the ramifications for breaking the system. In short, practice requires a specific number of days to gain an intensity, and inherently assumes that in the course of that practice you will be advancing your knowledge of the skill through what are logically new uses. New use suggests that under some sort of pressure to solve a problem you apply a known skill in an unfamiliar way. The line blurs quite a bit, but the problem that arises is here: if you are using the skill on a regular basis as practice, then in the specified time you ought to get the advancement credit, a number of unstated new uses included in your learning process; but if in the midst of that you also get credit for a new use, that means that the learning process is not working as a process of learning new applications of the skill through gradual advancement over time, but that the learning of new applications has been divorced from the learning process generally. So what do I do if someone who is practicing in the midst of that gets what is clearly a new use? Well, it's an extremely complicated problem. I think that if the new use is divorced from the practice, then both should apply. Let me craft an example. Harry Renquist is a spy. As part of his training he is taught to dance, so he can mingle with the rich and famous at diplomatic functions when he crashes them, but he has never done so. He still practices regularly--and then he is on a mission, inside the home of a foreign businessman somewhere in the Alps stealing files from his computer. His entrance has been discovered, but he has not yet been located or identified. He is mingling, talking to an attractive female antiquities dealer, as the security comes in the front door and the orchestra strikes up a tango. He immediately asks the girl to dance, grabs hold of her, and sweeps her onto the floor, dancing his way through the crowd so that by the end of the song he can wish her farewell and slip out through the kitchen. For that he should have a new use, without disturbing the advancement for regular practice, because he has never used dancing with an unfamiliar partner as a means of effecting an escape across a dance floor--a creative solution that relied on a known skill.
What is happening in John's situation, though, is he is trying to divorce the specific new uses of the skill from the ongoing practice. He wants to use "practice" as the failsafe for when the skill fails. This becomes extremely problematic, though. Let's suppose he decides to knit a sweater, as a new use. Let's suppose that something as complicated as knitting a sweater takes a hundred days--the same time as it would for him to get a credit for practice. So the dice are rolled to see whether he produced the sweater, and if it succeeds he gets a new use credit but if it fails he gets a practice credit--but why doesn't he get the practice credit if the new use succeeds?
I don't object to people trying to advance a skill rapidly by dreaming up new uses that can be performed quickly. I've done that myself, particularly with psionic skills. However, at some point we have to distinguish between practice and trying something that will be a new use, and thus I think that anything that is part of the new use attempt is not practice, and anything that is part of an ongoing practice is not eligible for a new use roll.
So let me correct myself to John: Yes, you can advance your skill into the professional level by maintaining an ordinary amateur level of training. It will take you a very long time to do so, and you will be nagging me about why it's taking so long, and I don't want to hear that. The time required for such an advancement two hundred forty hours dispersed over four hundred days, such that you do sixty hours every hundred days in a reasonable format. You are are better off trying to find ways to build a double doubled program, if you want to improve your ability by practice. And as to pushing into the expert level with an ordinary training program, it will take two thousand seven hundred days in which you put in sixty hours every one hundred days, which off the top of my head is one thousand six hundred twenty hours evenly spread through those nearly eight years.
Now, if my Internet connection will remain stable enough (it keeps dropping and reconnecting) I'm going to address the gameplay for Kurt, Nikolaj, John 2, and Graeme. I'm noticing the absence of two rather regular players, but they know who they are and I'm sure they're busy with something else.
I was thinking that Kurt shouldn't have much trouble getting a good night's sleep; but then it occurred to me that Zigesfeld is pretty good at his job, and he and his boss want this spy removed from the picture, so I'd better give him a GE roll on that. 23 is bad--Nearly as Bad as Anticipated--but that's not going to disrupt his sleep. He's in a hotel, not a motel, so his pursuit would have to get his room number from the desk or else wait for him. That car of his is not going to stay off the radar very easily--how many of those can there be in Paris?
Nikolaj is still meeting people and getting something of the flavor of the present world.
John 2 finally gets the answer to his prayers. She's not what he prayed for exactly, but apparently she's the answer.
Graeme moves to the Mongol-chin prisoners.
--M. J. Young
Apologies; I probably should have known better.
Dumb question. If it took me 100 days to make a sweater, why can't you give me both a new use AND practice? Let me go up by @2? It's a new use and the required practice time, why can't I get both?
I keep meeting people, and I like flavour :P But I'm moving along a bit, as a bit in the post described. Just give the guys name and we'll finally arrive at the ranch, where I'm delighted to meet the boss :)
John - because
anything that is part of the new use attempt is not practice, and anything that is part of an ongoing practice is not eligible for a new use roll.
It's part of what makes practice what it is, and what makes new uses what they are. You can't be a cat and a dinosaur.
anything that is part of the new use attempt is not practice, and anything that is part of an ongoing practice is not eligible for a new use roll.
Yeah, I got that, but why not?
Because the reasons for getting the increase are different for each one, and they aren't compatible. Either a given thing is outside of your experience, and thus doing it successfully expands your experience (increasing your skill, a new use), or it is routine, and doing it for a long time increases your mastery of what you already know (increasing your skill, practice). The same sweater cannot be both outside your experience and routine at the same time.
The same sweater cannot be both outside your experience and routine at the same time.
Scott, you're about to really hate me, but why not? My character learned how to knit because I wanted to learn how to knit. I tried to get my mom to teach me. (I couldn't learn it) However, it is repetitive. It's making the same movements over and over and over. So, I would have 100 days of making these repetitive movements, AND the fact that I've never made a sweater before. It would be increasing my skill at making the same movements over and over, as well as the fact that I've never made a sweater.
If it's just something that's chalked up to making game mechanics easier, then that's fine. However, I'd really like to know the reason. It doesn't make sense to me. (Granted, not a lot of things about this game do.....)
Two Posts
Ya know what? Nix that last question. I'm just going to chalk it up to making the game mechanics easier and not worry about it. I started trying to learn how to cook about a year ago (got sick of TV dinners) I've had at least 10 new uses on my cooking skill in the last year, and my grandfather was a master chef in his younger days (3@10 example) but I'm nowhere near being a professional cook. I'm just going to chalk it up to making the game mechanics easier and not worry about it.
I must thank Scott for that extremely clear and concise explanation of why new use and practice are incompatible and therefore distinctly separate systems. That's exactly it. I also apologize for my extended absence, explained in the thread that asks about my absence. That settled, let's get back to Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Graeme, and hope that I can remember sufficiently where everyone was to pick up smoothly.
The thing about Kurt's situation is that I can't be completely certain how Ziggy will handle it. In the source, Ziggy's second attempt on the spy's life involved firing a rocket from a launcher through the door into a hotel room where he thought the target was in bed (with another spy trying to kill him). That, though, took place elsewhere, and it's unlikely that Ziggy has had time to get a rocket launcher. So we'll use a GE roll for what he's going to use. 13 is barely good enough, for Kurt, so I see a pistol, and a knock on the door.
I was working on Harry's curative spell, and asked him some questions. He gave me the answers, so now I have to figure out where I was in the calculation. Quoting me from above:
It is a M2@1 limited damage repair with a lethal base (-10), requires touch (+20), TF 20:00 (+43), invokes Freya for appropriate words (+5). He sacrifices a flower (+1, doubled) and keeps his left eye closed (for which +3 as a necessary extra body part, I think). Actually, kneeling is total body involvement, so that's +15, but under the circumstances I'm going to allow the eye as an extra. Sound matters for +2. However, I do need to establish what he means by a "mirror", what he means by "forcefully but not loudly", and whether the spell is exhausting or not.Looking at his answers, he gets +3 for forcefully (which is apparently not really different from loudly, like a stage actor's voice), +2 for what I take to be a manufactured portable polished reflective surface such as a mirror, and +5 for requiring rest immediately subsequent. That makes the inherent sit-mod +90, and guarantees success in most cases. The roll is 36, so he does 8 intensities of healing, a significant amount under the circumstances and restorative in that Roman will awaken (still in need of care and rest, but well on the road to recovery), and it means we add 1@1 Cure Wounds M+2@1 limited damge repair lethal base, must touch victim, TF 20:00, invokes Freya, sacrifices any flower (destroyed in the casting), keeps his left eye closed wile invoking Odin, plus Hel and Baldur, kneeling beside the victim, sound matters, must be spoken forcefully (as a stage actor) while looking into a manufactured portable polished reflective surface such as a mirror or sword blade, rest required immediately after use, +90 SM.
Of course, when Roman asks what time it is, Harry might reasonably answer, "Tuesday", or something like that; but it is the question that would come to mind, probably.
Nikolaj has run into one of my pet foibles--my disfavor for giving names away like candy, and then having to remember them all. I was going to say, "He tells you his name", and continue to use "foreman", but I suppose if (as seems likely) Nikolaj is going to stay here a while, the ranch foreman is important enough to need a name. We'll call him Zeke, because that's a good ranch foreman name, and I'm resisting the urge to break out names from the Ponderosa, which I'm not old enough to remember anyway. Nikolaj is an above average charisma, an-mag, and persuasion, and I'm thinking an-mag here, but a simple check of 25 says that his winning personality isn't winning for his peculiar story. But I'll let him hear and see a bit more of the world. The dots should begin to connect shortly.
The teacher finally arrives for John 2. I'm interested in how he's going to get along with her, because I don't know how well she would get along with him--but we'll see how it plays.
I don't remember the exact parameters of Graeme's language spell, but I do remember thinking that for a rather extended period of time he was going to be able to converse with whomever spoke to him in their own language. That will do for now.
--M. J. Young
Ok, I'm going with Scott's version of what Ric was attempting to do. That gives him his decimalized BRA (20) minus the decimalized bias of the skill (-11), and I am going to be nice to him and give him +11 for a 1@1 example from the magical effect. Why? In the same way that having a fictional example works as proof of concept, so too does this. You don't have to know how it works, per se, only that it works. This gives him a total of 20% chance to succeed, 80% chance to fail, of which the top 8% (93 or higher) is a botch. I click my way to Invisible Castle and Ric rolls... 74. A very solid failure.
Let's pick up posts from Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2.
Harry is officially "exhausted" and must rest. He heads for his bed, where he has holy ground. The question is, can he cast the remove fatigue spell in his current exhausted condition? I think the answer is that he needs to make a simple stamina check to drag himself out of medical and back to bed, and a difficult one to perform the spell. His stamina is listed as 1@8, but he crossed 500 days in this world, and very nearly 300 on this mission, so let me check his advancement. Stamina of a pilot goes up on his four hundredth day; that of a navigator does not go up at all (not as trying a job). Noting that he will not make 400 days on this journey, I'll give him a stamina increase now, to 1@9. Also increasing as part of his regular routine:
- 1@5 Make/Use Maps P0@0
- 1@5 Operate Small Boat T3@1
- 1@4 Pilot Ship T3@1
- 1@2 Operate Sails T3@1
- 1@5 Use Magnetic Compass T6@1
- 1@10 Use Telescope T6@2 +2
There's more to come before this journey ends, but we'll let him decide what he's doing next before we decide the timing of events.
Nikolaj mentions his pensive look. I'll give a random difficult intuition check for someone to notice and comment; my roll is 23, which means that someone here would need a 2@4 intuition to notice. I don't have stats on everyone at the table, but 2@4 is an extraordinary number, representing maybe one in five hundred people, and there aren't as many as a score here including the servants, so it will pass uncommented. We do need to work out whether he's staying or moving--and he does seem to have picked up something of the reality of the place.
John 2 has asked Lauren Hastings a question she can't actually answer, because she doesn't know. She knows what skills she has learned that have worked for her, but has used them mostly in high-biased worlds; she hasn't pushed using more difficult psionic skills in worlds with low bias, because she shifts to skills that do work--and of course she doesn't know the bias of the world except but how difficult it is to do things in it. So she's going to name skills she's used in multiple worlds, some of which are not @1 skills, and overlook some of her @1 skills that she hasn't had occasion to use in many worlds. Anyway, he's got his teacher, and we'll give them lunch at least before I roll the dice to see how long a time he has with her.
--M. J. Young
I did not take yesterday off in celebration of Milk Day (those who are not U.S.A. citizens/residents probably won't get that reference). I was not feeling that well when I started my day, and I had a four-hour round trip to deliver one of my sons to his college campus to begin the new term. That was delayed because of my malaise, and then we extended it by joining him for dinner (I was feeling well enough to eat, and Rutgers' Cook College Nelson Dining Hall has a wonderful buffet I hate to miss, including a waffle iron and ice cream for dessert), and then by traveling well out of the way on the return trip to pick up the youngest at his girlfriend's house. By the time I got home I had barely enough energy to make the daily Bible study post and get to bed.
I am taking some medicine today, and it seems to be keeping me together, so let's look at game posts from Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Graeme.
Zigesfeld is a professional. He's not going to be where he can be seen. It occurs to me that he might be watching the peep hole for a change in light, but since it didn't occur to me until after I hit post, I'm not going to pursue that. Kurt just doesn't see anyone.
Harry is going to attempt to sleep--something he has not done for a year, he reminds me. Also, he has just cast his spell to eliminate the need for sleep. He rolls a 26 GE roll, so this is not going to go the way he wants.
Nikolaj moves forward a bit, picking up more color as he explores this world.
John 2 is starting his lessons, and as every good teacher, Lauren starts with the basics: what are we going to learn, and why do we want to know this?
The Mongol-chin empire is very different from the other two--of course, they are all very different from each other, but in this case Graeme has stepped into a critical difference between them. They are atheists. He's also gotten a bit of a history lesson.
I'm approaching the end of the job for tonight, so Lord willing I will post again tomorrow.
--M. J. Young
You don't need to over-exert yourself for me Mark. If you don't feel well, there's no need to provide the color I want so soon. I can wait a day, a week, ... whatever is needed.
Milk-day? No I don't get it, but if I can guess, I'd guess it has something to do with Obama.
Nic, it's Martin Luther King day. MLK (his initials) He was a leader of the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s. Before he did his thing, black people often could not sit at the same lunch table as white people.
Now we get a day out of work for it.
Hah, wow, that's so cool, and such a cool thing that it is so close to (or on the same day?) as Obama's how do you call it, auguration?
That's inauguration, and yes, it was on the same day as we got out first black president. Fifty years ago, a black man couldn't sit at the same table as a white man, now we have a black man as the president.
It was the next day, but close enough for government work, as they say.
It is evident to me in all this that discrimination, as such, has not yet come to an end. Had it ended, no one would have noticed that the new President was black. The fact that this is noticed means discrimination continues. The part of this that is more peculiar is I think that blacks are more aware the fact that the President is black than whites are. Quite a few people voted for Obama because he was black, but not many voted against him for that reason. That's discrimination, recognizing skin color as a factor in identity rather than merely a description of appearance.
Let's turn our attention to game play, with Kurt, Nikolaj, and John 2 all in motion.
I'm having trouble seeing how this plays out with Zigesfeld. He's not much for talk--he does what he's assigned to do. He had undoubtedly hoped to ambush Kurt, but Kurt has avoided that. I think he'll probably look for another opportunity.
Nikolaj is going to use his cell phone to set his alarm. Cell phones are tricky--they get their time from the network, but track it independently when there is no service. They are 10@ electronic devices, too. Thus we need to know whether Nikolaj can properly set the alarm on the cell phone, and the roll is 23, so it seems to be working. Now we need to know what time the cell phone says. My d12 will give me an hour, 12, and flip a coin for AM or PM, even is PM, which means Noon, and it won't be noon exactly but I've got a d30 and can use another d2 (coin, or any die split either odd/even or high/low), 1-30, roll is 28.
John 2 makes a passing reference to an event which happened, historically, in September 2001. Unfortunately, Lauren Hastings and Derek Brown both versed out in 2000, so they don't know about it. I remember John saying that he liked Lauren. I don't think they're hitting it off, though.
--M. J. Young
The fact that this is noticed means discrimination continues. The part of this that is more peculiar is I think that blacks are more aware the fact that the President is black than whites are. Quite a few people voted for Obama because he was black, but not many voted against him for that reason.
As Chris Rock said: "Who's more racist? Black people or white people? Black people. Ya know why? Cuz we hate black people TOO!!!! Everything white people don't like about black people, black people REALLY don't like about black people."
That is a direct quote from Chris Rock, who is a black stand up comedian, and a well-known authority on racism. I have to say I agree with him.
I'm moving the racial discussion to a new thread, The Racial Discrimination Thread, not because I don't want to discuss it but because I want everyone to have more freedom to do so.
That also frees up this thread a bit for playing our game, with Kurt, Harry, and Nikolaj as our players today.
It looks like I can resolve everything Kurt has done with a single line of dialogue. We'll let him take it from there.
Harry only had to rest and stop fretting a bit to get himself to relax. The spell wasn't going to require more than that he stop physical activity for a short period--which he did not do, as he determined to leave sick bay and make the trip back to his own berth, probably not on the same level so he had to climb a ladder (either way, it's still work). Thus he tired his already tired body and had to rest a bit longer, but he's rested now so he can continue.
I don't know that most people in Nikolaj's world actually know what time it is in the sense with which we are all familiar. It's not really needed, and there aren't many clocks. But they'll give him a sense of that.
--M. J. Young
I did not expect to get so far as this tonight. I've a sick family member and thought I would be sitting by a hospital bed, but departure has been delayed (possibly indefinitely) so I am attempting to accomplish such work as I can in the time available. Let me approach the game posts from Kurt, Nikolaj, and John 2.
Kurt is very clever. He manages to determine that the man in the hall is gone without taking the risk that that man might commandeer the breakfast cart and use delivery as a way of gaining access to the room. Since I've determined already that the man in the hall has left, that's an easy scenario to resolve.
I will have to roll for whether Nikolaj's alarm clock works, because the bias here is low and while he can use the thing and it can work, it's not going to be so easy as it would be elsewhere. Making mistakes on setting electronic alarm clocks isn't that odd--I do it myself at least once a month, I'm sure.
Lauren rolls 92 in an attempt to contact John 2 telepathically. That's probably a failure, but let me check her numbers. I've got a 2@8 will power for her not long after this encounter (Lauren's stat sheet includes points of reference to the novels), which is probably her BRA. She's got a 14@5 bias by this point, but the world area bias is only 10@, so that's +20 for that. She practiced this extensively with Merlin, giving her a 2@10 SAL. She's never contacted John before, so there is no familiarity there; but I see a 78% chance of success. There's no reason for John to know that she's made this attempt.
I appear to have finished today's game without interruption. I'd better check on my patient.
--M. J. Young
I have two people in hospitals today--one an unanticipated emergency that arose over the weekend, the other the planned and anticipated delivery of my first grandchild (girl). I guess that means I have three (four, if you include the anxious father of the girl, but he's not formally a patient). I absolutely must visit the first, since it's my wife; I sincerely hope to visit the other two, for reasons I hope are self-evident.
I do not guarantee returning to this board today, but we'll see how everything flows.
--M. J. Young
Wow, congrats grandpa! And lots of strength for you and your wife. I hope it's not really really serious and that she will soon be out of the hospital and back at home.
Wow, congratulations MJ!!! My sister is pregnant, she's due in May, so I'm going to be an uncle.
I'll pray for you and for your wife.
Thanks to those who sent congratulations and wishes, here and by e-mail. Yes, I told my sons they were now aunts....I know I got that joke from somewhere, but I really can't remember where. The wife will be hospitalized and NPO for the rest of the week, at which time an assessment will be made as to whether major surgery will be required or whether the combined aggressive antibiotic treatments have reduced the problem to something that can be managed laproscopically. Here's hoping for the best.
I, meanwhile, am frantically running in all directions at once; but that has me here for the moment, so let's look at what Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2 are doing.
Kurt is making a strong exit. He told me where he was leaving but not where he was heading, but that's O.K.--we'll get there.
Harry has another event on his roster, coming up before the next port. An 11 GE means the conditions will be favorable for him when it comes, and we'll also include that it happens sooner. This might require skill checks from him, but first we'll give him the opportunity to be creative.
Nikolaj rolls 58 on using his cell phone (as an alarm clock). Orc Rising has a 5@ tech bias, so that's +10; his BRA is 2@1 for 31. If I give him a 1@8 above average amateur operation skill and +5 for user-friendly technology, I'm at 54%. The alarm clock is not going to work.
John 2 is continuing to talk with Lauren Hastings. I did smile at the inside joke. He gets a piece of the book not yet published, rewritten for his enjoyment. I hope he likes it.
I've only a bit more to do tonight, and that means I might be getting a decent night's sleep for a change.
I will see you all tomorrow, Lord willing.
--M. J. Young
What's NPO stand for?
I believe NPO stands for non per ora, but my Latin is not terribly good and I might have the wrong form for the noun. It means "nothing by mouth", that you are not permitted to eat or drink anything, not even medicine. Usually patients who are NPO are permitted to suck on ice chips or swab their mouths with damp sponges, but the critical point is that their digestive tract is being emptied.
Not fun, I'm sure.
Kurt, Nikolaj, and John 2 are playing today.
I've determined that Zig has left Kurt's room in the hope of finding another spot to ambush him. 15 on a GE roll is a "not unfavorable result", so we'll turn this to a tracking game.
Nikolaj rolls 17 on his GE roll, neutral result or no effect. He'll get what I think is the ordinary treatment for a traveler just having arrived.
John 2 is about to begin his psionic training, along with his martial arts which are improving at a comfortable rate.
--M. J. Young
We've got a large group tonight, with Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Graeme.
Kurt is going to attempt--I'm not sure what. Well, he should be able to get out of Paris easily enough. He pulls over and hopes that Ziggy will catch up. The GE roll is 20; Ziggy, who is not entirely reckless, will avoid the confrontation at present. He wants to control the situation.
The first thing I need to do for Harry is make an intellect check. If he fails it, then he doesn't know whether he can do it or not; if he fails it really badly, he's going to be confident of the wrong answer. It's a simple check, despite the fact that his skill is high amateur, and he rolls 2d20, 19+4=23, against a 2@3 intellect, which means as near a failure as possible. He does not know. I know that his numbers are 2@3 BRA+2x7@ bias+1@4 SAL=51%--which is funny because I just typed that he's got about even odds, and that's what he's got. On the other hand, if he taps the iceberg out of the way, that might improve his chances--I'll give him an exrra 2% chance of success on sailing past it for every successful tap he makes. 73 on the first roll is not a successful tap, but he's got time. I will let him tell me whether he's going to keep the wheel and whether he's going to keep attempting to tap the iceberg.
Nikolaj is going to meet the leatherworker, and we'll go from there.
John 2 is again attempting to get Lauren to tell him something she doesn't know--she's a great teacher, and a powerful psionicist, but her experience in number of universes is such that she wouldn't be certain what works easily.
Graeme is planning a trip to Mongol-chin still, and gathering what he needs to do this. He is hampered somewhat by the fact that the three empires do not understand what is happening or why things are as they are, but he will make some progress.
--M. J. Young
It's not as late as I anticipated, and I'm not as beat as I expected, but it is getting late and I am getting tired (I got an early start today, and things did not go as expected), so forgive any oversights on my part. I believe my players are Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Graeme.
Kurt is looking for a way to talk to Ziggy, but I'm not understanding his question quite.
I figure when Harry sends for another pilot to take the wheel, there are three possibilities, that they would find Pilot Commander Stanis, that they would find Pilot Rob, or that they wouldn't find a pilot. Actually, I suppose they might find the Captain or the First Officer, although whether either of them was ever a pilot has not been determined (might have been navigators or even engineers easily enough). There's also a question of how long it takes. He rolls 18; that's going to mean that Rob arrives, not terribly quickly.
Nikolaj asked the young orc about one of the humans; he'll get an answer.
John 2 rolls 07 on his first attempt to go noncorporeal; I don't have to check his outcome on that. Lauren, though, rolls 89 on her attempt to observe this. The world has a 10@ psi bias; she has a 2@8 will power, and 2@10 SAL on the mind reading skill she uses for this. That makes 78%, and she has no familiarity bonus, so she does not observe the process. Since this is the second time he's used it, and the circumstances are reasonably different, I'm going to increase him from 1@1 to 1@2.
Graeme is still conversing with a Mongol-chin captive, and getting a bit more of a picture of the Mongol-chin culture.
--M. J. Young