What are the relevant attributes for psionics and magic? I seem to recall there being an average from three attributes for the BRA, but too many attributes seem to apply.
Psion:I've got persuasion, an-mag, intuition, willpower, intellect.
magic:I've got the same as above minus persuasion.
The lists were longer, but I read a thread called Beast-mag which cleared up the social attributes better.
An-mag and intellect are not relevant for psionics; persuasion and willpower are not relevant for magic. I'll hit the attributes one by one.
While willpower is sometimes used in opposed attribute checks during the course of magic skill use, it is not a relevant attribute for the performance of magic. I would suggest this is primarily because the caster is working with forces beyond himself, so the strength of his will is less relevant than how he imposes his will upon those powers. Contrast this with psionics (and body), where the skilled user is the only actor involved; raw will in these cases is quite relevant.
Although intellect is relevant to magic but not psionics, note that intuition is relevant to both. From this, I take psionics to be a far less cerebral pursuit than magic. There are external rules governing the workings of the arcane and the divine, however secret or mysterious they might be, and the ability to wrap one's mind around them can only be beneficial to working magic. By contrast, psioncs come entirely from within and are governed by the self, and as such they are only, at best, intuitively understood.
As with willpower, the distinction between internal and external sources of power can be brought to bear to explain an-mag's relevance to magic and irrelevance to psionics. The magician interacts with the spirit world to achieve his ends, and the nebulous influence that an-mag represents can be exerted as easily over the supernatural as over fellow men. For the psionicist, this is useless. The spoon will not bend to the princess's coy smile or the barbarian's fun-loving and boisterous demeanor; it will bend to the psion's determined coaxing (persuasion) or not at all.*
Is that clear and/or helpful?
__
*Innate understanding of the universe (intuition) and/or raw willpower also work.
How that works Brock, is the relevant attributes for body skills are willpower, agility, and strength. One guy might climb the mountain through brute force, another guy through nimbleness and dexterity, and another guy because he would never forgive himself if he didn't make it. Make sense?
(Doing Therapy)
Yes, thanks.
Also note that the BRA is not an averaged score but the best of a selection of three.
It was agreed during game design that even though there would be many attributes which arguably could be used for each area, it was best to keep them on equal footing. I think it was because the tech skills could be supported by intellect, intuition, and education level, we agreed that three was the best number, and then spent time deciding which three. Persuasion and Will Power were obvious choices for psionics (both involving force of personality) and in choosing one more we agreed that intuition made more sense than intellect, the latter about rationally understanding reality and the former about having a sense for how to make things work. I insisted on Intellect for Mag, and Ed insisted on Animal Magnetism; Intuition again came third, and again because this was about an nebulous understanding of how things worked that were not always rational. The argument for intellect was that indeed sometimes such things are rational, once one grasps the rules that apply to them. The argument for an-mag focused on the sense of self-confidence that is inherent in the person who knows he is the center of attention. We debated quite a bit concerning whether Agility or Hand/Eye was better for bod skills, but for most of them Agility seemed better, Hand/Eye being relevant to targeting and already included in the two strike value scores. Strength was also obvious for that, and we wanted to include Will Power, partly because of stories of people capable of remarkable feats who lacked physical prowess otherwise.
I apologize for missing Friday; I wound up with too many things on my plate. I might have too much on my plate again today, but let me post this and then turn my attention to game threads.
--M. J. Young
Those game threads again include Brock Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam.
Brock gets his medical exam.
Maxx has a new application for his skill, and with an 04 that will work, and I'll give him new use, so it's now
1@2 Perceive Purpose P1@0 enables user to recognize in detail what a target is doing, e.g., identifying that the target is "looking for something" including what it is he seeks, baseline assumes familiarity with target and one minute of direct observation. Each doubling of observation time grants +10, provided the target is still doing the same thing. Also used to predict response to possible suggestions.The GE roll, though, is 20, just bad enough.
GE rolls seem to be going hard at the moment, as Harry rolls a 21, bad enough, on his hope that there might be any of the organizations he mentions. That's not as bad as it might be, but it is going to cut into his ability to spread the word. Of course, part of the problem is that we have not defined anything about Durnmist's government, because it's never mattered. But there would be some means of spreading information, even if it does not fit his wishes.
I've opened a new thread to discuss Nikolaj's comment about the difficulty of emulating the work of the Spirit in a game system, but I still have to work through his prayer. I think it combines a M7@6 Present Information (the guidance portion) with a M10@4 Sympathies; that makes it a 10@4 skill with -10 for incorporating the second skill within it. We've got a target problem, as Nikolaj expects this to affect an unspecified number in a crowd and the baseline is for an individual; but I think at -70 we have enough doublings for over a hundred people, and I think we've got enough bonuses that that's not a serious penalty. If we're assuming a 30:00 duration (the sermon time) we can assume a 3:00 baseline for TF, and he's doing ten times that, so that's +33. He's got +5 for appropriateness, kneeling is +15 for total body involvement, and so I'm looking at +53 against -70 is -17SM on the skill; he's got +10 for alliance, +10 for half his religion skill, +79 for his bias, +7 for the world bias, against the -104 for the bias of the target skill. Thinking that this is too heavy a penalty, I will reduce the target audience to around 30, which cuts back the penalty for the number from 70 to 40. Let's see what that gives for probability of success: +13 SM, +79 bias, +10 religion, +10 Alliance, +18 BRA=130, -104=26% chance of success, let's go with that and roll, 85 rolled means he does not get this miracle this time.
That does not mean the meeting does not go well; it only means that he doesn't have the miracle for which he hoped. He still has his persuasion against the average will power, and he rolls 6+10=16 against a 1@7 persuasion, as successful as he can be, against 12+10=22, which will beat all but one percent of the will powers out there, and he doesn't have a hundred men (although the men he has are perhaps a bit more stubborn than the norm). It appears that his natural gifts will be sufficient here--and I'm kicking up his persuasion a notch to 1@8 because he's going to gain some confidence from this. I don't need to roll for his teaching skill, because he's pulled off quite a feat here.
I remember what I was going to do in answer to John 2's prayer. Now I have to figure when and where the new character arrives. I've got a GE of 26, which means it's not going to go well with John at all.
Adam is going to work on a spell to open any kind of locked door or portal, and I'm going to toss an idea his direction to get the ball rolling. Or maybe he'll bat it back to me and Geneice will write this one.
--M. J. Young
I should have posted yesterday, but I ran out of time. Let's try today. Brock, Maxx, Harry, John 2, Adam, and Graeme are all waiting.
I'm still running the initial introductory stuff for Brock, but things should settle into place soon.
Maxx rolls 88 on trying to use the perceive purpose skill to understand the interests and mental conditions of a target from their visual information, but 10 on doing so as a separate skill, so we'll add to his sheet 1@1 Understand Interests P1@0 interprets data from tapping visual sensory data to determine the interests and mental conditions of a target creature.
He wants to push us into month 12, which is March, so we'll go there. I don't have attribute charts for every month nor every milestone; the next one hits at month twenty-four. So I can't give him too much information on that at present.
Harry gets a moderately favorable 14 GE roll, so he's going to move through the next couple of weeks uneventfully and get to the start of his fire house.
John 2 wants a fuller explanation of the new skill, so I'll give it to him.
My initial reaction was that there probably was no reason to object to Adam going back alone to the coffin, but then I thought that there were probably good reasons to object. A 19 GE roll means there's going to be some disagreement on that.
I've had another errand tossed into my lap, and I'm running short on time, but I have to tackle Graeme's spell. I covered a good part of it already. In addition, we have six halvings of the time for -60 to get it to 0:06 TF We also have necessary and forceful sound for an addition +3+2=+5. We're incorporating cooling and heating together, but I'm sticking with the 9@6 skill, combining the two, and ignoring the penalty for combining skills because there would not be one if we did this with the 4@6 manipulate temperature (which I'm not using because it suggests moving heat around, and getting that much heat from the environment is asking a bit much). I'm thinking that since he intends to repeat the word each time he wants to change the temperature in either direction, it is simpler just to make it chained castings (it's the same time either way). So let's roll for this: 65 is his roll, and my spreadsheet makes his chance of success 77%, thus:
- Chance of success 77
Bias 129
World bias 15
BRA 22
Target bias -96
SM 7
stone 2
appropriate 5
magic language 5
increased power -23
volume 132
duration -59
TF -60
necessary sound 2
forceful 3
Please do not let me forget to copy that into his sheet. Additional rolls are 1@2 SAL+7SM+2@2 BRA+2x12@ bias=65% chance of success.
I hope to return to get more done, but I've got to run now.
--M. J. Young
MJ, is it just me, or does it seem to you like my game has gone wildly off-course from how this scenario is normally run? I mean, didn't you say once you've never actually had someone retire from the sea during a Mary Piper Verse, let alone settle down in Durnmist and invent the fire department?
Then again, three years in the same Verse would probably do weird things to anybody...
Well, it was my impression that everyone does something that was never intended for a world at some point in their verser career. But how many do it as quickly as you, eh?
What Brock said.
Harry, you don't hold a record. I've had a lot of players stay in worlds for longer than you've been in this one, whether counted by real years or game years or play sessions. I've had players get advanced degrees, establish kingdoms, rewrite history, become famous celebrities--there are a lot of things people do. I've not had people leave the Mary Piper and settle down, but I have had people stay on the Mary Piper for four or five runs, which can be five to eight years easily.
Besides, I have no expectations. I'm watching what you do and providing the support for it.
And incidentally, have you been keeping track of your wedding date? I don't recall you checking in with the matchmaker to let her know you were back. I wasn't going to say anything about it, but it strikes me as something you should have addressed by now.
And on that note, let me turn my attention to turns in turn from Brock, Maxx, Harry, John 2, and Graeme.
Brock should be headed for the galley, which is where the captain will meet him, I expect.
We'll cover Maxx' questions and hesitate before moving to April.
Harry has, as I suspected, miscounted hours in a week, but we'll address that. Meanwhile, he gets a 16 GE roll for other skills among his men. The rest falls into place, I think.
John 2 meets CW and is offered the chance to learn how psionically to create a force field.
Graeme is going to be more frustrated with the failure of his science and technology--he can't cook using heat transfer, because heat transfer does not work right as a technological issue. He could cook by using heat magic directly on the bird, or he could magically transform the bird into a cooked bird, but he can't use a stove or fire to cook food here.
Thus I don't have to roll for it, because it won't work at all.
--M. J. Young
MJ, if I remember correctly I still have a couple of months before my wedding day. I'm not addressing that on purpose - I'm not supposed to be back in town until about a month before the wedding, which is, by my estimate, two or three months from now. I'm aware of it, I just want to spend a little more time establishing myself, becoming all respectable in the community, before I go back to her. I think I'm doing alright so far, provided this doesn't fall down around me like a house of cards.
If my estimate of timing is way off - if that's a lot closer than I thought - then by all means, I will address it at once, or have already since that was my plan.
Well, I would bet my bride-to-be would appreciate hearing I'm in town personally, and not through the news-seeing as inventing the fire department and stuff may make news of you get around.
Don't know about you, though.
two posts
Oh, and bear in mind your character is aware that his complete lack of sleep appears odd. I'm thinking-you marry your bride, and she happens to notice that you don't sleep. At all. Might be a little creepy. Unless your character happens to make himself start sleeping again so as to appear normal. Or have an extended chat.
I am probably running out of here so abruptly that not even Brock's post will be posted, but I will be back, and whenever I finish his I will continue with Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2.
Brock will get his answers, but not immediately; and by probing his knowledge of ships and space stations George will get a better basis for establishing what Brock actually does know.
Maxx is working on a new skill, or maybe it's two new skills, but we'll have to let him work out the details to figure out what we've got.
Harry wants ladders--oh, bad roll, 23 on the GE roll. Of course, there must be ladders, because they're used in the ships; but there must be a problem with getting them for the fire company. He's going to have to develop his own collapsible, extendable, or folding ladders if he's going to use them here.
Bad GE rolls tonight, as Nikolaj pulls a 26 on scheduling the next meeting.
25 is Lauren's roll; 43 is John 2's, so he's got a 1@1 Create Force Shield P10@1. I suspect he's going to jump on the casual mention of...well, he'll know.
--M. J. Young
I suspect he's going to jump on the casual mention of...well, he'll know.
Why do you think I asked that question? I was trying to initiate that "casual mention."
Drat it all, A1Nut, that's the Psi power I want! Too bad my measly 4@1 (I am at 4@1 aren't I?) Psi bias means my head would explode trying that.
Harry, your bias is 5@1; you've got those enhanced sensory abilities. You're right, though, that you could not without much help jump to a 10@1 force shield--5@1+1@9 BRA, no bonus for the flatlined world area bias, no instructor, no example, that's a base chance of seventy minus one hundred one, negative thirty-one percent chance of success, 13% chance to botch.
On the other hand, your development of such psionic powers in so difficult a universe has been most impressive. I'm tempted to let you know what the P6@1 skills are so you can find a way to work toward them.
I apologize for missing last night. Tonight I'm manning the Halloween door, but things are starting to quiet down. We give soda, and it is frequently met with much excitement, not only by the kids since the parents are usually parched by the time they reach us.
I am having a bit of trouble opening threads, but I'm going to start with Brock and Maxx and hope that by then I'll have Harry's thread responding, after which I still have John 2 and Graeme.
Brock is in conversation and also seeing new sights.
Maxx has pushed me into month 13, which is April. He rolls 88 on trying to develop a P3@9 Remote Mind Reading skill, which with his 7@6 bias, 1@10 BRA, and +15 for the world bias is close, but 111-39=72%.
Harry gets a 20 GE roll on finding someone working in aluminum, which is just bad enough.
It wouldn't make sense to jump a week to Nikolaj's next meeting, particularly since he has Robert and Bredd with whom he is working in the interim, each of whom will have his own thoughts and questions about everything.
John 2 has given me an opening for a joke, so I think I'll take it.
I trust Graeme is feeling better, and even though he wants to say more I'll post a bit of a response anyway.
--M. J. Young
I apologize about last night. I had opened this thread and started on it, and then was interrupted by several unexpected changes in the plans, and while they included a welcome visit they prevented me from addressing the posts which were waiting. Those posts are still here, joined by Brock, who manages to sneak in front of Maxx, Nikolaj, and John 2.
Brock gets his interview with the Captain; we'll see what he does with it.
Maxx is going to repeat efforts to telepathically tag someone whose position is occluded, but he's also going to attempt to telepathically tag someone whose position is known to him only via the visual center of someone else's brain. That means I need to roll for the contact with the visual center and then for the new skill, which is a P3@9 remote mind reading variant also. 39 on the visual center tap is probably good if we assume he uses the four minute prep variant with the +30 sit-mod, because that will overcome the -20 penalty for reading an animal mind (most of his familiar targets are animals), and with his 1@1 SAL and 1@10 BRA and 2x7@ bias his chance of making contact with this skill is 55%. That means he's got his contact and can attempt the tag, for which he rolls 65. I calculated the chance of success for the other P3@9 remote mind reading skill at 72%, but that does not include the -20 for tagging an animal mind.
He'll try both the next day, but again that's three rolls. 48 is successful on the first skill, 1@1 Tag mind of located hidden subject P3@9 enables the telepathic tagging of the mind of an unfamiliar creature whose position is known but who cannot be viewed because of intervening obstacles.
38 again gives him the visual connection, and 24 gives him 1@1 Remote tag mind based on sensory information from third-party mind P3@9.
He also wants work on a psionic hasting ability, but I'm going to question him about it before I start trying to place it.
Nikolaj is relying on his 1@7 teaching skill, so we're going to roll that: 13 is a good if a bit weak success.
John 2 rolls a 17 GE on finding the collapsible vehicle. We'll move toward the boxing match.
--M. J. Young
Nothing like missing the cutoff for a night's update by like 20 minutes...
And worse indeed when it happens the day before I miss a day. I apologize for that. I got blindsided yesterday, including spending most of two hours trying to resolve a matter with a utility company, half of that on hold, only to be told that I could not make the payment because it was my wife's name, not mine, on the account. Got it resolved today, though, so we're good.
I should state right now that anyone who hopes to play this game at Ubercon should not reply to today's game posts.
That is not a promise that I will be at Ubercon. At this moment it is probably about 80% likely that I will, but it could still be derailed. Nor is it a promise that there will be opportunity to play--I am scheduled for only two slots, Friday night and Saturday morning, and the rule is always that new players have priority over existing ones.
I do not bring character sheets or thread information on players who do not notify me in advance that they will be there, so if you're hoping to play, please post to that effect before I am back here tomorrow, so I have time to organize such things, and please plan to bring your own character paper, preferably printed.
Let's look at what Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam are all doing.
Maxx has a 23 GE roll on whether he recognizes the creature he tagged, which plays rather strongly against.
I list Haste as a P4@0 Mind over Matter variant; Maxx rolls 88 on his effort to learn this, which is probably just as well given his physical limitations. A P7@6 bias plus 1@10 BRA plus 15@ world bias is 111, minus the 4@0 target skill is 71, not this time.
Based on that math, though, a roll of 70 is good for a 1@2 Clairvoyance P3@6. I'll need some details, though, before I can determine the way it will be listed on the sheet.
There will of course be carpenters in Durnmist, so Harry's search will be treated as a 2d10+1 GE roll, which is modified as favorably as possible. The dice are 10+3, add 1 for 14, and we're barely favorable.
Nikolaj is including prayer tongues in his latest prayer, which on some level makes it easier for me, because I can roll for the "success" of that skill. 45 rolled with a 1@10 SAL and his other numbers is an easy success. The next question is whether he gets some sort of dream/vision, but the die roll 66 is going to require some number crunching on my part: 1@2 SAL+2x7@ bias=26+1/2 1@10 religion SAL=36+1@8 BRA=54+10 for alliance=64, close but not there. I'm not entirely certain what to do with the rest of the prayer, but I'm going to roll the dice first, and the roll is 59, so I'm going to have to put more thought into what he is doing.
It is clear that he is praying for revelation, and that this is a M7@7 communicate off-world--but not that he would receive that revelation, but that Bredd would. I'm not inclined to treat walking as total body involvement, and particularly since my own experience with "walking prayer" is that you tend to stop and to interact with the environment to some degree (e.g., traffic lights and oncoming vehicles), but I'll give him +15 for time (15 minutes is suggested baseline), +5 appropriateness, +5 for foreign language, +10 because the tongues skill must be successful, +3 for an extra leg, all of which is +38 on a 7@7 skill against a 7@9 bias +1@8 BRA+10+10 for alliance and religion+7@ world bias and I can stop there because he has been successful.
I don't know how to list that on his sheet at the moment, but the only thing it impacts is whether he attempts the same prayer again. Nikolaj, do you want to give this prayer a name?
John 2 is going to box against Bevridge, whose boxing was last listed as "upper amateur" but that was a few worlds back, so we'll give him a 2@2 SAL in boxing (he's going to need it, perhaps) and roll for stance, 14 saves me some number crunching. It is not clear what John is going to do when he discovers that Bevridge is as much a stranger to the others as to him, so we'll not start the fight yet.
Adam is returning to investigate the coffin and leaving Geneice to devise the unlocking skill. I'm not worried about it; she can devise such a thing, and I'll work out the details later. Right now, the question is what happens to Adam, and the answer is dictated by a 17 GE roll--pretty much nothing.
I should post some character papers; I'll do that in another thread.
--M. J. Young
It is not clear what John is going to do when he discovers that Bevridge is as much a stranger to the others as to him, so we'll not start the fight yet.
A stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet.
(Doing Therapy)
I don't know how to list that on his sheet at the moment, but the only thing it impacts is whether he attempts the same prayer again. Nikolaj, do you want to give this prayer a name?
Maybe "Pray for Revelation"?
O.K., then, Nikolaj gets to add 1@2 Pray for Third Party Revelation M7@7 while walking, requires successful use of Prayer Tongues M7@1 40:00 TF asks God to reveal Himself to a specified other individual +38SM to his sheet. I'm surprised at the number of players I have today who will not be at Ubercon, but I suppose I ought not be. Brock, Maxx, Nikolaj, and John 2 are in motion. I must also remember to print a few things for Harry and Adam.
Brock gets to make a job application to be included in the crew of a ship about which he doesn't know very much yet.
Maxx already rolled successfully on a 1@2 Clairvoyance P3@6 4:00 prep concentration on target image +20SM skill; the details will be pretty much by the book, and I'm going to make the hand-waving unnecessary since by the book the image can be moved at walking speeds and through obstacles at no additional roll or penalty. He can use this skill for remote tagging.
Nikolaj rolls a 16 on a simple intuition check to pick up Bredd's feelings on this. That is within his intuition, so he's good to go.
John 2 rolls 87 on falling into stance, which fails. Since he said go before he was ready, we're going to have to roll initiative for both sides. Bevridge rolls 59, John 42, and we need to crunch numbers as a lot depends on whether Bevridge can hit with a 59.
2@2 SAL+1@7 MSV+2@1 BRA+2x7@ bod bias=74, -John's 1@6 TV=58, a near miss. Now the question is whether John got the initiative instead, which is unlikely given that there's a defensive -15SM in Bevridge' style in addition to his TV, but that's only 1@3, so the subtraction is -28. John adds 1@9 BRA+2x7@ bias+1@10 RSV+1@10 SAL=73, which comes to 45% chance to hit, and that means he successfully grabs the initiative to swing first, but he has to roll to swing. 96 is not a successful hit, and in fact is a botch, so he's down.
There will be no posts until Sunday at the soonest, probably Monday.
--M. J. Young
I couldn't help noticing you posted a sheet brief for Arabella. Does that mean I actually get to find/meet/re-meet her during the Ubercon sessions?
Apparently not, but that's not entirely my fault. In theory you could contact her family at any time to let them know you have made it in ample time for the wedding and are working and getting everything settled in advance of the big day. (I probably should not be giving you advice, but if you're decorating the house you might want your bride's opinion on things.)
I am very short on time, but I am going to begin with Brock and continue as far as I can get through Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, John 2, and Graeme, before and possibly after my necessary departure.
Brock gets a position in engineering, which is a reasonably good place to be.
Maxx has thrown several things at me, but I'm good, I think. I do need to make some rolls--which means I've got to go find the dice that are still in the box from Ubercon--but he wants to learn that P4@0 Haste skill. I calculated a 40% chance of success the other day (and wrote it down) so I can roll against that fairly quickly: he rolls 20 on the first run, so he's got a 1@1 Haste P4@0 increases speed by RS%.
I've had a lot of trouble with computer crashes and freezes of late, so I'm going to post this and return to finish the game--I hope.
--M. J. Young
I have returned to finish the batch. I see new threads, but I will get to those tomorrow.
Harry is training his fire team and going to his first fire. Once I see the skills he is teaching them, I'll figure out how good they are at everything, being mindful that most of them have fought fires before so they probably have some of these skills already, to some level.
It strikes me that Nikolaj has been working on his Leathercraft for a while; I'm going to kick his SAL from 1@2 to 1@4. I'm also going to give him the Leatherworker package, which adds additional skills to his list: Tanning skins and furs, creating suede, repairing leather, and restoring leather.
I'm also raising his intuition to 1@9 better to reflect what seems to be his natural awareness.
I feel sorry for John 2, because he rolled a 99 on getting into stance, and he's not in combat. He's not going to hurt himself--but he's going to think he's ready when he's not. Bevridge rolls 30, and since John is actually not ready Bevridge will hit first--28, 48. These will be dangerous hits for Bevridge, with a penalty for the gloves (that seems to be why they're there) which makes them damaging, 2 and 3 intensities.
The use of a flashlight is a T9@0 skill with a +20 sit-mod for the ease of use; that means Graeme just might be surprised, given that he's got a 2@3 BRA and a default 1990's Basic Technology Package skill TX@X which includes operating electrical switches, probably at a 2@5 since he's an engineer. So I see a 68% chance that the flashlight will work. He rolls 58, a solid success--just to confuse him.
I've finished the game posts for today; I'll pick up the others tomorrow.
--M. J. Young
It looks like it might be a fairly light day, but that I have a new player who started at Ubercon and has given me his character sheet and summary, so I've got some work to do there. He is the the second Michael we have had on the boards, but since the first played so briefly and has been absent so long that I don't even have a world list for him, we'll forego the number and make him "Michael". I also have a post from Ahmetia (which is pronounced ah-MEE-shuh) which will not require too much effort on my part, and then Maxx and John 2.
I am inclined to put Michael somewhere nice, reasonably safe; but not too safe, I think. So let's go with a world I run always at home and almost never anywhere else. Oh, but I've got to do a stage two entrance.
Ahmetia needs to post a summary; she should get that from at least one of the posts I've left for her.
I will move Maxx to 14 months old in the month of May, and answer his other questions accordingly.
I hardly need to roll for John 2's punch on Bevridge. Without the style, his attack is annoying; and Bevridge is in style, so he has substantial defensive modifiers. But John wants to attack, so we'll roll it: 62.
--M. J. Young
I've got a big group tonight, with Mike, Ahmetia, Brock, Maxx, Harry, John 2, and Graeme all awaiting my attention.
It occurs to me that Mike's gear might wind up giant clam food. We'll make him vaguely cognizant of the danger.
I had been wondering how I was going to maneuver Ahmetia to the key moment in the story, but I found a way to maneuver that moment to her, so let's introduce her to the people who might become her best friends in this world, if they don't kill her first.
I mentioned on another thread that I'm feeling a bit rammy tonight, so please forgive my feeble efforts at humor.
We'll get Brock involved with a few preparatory tasks.
Maxx raises a good point about his skills improving with practice, and he's now 14 months old. I'm going to increase things a bit by the seat of the pants here, but in general he should be able to advance one intensity every hundred days, which we'll simplify to three months, and his attribute practice should increase him one intensity every 200 days, which is closer to seven months. I also need to pull up the schedule for two year olds (the next milestone recorded in the book) against his own attributes, and see what I've got.
Attribute::last recorded value::standard 2yo::current adjustment
Strength::0@8+2::0@9::0@9+3
Stamina::1@3+2::1@2 to 1@4::1@3+3
Resistance::1@4+1::1@5 and holding, thanks to immunizations::1@4+1
Density::1@1::1@1::1@1
Flexibility::1@10+2::1@5::1@10+2
Agility::0@10+2::1@1::0@10+3
Hand/Eye::0@10+2::1@1::0@10+3
The current values of the psionic skills are:
1@3 Meditation P1@0
1@3 Self-Hypnosis P1@0
1@2 Perceive Purpose P1@0
1@1 Understand Interests P1@0
1@6 Read Minds P1@1
1@4 Enhanced Recollection P1@1
1@1 Read Sensory Information Center P1@1 (Visual)
1@1 Read Mind/Body Interface (mental control of actions) P1@1
1@1 Read Sensory Information (Visual) P1@1
1@3 Read Sensory Information (Visual) P1@1
1@1 Read Sensory Information (Visual) P1@1
1@5 Telepathy to Humans P1@3
1@2 Telepathy to Animals (and plants) P1@6
1@10 Focus Senses P3@0
1@1 Locate Telepathically Known Person P3@1
1@1 Heightened Awareness P3@1
1@2 Detect Materials P3@4
1@2 Clairvoyance P3@6
1@1 Read Neural Motor Pattern P3@9
1@1 Tag mind of located hidden subject P3@9
1@1 Remote tag mind based on sensory information from third-party mind P3@9
1@1 Haste P4@0
1@2 Enhance Tactile Sense with Auditory P5@1
1@1 Reduce Pain P6@1
1@1 Redirect Light P7@6
Taking into account how long he has been practicing, I'm going to increase these to these values:
1@6 Meditation P1@0
1@4 Perceive Purpose P1@0
1@3 Understand Interests P1@0
1@9 Read Minds P1@1
1@7 Enhanced Recollection P1@1
1@3 Read Sensory Information Center P1@1
1@3 Read Mind/Body Interface (mental control of actions) P1@1
1@2 Read Sensory Information (Visual) P1@1 with one minute of preparatory concentration +10SM
1@4 Read Sensory Information (Visual) P1@1 with two minutes of preparatory concentration +20SM
1@2 Read Sensory Information (Visual) P1@1 with four minutes of preparatory concentration +30SM
1@8 Telepathy to Humans P1@3
1@5 Telepathy to Animals (and plants) P1@6
1@10 Focus Senses P3@0 +3 marks
1@2 Locate Telepathically Known Person P3@1
1@4 Heightened Awareness P3@1
1@4 Detect Materials P3@4
1@3 Clairvoyance P3@6
1@3 Read Neural Motor Pattern P3@9
1@1 Tag mind of located hidden subject P3@9
1@1 Remote tag mind based on sensory information from third-party mind P3@9
1@1 Haste P4@0
1@3 Enhance Tactile Sense with Auditory P5@1
1@3 Reduce Pain P6@1
1@2 Redirect Light P7@6
There are a few other points there, but we'll move forward.
I'm still organizing Harry's firefighters, and I think the skill packages are coming together.
John 2 asks a sociable question which he does not want to answer, and that's not going to cut it. I know I was there for all of it, but it's still interesting to me to hear the first things that come to his mind: what was interesting, and what does he remember best about them? Can he express his character's feelings about those worlds? I'm interested.
Graeme has a couple of things for which I have to roll, beginning with whether he finds more gems. The back of my mind says that there were quite a few in this stream, so I'm going with a 2d10+1 and I get 9 which is a good roll. He is also going to play with the flashlight, turning it on and off several times. I'm inclined to think that if you turn it on and off and on again in rapid succession that would be counted one use, and one skill check would suffice; but if you set it aside and come back to it, that's two. Thus he has a 68% chance of the light working, and 16 means it works the next time.
As usual I have questions about his new spell, but I'm sure I'll get good answers.
--M. J. Young
I am looking at another long list tonight, with Mike, Ahmetia, Brock, Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2 all in motion and my mouse giving me a hard time about everything I want it to do--but I've got 2@1 Use Keyboarding Shortcuts on my skill list, so I'll manage. (Insert appropriate emoticon here.)
Mike gets a view of his immediate surroundings.
We also manage to get Ahmetia introduced to the people who matter most in her scenario.
Brock gets a tour of engineering.
Maxx is developing a microscopic vision skill. He is including a few requirements: making a ring with his fingers for focus, having a light source shine on the target, and concentrating for four minutes. It seems appropriate to give him +30 for the concentration, +3 for using a hand, and +2 for requiring a light (particularly since at present the light comes innately from his hand, and he does not have a requirement on how the light is generated). This is another P5@1 skill, and his bias is 7@6 and BRA is 1@10, but a 99 rolled is going to require me to check numbers very carefully. 7@6 bias+1@10 BRA+35SM+15 world bias=146-51=95% chance of success, it was a very slim chance of failure and no chance to botch, so he's all right.
That did not really take me as long as it seems; I was interrupted. Still, one new skill attempt a day seems appropriate most of the time, so we'll put the prayer off for another day.
I believe we now have complete firefighting packages for Harry's trainees, and we're almost ready to have that fire he's been promised.
Nikolaj still has to work around the prejudices of this world, and it might be that the neither-slave-nor-free is going to be a problem in this world--particularly since the slaves are clearly not human. But we'll see what he does.
I've got John 2 conversing, so let's converse.
--M. J. Young
I'm running out of time, and I have a lot of players, so I'm going to have to kick things into tomorrow. The active players are Mike, Ahmetia, Brock, Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2. It happens that I had to get up rather early today for a fool's errand, followed by another one that prevented me from going back to bed, and I had some other tasks to accomplish some of which are still unfinished, and another errand to run before midnight (and it's ten), so I'm probably not going to get back here until after I've had some sleep. That's probably better for all of you anyway, because it won't be long before my lack of sleep starts to impact my ability to grasp what you've all written.
Thanks.
--M. J. Young
*tries to cast a Remove Fatigue spell for MJ, but fails, and blames it on those pesky range penalties*
Ah well. Rest up, feel better, and come back sharp.
MJ, have you ever had hallucinations from sleep deprivation? I did once. I saw a 6 foot green python on the wall in my hallway, and 2 white rabbits in the living room. Why the snake didn't eat the rabbits is anyone's guess. Anyway, I went into the kitchen to get some water, and came out, and they were gone.
I'd hate to imagine the hallucinations your mind would come up with, so get some sleep, OK?
(Doing Therapy)
I'm more inclined to blame the biases, Harry, but maybe that's my own limitation of expectation.
I posted the list of players yesterday, and they have not changed, so I'll pick up from there, thanking all for your patience.
Mike is exploring his landing ground. He has not yet looked to the horizons other than the one, but he is being methodical, so he probably will eventually.
We'll draw Ahmetia into the story with a lunch invitation from a queen to a girl who last night was worried about how she was going to get food and where she could sleep.
Brock is getting more information about ship and crew a bit at a time.
Maxx has asked how much time per day he needs to practice his intuition, and is using a prayer to attempt to make part of it easier so that he can try his plan. I'm moving the question back here, because it is a mechanics answer.
- To advance a level one physical attribute one intensity up to 1@10 requires one hundred twenty hours of practice spread over two hundred days; to advance a non-physical attribute requires five times as much time, six hundred hours over two hundred days, which comes to three hours of practice per day, at level one.
To advance to level two or to advance through level two to 2@10 requires what is called a double doubled training program. That means it has to be twice as hard in two ways. Because it is already very demanding, it can optionally be spread over four hundred days. That would mean you could double the number of hours from six hundred to twelve hundred and still practice three hours per day, doing so for something just over a year instead of just over half a year, to get that one intensity of increase. You would still have to find a second way to double the difficulty of the training program. Of course, if you can double the difficulty of the training program in two distinct ways neither of which is the time spent practicing, you can get by with one and a half hours per day for four hundred days.
Also, you do not have to practice so many hours per day. You can put them all into the weekend, if you prefer, or have a crash training session of several days once per month. The design of a practice program is somewhat flexible, as long as it is meeting the requirements that it involves focusing on the attribute in a way that logically ought to improve it, and that to reach level two it is twice as hard in two ways as to improve within level one.
So that's the situation on attributes.
I also promised to deal with the prayer, so I'd better find the cards--er, information.
The information about the prayer reads:
The prayer will be started with sitting (meditative style) within the practice area with the practice leaves (or its substitute) lying around. I will reaffirm my belief that this practice will make me ready for the mission that is given to me in the future. A prayer in Morse code (with clapping and drumming) saying "HELP PRACTICE" will be done repeatedly for about 10 minutes, then the prayer will be continued (in heart by thanking the help that have been got so the practice will run smoothly) concurrently with intuition practice. The requirement of the prayer is that it is use for intuition practice, uses leaves (or other practice material that may substitute it) as a component. The place of this prayer would be limited to area designated as home.Pulling out a magic skills worksheet I find that I have insufficient information, so I'll hand it to the player and ask him to fill out the parts I'm leaving blank.
Harry has some good ideas for how to practice fighting fires, but several of them appear to require setting fires, and Durnmist is something of a crowded city.
I'll attempt to wrap up the current conversation Nikolaj is having with Bredd, and move toward the next step. He is right to be nervous about baptizing orcs and humans at the same time, and I'm not certain how that's going to go myself at this point.
John 2 is going for a psionic skill he does not have. It shouldn't be a problem, but it's going to require a smidge of detail.
Have a good weekend, and I will see you tomorrow, if that makes sense.
--M. J. Young
I'm more inclined to blame the biases, Harry, but maybe that's my own limitation of expectation.
If God can truly "Do Anything" as the Bible claims, then the magic bias must be 15@10.
John - Not necessarily. It's possible the biases have gone down in the time since Creation, and in the 1700 or so years since the Bible was written. So maybe God can do anything, just not here any more, because that's how our universe works now. That sort of thing can happen when, for instance, a world kills off everyone who actually believes in or uses magic.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. It does remind me of something I read online though.
Dear God,
Why didn't you protect the children at Columbine high school?
Signed, a concerned student.
Dear Concerned Student.
I'm not allowed in public schools.
God.
He is right to be nervous about baptizing orcs and humans at the same time, and I'm not certain how that's going to go myself at this point.
Actually I'm planning on doing something more daring, but not without divine back-up. Just a little teaser :) Firstly, Bredd needs to get it all.
huh. Spreading the hope some get from religion to such a society must be interesting. If only I could remember what page of your thread I was on. It was fairly early. *sigh*
John, Harry is right that the bias might have fallen. It's also more complicated than that. For example, the bias might be 0@25, which would mean that God could do anything, and anyone visiting the world from another universe could do anything (with difficulty), but that indigs could do absolutely nothing.
Perhaps more on point, God cannot "do anything" in the sense you suggest. We know that it is impossible for God to lie; it is thus impossible for Him to break His own word. Thus if He decrees that something cannot be done in a particular place and time, then not even He can do it then and there.
I see a rather large group awaiting my attention, including Michael, Ahmetia, Brock, Maxx, Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2. I also see the clock moving to later, so I might have to take a break to start some dinner.
Michael has failed to look around, and made an assumption. He gets a 19 GE roll, though, and that's unfavorable.
Ahmetia has an invite to head to the lodge.
Brock is still gathering information.
I have a lot of problems with Maxx' spell to enable intuition practice. Let me see if I can sort them out here.
- If the magic makes practice easier, does it not also make it less effective? To illustrate by exaggeration, he could devise a spell that would stop all movement around him, walk around and look at all the leaves individually, and then release them. That would result in him getting the right answer all the time, but not in him improving his intuition. On the other hand, there have been a lot of obstacles in his way, most notably the inability to throw the leaves in the air, and this might be intended to solve that problem. I can work with that.
- He is planning to practice ninety minutes per day and perform this ritual concurrent with the practice plus ten minutes in advance; but there is the inherent problem that if the ritual does not work he will not know it until after the time has run--or will he? Therein lies the problem. If the skill is intended to move the leaves or enable him to do so, then he will know that the leaves are not moving at the end of the ten minutes. That means he knows that the spell is not working before he has completed casting it. There should be a penalty for that, but it should not be impossible to use a spell thus (I'm sure there are examples of it in the book).
- But what is more problematic with that is that he's almost certainly not going to have 100% chance of success on the skill, and that means that when it fails he won't be able to do the intuition practice which is dependent on it. But he wants to do it all as practice. The answer seems to be that he can't do the spell as practice if the intuition practice is dependent on it. Either he will have to roll each day when it's time to practice his intuition (and roll again, and again, at intervals sufficient to warrant a change of circumstance, risking a botch each time) or we will have to calculate the average time it would take to succeed and how often he will botch.
I'm going with a M3@8 Semi-animate: Dancing Leaves, which will cause the leaves to leap up and scatter themselves on command. His TF is :100; the baseline is 30, so it's +10 to get to 60, +7 more to get to 100. The character is saying "Help Practice" in Morse Code, tapping his hands to do so, so that's +5 for appropriate, +3 for loud, +5 for language, +2 for sound vital. I'm not giving him total body involvement, because it's clear that he can sit any way that is comfortable and turn his head to look at the leaves to practice, but I will give him +3 for the extra hand, but also -3 because he doesn't need to use his mouth--he actually could answer questions or carry on conversation (if he can maintain his concentration) while "saying" the words. He says it is physically exhausting, and although he bases that on the fact that he is spending that much time doing that much work, I'll grant it as a +5 bonus for that and require fifteen minutes rest immediately after performing it. He gets +1 for saliva, doubled because it is destroyed, but nothing for the leaves, which are actually the targeted object of the spell. I would normally say that the duration is RS minutes for such a skill, but I'm going to deduct -10 on the assumption that a fixed ninety minutes is about twice that time (could be considered three times, but this is sufficient). I should also deduct something for the sheer number of objects, but I'm not certain of the number and if I am too strict on that it will be fatal to a skill that really ought to work, so I'll say -20 for up to fifty leaves. I will count the use of the wings as +6, but deduct -4 because he can substitute back muscles for wings if he does not have the wings. I'll allow +10 for the limitation that it can only be done in a place he has designated as "home", and I'll leave that definition for interpretation. That gives me a total of +31SM on the skill which is holy magic for +10 in this world and +8 for half his religion SAL, his BRA of 1@10, his bias of 7@7, and the 15@ world bias, minus the 3@8 target, he rolls 80 which we need to crunch the numbers the rest of the way for. +31+10+8+20+77+15=161-38 is easily over 100% chance to learn, so it's
1@2 Semi-animate: Dancing Leaves M3@8 cause leaves to leap up and scatter themselves on command for ninety minutes of intuition practice time, TF :10 preparatory +:90 concurrent with effect, say "Help Practice" in Morse Code, tapping hands loudly, sound vital, can sit any way that is comfortable, must wiggle wings or back muscles, physically exhausting requires fifteen minutes rest immediately after, target leaves must have caster's saliva on them, which evaporates during the casting, up to fifty leaves affected, can only be done in a place caster has designated as "home", +31SM.Now there's the next question: how reliably can he do this? He's got the 1@2 SAL+1@10 BRA+10 alliance+8 religion+2x7@ bias+31SM=95%, not perfect. But he will not botch, so it's going to slow him down only a bit.
I suppose I should also roll again for the microscopic vision before I lose those details. He rolls 07, and so adds 1@1 Microscopic Vision P5@1 requires making a ring with fingers to create a focal area, shining a light (which may be the body-generated light of a sprite) on the target area, and must begin with 4:00 concentration, +35SM. Now we have to find a microorganism; it's not been established that there are such things in this universe, though, so I think a GE roll might be appropriate: 21.
Harry wants an improbable nearby vacant lot for fire practice, or barring that an area just outside the city for the purpose. His GE roll is 21.
Nikolaj is on a roll, and I happen to like his explanation; but I think I should roll his teaching skill, even if I give him a +15 bonus for the excellent presentation and use of the familiar book. He rolls 91. He missed something; I suspect the problem is that orcs don't bury their dead.
Forget I asked the question before; John 2 rolls 44 on teaching himself 1@1 Heal Damage to Self P6@1, and since he's got a 10@1 bias that's already 40% before adding his BRA and the world bias, so that's successful.
I'm done, which is good because I'm also very tired.
--M. J. Young
MJ, I wanted the @1 healing skill, so you guessed correctly.
(Doing Therapy)