Lol, the first world that Eric put me in (Aquatica or something?) I also made an enemy for life, as I called God down and banished the ruling evil Squid or something, while versing myself because of seeing God face to face. That however had not been the intention, but was awesome cool non the less :P
I'm running late; it was a busy day. However, let's see what we can do for Kurt, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam.
Kurt is going to take the bull by the horns, but he's got the tiger to help him now.
John 3 wonders about hospitality, but it doesn't seem to me as if that would be a problem under the circumstances.
Nikolaj again prays that protection prayer, but this time his roll is 98, which is going to be a botch. Thing is, I can handle this at least two ways. He already prayed this successfully. This can trigger the attack which triggers the protection already in place; or this can void the previous protection. I like the former better, but it's going to require a bit of thought to implement. Meanwhile, let's roll for the protection prayer prayed for Qormlach, 12 is good. There is also a prayer for God to reveal Himself to Qormlach--the prayer Qormlach prayed for himself, but this time Nikolaj is praying it for someone else. That's not already listed on his sheet, so I'm going to have to crunch a few numbers. It's a communicate off-world variant, M7@7, baseline TF probably 3:00 against a 15:00 prayer makes +23, words only is -10, appropriate is +5, and that's really all there is to this so let's roll, 39 will be a success. I'll have to deal with that separately.
Sarne could attack Nikolaj directly, or he could send one of his believers. The latter is unlikely, given the nature of the ranch. Unless Sarne chooses to manifest himself corporeally (leaving himself open for a lot more danger) he has to abide by the indig bias limits. (If he appears, he has to abide by the curve but not the level, like Nikolaj and all off-world visitors, but when he is not present he cannot send magic into that world that his priests could not use.) Since we have a 7@7 bias, a curve of 14, a 6@8 crusher is possible. He has the roll of 48 from last night's protection prayer. Sarne has an 2@5 strike value, 2@10 SAL, 2@10 BRA, 15@ bias limited to the world's 7@, -10 for anarch magic, 89 minus Nikolaj's defensive values, which include his -48 protection, and his Target Value. He doesn't have that yet, but I'm giving him a 1@6 agility, he already has a 1@8 intuition, and it's evident that he has a 1@1 density (because he does not have 2@ strength or stamina), so that's 1@5 TV. That's -63 for his defenses. The attack is base damaging +2DC makes it lethal, and the chance of success is 89-63=26. Sarne rolls 80. The attack is RF1, but because of his 2@ strike value and 2@ SAL he gets four attacks in the minute. The second roll is 73. Nikolaj is now fighting with a very real invisible enemy.
John 2's gunsshop owner roll is 17, right in the middle, so it's just chatter. Lauren rolls 64 on projecting the psionic skill pattern for projecting a psionic skill pattern, and John rolls 46 on learning it, so he's got that one 1@1 project psionic skill pattern P1@2.
Adam goes out to learn his skill, but there might be an adventure here, depending on what we all do.
--M. J. Young
Kurt, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam are playing.
I can think of a way Kurt might get to Steranko; but there's more to this story ahead.
We can move through John 3's story fairly quickly. He should have a GE roll for the night--it could be that there's a bad storm and everyone is inside, even pinned down for the next day (a 30?), or that he winds up preaching all night and turning people to Christ (a 3?). The roll is a disappointing 20. He also has a skill check on his prayer--but wait, he usually does his prep time, and he did not mention that, so I'll check.
Nikolaj is fighting back. He is using his Bible, for which I will give him +4 (a specific book) as a material component, +5 for appropriate words, and we have the 1:00:00 TF but we're not sure what exactly is being done--that is, we know that this is both offensive and defensive (because the armor includes a weapon). Since it is targeting spirit powers, a M+1@10 Torture Spirit Power seems to be the best foundation; it has a 1:00 TF for a single attack. To this we add another protection, that for which Nikolaj is specifically praying, M+1@6. That means two effects, -10 for incorporating the second.
The big problem is figuring out the offense side, that is, how many attacks is Nikolaj getting. I'm thinking that what he describes would take about five minutes to do one time. If I make the protection concurrent with the casting, I'm cutting it from RS minutes (average can be as high as 50.5) to 5:00, for which I think +36 is an appropriate bonus. He also gets +23 for extending the time from 1:00 to 5:00 on the attack. The attack is base dangerous with pain requiring a will power check, RS=Simple/Difficult/None. Thus I will say that the spell takes five minutes, and if he is doing it for an hour he is doing it twelve times--perfectly reasonable, fighting against a wicked godling like Sarne. That also means that the first roll is a learning roll, but subsequent rolls are use. I want to look at the skill before finalizing it. The total sit-mods are +58, but I can take -10 from that and raise the base damage from dangerous to lethal, and another -10 to go from lethal to fatal. Let's do that.
The learning roll is 36, which gives us 1@1 Spirit Combat M+1@10 incorporates M+1@6 protection RS=SM with base fatal pain attack, will power check RS=S/D/N, pray, reading from a Bible, Ephesians 6:10-18, 5:00TF, protection concurrent with casting, attack at end of time, +38SM.
The -36 protection is cumulative with the existing -48 protection and his 1@5 TV, which makes -99 for the present. Sarne's attacks cannot penetrate, but he can botch, although now that this is combat those botches will only cost him an attack. To save myself the trouble, I will hold off on the attack rolls and simple describe the continued barrage.
Sarne is going to have a 2@ damage value, so the roll of 36 which would mean 18 intensities of damage at fatal gets cut to 9--still a significant impact. Sarne also has a 3@5 will power, so his simple check roll of 7 is a success, although a weak one.
Nikolaj's second roll is 70, and I'm going to have to crunch the numbers for that--and give him some. He's an artist, so we'll give him a 1@10 hand/eye. He has a 1@8 intuition. That means he has a 1@9 Ranged Strike Value, 1@8 BRA, +9 for religion, +10 for alliance, +1@1 for the SAL, +38 SM, +2x7@ bias=119, from which we subtract Sarne's defenses, which at present are not more than his TV, something in the 2@ range which is not sufficient to protect him against this attack. That's 35 intensities, divide by two and discard for 17, added to the previous 9 makes 26, a very solid problem for Sarne who will flee if he is able, but must make a difficult will power check to take action, the die roll of 1 equals 11, the weakest success he could have.
And hey, that gives me a solution to the question of how God reveals himself to Qormlach. I hope Nikolaj picks up the hints.
John 2 is constructing his knife.
This is one of the things I love about playing with good players. I was thinking that an abandoned castle would be a good hideout for bandits, and Adam reminds me that it might well be a good lair for a vampire. It's only been abandoned less than a year, since Uther died without heir, so it's not going to be too well fortified--but a vampire is a real possibility. I'm going to roll a GE roll now for what's actually there, but I'm almost thinking that Adam's hope is to fight something nasty. No, a good roll will be something useful in residence, and a neutral roll an empty building. 13 is barely good enough.
This has been particular fun today. Thanks to all for playing.
--M. J. Young
Yeah, wow. This is some action. I was wondering how you would get action in how my character act, but you seem to have found my trigger.
I hope I got all the hints as well. But since the being looked like a woman, she wouldn't really be Jesus, so I went for Gaia or an angelic being, coming to aid. The Gaia thing especially because of the greenish white glow.
I have not been well today, so permit me to note that there are posts waiting from John 3, John 2, Nikolaj, Harry, and Adam, and to come back to answer them tomorrow. Maybe I'll read them now for inspiration, but I'm thinking that I need to get back to bed.
--M. J. Young
Get well soon, MJ! :)
I'm with Oak, Get well soon MJ.
Everybody, pray for MJ. Pray to whatever god you believe in.
Yeah Mark, get well soon! And take plenty of rest and drink lots of water :)
Blessed be, chief. Here's to your health.
Than you for your kind wishes. I've lost more time today than I expected, but I am here early enough that I ought to be able to finish what I should have started yesterday. I've got open threads for Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and Adam, so let's get started.
Harry wants to get more information about the world in which he is staying. I probably should have (it occurs to me now) given him some information that he had already learned, but what he knows about Sardic is less important than what he learns about Durnmist, so we're probably good.
Checking on the ritual for the healing magic bonus for John 3, I find no required body actions, and thus he can perform this while walking through the woods. He rolls 13, which gives him +3 for the next 3:15:00, long enough to include his prayer upon arrival. 93, though, is too high a roll for the healing to work even with its +14SM and +3 bonus, I think. Let me check, just to be certain. He has a 12@ bias, but the world's bias is only 7@, so that's +14 for bias, +12 for half his 2@3 religion, his 2@2 BRA, and his 1@2 SAL, and +10 for alliance world=87%, terribly close.
He repeats the prayer sequence, this time rolling 22 on the quite time for +5 for 5:30:00, coming back with an 04 for a weakly successful healing. He's getting a reputation. This gets more interesting.
Nikolaj again opens a channel to speak to Gaia, a roll of 40 an easy success. It takes him 0:00:45 to do that, and then he wants to add a blessing. The simplest way to address it is to take it as a M+1@4 bonus checks applying particularly to supporting life, give it +10 for the limit to supporting life, +10 because contact must be made through the other skill, +15 for total body involvement, +5 for appropriate words, cut the 1:00 TF to 0:30 at -10, and roll 50 for a successful 1@1 Bless the Spirit of the Earth M+1@4 bonus checks related to supporting life, must first contact the spirit blessed (separate skill check M7@7 or comparable), kneel and touch the ground, and speak appropriate words of blessing, +30SM.
John 2 is still making his knife, and we're discussing the handle.
Adam rolls 67 on his 1@2 Detect Vampires and Ghouls M7@6 Arcane, 50’ Radius around Caster, Detect Vampires and Ghouls for RSx6 Minutes, 6 Second TF, Appropriate Words in Latin, Forcefully Said, Sound Vital, both arms and hands, foci may be used in hand, +13SM. I'm assuming that he will also roll to use the focus, 83, and I don't actually see a use focus spell but given his 15@ mag bias this will give him one, 1@3 Use Focus/Holy Symbol M+1@1 hold or wear object as appropriate while performing other magic, +RS/10 bonus to spells cast while focus is active, RS minutes. That gives him +9 along with his 1@2 SAL, 2x15@ bias, and 2@6 BRA=90%, so that's a good solid success. I need to know, now, whether there are vampires and/or ghouls about. I'm wondering whether he's hoping so or hoping not, but I think he'd enjoy a bit of a confrontation even though he's hoping the coast is clear. In any case, it's day, so if there are vampires in the area, they're not close at hand. My GE roll says 21, bad enough.
We might have a bit of a party there before we continue.
--M. J. Young
John 2 has been trying my patience with his challenging threads (and John 4 with his phone calls about his game to which he's not posting), but at the moment I have a bit of time to do something for Harry and Nikolaj before turning to John 2, then Graeme, whom I missed by minutes yesterday, apparently.
Harry gets his books, but unless I've forgotten or overlooked something, he still needs a place to stay for a couple nights.
Nikolaj wants information about Sarne, but I'm not clear how he hopes to get this.
John 2 rolls 01 on learning to use the epoxy polymer, and gets skill in using it.
Finally, Graeme is exploring three cultures through contact with one member of each. He's asked some more questions, I'll try to give him more information through that.
--M. J. Young
John 2 has been trying my patience with his challenging threads
You say I surprise you with my behavior. You surprise me. When I sent you equally challenging (and utterly pointless) time travel questions, you insisted that you were not annoyed by it. Asking game questions (not nearly as pointless) annoys you. That really surprises me.
(For the record, I'm giggling whilst I type this)
John, I think that the answer is that when you asked time travel questions, you seemed to be struggling with difficult concepts that were just within your intellectual reach, but when you're putting forward these game challenges you seem to be trying to prove that there are flaws in the game design that you can exploit. There probably are flaws in the game design, and people probably can exploit them. I don't play with people who are trying to exploit the design, though, because that's not fun. I play with people who are trying to enjoy the game.
I know I missed play last night. It was a very disrupted day, in which I was called upon to assist with too many things for at least some of which I was genuinely needed, and when I finally got to the boards it was too late to do more than give it a cursory glance. However, it has gotten late again tonight, and although I have much less excuse (apart from having completed all the other Monday work I did not get done yesterday) I think I have to apply my attention to needs elsewhere. If I get back from that sooner than I anticipate and am feeling not much worse than I am now, I shall endeavor to tackle the significant collection of threads--Kurt, Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, Scott, John 2, and Adam--and otherwise I can only hope that tomorrow will run more smoothly.
--M. J. Young
John, I think that the answer is that when you asked time travel questions, you seemed to be struggling with difficult concepts that were just within your intellectual reach, but when you're putting forward these game challenges you seem to be trying to prove that there are flaws in the game design that you can exploit. There probably are flaws in the game design, and people probably can exploit them. I don't play with people who are trying to exploit the design, though, because that's not fun. I play with people who are trying to enjoy the game.
MJ, I am enjoying the game (I have an extreme sense of pride right now.) I'm not trying to exploit weaknesses in the game. I'm just having fun. This is something that I think about. Who knows? A spinoff of Multiverser could come out of this. You just don't see it quite the same way that I do. To me, this is kind of like a mental puzzle. I feel really good.
(Doing Therapy)
Take all the time you need Mark, don't stress yourself too much.
I've had a crazy week, and it's not over and still crazy; but it looks like it might be within the realm of possibility for me finally to address the game threads of Kurt, Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, Scott, John 2, and Adam. I've glanced at all of them earlier in the week, and allowed myself to let them simmer a bit, so hopefully this will go relatively smoothly.
Did Blade have any information about Steranko's castle when he was investigating, and if so did any of that information come to his daughter Mariska? That's what Kurt wants to know; that's something no one has ever asked before. Let me find the dice and roll a general effects roll for that: 16, right in the middle. Let's handle that.
Harry and I are now exploring the world in which the Mary Piper travels, to figure out what sort of places we have.
John 3 writes, "...unless there are others who need me...."--and with those words invite a GE roll, which is 21, bad enough. I think our saint may be beginning to learn what it was like for Jesus. I hope I remember my compass directions; it's been years since I actually looked at all this on a map.
I've been pondering the answer to Nikolaj's question--so seriously, in fact, that in my notes on this world I added a comment to the effect that orcs born in captivity (like Qormlach) know very little about the religions of the orcs in the jungles, and those captured are forbidden to speak of such gods. That makes it very difficult for Qormlach to have learned anything about any of the orc gods--and orcs are henotheists, and if either of his parents were captured and did attempt to impart to their son some of what they learned, they probably did not include Sarne, a very evil deity on the rise now due to the collapse of orcish society under the pressures of the slavers. However, I will give Qormlach some sort of check on this. My temptation is to give him an education level check, but I think that his ed lev is something like 0@9, being able to recognize that some symbols are either letters or numbers and to know that some of them are one thing or the other. That gives him very little chance of knowing anything at all, and particularly something us improbable--but if I make it a difficult check, it's ruled out up front, so it will have to be a simple check. He rolls 12, a failure. However, he will recognize the picture.
Scott took a long time to formulate his response to Alice. This conversation is very interesting despite being stretched out over months of play. I've spent a lot of time here catching up by reading, but I'm pleasantly surprised to find that I still have the same feel for the story--for example, when I read Scott's comments about finding something that creates that feeling of the numinous (I don't know whether that's the psychology or philosophy term, or even if I've got it right) I immediately thought that for her it would be mountains, and then I read that that's what she answered, so I guess I still know her pretty well. In any case, we'll move to the next ritual and start forward on that.
John 2 is making two knives. One of those will be relatively simple, but the other is giving us trouble.
I just checked Adam's character sheet, and he has no consecrate ground spell--which would, I think, be a M1@1 ritual not otherwise specified, the sort of thing they do on church groundbreakings and such. But Merlin does not have such a skill, either, so we'll have to let them design something.
--M. J. Young
Alright, giving a boost to the world's design. Glad I could help :)
I'm praying for you right now, that you may find rest in these busy times.
MJ - Isn't Consecrate Ground the exact spell my Holy Ground spells are?
And Nikolaj - Two of us adding depth to the worlds we play in. Ain't it grand?
it is!
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!
happy Birthday!
Yeah, 32. It's also Friday the 13th, and so far, it's been more like a Friday the 13th than a birthday. Oh well.
Harry, I think it is; but Adam does not have such a spell and neither does Merlin. You do it as holy magic; Merlin does no holy magic, and although Adam does quite a bit of it he's never consecrated ground before.
As the week draws to a close I approach threads from Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, Scott, and John 2, and hope I have not overlooked anyone in the mass of threads that were here.
I'm inclined to think that Harry needs a GE roll in connection with his stay in Sardic, and I'm afraid it's a 24. I also know that there were a couple of port events connected to the ship--a cargo problem and an attack by locals. But I think we can make enough trouble without involving him in the investigations. I had thought of having the cargo problem connect to his crate of emeralds, but he managed to sidestep that by obtaining sacks in which to carry the loose stones, so he didn't get checked on that. Still, trouble on the docks means trouble boarding his ship.
John 3 rolls 48 on his healing prayer, which will work with strong and dramatic results. Dramatic results are good, but they usually mean attention.
Nikolaj rolls 21 on a GE on traders and trading trips. He rolls 70 on the skill check on making his jacket, but he's still learning.
Scott is creating his holy symbol.
John 2 is creating a couple of new weapons, and the epoxy resin one will be very interesting, I think.
--M. J. Young
I see Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, and John 2 on today's board. Let's see what everyone's doing.
Harry fits right into the easiest and most obvious problem that can raise disturbances of this sort on docks. I've done other protests--groups opposing competitive imports, for example--but hey, dockworkers strike is really good for disrupting the docks.
I make John 3's prayer 0:42; I'll stretch it to a minute, starting it with his opening statement, so the ritual is, Say, "Let us pray together. Dearest LORD, we pray for these children, and lift them up to Thee now. We pray that each of them will love Thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all their mind, and with all their strength, and their neighbors as themselves, all the days of their lives. We pray that Thy Word would be a lamp unto their feet, and a light unto their path. We pray that they would walk before Thee in such a way that when they appear before Thee, they would have the joy of hearing Thy voice, saying, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant'. And we pray for wisdom for these parents, that Thou would guide them to train up these children in the way they should go. Thank you for hearing our prayers. We pray in Jesus' Name... Amen." It's a 1:00 TF Bonus Blessing on Children spell M+1@4; baselines are 1:00 TF, RF minutes duration, and RS/5 bonus. He's narrowed the use significantly, so we'll give him +20 for that; he's got +5 for appropriate words, -10 for single aspect (speech only), and I think he's got words spoken loudly +3 which must be audible +2, which gives us +20 SM. He rolls 95, so we're going to have to check numbers to make sure whether that's a success; but he has a 12@5 bias, so a 1@4 skill is going to be automatic if it's not penalized even without the other numbers. That gives him a 1@3 SAL at this, and a very powerful bonus this time around, +19 to all the blessings he is about to pray for the next one and a half hours plus five minutes. That will cover them all. Let me repost the details for reference:
-
1@3 Bonus Blessing on Children spell M+1@4 Say, "Let us pray together. Dearest LORD, we pray for these children, and lift them up to Thee now. We pray that each of them will love Thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all their mind, and with all their strength, and their neighbors as themselves, all the days of their lives. We pray that Thy Word would be a lamp unto their feet, and a light unto their path. We pray that they would walk before Thee in such a way that when they appear before Thee, they would have the joy of hearing Thy voice, saying, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant'. And we pray for wisdom for these parents, that Thou would guide them to train up these children in the way they should go. Thank you for hearing our prayers. We pray in Jesus' Name... Amen." 1:00 TF, RF minutes duration, and RS/5 SM bonus to such skills, words must be spoken loudly and must be audible, +20 SM.
Now we have to figure out the blessings themselves. These strike me as a variant of a M+1@1 Bonus Morale--they don't have any visible impact on anything the children are attempting to do, but mostly encourage them to stay true to God, doing so in a supernatural way. These are listed as having a 1:00 TF and an open-ended duration. I make his TF 0:12, one-fifth the baseline, which means -22 (-10 for half, -10 from half to quarter, and a fifth is 80% of a quarter, so -2 for the twenty percent reduction there). He must touch the individual to be blessed, +20. He has appropriate words, and particularly he is using the name of the individual, +5. It requires both hands, +3. That makes the sit-mod +6. I note that there is another limitation, in that he must ascertain the name of each child before praying for him. That slows the time and makes the words more appropriate; I'll give him another +5 for that, +11 total. The first prayer is the learning prayer, and he rolls 12 for a 1@1 skill ability level and a blessing on the first child. I have not determined how many children there are in this group, but we're on the outskirts of the forest so this will be a somewhat larger village. One question is, what is his chance of success with each child now? He's got the +19 from the previous prayer, +11 for the sit-mod here, +12 for the SAL, +12 for half his 2@3 religion SAL, +22 for his Mag BRA, +14 for 2x the world area bias, and +10 for alliance magic, all of which comes to 100% for the first ninety-five minutes. That's going to boost his fame significantly, I think. Again, let's recap:
1@1 Bless Children M+1@1 encourages faith in child, lay both hands on child while addressing the child by name and saying, "The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.", 0:12 TF, open-ended duration (until major discouragement), +11 SM
I'll stop there, in case he wants to interact more with this family.
Nikolaj wants details concerning what the trader is trading, but he gets a 27 GE roll, which means he's not going to find anything that interests him.
John 2 rolls 73 on trying to learn to use epoxy polymer to make a knife. I'm looking at his 12@1 bias+2@2 BRA+14@ world tech bias=157 minus the 9@5 epoxy skill, and I see failure there.
Oh, it looks like that's the end of the list tonight. I should be back tomorrow--although I recall that there is a complication, as I have a rather long errand to run.
--M. J. Young
Again it appears to be Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, and John 2, and a lot of interesting moments.
Harry is considering his options. I'll give him feedback on them.
John 3 is devising yet another blessing, this one on the home of someone who has extended hospitality to him. I think that is a limitation: works only on those who have already provided hospitality to the caster, +10. The words, "Dearest LORD, thank you for this family, and for their kindness and hospitality. As they have received a servant coming in your name, I pray that you would bless them, and that you would bless this house, and that you would bless the work of their hands, that what they have sacrificially given to us would be received back from you many fold. And even more importantly, I pray that the seeds of salvation and truth planted here would take root and grow, and that they would be a blessing and a light to all that pass this way. Thank you for loving us, and blessing us, and sparing us so much. We pray in the Name and Power of Jesus Christ... Amen." are clearly appropriate, +5. I make it 39 seconds by stopwatch, but will round that to 0:42 because it needs to be divisible by 6 to work conveniently at higher levels. That's against a 1:00 baseline TF, but conveniently that means this is 70% of the baseline time, -6 for a reduction of 30% (60% of half). The more difficult question is what it does. It seems to be a very broad and general blessing intended to have a very long duration. The baseline is RS minutes and +RS/5 sit-mod on checks (I'm looking at a M1@4 bonus checks as the nearest general blessing I can find). I can probably justify +40 if I reduce the bonus to +1 sit-mod; then I can extend the duration to roughly RS/4 hours at -40. That, though, is only a day; and we have to subtract another -10 because it is spoken only. It would be -20 more to kick it to RS hours. I'm also recognizing that this impacts multiple persons, quantity unspecified but probably primarily two adults, maybe children, -15 is appropriate for that. At this point I'm looking at an internal sit-mod of -36. That's probably much deeper a penalty than he would want to take, so I'll bring it back to RS/2 hours and make it -26. He's got a lot in his favor on this, given his 2@3 Religion SAL and 2@2 Mag BRA, and it's very nearly certain to work the first time because of his high bias. He rolls 57, 1@2 Bless Household M+1@4 confers +1 on all skill checks related to general wealth and well being of all members of a household for RS/2 hours, provided that household has already given hospitality to the user, user must pray, "Dearest LORD, thank you for this family, and for their kindness and hospitality. As they have received a servant coming in your name, I pray that you would bless them, and that you would bless this house, and that you would bless the work of their hands, that what they have sacrificially given to us would be received back from you many fold. And even more importantly, I pray that the seeds of salvation and truth planted here would take root and grow, and that they would be a blessing and a light to all that pass this way. Thank you for loving us, and blessing us, and sparing us so much. We pray in the Name and Power of Jesus Christ... Amen." 0:42 TF -26 SM.
Clarifying a few confusions with Nikolaj so we can proceed.
I think I've answered John 2's latest questions.
--M. J. Young
To our recently active quartet of Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, and John 2, we welcome a post from Graeme.
I'll give Harry a GE roll on what happens to the protest. He rolls 16, which in this case means it will reduce a bit, as we would expect.
John 3 recognizes that provisions would be wise for a trip through Sherwood Forest. We'll see what he finds.
I find myself wondering about the circumstances surrounding Qormlach's baptism by Nikolaj, and the answer for such wonderings is usually a GE roll--which in this case is a smack-in-the-middle 17.
John 2 rolls 65 on making a silver knife. Given his 2@1 professional blacksmithing skill, 2@2 BRA, and 2x10@ bias, we have a 63% chance of success, so he's at that almost-successful level. I'm afraid I've lost track of the day; I'm going to have to do some backtracking on his thread to figure out what has happened today and what day it is.
I think it unlikely that the Romans would have a translation device. After all, everyone in Rome speaks Modern Latin, and they have little reason to speak with anyone who does not, and can rely on their priests if a need arises. However, if Graeme gets a good enough GE roll, we'll assume that there is something--and I can't argue with a 7, Better Than Expected.
He also wants to create two spells, one of which creates a spell component that will be necessary to the other. He has some problems with his approach, however. I'm going to deal with the problems one at a time. Nope, I'm stumped--I don't know what spell he is attempting to perform in creating this spell component, so I don't know how to adjudicate the outcome.
--M. J. Young
Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2 are my playmates for today's playdate. Can you tell that I had contact with a preschooler this week?
Harry is going to attempt to boost his strength for a brief period. I know that this can be done as a P4@0 Mind Over Matter skill; that would give him a second strength check if he failed the first. I think, though, that he would rather do it as an actual boost in his strength due to increased adrenaline. The way he describes it, as control of body chemicals, suggests a P5@6; but the temporary boost of strength ought to be achievable as a P5@2. It's moot, though, because those are both above the curve. He has a 1@5 strength; to lift a 150# crate on a simple check you would need a 1@9 strength, but anyone with at least a 1@1 strength can lift it on a difficult check--you just can't carry it more than a few feet that way. The fact that on a difficult check he could lift 240# suggests that if he successfully lifts this he could go more than a few feet with it. (His simple check is good for a 120# lift, which he could carry across the dock easily enough.)
He hasn't tried lifting and carrying it himself, but he's going to use the skill to do it. Usually, the skill would give you a second chance after the first failed; he's doing the skill first, so in order to give him the benefit of the skill I'll give him a second check if the first does not botch--assuming of course that he succeeds with the skill, although the first check will still be made either way. The skill is, as mentioned, P4@0. He has a 5@1 bias, plus a 1@9 BRA, and so a 30% chance (51+19-40) of success at this. He rolls 90, so it does not succeed. He still gets a chance to try to lift and carry this, 5 rolled on a d30+10 makes 15, which is a very near failure.
He rolls 13 on a simple persuasion check, so the carriers will carry his crate. He gets a 19 GE roll, not thwarting but generally unfavorable, which is pretty much what I had hoped for the situation, so I know how to handle it.
Nikolaj repeats his routine, and also his work on checkers.
I am reminded of a wonderfully hysterical bit on the old HBO comedy Not Necessarily the News, a commercial for the Great Cheeses of the World Chess Set, in which the playing pieces were all different kinds of cheese ("knights of stately cammembere"), and if you order now you will also get the all-cracker chess board. It's been probably twenty years since we saw that, but we still laugh about it periodically.
John 2 rolls 31 on the second effort to make a silver knife, which is a good success. Of course, he is a professional metallurgist, and were he to roll at least 51 but not more than 63, he would have created a weapon of quality, something with inherent bonuses because of its craftsmanship. We'll see if he wants to keep what he's got, scrap it and try again, or attempt to make another.
--M. J. Young
I am reminded of a wonderfully hysterical bit on the old HBO comedy Not Necessarily the News, a commercial for the Great Cheeses of the World Chess Set, in which the playing pieces were all different kinds of cheese ("knights of stately cammembere"), and if you order now you will also get the all-cracker chess board. It's been probably twenty years since we saw that, but we still laugh about it periodically.
Aha! Now that's a commercial I would like very much :P
Stately Cammembere ... lol.
Do I get a new use on making the knife? Working silver would be something I've likely never done before.
Harry, Nikolaj, and John 2 are my playmates for today's playdate.
So close, and yet so far... :)
MJ, I've wondered about this for some time. If you look at my character sheet, you will see that I have a lazy eye. I only use one eye at a time, and I can alternate between them at will. The point here though is that, with a great deal of concentration, I can send both of my eyes in different directions, and track two different objects at the same time. It's generally more trouble than it's worth, but I was wondering if that was a skill that could be put on my sheet, and what kind of skill it would be.
Again I have Harry, John 3 who as he notes just missed me yesterday, Nikolaj, and John 2 who also has behind-the-screens questions.
I've already rolled a GE roll for Harry's event, and there's nothing in his handling of it that should change that, so we'll let it go. It's time to settle in for the next leg of his adventure.
John 3 has a prayer for guidance, described thus:
1@1 Request Divine Guidance M+7@7 10:00 TF requires extended reading aloud from a Bible, statement of need, both hands, answers what to do now, details in post 10 of An Unfamiliar Familiar Forest, +28SM.That's a reference to this post, and I think that the actions described in the current post are sufficiently similar to those that I can treat this as a new use of the same skill, assuming it works.
He rolls 84, which if it is a success it will be a very strong one. His numbers say 1@1 SAL, +28SM, 1/2 2@3 Religion SAL=+12, Alliance bonus +10, and Mag BRA 2@2=83, and it strikes me that this is the second time this week that someone rolled one point over a high target number on a skill check. I can work with that. After all, a part of John's faith involves coming to know the mind of God himself, so perhaps this is a good time for him to consider that.
Nikolaj is playing games within his game, but that's good, as it will begin to create connections. I might have to name more of these characters for him.
John 2 is going to attempt to make a bettter knife, this time using silver coins. He rolls 42, good but not yet great. I also need to post his sheet, and answer his questions.
I'm persuaded that by the time he reached 2@1 in blacksmithing he'd have cast at least a little silver at some point, so I'm not giving him new use for that. I agree, though, that he probably could claim a skill of being able to watch two things at once, but we'll assume it's an amateur skill and that we don't need to worry more about it until he actually uses it.
--M. J. Young
Partly thanks to this game and how I have to investigate myself for my character, I have discovered the big part that connections play in my life. I've got some friends in several different places, even out of the country. And even though I don't think about them as other then friends, I know I can call in favors when needed. And I think that's something really cool!
So thank you Multiverser!
Role playing games are indeed very good at helping us understand who we are, who we might be, and who we can be--and I think Multiverser is particularly good on those counts.
I apologize for not posting to game threads yesterday. A major errand ran about two hours longer than the four hours slotted for it, and got started an hour late, so by the time I was actually here it was pretty late and I was hoping to get some sleep. Tonight I will attempt to catch up on posts from Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, and John 2.
Harry creates his holy ground, using 1@8 Consecrate Holy Ground M+1@1 creates consecrated circle 8 feet in diameter, 2:00:00 TF, lengthy appropriate words calling the four corners, calling upon Njordr, god of the sea, to bless the space, Odin, in his capacity as god of wisdom, to guide the casting, and Freya, goddess of magic and patron of sorcerers, to lend strength and valor, with my sword Soulmourn in right hand, sound matters, in English, concentration not interrupted during casting, and limited so that if I am dismissed from the Mary Piper the circle will be rendered useless; add that five minute calling the corners and invoking the gods must be said inside the space before it can be used for casting, +32SM. We have established that this is an alliance world and his is an alliance faith, +10; he has a 2@6 religion for +13; his BRA for mag is 2@3; and the world area bias in magic is 0@. That gives him a 96% chance of success on this, and his roll is 31. I am adjusting the ritual to read "permanently leave the ship" rather than "am dismissed from the Mary Piper".
Of course, there is also the possibility that he would be interrupted in the casting, depending on time of day and such. He came late; probably the officer of the watch would have informed him of meal options and such. An 18 GE roll is not bad enough to interrupt him.
John 3 is looking for an answer that I cannot give at the moment. We'll see what happens from here. I've some possibilities, but I don't yet know what they are.
I hope I've covered all the salient points for Nikolaj, but I'm sure if I missed something he'll come back to it.
On a roll of 05, Lauren manages to project the next skill pattern to John 2, and with the benefits of teacher, example, instruction, his own 5@10 bias, the 10@ world bias, and a 2@2 BRA a roll of 87 gives him 1@3 Telepathy to Humans P1@3.
--M. J. Young
Gee, time has slipped by more quickly than I anticipated. Maybe it was that post on tech bias. In any case, let me see what I can do for Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, and John 2.
I have pulled up the post giving the time information on Harry's trip. The direct route would be 40 days plus or minus, and going by way of Galva adds a couple days to the expected time plus a five day layover. The question now is, how many days to Galva and how many from Galva to Durnmist? It strikes me that 8d5 has a range of 5-40 with a midpoint at 24, heavily weighted toward the middle. That, plus a GE roll to see whether there will be any "events" along the way, should work for us. 2+3+4+2+2+4+1+3=21 days to Galva, 21 GE roll, I think we'll have either a travel event or a port event, even odds, even rolled makes it a port event, and that's a d10 against a table in the Mary Piper scenario, 8 rolled is a cargo problem, which is nothing that will matter to him.
John 3 rolls a 12 GE roll on the events of his first day of travel through Sherwood Forest toward Nottingham. That's Good Enough. He also prayed something at the beginning of the day, committing himself to God's care. I've got an idea, but it's going to take a couple of posts of interaction to play it through, and I'm depending on John to be predictable here--I believe I know what he will, or more particularly won't, do, and once he makes that decision I can take the next step.
It strikes me that I've not thought through part of Nikolaj's scenario: just as there are many men in the barracks, there must be women somewhere as well, and they must also be part of the communal situation.
He has given me another complication: he is praying for Qormlach to receive the Holy Spirit. I'm fine with that; I just have to figure out what it is I think is happening here in terms that make sense in Multiverser. (Oddly, the question has never arisen before.) Let me consider the possibilities.
- It could be that Nikolaj is summoning God, calling God Himself to come to and into Qormlach. There is much to commend this, except that it would appear to be a M11@8 Attract Off-world Sentient Informer, and that's above the curve so Nikolaj could not do that.
- It struck me immediately that it might be a Confer New Abilities or Imbue with Magic skill. The problem again, though, is even if it's temporary that would be 15@2, and if as I would think it is permanent it's 15@4, so again we are above the curve.
- I could take this as a simple 1@1 Ritual NOS, a variant of ordination. After all, in sacramental denominations, this laying on of hands to confer the Spirit on the life of the minister is the concept of the ordination ritual. There are a lot of advantages to this, including that once Nikolaj has done it, Qormlach should also be able to do it.
I've got to answer a stack of questions for John 2, but they're not that difficult to answer.
--M. J. Young
John 3 rolls a 12 GE roll on the events of his first day of travel through Sherwood Forest toward Nottingham. That's Good Enough. He also prayed something at the beginning of the day, committing himself to God's care. I've got an idea, but it's going to take a couple of posts of interaction to play it through, and I'm depending on John to be predictable here--I believe I know what he will, or more particularly won't, do, and once he makes that decision I can take the next step.
Heh.
Let the record show that I posted my move before you posted this, and before I read it.
Am I really that predictable? :)
It's late, but I've got laundry to keep me awake anyway, so let me see what I can do with posts from Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, John 2, and, by text message to e-mail, Kyler.
I can imagine that the locals in Galva would dance for the tourists but not teach their dances, and I can imagine that they would also have classes for those who want to learn the local dance styles, so a GE roll has to cover that for Harry. I can use the same GE roll to cover whether they have martial arts instruction (a little less likely), and whether one of the feasts serves boar (very likely). The roll is 13, barely good enough, but I think that will allow at least some of the things he wants. I don't think it's worth bothering to roll for his 1@1 Galva Native Dance M0@2.
John 3 asks whether he is so predictable. John, everyone is predictable in some things. I'd have bet money that you would not participate in robbing a passing carriage. That does not mean I always know what you are going to do, only that sometimes I do. I'd say the same about every player in my game: I'm getting to know you through our interaction. Role playing is an intensely social activity: it is social interaction about social interaction, and through it we reveal who we are and who we want to be. Thus in the same way that you can predict some things about your good friends (Bob always orders the fish sandwich, Jill takes Equal in her coffee), we learn to be able to predict things about each other. It makes the game much more interesting, because knowing how some things will go we then discover what happens next.
In any case, his general effects roll is still playing in his favor here.
I had another shoe to drop in Nikolaj's thread. After all, God gives gifts as He chooses, and tongues is not an easy gift for me to pass around, but healing is both more practical in this scenario and a lower bias.
John 2 finishes the day; he wants to do something tonight.
Now for Kyler, I first post what he sent me, and then answer it. I would not expect that anyone would hassle him much for the first week. For one thing, he made that incredible showing in the kickball game. For another, he never goes anywhere without that rather dangerous looking stick.
That finishes things here.
--M. J. Young
I popped in earlier because I had an odd-shaped piece of free time and hoped to use it to save a bit of time later. I'm not sure whether that worked, as I seem to have inspired more discussion on at least one of the threads I answered, but having dispensed with that I will now turn to the game threads from Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, and John 2. I broke my rule and checked my e-mail on an off day to see if Kyler had responded, but he has not yet done so, so I guess perhaps he will appear in tomorrow's play.
Harry is going to attempt to teach himself the basic forms of the Doshi Do martial arts style. He has the example of a master and some high-level students, so we'll give him 2@10 for example; he has received no instruction, but he does have a 7@8 bias and 2@2 BRA against a 7@1 basic style. That gives him a 59% chance to work out how to do this, and his roll is 81, so I don't have to pull up all the details.
We have another 8d5 for time of the second and final leg of the journey, and another GE roll for events. 2+1+3+5+2+1+4+5=23 days, and a 21 GE roll is bad enough once again, so even odds as to whether it is (odd) a travel event or (even) a port event, and the roll is again even, and against the table the roll is 4, Bar Fight/Police Action. I'm thinking he's going to avoid that entirely, so once again he gets through unscathed.
John 3 probably does not need to hear anyone's thoughts to know what's happening, and probably did not expect that the time for him to pray for this would be so brief, so I will forestall rolling those rolls until I get a confirmation from him that he wants me to continue.
Nikolaj has released the gospel into the midst of the orcs at Kucher's Ranch, and the question now is does he wind up with an Antioch or an Ephesus--does this become the base for a religious revival spreading through the world, or the home of a riot where religions clash? Since the effect the preaching will have cannot be told on so great a scale directly, we use a general effects roll. The 15 rolled is not unfavorable.
Lauren rolls an 01 on a light spell with a +20 sit-mod, which is certainly going to work, so she can show the spell to John 2, the doubter.
That's it for tonight.
--M. J. Young
I am winding down, but hopefully I can manage to tackle play from Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, and John 2, before I run down completely.
The proper way to answer Harry's question is to count the days. I see Durnmist to Tempest 15 days, Tempest to Tristar +16=31 days, repair delay at Tristar +3=34 days, Tristar to Haven +15=49 days, delay at Haven for missing crewman, +2=51 days, Haven to Moon of Korg +23=74 days, Moon of Korg to Sardic +20=94 days, layover in Sardic +3=97 days, Sardic to Galva +21=118 days, layover in Galva +5=123 days, Galva to Durnmist +23=146 days. Now I have to track back to find how many days they guessed it would take. I may need to return to this page for more information about Arabella, but for the moment this post says that they expected him to take nine months to return, and to marry in one year. He is well ahead of schedule.
John 3 wants "insight into the thoughts" of the people he is now offering to help. By this, he means that he wants to understand what they are trying to communicate, plus who they are and why they are here--a tall order, I think, for a "know thoughts" skill which sounds more like it has elements of M7@4 Translations, M7@6 Present Information, maybe a M7@9 Know Character, as well as the M7@8 Hear Thoughts. I'm not certain, though, that this is exactly what he wants in any case. I think perhaps I'd better question him more closely on this.
Nikolaj is full of interesting thoughts and questions. Can orcs read and write? There are probably a lot of men who can't do that, and that suggests that it's not something they would teach orcs; jungle orcs would not have a written language, so orcs could only know how to read and write if they learned in captivity. But then, if Nikolaj prays that someone does, that puts an entirely different spin on the situation than if he asks; so I'd better make sure we're both clear on that before I roll any dice.
John 2 has asked some questions about magic that Lauren can answer, so we'll go there.
--M. J. Young
I'm a bit boggled and a bit frazzled, and not certain why on either point, but I am here, I think, and so I'm going to tackle games from Harry, John 3, Nikolaj, and John 2.
I'm going to clarify a point for Harry, and move on; he can decide about the emeralds and then we'll deal with the job seeking.
I didn't realize that John 3 was modifying a previous miracle. Now I know where he's going with this, so I can manage it.
Since Nikolaj asked about the situation before praying about it, I have to determine the normal conditions. I think he would need an extremely good GE roll for any of the orc slaves to know how to read and write, particularly given that many of the men do not. He gets a 15 GE roll, which is not that. On the other hand, it could remind him that he already has access to something he was going to make.
John 2 wants to jump into magical instruction at the deep end, and his teacher won't do that, so he's not going to get the lesson he wants.
--M. J. Young