MJ, you still haven't said too much about it. I am absolutely 100% could not possibly be more serious about having the ability to fake a psychotic episode. Maybe you can't think of any uses for such a skill, but I damn sure can. I will not accept less than an expert score at it. I think being psychotic for 30 years prior to versing justifies that.
For Graeme's spell, is there no somatic bonus for having to walk in circles? Arguably, that's use of both legs.
Edit: also, this is interesting -
as long as both he and the caster are touching the rope, continuation of ritual component for duration instead of standard 1:20 ratio, +43
Forty-three doesn't look like an ad-hoc number, so I'm guessing you used math; maybe the doublings/halvings formula for TF alterations. Did you treat "continuation of ritual component for duration" as a 1:1 TF:duration ratio for the purposes of calculating the sit-mod?
John, I've already said that under ordinary circumstances a "missed" skill is added to a character sheet when the player encounters a use for it. Since this is such an unusual and unlikely skill, I am not going to invest any of my very precious and extremely limited time into the problems of determining an SAL and Bias Level for it.
You see, when you decide to use it in play, your game grinds to a halt while you and I spend several days talking about what those numbers ought to be. That means that I am doing that work instead of running your game, and it does not take me more time. If we do it now, I am doing that work as well as running your game, and you're using twice as much time, and half of that for something which might never matter.
Scott: on the second point, yes, I counted doublings based on the assumption that the ritual involves touching the rope while activating the spell by thought, and therefore the duration was equal to the ritual. Since for this specific spell a 1:20 TF:duration ratio is suggested, four doublings of the TF makes 16:20, and 20 is 25% greater than 16, rounded to +3, +10 for each doubling, and we get +43.
On the first point, the complication is that the preparation of the material component has been ruled not to be part of the spell. He gets to make the rope one time and use it forever. That means either that he is creating a magic device--which he does not wish to attempt--or he is creating a specific but non-magical material component. Since he is creating the material component separate from the casting of the spell, none of the ritual involved in the material component creation is part of the spell ritual. In that sense, it can be said to be something like holy water as a spell component. We can have holy water that is in essence a magical focus, enspelled to be sensitive to magic; but we can say that the spell requires "water that has been blessed by a cleric of an alliance faith" and thus require no magical properties in the water at all, as long as the blessing has been performed (which could be a simple M+1@1 ceremony NOS). What Graeme has done by the ritual of material object creation is not make a magical object but create what is for practical purposes a unique but reproducible material object, something having a fairly high value because of the time and effort required to create it, but not magical in itself.
Kapish?
With that, let me see what's happening with Harry, John 3, and John 2.
Harry rols 14 on learnign to use the Durnmist Security Whistle, so he starts with a 1@1 SAL on that M0@0 skill. You know what--I've changed my mind: that's a P0@0 skill, since it is used for communication, and thus is a sort of language, not an artistic pursuit.
John 3 is preaching, and that's good; and although I don't want to waste his time writing his exposition, I think I need at least a little more information before I can determine how his audience responds. We'll probably get to a persuasion versus will power check, and I'm starting to think that John needs a bonus on his holy mission, but I don't have to decide that today.
John 2 has a good idea for dealing with the scriff sense that points to his missing equipment. Now we just have to get the details clear.
--M. J. Young
Understood MJ. I keep forgetting that. I think a large part of it is that I finally want to see a 3@ SAL on my sheet. Honestly though, I think it's something I legitimately would have an expert level of skill at. My doctor said that I was the first psychotic she had known in more than 30 years who actually remembered having the episodes at all. I also managed to record the last episode that I had. That HAS to justify an expert score at being able to fake one.
Ah. I had thought the walking bit was part of the spell proper rather than the preparation of the rope. That all makes sense, then, thank you.
I am here with John 3, John 2, and Graeme tonight. Sorry about yesterday; it's been a very rough month.
The back of my mind tells me that John is here about half a century before Wycliff will create the first English translation of the Bible; but I don't think he knows that, and I doubt he will want to wait that long. Since this is "not necessarily" his Earth, he could easily become the first to produce an English Bible. I've had stranger things happen in this universe.
Meanwhile, I'm giving him +2 on his persuasion because I like his approach, and he rolls 15, well within even his 2@1 persuasion; what matters is the will power check of the other guy, but since he has a 1@5 will power, he could not roll a successful check above 14, and that won't be equal, so this is an unnecessary roll. I'm also going to do a quick check of anything I can find about twelfth century Nottingham, as we are quite near the end of that century and the beginning of the next, so that should give me adequate information.
John 2 is going to attempt to teach himself clairvoyance. He didn't exactly say that, but that's what he's doing. I smile, because we're not very far from the day when Lauren would teach him that, but since he's going for it now, we'll roll for it now. I see a 5@10 bias, 2@2 BRA, and 10@ world bias, sums to 82, minus the 3@6 bias for Clairvoyance, gives him 46% chance of success, 5% chance to botch. He rolls 80, so it's not going to work tonight.
When Graeme uses the talking rope, he has to overcome an extra variable: the Mongolchin is an atheist, and so creates a penalty against any magic used directly in connection with himself. The roll this time is 93, so although he has a 1@1 SAL, +24 sit-mod, 2x7@ bias, and 2@2 BRA, that would not be successful even without the -8 sit-mod created by the Mongolchin's resistance. I will give him the detail that he knows to walk away and come back later as a way of changing circumstance; this time he rolls 60, which is a strong enough success to hold everyone together despite the resistance of the Mongolchin.
It occurs to me that I stumbled on something: the Mongolchin should not be able to read minds in Roma because he is an indig, and so bound by the subuniverse rules when he crosses the line. Well, it might not come up again, but we'll see.
--M. J. Young
The back of my mind tells me that John is here about half a century before Wycliff will create the first English translation of the Bible; but I don't think he knows that, and I doubt he will want to wait that long. Since this is "not necessarily" his Earth, he could easily become the first to produce an English Bible. I've had stranger things happen in this universe.
I do know about Wycliff to come (as well as about those who have already been, such as the Waldenses), having read James Wylie's "History of Protestantism" cover to cover ( http://www.doctrine.org/history/ ), and having photographic memory to recall all the fine details in all of their glory.
However, the LORD brought me here, and the LORD told me to help these people. And so my duty is clear... :)
In fact, you can check out "http://www.doctrine.org/history/HPv1b1.htm#CHAPTER 7" to get an idea of both the doctrine I spread and the way I plan to spread it... :D
MJ - I think there's something weird going on with my thread. 1st because I posted a reply and you didn't answer. Second because on the front page it says the last update was "MJ Young - 2 days ago" but my post is AFTER yours and doesn't register. And you left me out of the rotation since then. :(
Osevens, I've had that problem before. It's registering you as a spammer.
Sorry about yesterday; it's been a very rough month.
MJ, it seems like "rough months" are your Neutral GE roll.
How do you fix it?
"You" don't, MJ does.
Yeah, something is really buggy with my account. I only see my own posts when I'm logged in. HELP!
I don't know what caused it, Harry, but your last post on your thread was flagged as possible Spam, and when it does that it doesn't tell me that there's possible Spam on the thread. I've cleared it, and will start with you, and see how far I can get with John 3, John 2, and Graeme. And yes, rough months seem to be the norm. But you didn't miss too much, Harry--I've missed a few days myself, and almost missed this one.
Our best behind-the-scenes supporter e-mailed me links to information on Harry's pistol. The first is to an earlier page in this thread, which reads reports damaging before his martial arts bonus and with ranges 3':6':12':24':+25/6'. The second is to a page of his game, where the gun is described as "a good gun and a new holster. Nothing fancy, just something longer and a bit narrower than the one I got from the pirate, hopefully with a less worn grip, preferably in a red wood like cherry or rosewood." So I'll list
Pistol, flintlock, base damaging, 3':6':12':24':+25/6' with new holster, cherry grip, longer and narrower than standard pirate weapons.
Harry raises two questions for which answers must come from extrapolation and die rolls. The first concerns whether there is any kind of armor used in this world, and he's right to doubt it given that this is an early gunpowder flintlock society; but then, there was still armor in these days, just not on ships, because drowning was a greater danger than being stabbed, and being shot probably meant the armor wouldn't help much anyway. So I will guess that a good GE roll will mean yes--but what would a bad GE roll mean? Private ownership of armor is illegal, it being available only for military use? Given a roll of 26, I'd say that's the case. As to dogs, there is no particular reason to think that they don't exist, or that they do. It would take a particularly bad GE roll to have them be non-existent, but a particularly good one for their to be German Shepherds, and rolls between the two would determine just how suitable for police work such a dog might be. He rolls 15, not unfavorable.
Oh, we also need a roll for his first night of work: 19, not thwarting but generally unfavorable.
The back of my mind tells me that I already determined what was wrong with the woman John 3 is visiting, but I've lost that fragment amidst everything else. I don't see anything that recalls it to mind, and I seem to recall having done tuberculosis with someone else. I don't really know polio well enough, and smallpox comes in epidemics, not individual cases, as is also true of plague. All right, I'll try something. Let's see what he does with this.
There's a calendar question with John 2, which is unfortunate but then I'm really out of time here (it is 4:35 in the morning and I have to be up in one hundred five minutes).
Let me tackle Graeme's conversation with lots of confused chatter, and call it a night--or a morning, or some time of day at any rate.
--M. J. Young
I saw that thing about Harry's pistol. Something crazy is that a Kevlar bulletproof vest will stop modern bullets, but won't stop a primitive, smooth bore flintlock. Kevlar is designed to stop a spinning bullet. A smooth bore weapon, the bullet isn't spinning, and it will go through the vest. Primitive weapons are better in some instances than modern weapons.
I'm here early, after being here late, and find a single thread awaiting. Given how little turn-around time everyone had, that's not that surprising; but for those who missed today's game, I'll catch you next time around. This time it's only John 2.
And really, that's pretty fair, since he was sort of skipped yesterday--a communications confusion in which I thought he was disagreeing when he thought he was agreeing.
John begins his day by attempting again to teach himself Clairvoyance to reach a distant object. The humor is that tomorrow Lauren will teach him that skill; but today he rolls 26, which is good for a 1@1 Clairvoyance P3@6. Now the question is whether he can find his gear. He rolls 14 on a GE roll, which is not desired but generally favorable. He's not going to find his stuff, but he is going to have a much better idea of how to find it.
--M. J. Young
John begins his day by attempting again to teach himself Clairvoyance to reach a distant object. The humor is that tomorrow Lauren will teach him that skill; but today he rolls 26, which is good for a 1@1 Clairvoyance P3@6.
Lauren would have taught me a 3@ skill, after all of those 1@ skills? What happened to the 2@1-3@5 level skills? Hardly seems like Lauren is doing her job.
She doesn't know any.Lauren would have taught me a 3@ skill, after all of those 1@ skills? What happened to the 2@1-3@5 level skills? Hardly seems like Lauren is doing her job.
Seriously, I've got her character paper from all the books leading to her arrival here, and she never uses any other psionic defense nor any lower clairsentient or detect skills. She did teach you the 2@4 Blank Mind yesterday (did you forget to write it down?), and that's the only defense she's ever used.
Now, the Architect would have had a list of psionic defenses that would have kept you busy for a long time, but his teaching style is different, and he wouldn't have taught you all of them.
--M. J. Young
No MJ, a quick check of the board says that I never learned the 2@4 blank minds skill. I think you goofed. She wanted to teach me that, but I wanted to learn the 1@8 Summoning skill. I never learned a 2@4 Blank Minds skill.
John 2, you are correct; I apparently made a note that Lauren was teaching Blank Mind on day 6 but then you asked to learn the Summoning instead. I am making the corrections now, but before I get to that formally I will address game threads from Harry, John 3, and Scott, and then John 2. I was up unexpectedly early this morning, and stayed up so I could do something I ultimately discovered I did not have to do before going where I still did have to go. So I'm a bit tired at this point, but hope to recover soon enough.
I probably ought to create a better picture of Harry's territory. It would enable such interesting questions as the evidence of what the dog did in the night ("But the dog did nothing in the night." "And that is what is interesting.") But I don't want to do it all on the fly, and I don't want to create something I can't track, so we'll let it unfold gradually.
John 3 rolls an 04 on his healing prayer, which suggests that the prayer works, but slowly. We have another miracle, but not so dramatic a one as to stir immediately interest.
There is a question concerning whether Scott will attract any inappropriate attention with his performance of the ritual for creating a holy symbol. The GE roll is 19, which is not thwarting but generally unfavorable.
John 2 has questions, and it's time for Lauren to teach him that Blank Mind skill we'd overlooked. Oooo--she rolls 98 on the skill pattern projection, and I have to check her numbers: I see a 2@8 BRA+2@10 SAL+2x10@ bias=78%, which is 2% chance to botch, a failure but not a botch even without giving her a point or two for familiarity to John.
--M. J. Young
Mistake.
Things are very rough at present, but I think I have a scrap of time here in which to attempt to address game threads from Harry, John 3, Scott, and John 2.
Harry's search for a large dog hits a 28 GE roll. That makes such animals rare in the extreme around here. I'd wager they can be obtained at agricultural locations such as Haven or New Haven; he might have to import one from somewhere. But for the moment we'll stick with none available around here at present.
I'm asking him about the order in which he is launching the skills, because the vision skill to some degree refocuses optical ability into dim light levels, but the olfactory skill draws ability from the other senses. Probably, then, if he does the visual first the olfactory will reduce that, but if he does it the other way the visual will pull back from the olfactory. Not certain, though.
John 3 is now in Nottingham, and is not well known there.
As I posted in his spell description thread, Scott rolled 72 on creating a holy symbol, which is clearly a success given all the sit-mods he's put into this. That gives him 1@2 Create Holy Symbol M+15@1 elaborate extended ritual described in Wingnuts and Wizardry thread.
I have to roll for John 2 to search the universe for his sneakers. He's got 1@1 Clairvoyance, +10 for bias, +22 BRA, 43% chance that it will work. He also needs a GE roll for how well it will work, that is, whether he happens to find what he is seeking. 93 fails, and so does 66. We'll give him one more attempt, 87 also fails.
--M. J. Young
(Technically switching from light to dark - from rods to cones - makes it so you see detail more clearly, but color less so. It's not a matter of light amplification. In the same way that my Telescopic Vision trades panorama for detail, my Night Vision makes me more or less color-blind but everything is in sharp detail, albeit in black-and-white, if I have my biology right. Then again you could be thinking along totally different lines. ymmv.)
Yeah Harry, that was on Mythbusters. The actual reason pirates wore the eye patch was to keep one eye in the dark to preserve night vision. If they went into a dark area, or engaged in night combat, switch the patch to the other eye, and their night vision is ready to go.
I am here. Things have been and continue to be very rough, but I think I can manage to manage game posts for Harry, John 3, Scott, John 2, and Graeme. Posting may be sporadic for a while; I am hoping that it will not be interrupted for a longer period, but can at this time make no promises.
Harry rolls an obviously successful 23 on the Night Vision, and then follows it with 06 on the olfaction, which will also be successful. The weakness of the second success in this case may suggest that he does not get as much olfaction as he might, but it does not reduce his night vision at all.
Harry is also having Durnmist created around him. He is the first player ever to settle in this city (although I think this may be the town in which a previous player spent quite a night on the town), and the details are forming around him. Let's run a General Effects Roll to see what we can about the real estate market. 20 is just bad enough, so it's going to be difficult.
John 3 would need a good enough roll to find anything in the way of musical instruments, and even that would probably be tin whistles or wooden flutes--not the beautiful stringed instruments he wants. 24 is a very bad roll for such things. However, I'm not certain whether he is limiting his search to that area in which strangers are ignored, or moving into the upper class area, which might not make a difference in terms of the roll but might impact his view of the city.
I will go ahead and advance Scott's skills thus:
- 1@3 Ride Skateboard B6@1.
- 1@2 Tur Ki Foo M7@1 Martial Arts Style slow defensive weapon-adverse RF1 grapple -20 def SM +20 att dam mod -5 att SM (penalty)
- 1@2 Gobble-Gobble-What B7@2 Tactical Feint uses one attack, RS=SM on next attack
- 1@2 Fall Impact Absorption, B4@6 fall shock absorption, damage category penalty on falls and related impacts, untargeted success roll
- 2@2 Pizza Chef T1@2
Working with John 2, I have a fight to coordinate. Let's begin with rolls for style. Lauren rolls 11; John 69. John's boxing is 1@10, with a 1@9 BRA and 2x7@ bias, 53% chance of success. That means he's not in stance. He has an advantage, though, and that is that if he can get the initiative, a successful attack will also put him in stance. For initiative, he adds his 1@10 MSV and subtracts her 1@10 TV. She has to use her fluid defensive style, because it is weapon-utilizing and her other style is weapon-dependent; so she's 2@8 in this, with a 2@8 BRA, 2x7@ bias, and 2@2 MSV minus his 1@6 TV gives her 76% chance to hit him. Oh, he also has to overcome her defensive sit-mods for her style; this style is designed to be used when she's hurting, so we'll make it -15SM defensively, which reduces his chance to hit her--and therefore his chance to hit her first--to 38%. He rolls 62, she rolls 7, she's got the initiative. She then rolls 60, coming it fast as lightning. She follows this with an 05 (she has 2@ SAL and 2@ MSV, so she's getting 4 attacks to his 1). He rolls 69 in response, a miss, and she rolls 53, 64.
Maybe he won't try to land that kiss after all.
I've decided that the translator is a 13@ limited AI system. That means that either Graeme interacts with it and it learns language from that interaction, or he is trying to teach himself a modify limited AI skill--a good skill to learn, and the right world in which to learn it. I think I'll go ahead and roll for that, and if it works, he's learned it, and if it doesn't, he's going to have to deal with the AI on its own terms. We have his 11@1 bias, 2@3 BRA, the 15@ world area bias, and since someone showed him how to use it we'll assume a bonus of +5, not quite an example, all minus the 13@3 skill bias, that's 154-133=21% chance of success on this, and he rolls 66.
Graeme's linguistic abilities now include:
- 1@4 Speak Latin P0@0
- 1@3 Speak Mongolchin P0@0
- 1@3 Speak Azmayincan P0@0
--M. J. Young
MJ, isn't there a -15 defensive penalty on her chance to hit me, because of my boxing skill? Kyler did that in the last fight I got into. I didn't see it up there in your calculations. I don't think it would have made much of a difference, but I'm pretty sure I have a -15 penalty on her chance to hit me, because of the boxing skill.
(Doing Therapy)
John -
Let's begin with rolls for style. Lauren rolls 11; John 69. John's boxing is 1@10, with a 1@9 BRA and 2x7@ bias, 53% chance of success. That means he's not in stance.
That meant that you weren't boxing well enough in the first moments of the fight to get your bonuses, which means no -15 defensive sit-mod. If you had made a successful attack roll, that would meant that you had begun boxing well enough to get your bonuses for the rest of the fight (this is what "in style" or "in stance" means: you're in your groove, fighting how you were taught), but you never got that chance to activate your bonuses because Lauren decked you out while you were still off-guard (you failed initiative, too).
This is one of those fights that makes you want to say, "That didn't count! I wasn't ready!" If you went again, chances are roughly fifty-fifty that you'd be in style from the very beginning, and maybe things would go differently.
OK, so this would be more like the time that Greg decked me. (I was on my back before I realized I got hit!!) Makes more sense.
(Doing Therapy)
I am here. Things have been and continue to be very rough
Remembering you in prayer, MJ. :)
For those who are praying, my thanks. My wife prefers I not say too much about "my" personal circumstances, particularly when they are "her" personal circumstances, but I think it safe to say that she is having major surgery early tomorrow morning, and that we are in the midst of a personal financial crisis. That's the tip of the iceberg, but also the important stuff, so let that guide your prayers.
I will attempt to make sense as I address threads from Harry, John 3, Scott, and John 2.
I need to create a few available properties in the ten to fifteen thousand diktar range, that would be likely to be found in a city akin to Durnmist. I'm still running off a 20 GE roll, so I don't see upscale single family home on the options board in that price range.
Concerning Harry's wish to extend his night vision, the usual approach is to chain it; but I suppose if he's willing to spend a full minute "blind" (eyes closed) I'm willing to multiply his duration by ten. That, though, would be a new skill, so I'll have to discuss it with him. The usual duration for clairsensory skills is RS minutes, doubled at level two, tripled at level three. Since level also increases chance of success (as does bias), it's pretty typical that at level one you're looking at one to forty minutes, at level two it's two to a hundred, and at level three it's three minutes to three hours. If we change the base, though, those numbers would be multiplied by ten (RSx10xlevel), which would mean that some nights it did not last all night even when he was expert at it, but generally it would last for several hours even at level one. Harry?
I must ask John 3 to be specific about his guidance prayer.
Scott was expecting to post again before I did, but he didn't; but then, he did give me something to answer, and this gives him an opportunity to process my answer in connection with his next.
Scott's explanation to John 2 is exactly right. I've a bit more to explain to John, but I can cover that.
--M. J. Young
MJ, doesn't it say that even cold cups of water given in God's name will be blessed? I think that applies somehow, not exactly sure how, but anyway.....
(Doing Therapy)
Yeah, I like it like that. I'll spend one minute with my eyes closed to make it last for hours. Considering that means I'll only have to re-up it once or twice a night as opposed to once or twice an hour, it's worth the tradeoff.
Well, I missed another day, but it's not so bad, really. I've a couple hours to accomplish something here now, I think, so let me see what I can accomplish. Harry, John 3, Scott, John 2, and Graeme are all waiting.
Harry has agreed with the updated version of the night vision. It will require a skill learning check, but is a baseline skill. His 5@1 bias cancels the 5@1 bias of the skill, so his chance of success would be his 1@9 BRA, but I'm going to be generous and add his 1@5 SAL in the Night Vision skill as an example, 34% chance that he can do this. 50 is rolled, so he's not going to learn it tonight. He rolls 85 on his holy ground skill, against an 86% chance of success on the smaller area skill.
John 3 needs number crunching for another guidance prayer, a simpler one. He describes it as
I pray that the LORD will direct my steps toward wherever He wishes to use me, and proceed.He also accepts my description of
a minute of quietly spoken prayer.We are still looking at a M+7@7 skill. A 3:00 TF allows a single simple question, but he is asking less than that. I'll allow 1:00TF for such a simple "point me in the right direction" prayer, +5 for appropriate words in a quietly spoken prayer, and require that having prayed he must move in some direction as a action component, but penalize -5 because it is not clear what body parts are required. That makes it a baseline skill. He has a 12@5 bias, +12 for 2@3 religion, and 2@2 BRA, so we're looking at 159-77=82% chance of learning this. 12 is rolled, so he has 1@1 Directional Guidance M+7@7 1:00 TF quietly pray that the Lord will direct his steps wherever He wishes to use him, then move in some direction, +0SM. It also means that God is going to direct his steps into something, so it's time to figure out whether that's something John will enjoy or whether there's trouble ahead. The GE roll is 14, nominally favorable, so we can have good but not miraculous, as it were.
Scott has clarified his training for me, and I get it.
John 2 is having bad luck on the clairvoyance, rolling 64, which I'm pretty sure again is a failure.
I'll catch up with answers to Graeme's excellent questions, and see where he takes them.
--M. J. Young
I'm surprised at how many posts there were in the short time since I posted yesterday; but in game posts it's just Harry, John 3, Scott, and John 2, and so maybe I can cover these before I rush back to the hospital.
It's a bit difficult to assess just how well insulated a house would be that was built in a southern temperate region (think Georgia or northern Florida) in an early gunpowder technology milieu without glass windows. After all, on one hand the big leaks would be the windows and doors, none of which are going to fit as snuggly as ours (we use flexible materials on many frames to create seals), while on the other hand they have the ability to completely seal the hull of a ship against the smallest leaks, but on the third hand there's little sense to tarring the exterior walls of a home in this climate, particularly when that's not the big problem. But we'll give him a GE roll, being mindful that this is a property that is reasonably decent, all things considered. 21 is bad enough, but it could have been considerably worse, so let's proceed with care.
He rolls 15 on learning the extended night vision skill, so that's going to work. 1@1 Extended Night Vision P5@1 one minute of concentration with closed eyes gives clear vision in anything better than absolute darkness for RSx10 minutes. I'm also going to put a bit of time into straightening out his calendar.
Let's roll with John 3 and his traveling companion.
Scott is headed back into his routine.
A roll of 15 means that John 2 has fifteen minutes of clairvoyance during which to search a vast area of space in search of his absent equipment. He gets a 10 GE roll, combined with a straight-line vector, and that's Nearly As Good As Expected, which is good enough for me.
As he reaches Day 8, Lauren rolls 26 on the skill projection, so he's got his example. He rolls 77, but I'm sure enough that he can learn a 2@1 Blank Mind skill with that that I'll just list it as 1@2 Blank Mind P2@1.
I'm gone.
--M. J. Young
Blank Mind P2@4, no?
Scott is correct. I misread it. Blank Mind 2@4.
I am disappointed that I missed Graeme two days ago, and that I missed an entire intervening day; I hope that today is running smoothly enough that I can cover this ground now. But of course I will start with Harry, the "newest" player, then John 3, Scott, John 2, and then Graeme.
I have a lot of work to do with Harry, but I've done quite a bit of it, getting his training program organized. I still have to fix his calendar error--that is, my error on his calendar--and then figure out what skills ought to have advanced recently.
I believe John 3 is about to head into the forest and hunt for Robin once more, but he hasn't said exactly that nor said how he would find the notoriously elusive outlaw, so I'll give him the opportunity to give me his plan.
I should use a GE roll for Scott's travel arrangements, because things can go wrong--but on an 18 not very many will.
I've crossed out the sneakers from John 2's list; the unfinished leatherman never actually got listed, but that's fine. He gets a 24 GE on the holster, so not only is it not a good roll, it's a bad roll.
Style checks: John 61, Lauren 22. John rolls again, 47, he's good. Now he wants to move, but we have initiative checks: John 12, Lauren 85. Her previously calculated 76% chance to hit is now reduced by his -15 style sit-mod to 61%, so he's got the initiative. He rolls 78, a miss. She has four attacks to respond, but his -15 damage mod means that none of her hits will injure him this time. Her rolls are 95, 86, 11, 88, only one hit. It continues with initiatives for the next round: 77, 21, Lauren first, she rolls 63, 24. John responds 09, a light hit. She rolls 85, 98--a botch, she'll lose an attack and give him the initiative. We'll hold the combat there.
I goofed in Graeme's thread, my bad, but it's not a terrible problem and easily corrected. Hey, maybe "silvery" was the best rendering the translation could make of "shiny". I like the druid idea, although the druids aren't terribly well fleshed out in this scenario so I'm going to have to give some thought to the details.
--M. J. Young
I've had a rough day, but I think I can still address posts from Harry, John 3, Scott, and John 2.
I am adding to Harry's sheet:
- 1@6 Peg and Nail Carpentry T2@2
1@8 Use Standard Hand Tools T3@X
1@3 Mortar/Cement Stonework T3@3
John 3 has set me an interesting problem. He wants to detect "sentient" thought, psionically. The psi bias in this world is flatlined, but that might not be a problem: he can detect "thought", without reference to intelligence, as a P3@1 skill. Problem is, that would include much that passes for thought in higher animals--a predator's consideration of the best time to strike or the best target to grab, an herbivore's attention to the surrounding area. If he wants to detect "intelligence", that suggests a threshold, probably 1@1, and is a P3@3 skill, which he could not perform. I think he means the latter. In play, I would let him roll, noting here that that roll is 17, and tell him that he has no sense of detecting any such creature. It would be up to him to decide whether he had simply failed to detect it or whether the skill did not work in this bias.
I also know that Robin's camp is far enough from Nottingham that those afoot cannot easily travel between the two. He often camps nearer, but the huts and campfires and such have to be far enough away that the Shire Reeve cannot easily mount a search and attack. That means it will take him more than one day to get there.
Scott has an intriguing obscuring spell he wants to try, specifically intended to obscure his actions against detection when he uses psionics. That's interesting.
John 2 is in the middle of that sparring match, and is also asking about some other things. Lauren had lost the initiative and one attack, but John rolls 75, and so misses anyway. She has three attacks still in the minute, and they roll at 56, 55, 12, all hits. New initiative rolls are 25, 37, and since we've been rolling John first, Lauren has the initiative because of a higher successful roll. She rolls two attacks, she'll use the first tactically to leap over him 41, 10 on the strike, he gets to move before she strikes again, 10, so he hits her. She's expanding into her various tricks, so next I think will be the momentum throw, 40. He needs a simple agility check to keep his feet, rolls 29, which I know is a failure. She will also do her aggressive tumbling, 11, for her final strike in the minute. She's pulling her punches, so she won't land on him.
Anyway, one good thing that might come from this is that he might trust her to watch his back if they get in a fight.
--M. J. Young
MJ, how can a 12 be a hit? Don't I have a -15 on her chance to hit me? Wouldn't that reduce the 12 to -3, and make it a miss? When I got into the fight at Pearl Harbor, I thought that was how Kyler was doing it.
(Doing Therapy)
John - from the mechanics post for the beginning of the fight, we have:
Style checks: John 61, Lauren 22. John rolls again, 47, he's good. Now he wants to move, but we have initiative checks: John 12, Lauren 85. Her previously calculated 76% chance to hit is now reduced by his -15 style sit-mod to 61%, so he's got the initiative . . .
From this, I understand that your sit-mod is against her attacks, not against her damage. The -15 reduces her chance to hit from 76% to 61%, so rolls of 62-76 now miss instead of hitting (for lots of damage).
If instead you had a defensive damage mod, it would be subtracted from any successful roll's relative success - that is, a 76 would still hit, but it would do damage as if it were a 61; likewise, a 12 would hit, but it wouldn't do any damage, because twelve minus fifteen is less than one.
I think Kyler did it differently, or maybe I misunderstood how he did it. I just wanted to make sure I understood what was happening.
(Doing Therapy)
Two Posts
I think Kyler did it by taking 15 away from each of the attacker's rolls. That would make hard hits softer, and make soft hits non-existent, if I'm understanding correctly. It would kind of be a 30 bonus in a way. I think I like that way better....
(Doing Therapy)