This is going to wind up like Will Riker turning down command over and over again because, dammit, it's just not the same if its not the Enterprise.
Quoting Captain Kirk, who was supposedly quoting an author named Milton.
"It is better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven."
(Doing Therapy)
Who was himself writing the character of Lucifer at the time. *ahem*
John, what you're missing in this is that the attack has not yet happened, and Sarah stayed near the U.S. at least until your birth in this version of the story--you were born in a U.S. hospital as a U.S. citizen, so she would have stayed close and would have made contacts in the U.S. and northern Mexico. She's still in Mexico, and she's not had much of a chance to make more contacts because weird things keep happening.
I'm really tired and out of balance today, as I mentioned in the Blogless Lepolt--so much so that I've already posted a response to John 2 while I was opening threads. So that's out of order, but I can still turn my attention to Eli, Michael, Kurt, and Harry.
I'm not going to make trouble for Eli in connection with the clothes--they're straightforward enough, but a 2d10+1 roll will determine how easy: 7. As to whether they can point him to a ninja, the roll of 12 is good enough. Oh, but he needs a language roll: 77 is not good on this.
Michael is going to make it difficult for me, of course, by immediately introducing himself to the characters I haven't yet detailed; but we'll get there.
Hmmm--it seems that with Michael and Kurt I'm going to be dealing with earlier English, so I might as well go with that in Kurt's scenario. Of course, for reasons that will emerge in Michael's, Kurt's is the one in which I have to get it right.
Harry has got me thinking about the future development of the fire company, so we'll continue the conversation a bit longer.
--M. J. Young
She's still in Mexico, and she's not had much of a chance to make more contacts because weird things keep happening.
Ya know MJ, I had to reread this a few times, but I think I now understand my situation. Cease and desist all paranormal activity. Be a baby for a while. I hate this being trapped inside my own body crap. Is this a normal thing for zygoted versers?
(Dextroland)
Considering the alternative - trying to vehemently reassert yourself too quickly - can lead to Whisp and Mother, I should hope so, wouldn't you agree?Is this a normal thing for zygoted versers?
No, I meant is trying to vehemently reassert yourself too quickly normal for zygoted versers?
I suppose it depends on the Verser.
I, for one, would be using this time to work on my telepathic skills, TK Pulse, that so-very-yummy 10@1 Psionic force shield I haven't had the time to tinker with yet. Subtle things that involve no physical components and most of all don't arouse interest. Be a child prodigy later and meanwhile avail yourself of a few years of nothing better to do than poke a ball around with your brain, or develop some Mag 2@1 Healing skills that use time to eat up the no-component penalties. It might come in handy later on. Y'know, for most people a good night's rest cures a headache. For you a good night's rest cures a near-death experience.
Face it, you're useless in a fight right now anyway, but you have a fairly badass woman watching over you, so you're in decent shape that way. Once your body is fully under your control, you'll have an entire lifetime to rebuild your Bod skills and get massively jacked (presuming you would, as I would, eat better the second time around, having had the experience of all those bad-for-you foods already). For now, work on things that involve only your brain, which is intact, and your spirit (divine magic is SO very yummy) and that don't call attention to yourself and enjoy being pampered like a puppy for a while. Especially where you are, things are going to get bullet-y soon enough.
Of course, that's what I would do. Your mileage may vary.
I think I finally get that. You're right. At least until I can tell Sarah who and what I am, I best not be doing anything out of the ordinary. Sarah's son isn't going to have a first word, he will just suddenly begin speaking in complete sentences.
Yes, it is normal for zygoted versers to feel trapped in their own bodies and to be frustrated about everything they can't do yet. There's also an aspect of revealing your identity. Whisp did, di Vars did not--but that's pretty common for them, since wherever Whisp goes he brags about who and what he is to impress girls and wherever di Vars goes he tries to fit into the society around him as much as possible.
I'm not completely exhausted, but I'm tired enough that I don't want to stall here. Let's tackle posts from Eli, Michael, Kurt, Harry, and John 2.
Eli needs another language skill check, 02 very weakly successful.
Michael has introduced himself to the others, and is invited to the castle.
Kurt gets to the camp.
Harry misread something, I think; but we'll get it clarified.
I'll be moving John 2 forward again probably tomorrow, assuming we don't have trouble along the way.
--M. J. Young
A1Nut - Remember that Language may be a Psi-bias skill, but your body still has to remember how to form words. You're still going to be talking gibberish until you get practice in. That is, you might speak in complete sentences, but don't be surprised if it's the better part of a year before anyone can tell what the heck you're saying.
don't be surprised if it's the better part of a year before anyone can tell what the heck you're saying.
I knew a 3 year old girl who had a better vocabulary than I do now. I'm not going to try to speak in complete sentences until I actually can speak in complete sentences. A year and a half before I attempt it, at least.
(Doing Therapy)
I collapsed a bit early last night, and was up a bit early today, and so despite Wednesdays being busy I've managed to post a new article (Adapting Introduction) and finish the e-mail and get started on forum posts a bit on the early side. Eli, Michael, Harry, and John 2 all gain the benefit of this.
In true ninja fashion, Eli has chosen to travel by night--in the woods, where it is particularly dark. I'm not certain how he intends to negotiate this, but will let him tell me.
Again Michael does the unexpected--he asks for instruction on how to fly. Well, they'll certainly try to explain it to him, and that will give him an instructor bonus; but the only teacher here is Gwen, and she being a girl flies with a broom, a different technique from that used by the boys, and the girls don't believe boys can fly with brooms (or that girls can fly without them), so there's no teacher bonus. Also, Michael has not learned to watch or read skill patterns, and the warlocks have not learned to project them, so there isn't an example. What there is is
- Michael's 1@10 psi bias, plus
- his 2@1 BRA (persuasion), plus
- half Randal's psi BRA, which I'm setting as a 2@5 intuition (guessing that all the witches and warlocks have very high intuitions) so that's +13
- plus the 15@ world psi bias
- minus the 4@10 skill target equals
Harry is due for another GE roll for how things are going, and he gets a 23, nearly as bad as anticipated. Something bad is going to happen. My immediate thought was that the firestation gets robbed, but it's manned constantly by members of the town watch and has nothing of particular interest or value to a thief, so I'm going to look elsewhere.
A review of information reminds me that Harry's watch division was on the waterfront, and his firefighter office covers his old watch division plus three adjacent ones to create a square area. It is not that close to center city. That would make for an interesting complication.
John hits me with an interesting challenge. He is praying a summoning prayer for a specific individual who is in the future. Of course, summoning does not guarantee a mode of transportation; on the other hand, it is possible that the person named might already be alive, and even if he isn't it might be possible for the summoning skill to bring him to John as soon as he is born--that's not what he wants, but it's what he asked. The more immediate question is, what is the mag bias? I figure it is probably 0@2, but I'm not averse to the possibility that it's got a much higher curve, even a 0@25. I am considerably less comfortable with the idea of raising the level, but I suppose I might make it a world in which there really is magic hiding somewhere and most people never knew it. So since I've not actually set the mag bias yet let's use a GE roll for it: 8 is Remarkably Good but Not Unexpected. If I make it 7@10, the curve is 17 and there would be indigenous magic through the heavy informations skills somewhere. This has a significant impact on the way the world plays, but I'm not unhappy with it. I'm noting, too, the tech bias must be at least 15@5 to include a time travel projector; this also includes a 13@7 design hard-wired M/MI; it excludes the design and building of a UIM, but since SkyNet was created by botch and the Terminators are normal AIs, I only need a curve of 22 to cover design of normal AI. That means a Tech bias of 15@7. It's already established that the psi bias is flatlined, 0@1, and the bod bias need not be better than earth normal, which we'll call 13@2.
That also means that an Attract Local Sentient Fighter skill would work; but I think I have to cover some bases on this before I do it. There is also the question of whether Derek Reese even exists in this world (my canon is based on my resolution of the movies, and there is no mention of him in them), but that's a matter to resolve after I've resolved the details of the skill.
--M. J. Young
That also means that an Attract Local Sentient Fighter skill would work; but I think I have to cover some bases on this before I do it. There is also the question of whether Derek Reese even exists in this world (my canon is based on my resolution of the movies, and there is no mention of him in them), but that's a matter to resolve after I've resolved the details of the skill.
MJ, I was thinking about that. I'm going to summon a future soldier whether Derek exists or not. Might as well make it one which Sarah would already have a level of trust in (I mean, Kyle's brother is about the next best thing to getting him back) Plus, you could easily remember the name. Might as well, just for simplicity sake.
If you could do it without too much trouble, see if you could watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles on DVD. Derek is in that after a few episodes, it would give you a better idea how to play him. Don't go out of your way to do it, but if you're at the video store and they have that show, get a few disks.
(Doing Therapy)
If you could do it without too much trouble, see if you could watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles on DVD.
It would not be too much trouble if someone were to send me the series on DVD and permit me a year or two to squeeze it into my viewing schedule, and if I could be assured that there would never be another Terminator movie. This last is for the same reason that I don't watch director's cuts of time travel movies: I don't want to have memories of parts of the story that are not part of the theatrical version.
Besides, I have already decided that nothing in the universe of The Sarah Conner Chronicles is part of this universe--or the comics or novels or any other non-movie part of the franchise. I might not get everything right according to the movies, but that's my reference.
As to playing Derek "right", I first have to determine whether he exists at all, and then I have to determine in which timeline(s) he exists (if you've seen my work on Terminator Salvation, you'll recall that in Terminator part 15: bad dates I argue that in different timelines Kyle Reese was probably a different person with a different mother (because of judgment day happening either before or after his birth). That means whether or not he had a brother or a half brother is similarly uncertain, as is whether the brother would be older or younger, whether he would have the same or a different mother, and what his name would be. I can, in short, play him (and Kyle, too) any way I want, and play him differently if history repeats with him in it again.
Now, let's see what we can do with Eli, Michael, Kurt, Harry, and John 2.
Use Flashlight falls under switches in the 1990's Basic Technology Package, for which I think most people have a 1@10 SAL; and a flashlight is a user-friendly 9@0 device so +20 on that. His local tech bias, though, is only 5@3, so its 1@10 SAL+2x5@ bias+2@3 BRA+20SM=73% chance that he can get the flashlight working for him. He rolls 93, not working for him. Ah, well, Eli will have to travel tomorrow.
I'm not certain whether Michael will want to say or do anything while he is en route to the castle, but despite the fact that his choices are limited I'll let him tell me what he does.
Kurt has to get settled into the camp.
Harry has decided to fight the fire despite the distance from the base. We'll give it all they've got.
It suddenly occurs to me as I'm working on John 2's latest spell that even if it works he won't see the results: he is petitioning God to incite someone in the future to make a trip to the past, but assuming God does that, all the time between now and the future must pass before that person can leave the future. What John's prayer, if successful, will do is complicate the time line a bit more and give us yet another replay point. (He has not yet experienced a replay point; the first is slated to happen when he's thirteen, so it should be a while.) But it's what he wants to do, so let's work it through.
What does the skill do? It is an attract, not a control, but a summoning and thus M11@. It is also sentient. The toughest question is whether it is local or off-world.
Local creatures come from the present sub-universe. Off-world creatures come from anywhere else. If the creature is local....[it] lives or exists in this universe as its original and primary home....Off-world creatures may come from connected sub-universes, related universes, other universes, or border supernatural areas....They must have the ability to cross the boundaries and if necessary traverse the distance quickly....A verser is an off-world creature;...
Although a referee might rule otherwise, I am taking a summoning from the future to be an "off-world" creature, based primarily on the use of the present tense statement that a local creature "lives or exists in this universe", and a creature not yet living or existing does not live or exist here. That makes this off-world. I was thinking that it was a fighter, but then I thought no, it's an informer, and then I realized it is both, and thus it must be Attract Off-world Fighter/Informer, which is M11@9 (11@8 for attract off-world sentient informer plus one intensity for including fighter in the same creature). That's above the stated mag bias; however, as I recall that bias was set to make this skill possible, so we'll raise it to 7@13 to make the curve 20.
Now for the time factor.
- An attract skill has a base time of 0:00:30.
- There is a -10 penalty for attracting the target to a remote location rather than directly to the character, but I'm not certain whether to apply that here or not; I'm still thinking about it.
- Off-world doubles the base time factor to 00:01:00.
- Sentient doubles the base time factor to 00:02:00.
- Fighter doubles the time factor to 00:04:00.
- Informer triples the time factor to 00:12:00.
So we have a base TF of 12:00.
We've agreed that the casting time is 4:00:00, which is 4x60=240 minutes. Four doublings of 12 is 192, which leaves 48, which is one quarter of 192 for 25% more, which we'll make a total bonus of +43. I'm giving +5 appropriateness for the focused thought prayer, and +10 for the fasting and not crying on the requirement that it he must succeed at a will power check to do so. The magic is technically entirely by thought--no speech, no action, no objects--so that's -25. The inherent sit-mod for this skill is +33.
John has a 12@6 Mag BRA. He is not modeling this after his other summoning skills, so he has no example. He gets half his 1@8 religion score as a bonus, and his 2@2 BRA, so that's 12@6+9+2@2+33=190-11@9=71% chance of success, much higher than I anticipated, but the dice have been cold today so I might not have to do anything at all.
It also occurs to me as an interesting aside that if this works, sometime in the distant future Derek Reese is going to tell John Conner that he wants to travel back to check on John and Sarah in the past, and it will be up to John--that is, the player--whether to make that happen. That, though, eliminates part of the GE roll. It also occurs to me that this is much more complicated than I thought: it may be that Derek Reese exists in one timeline and not in another, and thus his existence or non-existence could wreak havoc with history. But let's burn that bridge when we come to it. Right now we have to roll for whether the skill works, and the roll is 05, barely successful. That means I have to
- put together the details of the skill
- Roll the necessary will power check for success,
- determine whether Derek Reese exists in this or any other history, and when he is born, and
- start a new thread to create one of those aforementioned replay points.
The skill reads:
- 1@1 Attract Off-world Sentient Fighter/Informer from Future M11@9 prayer is entirely by thought, appropriately requesting a specific individual to choose to travel from the future by his own means, thought prayer continuing for four hours, will power check required to maintain focus despite hunger of not eating or other discomforts, 4:00:00TF +33 SM
Rolling the will power check: 18+13=not going to happen. He learned how to do the skill, but he did not succeed in doing it.
I don't have to work out the existence of Derek Reese or start the replay point thread yet, but he might try again (the probabilities will change, because he will be performing a known skill) so I'll have to keep it all in mind.
--M. J. Young
MJ, I think the question of whether Derek Reese exists is kind of moot. I want a future soldier to come back, regardless of who it is. If Derek Reese doesn't exist, I'll just summon someone else. A large part of the reason why I'm trying to get Derek Reese is because you hate dealing with names. We know the Reese name in connection with this story, and I had Derek Brown in my last world. That makes the name easy for you to remember. If his name was Brian Reese, I wouldn't be so eager to summon Kyle's brother specifically. You said K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. That's what I'm trying to do. Make it simple for you. Of course Derek Reese exists. He exists because you say so, and you say so because it would be the easiest, most simple character to introduce into the story. You can say that Derek Reese doesn't exist, and that's fine. Just bear in mind that, if you do that, I will summon a future soldier who will have a name you will have to remember. Might as well make it a future soldier with a name you already know.
So, in short, I'm trying to make this easy for you. Why would you make that difficult for me?
Two
It would not be too much trouble if someone were to send me the series on DVD and permit me a year or two to squeeze it into my viewing schedule, and if I could be assured that there would never be another Terminator movie. This last is for the same reason that I don't watch director's cuts of time travel movies: I don't want to have memories of parts of the story that are not part of the theatrical version.
So going to the video store isn't a normal thing for you? I didn't realize that. I figured you could just get that in lieu of whatever other mindless movie you were planning to get.
Three
Hours later, after giving it some thought, I feel kind of stupid for thinking you went to the video store on a regular basis. I guess it's because I know you've seen a lot of time travel movies. Oh well. It's still a suggestion.
(Doing Therapy)
John, first off I think you're missing the point that MJ is creating the world based on his interpretation of the movies, and only the movies.
Also, you mention that MJ could fit it in as opposed to a mindless movie he was planning on watching. Under the assumption that MJ regularly watches movies without an intent in watching them, an assumption that I actually doubt, you're asking him to take time he sets aside for a relaxing process to watch a series on which you expect him to at a bare minimum make mental notes on the characteristics of one of the characters. It's not the same criteria to relax as the first was.
Also, if he agrees to run the future soldier as Derek from the series then I could easily see it becoming a problem when you disagree with an action Derek takes and claim it's not something he would do. As it stands now MJ is defining the personality so he can't run into that issue.
You make it sound so much more rude on my part than it had been intended. Or perhaps I just thought he would enjoy that TV series, and he would like to get some insight into how the characters behave? And no, I wouldn't argue about how Derek would behave, because this wouldn't be the Derek from the show. And did I not say I felt stupid for suggesting it?
It sounded rude when I read it, and I was just trying to outline that. As to liking the show, who knows, but that wasn't exactly the way you proposed it, it was proposed as a learning exercise.
As to the idea of how Derek would act, if it's not so that you can have some expectation of how Derek will act then the personality that MJ uses really has no bearing.
As to when you said you felt stupid for suggesting it it, it didn't really address the reasoning that I was suggesting.
I get movies without intent. My rule of thumb at the video store is "When in doubt, get the one with a good looking girl on the cover."
I just thought he would enjoy the TV series and would like to get some insight into the characters. That's it and that's all. As far as proposing it as a learning exercise, that would just be an added bonus. It's a cool show. And isn't Summer Glau a good looking girl on the cover??
Two
Glantri, not to sound too rude, but I saw a political cartoon some years ago. It was a painter and an art critic. The painter had done a piece which was nothing recognizable. It was paint splattered on a canvas. A drop cloth. The kind of thing a preschooler would make in finger painting class. The art critic looked at it and said "I see all the hidden perverted, sexual images you've so cleverly hidden in the work. There's no doubt about it. YOU have a filthy mind."
I can't help but draw a comparison between you and the art critic in that caption. Seeing things in my writings which were certainly not there intentionally.
Ah, summertime, and the heat makes the office computer unstable. I had a lot of this response to John written, and the computer seized and lost it all (because I was writing it in Notepad, it been too complicated to handle conveniently in the browser text window--but let's change that this time, so we don't lose so much if it crashes again).
John wrote
I want a future soldier to come back, regardless of who it is. If Derek Reese doesn't exist, I'll just summon someone else.Ah, but this prayer specifies Derek Reese, so it matters whether Derek Reese exists. If he doesn't, sure, you can try to summon someone else. But you will have to do that.
Of course Derek Reese exists. He exists because you say so, and you say so because it would be the easiest, most simple character to introduce into the story. You can say that Derek Reese doesn't exist, and that's fine.
If it had been my idea to include Derek Reese, that would apply. However, the problem here is that you have inherently stated that you would like the world to include Derek Reese. That is neither something in the canon of films (which at least strongly suggest that Kyle Reese is an only child and an orphan by the time he is a teenager) nor something in my original design. It therefore requires a GE roll to determine whether Derek Reese exists, and whether he is the person you envision. (It is entirely possible that Derek Reese is a war cripple or an idiot savant or some other handicapped individual. You asked for him by name.)
We surrendered on Blockbuster years ago, because we could never return films on time. I do get things from Redbox occasionally, because it will never cost more than thirty dollars if I never return the disk. They have mostly current movies, and never have television episodes.So going to the video store isn't a normal thing for you?
I could have watched the series when it originated. I did not do so, because I did not consider it worth my time. It didn't help that at the time I had no way to record shows and watch them at my convenience, but I think that the number of e-mails I got from people who simply assumed that I must be watching the series helped put me off it. Time travel on television tends to be really bad, and although I have in the past enjoyed a few shows (Quantum Leap, Time Tunnel), I try not to think too hard about them, because they're almost always temporal disasters.Or perhaps I just thought he would enjoy that TV series, and he would like to get some insight into how the characters behave?
Oh, and Mike's right: you came across rude.
I'm going to post this and start afresh with the game threads.
--M. J. Young
Let's see what we can do with the game posts from Michael, Kurt, Harry, and John 2.
Michael reaches the castle and the nightly party.
Kurt has expressed an interest in the lute; we'll see where that takes him. Interestingly, I think the last player I ran in this world took an interest in Allan and the lute, but it never happened before that I recall.
Harry is on his way to another fire. This one might be big, if not as a conflagration at least as a political matter.
John 2 learned this skill yesterday:
1@1 Attract Off-world Sentient Fighter/Informer from Future M11@9 prayer is entirely by thought, appropriately requesting a specific individual to choose to travel from the future by his own means, thought prayer continuing for four hours, will power check required to maintain focus despite hunger of not eating or other discomforts, 4:00:00TF +33 SM
He intends to attempt to perform it again today. We've decided that the mag bias is actually 7@, so that's +14, +his 1@1 SAL+the 33 SM+9 for his religion+a 2@2 BRA=89% chance that he can do this, provided he succeeds at the will power check. We'll roll that first, 15+17=don't have to look up his attribute.
The diaper rash is pretty much automatic--all babies get it, and the more so when they lie around in dirty diapers.
--M. J. Young
It therefore requires a GE roll to determine whether Derek Reese exists, and whether he is the person you envision. (It is entirely possible that Derek Reese is a war cripple or an idiot savant or some other handicapped individual. You asked for him by name.)
I say again, I'm trying to make this easy on you, why are you trying to make it difficult on me? You do have the referee's power to say "Derek Reese exists and he is exactly the soldier you envision" do you not? If it isn't Derek, it WILL be a future soldier. That future soldier WILL have a name you will need to remember. Why not just make it easy on all involved and referee fiat it so that Derek Reese exists? If you're not willing to do that, then you kind of lose all rights to complain about having to remember his name.
Oh, and Mike's right: you came across rude.
Just like I used to say that you came across rude in your time travel emails, right? If it were my intention to be rude, you would have expelled me from the board years ago.
Lack of intention to be rude doesn't necessarily make something not sound rude. When I'm being rude I hope people tell me so I can evaluate my behavior. As to the comparison I don't exactly agree it's a valid comparison but if you wish to look at me that way that's you're right.
As to the comparison I don't exactly agree it's a valid comparison but if you wish to look at me that way that's you're right.
The comparison was a little bit overboard, I admit, but I still think you're just reading rudeness in where none was ever meant. I used to do that to MJ over email. I mean, having a complete stranger write pointless time travel questions HAS to be annoying. I didn't realize that it was what he had chosen to do as his life's work. I would read annoyance and rudeness into his writing, when none was there, and if any was, it was completely unintentional. I think that's the case here.
(Doing Therapy)
I say again, I'm trying to make this easy on you, why are you trying to make it difficult on me? You do have the referee's power to say "Derek Reese exists and he is exactly the soldier you envision" do you not? If it isn't Derek, it WILL be a future soldier. That future soldier WILL have a name you will need to remember. Why not just make it easy on all involved and referee fiat it so that Derek Reese exists? If you're not willing to do that, then you kind of lose all rights to complain about having to remember his name.
I don't think you've given any thought to what you are saying, John.
- Actually, no, once you have introduced the proposition that you want some specific person to exist in this world, you strip me of the power to make that decision and force it to go to the game mechanics. You could, for example, declare that you want to summon John Rambo. Rambo might exist in this world, and he might be all the things he is in the movies. Or John McClane, or Casey Ryback, or Kwai Chang Caine, or Jack Ryan, or Jack Bauer, or a hundred other heroes might exist in this world. If you said you wanted someone like this person to come help you, there would certainly be someone like this person; but once you say you want this person, you tie my hands, and I must determine whether this person exists, using the appropriate game mechanics.
- You also seem to have forgotten everything you ever learned about temporal mechanics. Think about it, John: what happens if right now, in the original A-B timeline, you perform an action which will cause someone to leave from point B to travel to the past to meet you? When will you find out whether it worked? You know the answer to that, and if it's just dawned on you what effect this prayer will have, you're probably banging your head against a wall or kicking yourself somewhere that will prevent you from sitting at the keyboard for a while.
- I'm not in the least worried about trying to remember the name of whoever I ultimately choose to send back. It might be Bob Grosso, or Roy Young, or Archie Bradley, or Terry Darco--all names that are someone to me, someone on whose character I can draw to flesh out the details of his responses quite easily, and for whom you can have no expectations because you never met my cousin, my brother, or my college classmates. Your effort to help is meaningless to me; I'd just as soon not have a Derek Reese involved because then he will ultimately get confused with the other Derek and the other Reese. But if your prayer works, we'll make it Derek Reese--who will arrive at the point in times at which a time traveler departing from your future would arrive. And if you pray for someone else, too, and that is successful, that person will also arrive at the point in times at which that person would arrive.
- You have also suggested that the resistance didn't have the time machine until the end of the war; that's obviously not so, because Kyle Reese must have come back long before the end of the war--he only thought the war was almost over. What, though, if Derek Reese waits until the war is over before he comes to you? Or what if he leaves before playing some critical part in the future history? You didn't really specify when he should depart; you don't know how old he will be, what he will have done, what he will have left undone, or anything else. Terminator plays fast and loose with its time travel events, but I don't, and I intend for every anomaly to have its full consequences, whatever they are.
Oh, and as far as making my job easier, adding another time travel event to a story already rife with temporal anomalies cannot possibly make my job "easier" and stands an excellent chance of putting you into an infinity loop from which you will be unable to escape without the intervention of another verser. I might ask for volunteers at that point, but I don't know that I'll get any.
--M. J. Young
I'm going to calm down and get another cup of coffee, and then I'm going to start working on the threads from Michael, Kurt, and John 2.
Michael is observing the party for the moment. I'll have to think about how Brom would approach a new warlock who makes no pretense at being a soldier, and how he will fit into the story here as it unfolds.
Kurt gets a view of the world condition from the group's minstrel--probably the first person actually to ask for such a thing, although he did not quite do so directly. That might help him determine what to do in the future.
John 2 has failed to complete his ritual twice, and is considering redesigning it into a new skill. We'll see what he thinks (although given other comments made about this skill, he might be rethinking the idea in its entirety).
--M. J. Young
You also seem to have forgotten everything you ever learned about temporal mechanics. Think about it, John: what happens if right now, in the original A-B timeline, you perform an action which will cause someone to leave from point B to travel to the past to meet you? When will you find out whether it worked? You know the answer to that, and if it's just dawned on you what effect this prayer will have, you're probably banging your head against a wall or kicking yourself somewhere that will prevent you from sitting at the keyboard for a while.
If I were in the AB timeline, the consequence would be that I would have to wait until the CD timeline for the summoned person to come back. However, since Reese and the Terminator have already come back, I'm not in the AB timeline, I am in, at least, the EF timeline. I was trying to call Derek from the CD timeline. Perhaps you're the one who has forgotten their temporal mechanics? None of which really matters anymore though. I think you will be flabbergastedly surprised at what today's game post is. With this, you made me realize something that was in the back of my mind the whole time.
(although given other comments made about this skill, he might be rethinking the idea in its entirety).
You could say that, yes.
(Doing Therapy)
MJ, if you thought this was the AB timeline (which it isn't and can't be) were you intending for me to play every timeline which followed? We could be doing this forever.
(Doing Therapy)
More than one
AB timeline??? Are you nuts? If the T-1000, TX, and the two Arnolds come back, then this is AT LEAST the MN timeline. All the more reason to follow my stated actions in-game.
It looks like I might be starting a thread about timeline interactions in multiple temporal anomalies; but for the moment let's see how much I can accomplish if I begin with Eli then Michael then Scott and finally John 2.
I should get a GE roll for events surrounding Eli's story, and the roll is 12, good enough.
Michael meets another character.
I think Scott also needs a GE roll, although a check of his charisma and animal magnetism are in order in interpreting our expectations. The GE roll is 17; his Charisma and An-mag are both 1@9, good strong numbers, so we expect some positive response to a good pitch for a good product.
I'm going to have to turn John 2's problems over a bit in another thread.
--M. J. Young
It seems I opened the board early yesterday and then returned to it later, and so I did not see several game posts; some of those whose posts I did see and answer have returned. That gives me Eli, Kurt, Harry, Scott, and John 2.
I almost forgot that Eli can't understand what anyone says without a successful language skill check, so let's roll for that: 67, not his day.
Kurt should roll a persuasion check, but his offer is enticing and I think we'll give him +3 intensities on his persuasion, which makes it 1@10. A simple check rolls 7+17=24, though, so that's not successful.
Harry faces a stamina check for a five-mile jog, and 15+7=22, higher than his 1@9 stamina. By now he'll have a pretty big fire to handle, so let's see how he takes it.
Wondering about Scott's finances it occurs to me to wonder whether anyone would give him a tip--the easy way, suggesting he keep the change--but a GE roll of 20 says no, that doesn't happen, and he's mostly making change.
He wants to know how long it lasts, and that poses a problem for me--since his chance of success is 100% as long as there's no resistance, there's an equal probability of times from one to five days; but since this customer came back, the effect must have worn off, and thus for this one it did not last longer than the number of days since he started, and I've only tracked five days so if this customer came from the first day it was less than five (which would fail on the sixth day), and so for each customer. But it isn't that important, and I'll go ahead and roll his success check for that customer. The roll of 98 is excluded, though, because I've already established that it can't have lasted that long; I'll use that, though, to make it the first day's customer coming back on the fifth day.
I also need another GE roll for how things continue over the next few days: 8+4+2=14, mildly favorable.
John 2 is weighing his options and changing his plans, I think. Something interesting might yet emerge.
--M. J. Young
John 2 is weighing his options and changing his plans, I think. Something interesting might yet emerge.
Yeah, sorry about that. That was just totally freaking me out. Oh wow. I'll get through it. Hey, at least I'm thinking about it now!!!
(Doing Therapy)
It's getting later than I thought, and I've gone through two liters of soda in four hours trying to stay hydrated, but I don't think I'm on a short deadline tonight so I'm going to start working on Eli's post, then turn to Michael whom I apparently just missed yesterday and almost overlooked today, then Kurt, Harry, and John 2. If I vanish for a while, don't worry--unless the now dispersing heat seriously crashes the computer, I will return.
It keeps striking to me that Eli refers to the language as "Japanese", and although indeed it is Japanese, since it's the only language in the entire world and "Japan" does not as such exist, it is unlikely that it is called anything other than "language". But we'll give him a skill check, 64, which suggests he isn't communicating well. I'll be generous and give him another roll for whether he understands the reply: 99, well, that's a botch. Botches in communications mean you heard or said the wrong thing, and it's pretty obvious that if the man asked what is meant by "I don't understand language" it could come across as "what kind of idiot are you?"
And now I'm having access problems; well, hours later, I'm back.
Michael probably can prove his a warlock, if he thinks of how and things go well for him; but let's see what he does.
The use of Kurt's sunglasses is a T6@1 skill, which means that he's the only person in this world who can use them, but he can use them on a successful skill check. The world bias is 5@ so he only gets +10 for 2xbias; he has his 2@2 BRA and an SAL of not less than 1@1 and probably not greater than 1@5, so his chance of success is not less than 43% and not greater than 48%, which gives us a reasonable basis for a roll: 36 works.
Harry has an interesting new wrinkle in his present permutation of a remove fatigue spell, and I'd like to explore it.
John 2 has based most of his actions on the assumption that a skill will succeed which requires an action component he can't perform, so there's not much to do but discuss why he can't do it and whether he wants to try something similar.
--M. J. Young
It's getting later than I thought, and I've gone through two liters of soda in four hours trying to stay hydrated,
It took you that long to kill a 2 liter????
(Doing Therapy)
One of these days, I'm going to get Merlin to do some psychic surgery on me and condense all of my Remove Fatigue spells (I'm up to what now, five?) into one really big, really mutable one so I can just use the same SAL for all of them instead of having (or is it six?) 1@1 versions of the same damn spell. One of these days...
Yeah Osevens. I'm going through that right now. My character can't actually kneel, so I can't use an existing prayer, I have to make one up. Exactly the same as an existing prayer, except I'm laying down instead of kneeling. Why can't we just make it one prayer with "Humility before God" the required component?
You probably could, although I'd presume you'd get much less of a benefit from "humility before god" component as you would most likely get the benefit of the least restrictive manner of being humble before god, and that's the sit mod you would get regardless of how restricted you are being in the particular case.