Ending a Decade Behind the Screens · Page 19

Now let's see what we can do with posts from Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Nikolaj, Scott, and Adam.

Eli has been running from GE to GE, and he gets another 24. He's not out of this yet.

Michael asks one question and sort of thinks another, both of which Molly will answer.

I'm wondering whether anyone might have a good idea for Ahmetia (by which I mean any of the characters with whom she is conversing), but a GE 20 silences anything I might have contributed, so we'll stick to the simple.

Nikolaj also needs a GE roll, mostly for whether he has the opportunity to speak to Mr. Kucher, which comes up 8 covering most of everything else that might go wrong.

Scott suddenly brings to my mind those cans of Florida sunshine they sell to tourists; his will be a can of mountain air--but of course, it won't be quite that, because he needs Alice to be able to smell it more than once. I should roll a GE for whether they both have two days off together any time soon, but I'll wait to see whether that's what he's going to plan.

Every once in a while someone blows me away by connecting a couple dots I hadn't connected, and Adam just did it with his mention of his case of supersoldier serum in the vampire world. It should work, although not as well as it would in a high tech world; but we're not that far yet.

--M. J. Young

What happen to a native when he drops below 0 intensities?
I know a verser verses when he takes that amount of damage.
I just curious.

They die.

(Doing Therapy)

When a verser is forcibly versed in that manner, it is because they would have died but the scriff in their bodies does not allow it, so they are reformed in a new universe. Natives do not have scriff, so they become dying at best and dead at worst.

In response to the power of a 44 magnum, MJ wrote:

If it's not a gun being used in one of my games, I don't actually have to decide that.

This was probably the answer I deserved. I was just thinking though that I would not have a problem with a handgun being more powerful than a (technically) much more powerful rifle. A 50 caliber pistol should be base lethal, with the (technically) more powerful AK-47 being only Dangerous. A 50 cal is a hand cannon. That's why you bought it. Up close and personal, it's devastating. The AK-47 gets it back in having 4 to 5 times the effective range, making it by far the more potent weapon, just as it should be. If they're out of range of the 50 caliber pistol, pull out the AK-47. A shot that's "only" base Dangerous is better than no shot at all. It made so much more sense when I thought about it. I just thought you'd be interested.

(Doing Therapy)

On the damage value question, 0 is dying (opportunity for one of those gasping last words or for heroic efforts to save someone) and -1 is dead (although in some situations "heroic" efforts within the first minute might bring them back if they result in a positive damage value). A verser with 0 is going to verse out in a moment unless someone else takes efforts to save him--a 0 value cannot do anything to save himself--and at -1 he is already gone.

We had a gather not too long ago in which someone botched and did eighteen intensities of damage to all the versers (and everyone else on the planet, but that's really a much longer story). Two of them were not versed out instantly, and one of those had been reduced to 0, but the other took immediate action and saved him.

On the gun question, that does fit with my thoughts on the subject. The AK-47 also has a considerably faster fire rate (even when not on full auto) than the pistol, and more bullets per reload. I spent a lot of time in other role playing games analyzing the numbers one weapons with a better chance to hit versus those that do more damage. When the chance to hit is already low, you maximize your potential by getting the higher chance to hit; when the chance to hit is high, you maximize potential by going for greater damage.

That's also one reason why Multiverser uses its formula for chance to hit: it's much more difficult to know your chance to hit, and therefore you can't know with certainty which weapon is the better choice for a specific situation.

Now, I've enjoyed a few of the many wonderful other threads running today, but I've got to focus on the games. Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Brock, Nikolaj, Scott, and Adam are all playing. My time is short, though, so let me see how quickly I can get as far as I can before I have to interrupt and finish later.

Eli will have another day of travel before he hits a place where he can recover from his wounds--assuming that he doesn't hit something worse before he gets better.

Michael is looking for a teacher for his next bit of psionic magic, but he has a dinner to attend first.

Ahmetia is developing skills which will be useful in the present and perhaps also in the future.

Brock actually posted to say that he hasn't left us and will be back.

It isn't really Bredd who needs reassurance, but Bredd's parents; and of course there are other problems facing this new Christian religion Nikolaj has brought. But we'll open some doors and see how it goes.

Scott is going to need a GE roll for Alice's next two-day break. 18 rolled, that's going to delay things a bit.

Finally, Adam has taken it upon himself to contact people and recruit knights to fight the darkness.

--M. J. Young

My computer has been doing random abrupt crashes all day, although at somewhat extended intervals--perhaps one an hour or so. I've been crashing too, though, so with one hour left in my available time let me see if I can get the remaining work finished.

Eli had another day of travel ahead, and another GE roll to determine how things go: 15 is just barely on the good side. Edge is not going to enter a village as a ninja, and he is not going to reveal his identity to Eli, because the entire Ninja system works on secrecy. So he's on his own again.

Michael is doing the Durer mind reading again. 61 is not in the picture, but I'm good with that. He'll get a second try after the queen enters, and 11 is a connection. He'll get more information, and a 10 GE roll says it will be good information.

Ahmetia fails to see the benefits of training in water skills in the Zenda lake, so Sapt will give her some reasons.

I've thought a bit about just what Mr. Kucher would say, and so I think I'm ready for Nikolaj to hear the announcement. I don't know whether Nikolaj will be comfortable with the statement that Christianity is a "human" faith, but that's the way Kucher sees it, so that's what he's going to say.

There's not much to say to Scott because he's promised more information for me to adjudicate but it hasn't come yet. Well, we're moving toward his mountain trip.

Adam reminds me that I forgot to mention any gear taken from the enemy. I'm disinclined to think that a raiding party of this sort has anything of quality--clubs and staves mostly--but he deserves a GE roll for the possibilities. An 11 is good but below expectations; he's probably expecting some good weapons and significant money or resources, which aren't really necessary for their purposes, but we'll allow the possibility that something was brought for bribery. He will also need to plan for how he intends to travel, alone with Horace in the wilderness.

--M. J. Young

I was ahead of schedule long enough ago that I'm probably now behind schedule; but at least I'm here. I'm looking at posts from Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, Scott, and Adam. It appears that I genuinely missed Kurt yesterday; that's the second time I've missed him recently and the first time I didn't catch it, so I apologize for that.

Eli is following directions, so we'll get him to the next station along the way.

A GE roll of 12 means that Michael's efforts to find a teacher for the force digger are good enough.

I think Sapt's next is more of a pep talk than anything else, but perhaps Ahmetia needs one.

Again I apologize for missing Kurt yesterday; we'll talk about his idea of gaining employment at Nottingham Castle.

Harry, the in-game Harry, would like things to fall in his favor, including that his wife would show a bit of courage and resource; a 23 GE goes against that, which might be a good roll for player Harry, because he would like to verse out sometimes soon. He is starting with the front martial weapon disarm, 1@6 SAL, +20SM for disarming, 2@2 BRA, 1@7 MSV, 2x7@ bias, against which we place the TV of the dagger, which is the attacker's 1@9 MSV plus 1@4 SAL plus the density of a hard metal dagger, which we'll make a middling 3@5, totaling 68 all divided by 3 is -23. That's 89-23=66% chance of success for him. The pirate is leading with the dagger, for which I've already got his MSV and SAL, to which I add his 2x6@ tech bias and 1@6 BRA for 61 minus Harry's 1@7 TV leaves 44%, and we go for initiative, Harry first: 71, 30, the pirate gets the first move, but Harry follows with two attacks. The pirate rolls 83, a bad miss; Harry responds with 87, also a bad miss. I'm also seeing a "barely good enough" 13 GE roll, so that gives him another chance but not a great one.

I'm going to tie a persuasion check to a GE roll for Nikolaj as he is making a speech to no one in particular which he hopes will spark interest in Christianity. The simple persuasion check is 8+12=20, a near failure, and the GE roll is 17.

I have to hit reload on Scott's page, because I'm looking at a post that says he expects to be back to edit that post before I get to him. He was not, apparently, back when I opened the threads; but it appears that he has returned and posted another post, so I will address both. He's working on a new psionic defense, which is good; but before I roll for it I need to be clear what he is learning. Regardless, he is also casting to magic spells to protect him from psionic detection, rolling 43, 58. The skill descriptions are rather long and he has designated one the "long" one and the other the "short" one, so I need to winnow through to find the TFs for each. The long one appears to be one minute with a +7SM; the first is twenty-four seconds with a -19SM. He's got a 2@6 mag bias in a flatlined mag world, 1@2 SAL on the first and 1@3 on the second, so the chances of success are 45 and 18, and we roll 02 and 61, the long one works, giving him two hours of very weak protection.

Adam wants to find civilization, and as I have written somewhere, all roads connect somewhere to somewhere, even if only the house to the barn, so this road that has Camelot to the north must have something to the south. Also, the age of Camelot was marked by lots of little petty monarchs ruling from their own castles, so there's a decent chance that one of these lies south somewhere. The GE is 16.

I think I'm good to go.

--M. J. Young

Regardless, he is also casting to magic spells to protect him from psionic detection, rolling 43, 58 . . . so the chances of success are 45 and 18, and we roll 02 and 61, the long one works, giving him two hours of very weak protection.

I suspect that between rolling the first time and combing through my skill descriptions it slipped your mind that you had already rolled. I don't suspect it would matter, but in case it did it would be nice to have the stronger protection of that 43.

I am extending my offer again to run Harry (at such time he does verse), I have two games run for me, figure can run at least one for someone else.

Adam

Yes, you are correct that while I was crunching the numbers I forgot I had already both rolled and written the results. Mea culpa, and you have the right to the advantage of the first set of rolls if you want them, which obviously you do, so you've got that 43. That's a much better roll.

Thanks for the offer, Adam. I know Harry will want something with high magic and/or psionics and I had not yet selected anything for him, so I'm probably good with that. I will mention that he will have his wife Arabella with him when he goes, although his character certainly is not expecting that and I'm not sure the player was either.

He did not post in time to catch me tonight, so he won't be versing out before the weekend. I can't say the same for Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Kurt, Nikolaj, Scott, or Adam, but then none of them were in particularly hazardous circumstances in our last episode, so they're probably going to be fine.

Eli is moving through a quiet period for the present, but we'll give him a chance to get oriented to it and then rush through it as well as we can.

Michael is transitioning from the nightly party to an early bedtime so he can be awake for the queen's breakfast.

Ahmetia is starting to pick up speed as she improves her skills for a bit.

We've got Kurt plotting to get into Nottingham Castle, and it looks like his plan might be coming together.

I guess I'm going to need actually to roll the dice for Nikolaj, because I have a gut response for the answer to his question but he deserves the chance of better--or worse. The GE is 12, Good Enough, which is better.

Scott wants to proceed with the the development of the new defense skill, but our vision of what it will be is not quite agreed, and there might be adjustments to chance of success on the way to reaching that agreement.

Adam has indicated that he wants to cast a particularly useful spell, but I don't know whether he has the needed materials for it, so I need to check that.

--M. J. Young

MJ, I was looking over the equipment sheet that you posted recently. It looked like most of the gems that I had didn't come through. I had 80 or so from the trees in Dancing Princess. I've got 10 of them in my bag, completely random. Did you keep the list of what the gems were, so I can pick 10?

(Doing Therapy)

I apologize. I've kept that list in a separate file to date because your character did not know the values or types of any of the gems. I'll have to discuss this with Eric.

I'm running games for Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Nikolaj, Scott, Adam, and Kyler.

Eli is in a brief holding pattern; we'll rush through the next couple weeks and get him back on his feet when we can. I seem to recall that before the fight I was tracking the calendar, so I'll have to get that restored as well.

I think we'll take Michael through one more ordinary day before we bring the banshee back. That means we need to make our rolls for reading minds at breakfast. He gets two chances, once when everyone is gathering and another after the queen arrives and everyone starts eating. He rolls 81, 24, the second successful.

I am listing a 1@4 Swimming B1@2 on Ahmetia's sheet, and also teaching her small boat use, a roll of 34 giving her 1@1 Operate Small Boat T3@1. We'll push forward a few weeks into the summer, and then toss in a new wrinkle.

I hope I did not lose track of what Nikolaj was doing, because I don't remember him saying anything about plans after dinner. He'll remind me.

I think that Scott and I have finished the design of the new skill he's attempting to learn, so I'm going to attempt to put it all to paper as one description before I roll: Protective Mental Tower P2@3 creates a wall 5' around the the user such that any telepathic-type skills including mental attacks which attempt to cross that wall must roll >RS to succeed; the user can use such skills, but each such successful use reduces the threshold by RS/10 (rounded down); it protects others within the sphere, but they are also limited by the threshold if they attempt to cross it with a blocked skill. High concentration, -10 SM. Now for the roll: 27 is an easy success for someone with a 7@1 bias, so we'll list it as 1@1.

I'm not certain how Adam could safely draw half a cup of his own blood to cast this spell. It's not a lot, but it is enough (a quarter of a point, yes?) that a mistake could be serious. Let's get a skill and equipment selected before we assume he can puncture a vein and bleed himself and then stop the bleeding at the right moment.

Kyler gets a 9 GE on this girl, which is as good as expected, so I need to think through answers that work. I'm happy with my answers; turnabout's fair play, so we'll see if he can give his.

--M. J. Young

I apologize. I've kept that list in a separate file to date because your character did not know the values or types of any of the gems. I'll have to discuss this with Eric.

No, I found all of that out at TerraNova. I had 84 gems, and I knew all of them.

Yes, actually. It was revealed. He went to an appraiser. Remember? John, can you find it in your old thread and poat a link?

I probably could, but I don't think it really matters. The information has been recovered, after all. The values are meaningless though, because that's TerraNova prices. That's why I took random gems, instead of the most valuable.

MJ, I was looking over the equipment sheet. You said it didn't go quite the way you would have thought best. It looked like the money and most of the high tech guns and ammo came through, that's what I was mostly concerned with. How would you have thought best?

(Doing Therapy)

John, if I didn't write it down on the forum somewhere, I don't remember it.

As to gem values, yes, they will be somewhat different in different universes. The values I gave in Terranova were based on what I thought they would be worth there; the values on the sheet I posted for Eric may be a better estimate for him, because they're in OAD&D gold piece values, and that's something of a standard concept for gamers from which he can probably derive the size and quality pretty accurately.

I think you had other gems in the survival pack that you picked up for cash in B Monster Movie World; those are listed on your character sheet already. They may have been bundled together in Terranova, which would explain the count discrepancy.

I thought it was later than it is, so I'm hoping that it's still early enough for me to get all the games posted--which tonight is a long list including Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, Scott, Adam, and Kyler. And yes, I opened these threads hours ago.

I'm jumping Eli ahead to the point where he is fully healed; now I have to start working him into the local ninja clan.

Michael has momentarily confused me, so I need to get that story straight.

I'm also uncertain what Ahmetia means, but I'm going to take it as I think Sapt would understand it in context, and pose my understanding in a question to get her to clarify.

No peasant in twelfth century northern England would know a word of Welsh; but since it is possible that Alain would come back and that he might be conversant in the language, I'll give Kurt the benefit of a GE roll. 17 is not going to make that happen.

I'm going to take Harry's tackle as a standard martial arts attack, rolling 74 against his 1@6 SAL, 2x7@ bias, 2@2 BRA, and 1@7 MSV (=69) minus the pirate's TV is a near miss.

We'll get Nikolaj's next baptismal service arranged.

Scott gets a 16 GE roll on the state of business, but since he's in the early phases and things are spreading by word of mouth, I would think that no effect would mean a slight increase in what he's making. I don't have quick reference for that, but I suspect he does, and he's quick enough to be able to do a percent increase, so I'll give it to him that way.

I seem to have put Adam off the protection spell; I promise that was not my intention. He is going to use the alert rest, for which he rolls 02, a very weak success, but he is an expert at it.

I think we're wrapping up Kyler's getting-to-know-you session with Kat, so I'll have to find out what he wants to do next.

--M. J. Young

Uhm, my point wasn't that he had them valued at a certain amount; it was that he had them valued, thus he knew what gems they are.

Brock, the explanation about changing values was for John, who commented that their values in Terranova would not be much use in defining their values in other universes. D&D values are pretty good reference points; Terranova values aren't bad, but might be different.

It appears that my extraordinarily early arrival today has not inconvenienced many of my players, as already Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Kurt, Nikolaj, Adam, and Kyler are seated at the table awaiting my replies. I will probably do them in two parts, since my time before my first scheduled interruption is not so great, but at least it will get me through most of them today.

In attempting to reconstruct the calendar for Eli, I find this post:

We launch Eli with June 30 plus 25 days which is conveniently July 25th. He needs that opening GE roll, 5+5+5=15, not unfavorable but not yet changing the scenario all that much. He needs rolls for all three skills in which he is training, as they all advanced last month: 24, 11, 61, the herbalism skills both advance but the Japanese does not. That gives him 2@2 Medical Diagnosis (herbalism) T6@0 and 2@1 Medical Treatment (herbalism) T6@1. The Physical training has hit an advancement point for the martial arts skills; he is at

* Aerobics (running) for stamina, Day 100 of 200 day advances
* strength training for strength, Day 100 of 200 day advances
* Martial arts practice Day 10 of 100 day advances, advancing everything to:
o 1@8 Aggressive Running Frontal Power Boost B3@10 uses one attack RS=+DC to next forward kick-based attack (Power Front Kick), on failure fall for damaging damage
o 1@8 Aggressive Running Side Slide B3@10 uses one attack +RS=SM to next side-arc kick-based attack (Side Kick, Flip Kick)
o 2@4 Eli's Style B7@1 Fast Aggressive Weapon-utilizing style, kick- and punch-based, RF2, +10 Att SM +10 Att Dam Mod.
o 2@4 Back Kick B7@1 basic attack on opponent directly behind.
o 1@6 Bo Stick B7@1 RF1 damaging two-handed
o 1@8 Elbow Strike B7@3 base dangerous attack at close range RF1 -10SM
o 2@1 Back Kick B7@3 base dangerous RF1 -10SM, +10 opponent attack SM
o 2@1 Power Front Kick B7@3 base damaging -10SM
o 1@8 Flying Side Kick B7@3 base dangerous RF1 -10SM, on failure lose balance and forfeit next attack
o 2@1 Roundhouse Kick B7@3 base damaging RF1 -10SM

I'm also going to kick his Use Chopsticks up from 1@10 to 2@1 for most of a year of practice.

and this one:

Eli didn't say to continue, but I think his question is adequately answered so I'll continue anyway. July 25+25=July 50, July 50-31=August 19th. The GE roll for the July to August run is 9+9+9=27, Worst Fears. I'm uncertain whether the sudden illness of the herbalist or the sudden appearance of soldier demanding explanations is the better--I'll go with the latter. The rest of the stuff will have to await the resolution of this matter.

That puts his fight and flight after July 25th but before August 19th. We spent two days traveling and three weeks in recovery, but I need a random number of days between those two numbers so I'll use my stopwatch to create a d25; actually, it would be better to create 5d5, because that will give me a bell curve strongly favoring a midpoint of 15 but still allow numbers as low as 5 and as high as 25. My rolls are 3+2+4+4+1=14 days, which is not high enough in my opinion to qualify for the next improvement point and means that everything happened on the equivalent of (July 25+14=July 39-31=August 8). He reaches the village on August 10 and twenty-one days later it is August 31. I'll add two weeks to that, September 14, and we'll have his ninja contact arrive. He'll need a name, and since it is already apparent that his particular talents lie in weaponless combat they will name him for that--I think Mantis is good, as it is a recognized fighting form that would be similar to his own and it isn't one of the obvious and probably already taken names like Cat or Tiger. I'll add it to his sheet as an alias.

Michael is contemplating whether to suggest to Brom and Maris that he contact them "telepathically" if there's a problem, and he's wondering whether Molly would have noticed. I think it highly likely that she would pick up such thoughts, because as he notes they spend a fair amount of time together, and she's interested enough in him that she's going to be reading his mind quite a bit. (It's pretty natural for the witches and warlocks to be listening to each other's thoughts most of the time that they're together.) He's rolled a 19 GE, which is just slightly negative, so I think she'll give him good advice that has a bad side to it.

In the book, Princess Flavia does not know that the imposter, whom she comes to love for his courage and nobility, is not the King until after the King is rescued. It does not appear that Ahmetia is going to be the dashing rescuer in our version of the story, but since we are gender-reversed it might make good sense for there to be a separate hero, and our Prince Flavius might be the perfect candidate for the job. We'll start moving that direction.

Kurt is headed for Nottingham.

Nikolaj has a few days to prepare for the anticipated baptismal service.

Adam recalls my attention to the fact that there was a fortress in sight before night fell; now he's sending his faithful scout to peruse it. I'm wondering about it myself, so I'll roll a GE--14 is not desired but generally favorable, which is an odd roll under the circumstances.

Kyler wants to arrange a playdate, sort of.

--M. J. Young

Well, you know, as I often say, I'm late and it's tired. My excuse is that the temperature in the office broke 80 again today (it's still reading 80.1) and when the computer was crashing before I could finish writing a short thank you note for an e-mail received, I just quit for a couple hours in the hope that it would cool. It seems to have stabilized, and I'll resist the pagan urge to bang on my desk and instead just say that I'll get to tonight's posts from Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, Adam, and Kyler, Lord willing, and with the hope that I have not overlooked anyone.

I'll answer Eli's questions and give him opportunity to ask more.

Oops--Michael is correct that Molly won't have encountered him until after lunch, so we need to roll a mind reading check or two for lunch: 61, 46, that second roll might work, 2@1 BRA+2x7@ bias+1@1 SAL=46 on the nose, and I think I'm going to give him +1 familiarity to Durer at this point, partly because I'm going to want him to be able to pick up Durer's thoughts a bit more reliably and partly because he's been after the man's mind three times a day for several days, frequently successfully. Now for what he learned: 14 is not desired but generally favorable, if I remember correctly, and that's good enough for the moment. He's going to get a lot of information that's not going to make a lot of sense unless he does some other work.

I think we'll introduce Flavius to Ahmetia's program, and see where that will get us.

Kurt rolls 17 on the use of the X-ray sunglasses, which will work given that the operation skill is 6@1 and so works under a flatlined curve. I'm also giving him new use, 1@2, for using it in this world.

Harry is going to use a special maneuver to open the round, so that will be the basis of his chance of success, 1@6 SAL+2x7@ bias+2@2 BRA+1@7 MSV=69 minus the defender's 1@7 TV is 52%; the pirate is using his 1@9 MSV+1@6 BRA+2x6@ bias+1@4 SAL=61 minus Harry's 1@7 TV is 44%. Who goes first is determined by skill checks for initiative, Harry first, 77, 67, pirate has the edge (failed by less), then Harry follows with two attacks, pirate misses with 77, Harry connects with 14, which gets +20 damage points and +2DC which makes it a fatal attack on a roll of 34, 17 intensities of damage, plus the stamina check to see if he collapses otherwise, and I'm noting a 1@8 DV for the pirate so unless there's already a hit against him--there is not--he's still alive. The simple stamina check is 16+17=more than any human has a right to claim as stamina so I won't look it up, and the pirate goes down.

I think Nikolaj forgot that he baptizes people in a pond on the pasture, and if he's planning a baptismal service he probably needs to hold it where there's a pool--unless he's planning to do it in the trough.

Adam gets to the castle; it will be interesting to see what he does with it.

It's always difficult when you try to explain part of the story to people who expect the ordinary, but that seems to be what Kyler is doing with Kat, and so she's going to ask questions to make sense of it.

I guess I succeeded, and it's not really entirely all that late. Good night.

--M. J. Young

My absence yesterday was noticed. I apologize. My computer and I are both less than hale, and in fact with the stockholders meeting looming ahead tomorrow and my poor health complicating tonight and almost no preparations for it started, I'm going to beg off again tonight and hope and pray (which some of you can do as well) that I will be well enough by Sunday to resume regular play.

Thank you for understanding.

--M. J. Young

No problem. Get some well deserved rest. We need you healthy and hearty for many years to come so we can keep playing the game we love with the referee we love.

this post has been deleted by the user.

This post is a heads-up to Eric and to Kyler that my work schedule is pretty wild these days, so my game thread response time might suffer more than a bit... :o

Oak: No worries. My work schedule is pretty hectic for now too, so I completely understand. Take your time. (No offense intended, and I understand that you posted this here as a convenience with the idea in mind that both Eric and I read this thread; however, this thread is intended for behind-the-screens mechanics related posts by MJ for his games, and all other posts (including arguments over which way a roll should have gone, imo) should be kept to a minimum or made in seperate threads. *trolls the forum, polices the boards*)

Oops... :o

It would be a mistake to assume that Kyler is going to pick up games that I am currently running, as he just started the new job and I don't know what his time parameters are. Thus I will continue to work with Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, Adam, and Kyler for the present. He might be picking up some of those in the days ahead, but I'm not going to make them wait.

I'm going to move through a lot of material for Eli, to get him to a place where he is called to demonstrate his fighting skill.

Michael has asked the right questions, and is now on the right track for discovering the secret of the banshee.

If we are introducing Flavius to Ahmetia's thread, that's going to introduce some complications for her.

I wondered briefly whether anything good (like a ride) or bad (like a storm) would happen to Kurt on the way to Nottingham, but a 17 GE roll is as bland as the story gets.

Harry gets a 19 GE roll, which I rolled specifically in relation to the fact that the pirate never used the gun he was holding.

Nikolaj wants more converts for the baptism, but his GE roll is 18, so that's not exactly going to fall the way he would hope.

Adam gets a 13 Barely Good Enough GE on his explorations of the castle.

I can't help wondering whether Kat is going to ask Kyler "How old are you really?", but I can resolve that--a bad GE roll would mean she asks, a good one that she doesn't think of it, and in the middle she thinks of it but doesn't ask, and the roll is 21, bad enough. Sorry, Ky.

--M. J. Young

With another quick birthday greeting to Kyler (Happy birthday, Kyler) let me turn my attention to game posts from Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, Adam, and, of course, Kyler.

Eli neglects to mention activating his style, but that's a given if he's going to activate in-style defenses, so we'll roll for the style: 55 is doubtful, but we'll check: 2@4 SAL+2x7@ bias+2@1 BRA=59, he's solid. The mentioned defense roll is 61, which is not going to work, but with a roll of 11 he does move into the run for the side kick.

Michael rolls 83 on flying, which is not going to work; but that might be for the better. There is something to see, and part of it is easier to see afoot, although part of it is easier to see while flying.

We're taking Ahmetia to a new stage in the story; I want to keep her actively involved, but it looks like most of what is going to happen will be done by others. That can be good--or bad.

Kurt rolls 05 on learning camping skills so we'll give him the 1@1 Wilderness Survival: Forest T0@1 skill. We'll also assume he was successful in using it here.

I will admit that the previous GE roll gave me the option of putting the gun somewhere where the pirate might recover it with some difficulty but Harry can't see it without searching for it. That doesn't necessarily mean I did that, but I want that to be in his mind as a possibility. A single pistol shot from a low-average amateur probably would not kill anyone, but we don't want to discount the possibility of serious damage. Meanwhile, having already said he doesn't see it I can't allow him to retrieve it without doing something more than merely saying he will.

Well done, Nikolaj--using his adjunct characters to do what he doesn't have time to do himself. Katherine is a good choice. I'll move through the testimonies of the two that were expected, and give him a chance to decide how things should go from here.

It occurs to me that Adam possibly can't just take over a castle simply because the vampires killed the previous occupants. But then, no one is king in England at the moment, so there's no one to ask. Geneice will need a bit of time to bring people to him, but I'll put off the GE roll until tomorrow.

Kyler says he's going to give an honest answer to the question of how old he is. I'm thinking the honest answer is, "I lost count," but whatever it is, her reply will be based on his answer.

--M. J. Young

Am I here? I seem to be, although I am tired and think I ought to be elsewhere. Let's get started with posts for Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Harry, Nikolaj, Adam, and Kyler, and see how far we get and where that puts us.

Eli clears up the question of the side kick. I recall that the run was successful, and find the note that says that roll was 11, which is +11 to the side kick, a standard style kick, the roll for which is 86. I'm going to need the defenses of the sensei, though. Old Ninja-do is a weapon-utilizing fast defensive style with a -10 SM and -10 Dam Mod on defense, +5 SM on attacks, and att x2. Our sensei will be expert, 3@5 SAL. He'll be the raider type, which gives him 2@1 strength (and 2@1 agility and 2@1 will power) for a BRA, 2@2 MSV, 2x7@ bod bias, 70% chance of dropping into stance, which he does not do in time on a roll of 80. He does have his 1@9 TV, which reduces Eli's chance to hit which I have not yet calculated: 2@4 SAL+2x7@ bias+2@1 BRA=59 from the previous calculation, +11 for the run bonus, +10 for the style bonus, +2@1 MSV=101% minus that 1@9=82, it was very close.

Michael is moving in the right direction, but neglected to provide a contingent action sequence for the actual situation.

Ahmetia continues her ride, bringing Flavius more into their confidence.

We'll give Harry just a bit of a logistical problem in whether to risk leaving the loaded pistol potentially within reach of the pirate or to take the chances involved in attempting to retrieve it. I'm sure he'll find a relatively simple solution, but I'm not sure it will work as simply as he would hope.

Nikolaj has a third testimony, this from someone with yet another perspective, and it gives me the chance to expand the theology of Christianity in the world of Gaia and see whether Nikolaj is comfortable with how it's developing.

Adam has some work to do to fix up the castle, and there are of course risks no matter how he approaches it--if he leaves the gates down he might be raided; if he attends to the gates first, the bodies fester. We'll get some sort of agenda from him, and then see how things go.

I'll give Kat's answer to Kyler, and see if he wants to set up the next step in the story.

--M. J. Young

The computer and I have been fighting the heat all day, and now it's too late to do a proper job of answering posts. I'm going to make a list of those who are active, in the hope that I will catch you all tomorrow and that if in the confusion of the activity I missed anyone you'll add your name here so I don't miss you tomorrow:

• Eli
• Michael
• Ahmetia
• Brock
• Harry
• Nikolaj
• Adam
• Kyler

--M. J. Young

Yeah, this is really cruel, but today I was fighting with the computer crashing (the room is still hotter than eighty degrees with both air conditioners running all day) and the router/modem system messing up and keeping everyone off line for long stretches.

It is after three and I haven't looked at game threads, but I think I can't and I doubt I'll be able to do so tomorrow (my usual day off and my wife's day off, and she was rather upset that I did not take Monday off when she was off). So I apologize again and hope to be here Sunday.

--M. J. Young

Always in my thoughts and prayers dude.

(Doing Therapy)

Huh. How hot is it over there? I've never had a computer chrash because of heat, but I live in Washington.

It's been warm; not one million degrees celsius, but warm. MJ has a tendency to beat up his computer until it begs him to stop, then beat it up more until it dies, then bring it back like a frankenstein's monster so he can kill it again. all in a day's work in the name of Valdron, Inc and Multiverser :P Remember, he doesn't get paid enough to deal with all of us on a daily basis; this may be work but it's one of the more perky parts of the job, so he's probably just as sad as everyone else that he hasn't had time for the forum game; hopefully to change once I get a regular schedule and can lighten his workload here somewhat.

Huh. How hot is it over there? I've never had a computer chrash because of heat, but I live in Washington.

Brock--it's quirky, and several technicians have sought in vain for the problem. The peculiarity is that the computer remains fairly (not entirely) stable as long as the room temperature is below eighty degrees (and I note it is 79 right now), but as soon as it crosses the 80 degree mark, no addition of huge external fans or ice packs will stabilize it for any length of time. They higher the room temperature climbs, the more frequently the system crashes.

The obvious answers don't make sense. Power supplies are heat-sensitive, but placing a huge ice pack on top of the tower in the rear (where the power pack is) does not seem to control the problem. Processors are heat sensitive, but we've added an extra internal fan and reduced the load on the processor by doubling the onboard memory, and none of that seems to have had much impact. It has been theorized that the problem is related to a fault in one of the hard drives, but one of the three has been replaced with no benefit so either we got the wrong one or that wasn't it; and hard drives are not particularly sensitive to temperatures, and particularly not in the range under consideration.

There are also some large files and high-demand programs that crash it, but not all do (although I avoid videos).

So no one knows, and right now I don't have the luxury of extra money to throw at the problem so no one is going to find out this week.

One of the--well, maybe it's a benefit, maybe it's a detriment--features of missing what my dates say might be five days is that everyone--or almost everyone--has posted and is awaiting my reply: Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Brock, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, Adam, and Kyler. Of recent posters whose games I am still running, only Scott and John 4 are missing. Let's see whether I can get everyone situated before it's entirely too late for anything.

Blast--it's been so long since I've used it that the stopwatch has vanished, hopefully here on the desktop. It's complicated by the fact that it has a black string and I am surrounded by black wires of about the same diameter. Ah, found it--the black string almost tangled in a black wire, and when I moved the wire the string leapt behind the the table by the wall, but was recognizable as string in the process, so I recovered it. That means I can roll a skill learning check for Eli, 09 an easy learning for a skill martial artist to pick up a new style, 1@1 Old Ninja-do B7@1 martial arts style fast defensive weapon-utilizing punch-based hand Att x2 +5 att SM -10 Def SM -10 Def dam mod. He rolls 52 on learning 1@1 Ninja-to B7@1 martial arts weapon RF1 damaging.

Michael gets a rough description of the interior of the device.

If Ahmetia is to maintain the facade, she is going to have to ride the horse. She rolls 27 on this, another success.

Brock asked some good questions about the situation, which are easily resolved. I'll probably use a GE roll at some point for what happens on the ground, but since I don't want what he can't know to influence his decisions I'm not making that roll yet.

We'll roll Kurt into a small medieval city and give him some introduction to the marketplace by the gate.

Nikolaj is hoping that his congregation includes unbelievers, and it might or it might not. I'm thinking it is more likely that there are mostly believers present, possibly Katherine's mother and Bredd's parents and maybe one or two others, so we'll work off that baseline: 9+8+6=23, which is pretty bad, although not bad enough for there to be troublemakers, I think.

The question in my mind for Harry is whether the pirate is going to take the chance at grabbing the pistol when the table moves. The GE roll says 14, so he's going to think about it.

I don't know whether Adam would think it good or ill for someone to attempt to enter the castle while he rests; but he hasn't said that he's going to sleep, and if memory serves he need not do so. I want to roll a GE for whether anyone or anything is going to brave the gates during the night (it could be anything from another vampire to a couple of thieves to a hungry wolf on a blood scent to a lost beggar, but odds are it's no one at all), but again I don't want him making decisions based on rolls (not that he would, but I know how difficult it is to know even myself whether I'm doing something because I've been tipped by the referee).

Kyler ends his conversation with Kat and starts one with Mariska (whom, I discover laterally, he calls "Iskie"). I'm also suddenly wondering whether having established superhero cards as existing in this world I'm going to have to backtrack to discover what the card publishers might already know about Kyler and his sister Mariska, and what they might call them on the cards.

But that's for another time.

--M. J. Young

Shouldn't the ninja-to skill be 1@2, because the roll was over 50?

Blast--it's been so long since I've used it that the stopwatch has vanished

(Condescending tone) Such harsh language Mr. Young!!!

(Doing Therapy)

Sarcastic tone may be a better way to put it, John.

My word, MJ. I NEVER thought I would hear you say BLAST. :P
P.S. I honestly don't believe that. I'm just messing with ya.

Eli - if we were at a gaming table, MJ would say, "What was the roll? 52? Yes - sorry - put it down as 1@2 on your sheet."

Yeah, put it down as 1@2, with my apologies. The weird thing is that I noted in my mind at the time that it would be 1@2, but got sidetracked between writing two threads and forgot when I got back. I've changed the sheet.

I'm running short on time (Mondays can be like that), but we'll make a stab at covering as many of Eli, Michael, Ahmetia, Kurt, Harry, Nikolaj, Adam, and Kyler as we can before I have to run, and hopefully cover the rest upon my return.

Eli will be introduced to some new skills.

I was expecting Michael to attempt to fly, but he'll have to roll for it: 90 is not a botch, fortunately.

Ahmetia has a lot to do, and she has to find explanations for Flavius along the way.

Kurt has suggested asking a guard about the direction to the castle if he can't see it. I know that there's a guard at the gate, but I don't know that there are any others, or that they would be particularly helpful, so I need a GE roll: 19 is just slightly undesirable.

Speaking of GE rolls, Harry also needs one, and he gets the same one--19. He'll get his watchman--eventually.

Nikolaj has been working partially under instruction for some time, so I'm going to take his 1@4 Leathercraft Package T1@X and 1@2 Leatherworker Package T1@X (which incorporates the other) and combine them in a 1@5 Leatherworker Package T1@X, which might be more increase of some incorporated skills and less of others than would be warranted, but for my purposes at present I think that getting the whole package unified is a good move. We'll also need a GE roll for how the church "advances" on the ranch over the next few weeks, since we're not doing it day by day: 20 is just bad enough.

It is very nearly superfluous to roll for Adam's Alert Rest--3@9 SAL+2x10 Bias+3@1 BRA=90% chance of success, only 1% chance to botch. But failure is possible, so we roll--and 77 is solid. Now there was that GE question, as to whether we were going to have a quiet night or a rough one. 22 is not as bad as anticipated, but it's still worse than bad enough. Looks like company, of a sort.

Kyler does get supers cards for himself and Mariska, on a GE 25, not what he wants.

--M. J. Young