What would happen?

I've been wondering about this for a long time. Suppose you versed out whilst holding a 20 foot long pole. It verses out with you. What if you landed in a room which was only 10 feet wide at its widest point? What would happen to the 20 foot long pole?

It would bend, or break. Or you wouldn't Verse in there. As far as I understand, the Scriff tries its level best to avoid the impossible, and makes no guarantees on your stuff being serviceable ten seconds after you arrive (kinda like how the intro to a certain island-based World encourages the referee to sink as much of the Verser's stuff as possible before the scenario begins).

I figured it would get fused into the walls on both ends.

I figure no one knows for sure, but if I want to take that pole away from you I'll get it stuck in something (I have had equipment arrive buried, but I usually avoid that; and of course Whisp's spaceship is a famous example, as it is in orbit and he is on the ground and can't get back to it). If I don't, I'll make the room larger.

--M. J. Young

If your 20' pole gets fused into the walls on both ends, can you claim the walls as part of your equipment if your carrying capacity is high enough?

(I think this has become Silly.)

Answer is no, you can't take anything that is permanently affixed to something else by more than a quick release--you can't have the pole unless you find a way to defuse it (to badly misuse a word for comic relief).

Oh, you said, "If you can take the walls". Well, then, yes--but the walls themselves must be detached. If they're part of a building that is affixed to the ground, you can't because of attachment. If they're the walls of a truck that is within your weight limit, and you can claim possession of the truck or contest it along with the pole, it's possible. But the truck doesn't become yours simply because it's attached to your pole; you've got to establish a claim of ownership, even if it's only that it's "on person" because you're holding the pole when you verse out.

--M. J. Young

Or if the planet is within your carrying capacity, and you beat everyone who thinks he has a claim in a contested willpower check.

you beat everyone who thinks he has a claim in a contested willpower check.

So you'd have to beat six billion planet inhabitants in a willpower check? Well, if you're that elderly of a verser that you can carry a planet with you, you've probably got a pretty flipping high willpower.

It might not be so difficult as it appears, really.

You would need to roll once against everyone; the one roll determines your determination to take it. If we assume that no one on the planet has better than a 2@10 will power and you have a 2@10 will power, and you roll 29, no one can beat you, but there might be some ties. The referee would have to work out how many people he thinks have 2@10 will powers, and if its few enough he rolls for each of them, but if it's more than a few he works out the percent probability that at least one of them would roll a 29--it is one chance in thirty, or 3.33%, but that does not get multiplied by the number of candidates. (It starts with a 96.67% chance of failure, and the chance of failure is then reduced by the percent chance of success, thus giving a chance that such a roll would exist according to the number of persons who might make it:

1. 3.333333333
2. 6.555555556
3. 9.67037037
4. 12.68135802
5. 15.59197942
6. 18.40558011
7. 21.12539411
8. 23.75454764
9. 26.29606271
10. 28.75286062
11. 31.12776527
12. 33.42350643
13. 35.64272288
14. 37.78796545
15. 39.86169994
16. 41.86630994
17. 43.80409961
18. 45.67729629
19. 47.48805308
20. 49.23845131
21. 50.93050293
22. 52.56615283
23. 54.14728107
24. 55.67570504
25. 57.15318153
26. 58.58140882
27. 59.96202852
28. 61.29662757
29. 62.58673999
30. 63.83384865

It's a relatively easy function to put into a spreadsheet--I used column A as the counter, entering value "1" in cell A1 and then "=A1+1" in A2, copying it with consecutive change through cell A30 (that is, "=A2+1" in A3, "=A3+1" in A4). Cell B1 reads "=(29/30)*100" giving me the percent chance of failure for one person, and then cell B2 reads "=B1*(29/30)" giving the step reduction of the chance of failure, copied again with consecutive change through B30. Cell C2 reads "=100-B1", which inverts from chance of failure to chance of success, and that is copied with consecutive change through C30. The calculation is easily continued, such that if there are as many as 100 people with a 2@10 will power in the world the chance of a tie becomes 96.62965532%. Round to the nearest whole percent and roll percentile dice and you determine whether there is a tie.)

Similarly, if the character has at least a 3@1 will power and no creature in the world has better than 2@10, he can take the planet uncontested if he rolls 30 (or successfully better), a success for himself that cannot be matched by anyone else.

The odds are really slim, of course; but then, you would expect them to be, wouldn't you? I certainly would.

--M. J. Young

So...what happens in the event of a tie with contested willpower? the other people come with because they refuse to give up the planet? the planet splits into pieces? You roll again? The verser simply fails to take it with? the planet counts as "his", but doesn't come with, and if he is ever in the same universe as it again, he tries to take it with again?

Hmm...those are all the ideas off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more, but I'm not sure which ones are appropriate for MV.

That would suck. You're sitting there on the planet, then the verser takes it with him. You're just floating out in space somewhere.

Why can't Whisp get back to his spaceship? In all of his verses he hasn't yet landed in a world that's developed the technology to get him back to it?

Ties go to the status quo. In this case, that would mean the planet stays.

On the tie, Scott's right.

As to Whisp, well, frankly, he's not that terribly well organized and getting his spaceship back takes something of a back (of the bus) seat to impressing and seducing girls. I think probably you'd have to drop him on a spaceship with an all-male crew before he would think that as long as he was up here he should find out whether they can help him retrieve his own ship.

--M. J. Young

What would impress women more than having his own spaceship? You'd think he would go after it just to have something else with which to impress them.

Yes-if that is a feasible and relatively simple course of action. Sounds to me like he is a bit lazy when it comes to anything not linked to his...hobby.

I wouldn't mind meeting Whisp. Hell MJ, that's not a bad idea. Whisp and Mother in my scenario at some point? Either of them would easily be a physical match for a Terminator. That could be kind of interesting. Perhaps Whisp can train me in Dar Koni battle tactics before she gets there? He's going to be trying to get with Sarah though.....

(Doing Therapy)

What would impress women more than having his own spaceship?

Sure, just as Zaphod. Of course, having two heads might be impressive, too.

If you flash around a spaceship in a world in which they are common it doesn't mean anything. If you flash one around in a world in which they are unknown it means you are an alien, and that can get you in more trouble.

--M. J. Young

Zaphod...Zaphod...Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Yes, that Zaphod--Beeblebrox, I think? He had a spaceship, and his pickup line at the party that scooped up Tricia McMillan, who renamed her self Trillian, was reportedly an invitation for her to see his spaceship.

I'm remembering it mostly from the movie version, but I think that was the story in the BBC TV version as well.

Good spotting.

--M. J. Young

Yes, it's Beeblebrox. I just went and checked my copy of Hitchhiker's Guide.