Glantri has gone · Page 3

You're doing very well. I like Angus a lot so far too, although I like Bill and Ted a tad more. The dialect is good, especially how it meshes with the good natured country folk vibe

One comment on how the game would run under different scenario though, which I have no way of knowing if you've accounted for. I followed Bill and Ted because I have no ability to survive on my own right now. Plus they seemed to be cool guys. Keep in mind some versers wouldn't have this problem though and could treat this world like the game fallout. Just something to keep in mind.

Keep in mind some versers wouldn't have this problem though and could treat this world like the game fallout.

The game fallout? ::He looks at you with a puzzled expression::

This world was something I wrote whilst having a psychotic episode. Look for the thread "Daywalkers" and you will see what I mean. It (so far) exists only in my mind. It also happens to be the only world I know well enough to run a player in. It's amazing what you can come up with when your mind is running a million miles an hour.

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/home/home.php

It's a post-apocalyptic video game that is very free form. Not saying the story line is the same, just that I could see a verser who is strong enough running off on his own and just taking what he wants/scavenging for what he needs.

"Thanks for the apple cider Angus, its one of my favorite drinks.

Angus: "Velcome, velcome. Angus have pack-kages four Uncla Buub. Is back of truck still air-condition-ned?"

Ted: "Of course duder. All that computer stuff would overheat without it. Why?"

Angus: "Pack-Kages for Uncla Buub."

By the tone of his voice, and his expression, you get the distinct impression that it would be best not to push the issue, and apparently so does Ted, as he timidly turns away from Angus, who is scowling at him. (His face says "None of your business, NOW SHUT UP!!!!")

As to the truck, I want to weld together a cow catcher grill and attach it to the front, I'm figuring on using the undercarriage of cars for this, and then a sturdy bumper on both sides and the rear, strong enough to knock out any zombies it hits without the truck getting hurt. Was thinking of specifically using car axels for this, the center would be a good place to step up to get into the truck."

Double R "rr" means roll the R.

Angus: "Is juunkyerd rrite down rroad. Can you please bring back, vhat, vhat is vord.... De gas bottle for de torch?"

Bill: "Acetylene?"

Angus: "Ya, dat. Angus no like carry dat. Go BOOM."

Ted: "But you got all of this stuff."

Angus: "Angus say, 'no like to carry'. Angus no say 'no like to own.'" (Smiling widely and chuckling.)

Bill: "OK duder, we'll see what we can do."

Angus: "Oh yes, der is strrange tree at juunkyerd. Is place vhere Angus buries zombie boodies. Tree look like skin. Strrange tree."

(Doing Therapy)

"Well, sounds like we should head to the junkyard then. We should probably collect what we need from the cars while we're there too. Shouldn't take too long, but lets start now so we have plenty of time."

Angus: "You vant Angus should come too?"

Reply Quickly

(Doing Therapy)

"Sure,the more the merrier"

(I has gone to sleep after my last post, thus the slow responseY

It's cool. I fell asleep too.

Mike's Persuasion check for Angus (31) Failure.

Angus: "Angus is sorry. No can come. Must stay here and keep familia safe."

I've not been rolling dice enough I don't think. Need to do that some more.

Angus: "Be careful round trree. Is strrange trree. Have vines. You vill see. Juust be verry careful. No get too close."

Bill: "So Mikey, how long do you think all of this will take?"

The workshop is as you would expect from an Amish farmer. Hand tools, no electric or pneumatic. It's a fully equipped blacksmith shop. Forge, hammers, anvils. Aside from the welding torches, it's straight out of the 17th century.

Angus: "Angus like torches, but has not drropped all old Amish vays." (Chuckling)

So you get in the truck and go.

Bill: "So Mikey, is there anything else you want to know about the zombies?"

You want to find out about their running speeds and whatnot, now's your chance.

There's no right amount of rolling the dice really, it's just whatever amount you feel is appropriate.

Before getting in the truck:

"That's fine Angus. Family always comes first. This shouldn't take too long, maybe an hour, maybe an hour and a half at the Junkyard and then maybe that again back at the workshop and maybe half an hour to attach it all to the truck. It's nice to see a workshop like this though, technology is nice in some areas but when it comes to a workshop, everything past the torch was extraneous.

After getting in the truck:
"I'm pretty set on that, can't kill zombies during the day, so best to just run away from them since they're slow during the day."

There's no right amount of rolling the dice really, it's just whatever amount you feel is appropriate.

I was thinking at first that Angus would come, but then I realized, he's a family man. It's dangerous times. He's not going to leave his family unprotected unless you make a good argument. In that sense, I'm kinda glad you didn't reply quickly.

"I'm pretty set on that, can't kill zombies during the day, so best to just run away from them since they're slow during the day."

Whilst in the truck driving

Bill: "Yeah, but I still ain't told you nothing about how they are at night, so here's everything I know about Zombies. This is not a complete list, nor is it to be taken as gospel. We learn new stuff about these things all the time. Uncle Bob said he never saw one climb a building. I never saw that. Did you ever see that Ted?"

Ted: "Nope, never seen that. I hope I never see it again."

Bill: "Zombies have 2 speeds, slow and attack mode. (Agility check) During the day, most of them are so slow you could outrun one hopping on one foot."

Ted: "I did it once."

Bill: "There are some zombies though that can run as fast as a human, even during the day. Anyone that was in really exceptionally good shape. Creakers and Olympic level athletes. We got really lucky. This, whatever in the hell it is, happened the day of the Olympic tryouts. Most of the Olympians are wearing their uniforms. They're really easy to spot. The Creakers, yeah, that was a system shock. You probably thought it would be slow cuz of the creaking, didn't you? We did at first too. No, for a zombie, that boy can BOOK!!!!! That's why I told you to freeze, maaan. He would have had a good chance to catch you. At night, they're attracted to light and sound. Throw a rock or a glow stick or a flashlight to distract them. (Picks up a bag of glow sticks.) Glow sticks work best. Problem is, you can't really use a flashlight to see where you're going. Just turn it on and off really quick. The zombies will forget where it was. Oh yeah, you want a good laugh? Throw a glow stick at a brick wall at night, with a bunch of zombies around. They all run headfirst into the wall. It's hilarious maan. As long as you stay upwind, and don't make any noise, you can actually walk right behind a zombie, and it won't even know you're there. Don't wear any cologne. At night, most of them are as fast as a track star. You gotta be really careful at night. If you could kill these things during the day, there wouldn't be any problem, ya know? Gotta kill them at night. They're just as easily killed as a human, so long as the sun doesn't come up in time. Early evening is the best time to go hunting."

And don't forget to ask Angus what he knows when you get back. Angus does happen to know how to kill them during the day.

Please don't mention the ways to get more information, it takes away from both the players challenge to find the information itself and also removes the practice to see if players would actually do that. I did plan to talk to Angus about it eventually though.

"Oh ok, I assumed the creakers were slower than normal, not quick. Live and learn, that or live and die. I'll try for the first one."

"Now when we get to the junkyard keep an eye out for older cars. They'll still have been made from sheet metal, which will help a lot. The undercarriage can be from any car though."

Please don't mention the ways to get more information, it takes away from both the players challenge to find the information itself and also removes the practice to see if players would actually do that. I did plan to talk to Angus about it eventually though.

I understand. I was kind of trying to decide to tell you that or not. You're not really seeking information though. You would have been happy had Bill not told you what he told you. You didn't seem too interested in what they could do. This is part of the learning experience. Besides, what Angus tells you won't be particularly useful.

"Oh ok, I assumed the Creakers were slower than normal, not quick. Live and learn, that or live and die. I'll try for the first one."

Ted: "It's more like 'Learn or die' maan."

"Now when we get to the junkyard keep an eye out for older cars. They'll still have been made from sheet metal, which will help a lot. The undercarriage can be from any car though."

Please keep in mind that you have no idea what the date is, what year it is, etc. What is an 'older car'?

Bill: "Dude, there's cars all over the place. I wanna check out this tree Angus was talking about."

So they pull into the junkyard and drive around for a few minutes. They find the tree towards the back. It does indeed look like skin. The trunk is the color and texture of African American skin, the leaves are the color and texture of Caucasian skin. So, to be racist, it's a black tree with white leaves. (Supposed to be funny, BTW) There are vines growing out of it, that extend for several feet. Some of them look like they are moving very slowly.

Bill: "Angus said to be careful of the vines. Does anyone else want to stick around and check it out some more, or do you wanna get out of here and get the truck done?"

(Doing Therapy)

Please keep in mind that you have no idea what the date is, what year it is, etc. What is an 'older car'?

Older car would be defined by the attribute of having sheet metal instead of plastics on the outside for my purposed. So I'm just looking for cars with sheet metal for the exterior. I believe the switch came in the late 70's or early 80's.

If I can't find any that's fine, I'll just have to harvest more undercarriages and make the entire thing bar based.

"I'm staying away from the tree. I underestimated the creakers earlier, not about to underestimate this. Lets get the truck done"

So they pull into the junkyard and drive around for a few minutes. They find the tree towards the back. It does indeed look like skin. The trunk is the color and texture of African American skin, the leaves are the color and texture of Caucasian skin. So, to be racist, it's a black tree with white leaves. (Supposed to be funny, BTW) There are vines growing out of it, that extend for several feet. Some of them look like they are moving very slowly.

I don't believe describing the tree as black skin with white skin leaves would be considered racist. It's not being derogatory towards either race involved, simply describing the color of the tree.

"I'm staying away from the tree. I underestimated the creakers earlier, not about to underestimate this. Lets get the truck done"

Ted: "Yeah, I'm with you dude, let's get out of here."

As Bill drives past the tree, one of the vines snaps up and slaps his closed truck window.

Bill: "Dude, we better not get anywhere near that thing."

GE roll for zombies, 12.

No zombies that you can see.

So you're exploring the lot. Stacks and piles of old cars and trucks, and other metal scrap. No doubt you'll find what you're looking for. So you get it.

Bill: "Oh yeah, Angus wanted us to get an acetylene tank. Anyone know where those might be? He wouldn't have told us to get one unless he knew they were here."

"There would probably be one in the building on site, for cutting up what comes in. Otherwise I don't know."

Bill: "Oh you mean that big warehouse looking thing over there. I didn't even notice hehehe."

I'm not doing too good with this junkyard, am I?

The junkyard is a square mile, easily. It's out in the middle of nowhere. Fields and trees on all sides. Stacks and stacks of cars, and the "Big warehouse looking thing" which Bill is now driving towards. It's dark. It appears to be a bay where cars would be stripped of parts. An auto mechanics bay.

GE 19

Bill and Ted (And I assume you) go into the bay to look for acetylene. It's dark, the only light coming in from some windows high in the walls. At the far end of the bay, you find a pickup truck loaded with all sorts of gas bottles. The keys are in the ignition. Some of the bottles are marked "Pro" "Act" "O2" a few others. You also see five or six zombies in auto mechanic's uniforms wandering about.

Intuition check, 28.

And you notice nothing unusual about their behavior.

(Doing therapy)

You're doing find for me, because I've been to enough junkyards to know what to expect. A description may have helped though. Have you been to many junkyards? Also 1 square mile is huge for even a country junkyard, just so you know.

"Guys, are these zombies going to act like nighttime zombies since we're in the dark?"

Either way, going to do the following, it's just going to require some extra care if they're super powered.

"I don't think we should be firing any weapons around those canisters, and if we do we have to shoot way wide of the truck. Here's my plan. We're going to need a couple of glow sticks. We distract those zombies over there with them, I'll then sneak up to the truck and start it up and get it out of here. When I get it started you guys should either jump into the cab or onto the truck bed. If they notice me I'm going to run into the truck and close the door and duck down, that should let them get distracted again giving me time to start the engine and get it out of there."

Also 1 square mile is huge for even a country junkyard, just so you know.

How do you know? On this world, this could be the smallest junkyard in existence.

"Guys, are these zombies going to act like nighttime zombies since we're in the dark?"

Bill: "Never thought of that duder. Let's watch em for a minute."

The zombies are walking back and forth and back, pacing, more or less single file, for the entire length of the docking bay. There's about 10 yards between the closest two. Along the wall, there are 6 large windows, high towards the ceiling. You notice that when the zombies walk into the direct sunlight, they slow down dramatically. Once they clear the edge, and are out of the direct sunlight, their speed increases noticeably.

Ted: "I'd say it's a fair probability. I'll go get the glow sticks."

Unless I specify otherwise, Bill always has his shotgun, and Ted always has his 22 target pistol. So you've got that, and your two 9mms.

Ted returns with the glow sticks.

Ted: "Which way should I throw it?"

Bill: "Ya know what? If they are nighttime, we can kill them. Just, ya know, saying...."

(Doing Therapy)

Wasn't saying it was huge for this world. In our world however 1 square mile is huge, and that's the general basis we think by.

"Throw them at the wall on the passenger side of the truck. We don't want to fire guns in here if we don't want to, not sure if any of those cannisters have leaked. Plus if even one fragment of a bullet hits one of them we're all dead. Sneaking seems better. Good to know zombies can be killed inside buildings though, will work something out on that premise later."

"Throw them at the wall on the passenger side of the truck. We don't want to fire guns in here if we don't want to, not sure if any of those cannisters have leaked. Plus if even one fragment of a bullet hits one of them we're all dead. Sneaking seems better. Good to know zombies can be killed inside buildings though, will work something out on that premise later."

When I said this building was "A big warehouse looking thing" I meant exactly that. It's big enough that you could throw those 50 yards away from the truck. Are you certain you want to throw the glow sticks that close to the truck?

Bill: "Dude, that's an urban myth. You could empty your gun at the acetylene canister and it wouldn't blow up. Bullets don't make gas tanks blow up either. That's all Hollywood. You shoot a gas tank, you put a hole in the gas tank. That's it. I doubt your 9 would even penetrate one of those canisters. Not saying we should shoot at them on purpose, just that it ain't nearly as dangerous as you're thinking."

"I'll take your word that they won't explode but let's still try not testing it. Let's just kill the zombies then."

Only tactic I have is to kill the ones closest first.

Was a double post, my computer didn't tell me I had posted it the first time.

Sorry.

Also 1 square mile is huge for even a country junkyard, just so you know.

How do you know? On this world, this could be the smallest junkyard in existence.

There's no reason why your world can't have huge junkyards, but Rochelle Park, New Jersey is one square mile, and granted that it's the smallest town in the state, it's still large enough to be confusing when you drive around in it.

I mention it because your response to Mike sounded defensive (to me), and Mike's point was clearly intended to be helpful. Mike certainly knows that things might be different in this world; he also knows that a square mile is a huge piece of real estate--six hundred forty acres, a good-sized corporate farm, a small industrial park, a huge shopping mall with parking lots. In essence, Mike was calling your attention to the fact that your junkyard was not merely big but way beyond any normal dimensions, politely giving you the opportunity to say, "No, it really is the hugest junkyard you've ever seen" or "Oh, no, it's not really as big as that, I misspoke". You chose instead to say, "I'm running this world, don't question what I said", which is not really very polite and not at all conducive to running a game world.

In fact, I don't know even now whether you really intended for this to be an inconceivably vast junkyard or whether having said it was as big as that you were too embarrassed to backpedal so you reformed the world to include inconceivably vast junkyards.

--M. J. Young

About the junkyard. It was probably closer to underestimating Mike's knowledge of the Multiverse. He might not realize that everything isn't as it was at home. "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." Also, I see it as kind of an inconsequential detail. In the same light as you see character names. So the junkyard is a square mile. That means I have all the room in the world to put whatever I want on it. Wasn't supposed to be defensive or "I'm the ref and this is the way it is." To be honest, it was probably closer to just dismissing what I felt was an unneeded detail. Sorry Mike. I'll be more mindful in the future.

"I'll take your word that they won't explode but let's still try not testing it. Let's just kill the zombies then."

GE Roll 22

I should probably tell you what all is in the room first. The room is huge. It's warehouse-sized. The floor is largely empty. There is storage at the far end of the building, the area you are in is largely an open floor. There are large standing toolboxes all over the place (one of which you are currently hiding behind) There's not really anywhere to run and hide.

Bill: "Dude, there's 6 of them and 3 of us. You still haven't seen these things run at night yet. Ted is an expert with that 22, but I'm not all that good with this shotgun, and you just learned to use your guns the other day. I don't think we would stand a chance. If Uncle Bob or Angus were here, maybe. Let's watch them for a minute and think about this."

As you watch the zombies, they walk in a straight line, until they reach the wall, about face, and start walking back. Slowing down in the direct sunlight, and speeding up out of it. It's rhythmic. It has a pattern. The zombies are almost moving in sync. You could almost set a clock to their movements.

Bill: "Ya know, if we wait, they will all be turned away and walking that way (pointing to the other end) We could sneak up on the truck and drive away with it before they even realized we were here."

Ted: "Or we could try to lure them outside. I could run out and hit the air horn on the truck, see if that brings them out. How much you wanna bet they head straight for that weird tree?"

Bill: "We could throw a glow stick, we could do a lot. I don't think trying to kill them is too good of an idea. The dock is open. You have to get out of their sight. Nowhere to do that out here."

Ted: "Well, whatever we do, we better do it quick. Angus is expecting us back there."

(Doing Therapy)

Size/Volume is often an important detail, as the more there is there more there is to work with in the future. My advice is if a detail isn't important to you don't offer a solid number for it unless asked. This allows unimportant details to remain unimportant, yet gives the verser the opportunity to make them important by asking about them. Once a verser asks "well how big is this junkyard" it's of at least marginal importance due to the fact they may then use that fact as part of a decision making process.

"Oh ok, I thought when you said we could kill them you were suggesting that's the route you wanted to take. I'm just as happy sneaking off with the truck, plus it'll be faster and if the truck starts it scores us all the tanks and another working vehicle. Lets go with Bills first plan of waiting till their all walking away from the truck then driving it out of here."

Understood about the junkyard. Well then, it's a huge junkyard of unspecified size.

"Oh ok, I thought when you said we could kill them you were suggesting that's the route you wanted to take.

Bill: "Nah dude, just stating options. Besides, it's kinda nice to know we can kill them if we have to, ya know?"

How good are you at being quiet and moving quietly? Your stealth score. Are you the one who is going to go after the truck? You need to do it quietly. And what's your skill at driving? 1@5 is "normal"

GE Roll: 22

You'll have a little bit of a wait before they line up like that again. You're not sure how long, but it could a while, based on their pattern of movement. Does that affect your plans?

Ted: "We're not in a huge huge huge hurry, but I would like to get this finished before nightfall, ya know? Angus won't feed us or let us in the house. Me and Bill got hammocks to sleep in. I don't think you want to sleep on the floor of the garbage truck, no matter how well cleaned it was."

(Doing Therapy)

"If I have to sleep on the floor of the truck that's life, I'd rather wait on them and be absolutely safe than risk anything. Let's just wait."

I'd say 1@10 driving. My cousin drives a limo for a living and I'm comparable in most aspects of driving to him, although he can parallel park better, not that that matters here. I know how to drive stick, although my current car isn't stick so a little out of habit.

As to how sneaky I am if it's a matter of just not being heard I'm probably 1@8, I can sneak up on people pretty easily without them noticing, even my average walking tends to be quiet.

I want to be the one going after the truck. I'm the least valuable shooting.

Mike, I won't be able to reply to this for a while. I won't answer my own game either until I answer this one. However, today just isn't a good day for me to be posting to the game.

(Dextroland)

Dextroland is a more intense psychosis therapy.

Oh hey, ya know what? Mike, if you want to figure out your chances of success on those, go ahead. It's a learning experience. Let's learn. You figure it out, and I'll roll the dice and tell you what happened.

Bod and Tech are 15@10
Psi and Mag are flatlined.

You figure it out. Let's learn together, shall we?

Thanks for the update John. Hope you're ok/feel better soon.

I wouldn't want you to feel you can't post to your own game thread before this one, unless it's for the same reason that you just don't feel posting today anywhere is a good reason. What I'm saying is don't let the fact you're not able to post here today restrict your other activities.

I edited the post. Make sure you see it. It's just not right to me to post to my game by not yours. It just wouldn't be fair. I just can't do the math right now.......

(Dextroland)

Driving
1@10 (SAL)
2@2 (BRA:Ed Level)
2x10 (Lower of Bias of world and bias of player times 2)
62%

Stealth (Moving unheard)
1@8 (SAL)
1@8 (BRA: Strength)
2x7 (Lower of Bias of world and bias of player times 2)
50%

These are without any sitmods for the circumstance or equipment involved.

Stealth would normally be an effort not to be seen or heard, in this case the skill is only being associated with moving unheard, and only effective with a target who is distracted or for some reason wouldn't be looking around, which is how I was interpreting the way the zombies are patrolling, not scanning around them.

I'm not the ref so I can't assign this SM, but I do intend this to be a limitation built into the skill. I have no prior experience making sure I was unseen, only moving quietly.

As for the driving there are a couple of aspects to it. I think starting a vehicle may actually be a skill in itself, I don't know the entire breakdown. However this would primarily be used for hot wiring a car, and the having the key gives such a significant sit mod that it is practically a guaranteed success (A tool designed specifically for one specific car to turn it on is a heavy positive sitmod)

The driving skill is really something used for driving faster than is standard, opposed checks to lose someone who is following you, making a particularly hard turn etc. Barring these circumstances I would either associate a heavy positive sitmod, possibly with an occasional GE roll to see if something happens to reduce the sitmod, a distraction or unseen circumstance.

If you want my opinion on numbers that are appropriate for these sitmods let me know. Otherwise if you give me the sitmods you want associated I'll run the numbers

Stealth, rolled 23

After what feels like an eternity of waiting, the zombies are finally lined up with their backs to you. You sneak over to the truck, open the door, and get inside. The opening and closing of the door causes them to turn around and look, but they soon forget about it and resume their pacing.

Driving, rolled 85, 88, 53
GE roll 20

You try to start the truck, the starter spins, the truck coughs, and dies. It sounds like it wants to start, and you try again with the same results. On your third attempt, the truck starts, and the zombies turn on you and start running after you. Bill and Ted jump in the back and you floor it, just as the zombies reach the truck. Bill treats one of them to a shotgun blast to the face and it falls over backwards. The other chase the truck until you get it out of the warehouse. Once they are in the sunlight, they slow down immediately. They're still coming for you, but walking so slowly you could outrun them easily.

Did you apply a SM to the stealth skill based on it only being moving unheard as opposed to visually unseen? How about any SM for the key? Obviously doesn't matter in this occasion, but without seeing effectively the behind the scenes I can't add commentary about what I would have done as a ref/suggest anything.

I'll drive over to the garbage truck then.
"OK guys, lets get back over to Angus's and get your truck tricked out. Shouldn't take long now that we have anything, but need that workshop."

I'm not sure I can properly expressed how thrilled I was when you mentioned the type of workshop Angus has by the way. What I had said really wasn't just paying Angus a compliment, a good workshop is only slightly improved by technology. I'll work the sheet metal I got from the cars into crescent shapes, attaching them to the framework I'll make from the undercarriage pieces. This'll allow the strength the undercarriage provides with an easy future fix of replacing or layering the sheet metal.

Did you apply a SM to the stealth skill based on it only being moving unheard as opposed to visually unseen? How about any SM for the key? Obviously doesn't matter in this occasion, but without seeing effectively the behind the scenes I can't add commentary about what I would have done as a ref/suggest anything.

No on both counts. The stealth you rolled within, so none was needed. If the other two rolls had been within 20, I might have applied a sit-mod, but they weren't. Besides, God only knows how long that truck has been sitting there. You didn't really expect it to start on the first try, did you?

Bill: "Follow me."

So you drive back to the workshop. Now tell me exactly what you're doing.

To be honest, I would expect a stall or two even on a successful roll, more of a flavor aspect than anything. I was only pointing out the aspect that a key would be a positive SM because it's one of those easily overlooked aspects which is why things work on a daily basis. The negative SM would be that it's been sitting for so long

All connections are going to be spot welds.
I'll be using the undercarriage pieces we looted to form a grid, which I'll be welding two more pieces to it at a right angle and attaching it directly to the under frame of the garbage truck. This is for the front.

For the sides I'll be using the same method to attach it to the truck but I'll be using car axles in place of a grid, aligning the car axle such that the flat aspect in the middle is horizontal and can act as a step if need be. This will be low lying, unlike the front, such that it doesn't block the door but could break an ankle or cleave it off depending on the speed.

The back will be identical to the sides.

I'll then shape the sheet metal into crescent strips and line the outside of the front grill with them. This is for added durability and easy repair. I'll be spot welding them on as well.

I believe all of this would be covered by my 1@5 Hard Metallurgy Package T 5@x

Forgive the interruption. I wanted to make a comment on this:

Driving, rolled 85, 88, 53....

You try to start the truck, the starter spins, the truck coughs, and dies. It sounds like it wants to start, and you try again with the same results. On your third attempt, the truck starts,

It appears to me that the referee wanted the truck to start, but felt constrained by the die roll.

Or that the referee doesn't really know what he's doing?

OK, Angus has 1@10 blacksmithing. He's going to help. What would his tech bias be? How am I going to do this? Is it just one roll for Mike and one roll for Angus, and if they both make the rolls, the truck is done? How does that work?

The 9@1 Tech Bias is because pretty much by default everyone alive in the late twentieth century understands batteries, switches, wires, and electromagnets, at least at a 1@1 SAL, so I marked the 9@1 bias as minimum for pretty much any player character.

from:http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/ending-a-decade-behind-the-screens/page/10

If you don't believe Angus to understand these, I'm not quite sure how Amish he is, driving a stick shift car is an 8@1 skill.

Some tasks require more than one success to finish. The first thing you should decide is how many successes are required.

Perhaps 100 intensities (I may be misusing the word here, but it's the best way I can think to describe this) of success. Each roll would be half an hours work, a success adds that many intensities to the pool. When the pool meets or exceeds 100 the task is complete.

I would think the workshop is going to be a heavy positive SM and the welding torch as well.

I would make the hammer/calipers/forge/workbench/anvil/etc a +15 or +20, with the torch bumping it up to +25 or +30. Tools specifically for a task make the task significantly easier.

I'm going to run the numbers both to help you and also so see if I can manage them myself.

Mike:
1@5 SAL
2@2 BRA
2x10 (twice bias level)
+25 SM
________
82%

Angus:
1@10 SAL
?@? BRA
2x9 (twice bias level)
+25 SM
________
(63+BRA)%

Just to give an idea of what I explained above how I'd handle it, using numbers pulled to illustrate the point:

Mike: 13 (success) (Progress:13)
Angus: 90 (Failure) (Progress:13)
Mike: 83 (Failure) (Progress:13)
Angus: 70 (Success) (Progress:83)
Mike: 50 (Success) (Progress:133)
Project complete.

A 2@ SAL would cause a 13 to count for 26 intensities I believe, but that doesn't matter here, as neither he nor I have that high of an SAL.

If you don't believe Angus to understand these, I'm not quite sure how Amish he is, driving a stick shift car is an 8@1 skill.

Like the Humvee that Ted claims he saw in the garage?

MJ didn't comment, so I'm going to assume he agrees with your assessment.

Mike:
1@5 SAL
2@2 BRA
2x10 (twice bias level)
+25 SM
________
82%

Angus:
1@10 SAL
1@10 BRA (Intellect)
2x8 (twice bias level) (I'll go with 8. He's driven a stick shift at least once.)
+25 SM

81% chance

Mike: 49
Angus: 17
Mike: 22
Angus: 31
Total 119.

Bill: "Anyone think we should try to call anyone about that strange tree over at the junkyard? We've got internet and satellite hookups."

He looks at you.

Angus: "Angus no vant tree gone. Trees are guud. Even strrange tree like dat one. Dis is vhy Angus no cut down tree."

After you answer Bill:

Angus: "Now, to verk. Angus start on dis side of trruck, Mikal you starrt on otherr side. Ve meet in middle. Is guud?"

So, if you do it like that, you are finished in 2 hours. I have no idea how to tell you exactly what you're doing, so maybe you can tell me....

Angus: "Dis, dis iz guud. Now trruck can kick zombie butt." (Laughing)

What are you doing with the pickup truck? Are you keeping it for yourself? You've got to get all of the tanks out of it first. The delivery of the gas tanks was the payment for using the workshop. At the very least, you have to get the truck off of Angus' property.

(Doing Therapy)

Two

Oh yeah, I know you like it when people cite sources. It was on MythBusters. They shot a propane tank with all kinds of guns. The best they could do with a standard bullet was put a hole in it. If there was something else on which to ignite the propane, it would explode, but the bullet wouldn't do it. They finally got it to explode by shooting, but they had to use a Minigun shooting white phosphorus tracer bullets. Bullets don't make things explode under normal circumstances. I already knew it, but I thought you'd want it confirmed. (Just don't ask me how I knew it, hehehe)

Oh yeah, and this was within the hour, so the second doesn't count. 30 minutes from now, I think the hour is up.

(Doing Therapy)