"I'd like the knife but I like my guns better than his, we should still take it in case we can get something in trade for it."
I'll stay quiet throughout the conversation with Campbell. I'm sorta shaken right now.
After a bit in the truck I'll start talking again:
"So where are we going to pick up the stuff to trick out the apartment complex?"
Your math looked right to me except that I think the TV would have been 1 higher and thus the percent 1 lower. It comes to 13.333 TV and I think it's always supposed to round up so it should have been 14. Otherwise looked good to me.
"I'd like the knife but I like my guns better than his, we should still take it in case we can get something in trade for it."
The knife is 9 inches long open, wood handle, razor sharp. You take them both.
After a bit in the truck I'll start talking again:
"So where are we going to pick up the stuff to trick out the apartment complex?"
Bill: "Uh yeah, we're headed there right now."
Bill and Ted seem rather shaken as well.
Ted: "I must have seen a hundred zombies killed, never saw a person killed. It was different somehow, ya know?"
GE roll 16, neutral.
The drive is uneventful. You end up near the river, in an abandoned warehouse.
Bill: "We don't bring just anyone here. The stuff is inside. Oh yeah, me and Ted are gonna help you put the sound system together. How long do you think it will take?"
He means with all of you together.
(Doing Therapy)
Ted: "I must have seen a hundred zombies killed, never saw a person killed. It was different somehow, ya know?"
I'll just nod at his point.
Bill: "We don't bring just anyone here. The stuff is inside. Oh yeah, me and Ted are gonna help you put the sound system together. How long do you think it will take?"
"I'm thinking I could do a single room in half an hour by myself so if we split up we can do 6 rooms an hour. Then setting up the cameras outside will probably take an hour and a half with all 3 of us on that, and another hour to making sure everything works properly. So.... 5 and a half hours of solid work, if we split up and work individually. Probably more like 7 hours if all three of us work in the same room."
Just curious. Did you find Campbell bailing you guys out with a sniper attack to be railroading or unrealistic? I was thinking about what would Campbell be doing? He lives in the area, he knows how valuable gas is, would Campbell be watching your backs? So I gave Campbell an intuition check. He rolled a 16 against a 1@7 intuition. That's a perfect score, kind of hard to argue with, ya know? I was just curious what your thoughts on that were.
Bill: "Whatever you think will get the most amount of work done in the least amount of time is fine with us, right Ted?"
Ted: "Right."
So they take you into an abandoned warehouse. The outside is dingy and dirty. It looks like it hasn't seen a cleaning in centuries. Once inside, however, you have quite surprised. At least a dozen computer terminals wired and networked together, satellite hookups, surveillance, alarms, gear you don't even recognize.
Bill and Ted take you over to a row of cardboard boxes with all manner of speakers and microphones. Everything you would need, just in a rather haphazard, miscellaneous disarray.
Bill: "Pick through this and get what you need."
Ted: "Don't forget the tools you need too."
And since I really have no idea what tools you would need, I'll let you tell me.
(Doing Therapy)
It was a little railroaded, but oh well, it wasn't an issue. Some railroading is ok.
I'll just need wires, speakers, mics and screwdrivers. Might as well take a soldering iron too, just in case.
Oh and the cameras as well and tvs to view them on.
After loading that up onwards to setting it up.
So you get everything you need and head back to the pickup truck.
You head back to Uncle Bob's apartment and unload everything.
How do you propose we do the mechanics on setting this up?
You could handle it the way we did with the truck, making a certain total pool success needed. This is a larger project though, and it would probably be easier if you just used my skill roll and treat it as a relative success, possibly rolling for Bill and Ted as well.
Well, why don't you figure out the math on that and get back to me? Bill and Ted both have 2@5 skill at what you're about to be attempting. You need the practice with the math as much as I.
I don't have Bill and Ted's BRA or lower of their bias level or the world bias.
Also, did you see the recent conversation in my game with MJ about tech skills? Is it ok if I make the same changes to this character sheet? The impact would be I'd have an 11@ bias as opposed to the 10@ from sound tech, and thus a 2% higher success rate.
Edit: Forgot to add my math in here, since if you accept the changes to the character sheet I have the numbers cranked out already.
2@8 SAL
2x11@ bias
2@2 BRA (Edu)
-----
72%
This would be without any positive SM from appropriate tools, whatever you decide they would be worth, or if they're worth anything.
Also, did you see the recent conversation in my game with MJ about tech skills?
No, I don't read the games of others. I know I probably should, but I just don't.
Glantri 6 1 49 16 32 93 63 26
Bill 17 85 44 92 34 5 15 21
Ted 27 7 7 21 95 22 24 22
24 apartments, 8 apartments each.
The work goes smoothly. You don't make any major mistakes, but, you all encounter the same problem on one of your tasks, you just can't get it to work properly. After working together on it, and thinking for a while:
Bill 17
Ted 43
Glantri 38
you manage to get the PA system working properly in all 24 apartment.
Uncle Bob: "AWESOME!!!!! Now we can finally hear what's going on down here. You earned those pistols Mike."
To Uncle Bob:
"Let me know if you ever need anything else set up, I love working with this stuff."
To Bill and Ted:
"Hey guys, I had an idea the other day about a way to kill the zombies. Why don't we make a net like gladiators in roman times except instead of being just a net have it be a solid sheet of cloth with weights at the end for throwing. Then when we shoot a zombie in the daylight we can throw it over it quickly, block out the light and it's ability to heal and have it die. You up for scavenging around to find good materials to make some prototypes and test it?"
To Uncle Bob:
"Let me know if you ever need anything else set up, I love working with this stuff."
Uncle Bob: "Sure will. And if you ever need a place to stay, let us know."
In response to your suggestion:
Bill: "You don't understand man. You'd have to hit one with a Howitzer shell just to put it down before you threw the net. Throw the net THEN shoot it, that might work. For the moment, let's go hunting tonight. At night, they die just as easily as people. Focus on ways to kill a lot of them at night. We will pick up Campbell. He wanted to come. Let's all take a nap so we can do that. Sound good to you?"
You previously had scenes were zombies were taken down during the day. They fell and then just regenerated in a certain amount of time (the creaker scene from earlier). Just pointing out what to me appeared to be an inconsistency.
"That works for me. Nap time it is."
I'll take a nap then.
You previously had scenes were zombies were taken down during the day. They fell and then just regenerated in a certain amount of time (the creaker scene from earlier). Just pointing out what to me appeared to be an inconsistency.
Or perhaps Bill was exaggerating how difficult they were to take down? You're not talking to me. You're talking to Bill. This is Bill, as in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure?? Also, keep in mind that the Creaker was dropped by an expert Vietnam combat veteran. Do you think you could match that performance? Uncle Bob made appear easy something which is very difficult. They're plenty difficult to take down in the daytime.
So you all take naps. Uncle Bob wakes you up hours later.
Uncle Bob: "I'm not going to go hunting tonight. You guys have a good time."
Bill: "Let's roll."
Ted: "Let's go get Campbell and kill us some zombies!!!!"
I'll grab my guns and follow Bill and Ted.
Bill: "Let's get moving."
Can you please repost the link to that KonKreet dice roller? (or whatever it was called) I'm at my mom's house for a few days, I don't have the link, and I'm gonna need to roll dice really soon. Thanks.
http://rpg.norwinter.com/konkret/
(Not sure if there was anything other than the dice roller that you wanted me to respond with, which is why I'm replying faster than 1 hour as it looked like a mechanics related issue.)
You did exactly what I wanted. Thanks.
GE Roll 8 (Which is why I needed it)
Going out to the truck, the parking lot is clear. Bill's driving.
Bill: "Ya know Mikey, I was thinking about what you said about covering a zombie up in the daytime. Yeah, if you blocked out all of the sunlight, you might put it into nighttime mode where it could be killed, but the other thing is it's going to be way stronger and faster until you do kill it. I could just see that. You drop the net on a little old lady zombie, she turns into The Hulk and rips the net to pieces. Then she goes back to being a little old lady zombie. It would be funny as hell, but I think we would need some really strong stuff to do that."
Ted: "What we should do is get all of that computer stuff out of the back of the truck and try to lure a couple of them into there. I'd like to see anything short of a Creaker bust out of there, ya know? How long can these things go without sunlight? That's what I'd like to know."
Do you have that 38 snubnose that you took from the mugger as well as the 2 pistols Uncle Bob gave you? If you shoot that 38, it's a New Use on your handgun skill.
So far, this has been a nearly perfect world for you. Do you agree? You fit into it nicely.
You're right, this world has a lot of the aspects that make me like a world. I'm not sure I think there is a perfect world for a person, but this is a very good one. As to fitting in nicely, thank you. If you want a list of the reasons why I like this world I could drum one up, but I'd do that tomorrow as I'm about to get to sleep and I just wanted to fit in another reply before hitting the sack.
When you say going out to the truck are you saying the garbage truck or the one we got yesterday?
"If I make a net for this purpose no zombie is going to be ripping it apart. In my mind I was thinking of making the wire mesh of high tension steel cabling. The idea of throwing them in the back of the truck seems like a better idea though."
I'll be using the 38, primarily to conserve the ammo I have for the other pistols.
You're right, this world has a lot of the aspects that make me like a world. I'm not sure I think there is a perfect world for a person, but this is a very good one. As to fitting in nicely, thank you. If you want a list of the reasons why I like this world I could drum one up, but I'd do that tomorrow as I'm about to get to sleep and I just wanted to fit in another reply before hitting the sack.
Yeah, I'd love to see that list. I wrote this world whilst having a psychotic episode. If my moment of insanity works so well, then that's good.
When you say going out to the truck are you saying the garbage truck or the one we got yesterday?
The garbage truck is the combat vehicle.
"If I make a net for this purpose no zombie is going to be ripping it apart. In my mind I was thinking of making the wire mesh of high tension steel cabling. The idea of throwing them in the back of the truck seems like a better idea though."
Bill: "Well ya know, we could try that tonight. Just saying."
I'll be using the 38, primarily to conserve the ammo I have for the other pistols.
If you need more ammo, talk to Uncle Bob.
From my characters perspective:
He's in a good group he's starting to be able to call friends and is more than willing to defend them and confident they would do the same (as they already have).
Items that interest others and what will interest my character may end up being radically different. As such he still has high hopes of scavenging around in laboratories.
Projects make life more interesting, and there is no shortage of projects.
Learning new stuff is fun, and actual use of guns is new to me, only fired them on a firing range as a boy scout.
As a player:
I like puzzles, and that's how I'm treating these zombies.
The people I'm interacting with seem intelligent or at least personable. I'm a socialite, but I hate stupid.
Pickup was quick, Bill and Ted really get things rolling.
I still would be using the 38 as I view it as the inferior weapon which makes it's ammo less valuable to me. In the case of an emergency I want to be ready to have 2 fully loaded pistols in my holster as opposed to the chance of them both being at 1 bullet and only having the 6? in the 38.
Is it getting dark yet?
"So lets go get Campbell and start."
I imagine there may be an instance where I fire from the truck while it's moving. I believe that would be a new use as well.
I still would be using the 38 as I view it as the inferior weapon which makes it's ammo less valuable to me. In the case of an emergency I want to be ready to have 2 fully loaded pistols in my holster as opposed to the chance of them both being at 1 bullet and only having the 6? in the 38.
Actually it was 5, but we'll change it to 6 since that's easier to remember.
Is it getting dark yet?
It's dusk. Sun is just starting to set.
So, you all go to the Mormon Tabernacle. Ted calls out on a CB radio and Campbell is waiting on the porch when you get there.
Bill parks the truck and says "Everybody out. Assume battle positions."
Ted grabs a duffel bag out of the truck. Campbell climbs a ladder up onto the roof of the truck, Ted motions for you to follow, (I assume you do) and then Ted follows you up. Campbell has the 2 bolt action rifles and the two pistols he had from when you met him before. He's also wearing a backpack, and dressed in jeans and a black t shirt.
Campbell: "Mike, do you think you could handle one of these rifles? I'm the sniper, I get the long range stuff. You and Ted are gonna be getting the up-close and personal. And, since Bill is the driver, he's both the most vulnerable and the most important, so we gotta protect Bill. Don't let them get close to him, whatever you do."
Is your hope to run into zombies, and your fear to not run into them? Just to be clear so I know how to roll. That means a 30 would be an uneventful night.
(Doing Therapy)
"I could try using the other rifle, I'm probably no better at the pistols than anything else at this point. I only just started learning how to shoot. I'll do that until the zombies start getting closer and then switch to using pistols with Ted."
So my plan is to use the rifle while the zombies are further out, then switch to the 38 for 6 shots and then switch to the dual pistols I have.
My hope is to run into a series of small groups of zombies. My fear would be being overwhelmingly outnumbered or not being able to find more than 2 or 3. So I'm really hoping for the middle, and both extremities are bad, with being overwhelmed being the worst.
Campbell: "If they get too close, of course I'm using pistols. OK, let's get this show on the road."
He bangs the roof of the truck to let Bill know to get underway, and the truck takes off slowly, about 10 MPH.
GE 15.
The first zombie you see is 2 blocks later. It's shuffling down the street, much faster than you've yet seen. A quick walking speed.
You said you've shot rifles in the Boy Scouts. Would you rather be given a 1@2 use rifles, or make it a skill learning roll? Up to you.
(Doing Therapy)
Rifles and handguns use different skills? I thought they were all in explosive driven slugs or something like that. Either way, I'd prefer to have the 1@2 skill and this be a skill use.
I'll take a shot at the zombie with a rifle. I'll keep firing until it's dead, switching to the 38 if it gets close, and the pistols after 6 shots of the 38. There's currently only 1?
Rifles and handguns use different skills? I thought they were all in explosive driven slugs or something like that. Either way, I'd prefer to have the 1@2 skill and this be a skill use.
Pistols are small explosive driven slug throwers. Rifles are large explosive driven slug throwers. I've shot a lot of both. It's a different skill.
There's currently only 1?
A 15 is just a little bit better than what the referee thinks the most likely outcome. I wrote four or five things before settling on that. What do YOU think would be a little better than the most likely outcome? I'm still trying to learn this. You tell me what you think the roll should indicate. This is a mechanics post, so reply quickly.
I was just clarifying it was only one. I was expecting there to be packs of like 8-9, for not particular reason other than it was the visual in my head. The first zombie of the night being alone is slightly better than I expected. All looks good.
Mike, I don't think you're understanding me. I want you to argue with me on this one. That didn't seem right to me when I posted it, but again, none of the things I put down seemed right. Help me adjudicate that roll. Unless that really is fine with you, that is.
I really am fine with it. It's very similar to what I would have done. I think Kyler addressed most of your question as well as I could in the other thread anyway.
Yeah, Kyler explained it nicely. Now I gotta ask. Other than zombies, what would you be hoping to find, and other than zombies, what would you be afraid of running into?
(Doing Therapy)
I guess finding what looks like an unlooted chemistry lab, like that what would be on a college campus or a machine fabrication shop would be exceptionally good. The type of things that I could both use and expand my knowledge of materials.
I absolutely don't want to run into a gang of humans. I don't want to have to kill another living person.
OK, this should be the last mechanics post, then we will resume. Would 7 be a good number of zombies to run into? I'm thinking that since 15 is a lone zombie, and 9 is as many as you would enjoy taking on:
roll 9, 7 zombies
roll 10, 6 zombies
roll 11, 5 zombies
and so on, neutral nothing is found, worse than neutral, too many zombies to handle, or human combatants. Good rolls, you find zombies as well as useful items.
Does that sound to you like a good way to do it?
(Doing Therapy)
Sounds good to me.
62% chance to hit. The weapon is a Russian Mosin Nagant, base lethal.
roll 78
You fire and miss.
1@7 RSV
2@10 SAL
11@ Bias
1@7 BRA
Target value
1@1 Density
1@4 agility
1@5 intuition
-13 target value
73% chance
British 303, base lethal, raised to fatal, rolled 39, hit for 19 intensities
Then Campbell shoots and scores a direct hit. The zombie flails from the impact, but stays standing. You fire again. Roll 15
And finish the zombie. You got a new use. 1@3 rifle skill.
Ted: "Oh my god, the quarterback is toast!!!"
Campbell: "Don't take the Lord's name in vain Ted."
Ted: (Looks sheepish) "Sorry."
14 GE roll
After taking that down, Bill drives on. A block later, you encounter 2 more zombies, one walking on each side of the street.
Campbell (Rolled 82) fires at the one on the left and misses.
I'll follow Campbell's lead and fire at the one on the left. Better to focus fire.
Also, 1@7 RSV? I'm pretty sure I have 1@10.
Off the top of my head I believe it's intution+hand/eye+intellect all over 3.
1@7 (intuition)
+2@3 (hand/eye)
+1@9 (intellect)
---------------
59/3=19.667 so 1@10 RSV
Edit: Just realized 1@7 was his RSV, not mine. My bad.
Yeah, all of Campbell's scores are 1@7. He's just a little bit above average everywhere, and it's really easy to remember.
Roll 75
You shoot at it and miss.
Roll 17
Campbell shoots and hits it.
Roll 73
You shoot and miss again.
Roll 38
Campbell shoots and takes it down.
Campbell: "Come on man!! You're wasting ammo!"
I assume you're now going to engage the other.
Roll 61
You score a solid hit. The zombie moans and starts charging the truck.
Roll 26
Campbell drops it 10 feet away from the truck.
GE 18
Bill drives around for a little while, and you don't see much of anything.
I keep forgetting to respond on top of being very busy recently.
I'll mumble I'm trying when Campbell makes his comment then do a small cheer when I finally hit.
Just continuing on till we see more.
Really, I'm sorry I called you stupid. I just get emotional really easily. Psychotic rage and all of that. It's one of my biggest problems.
GE 15
You see another zombie. Before you can even try to aim your weapon, Bill runs it over with the truck. On the positive side, your armor seems to be holding up nicely.
Ted: "Bill has to have some fun too, ya know."
GE 30 (That's 1 in 1,000 bad luck. It's the first time I've ever seen one rolled. You suggested the site, so don't complain.)
I think I'm going to put this on hold for a moment.
(Doing Therapy)
I think I've got it.
You're all sitting on the roof of the truck laughing and having a good time. All of a sudden, the passenger side back tire blows. If you look down to check, you will see a rib of the zombie Bill ran over poking out of the tire. While you're examining the damage, you hear a sound which makes your blood run cold. Branches creaking in the breeze. A whole forest of them. And they're coming straight at you from all sides.
Campbell's face goes ghostly white. "God help us, we're right in front of the old fitness center. There's gotta be a hundred Creakers coming."
Looking out, you see muscle bound oafs. Dozens, coming from all sides. Some of them, spying you on the truck, break into an impossibly fast run towards the truck.
Ted: "Any one of those could flip this truck on its side. We're screwed."
Was that 1 in 1,000 bad luck or what?
(Doing Therapy)
"Everyone get inside the trucks back. They may flip us but maybe if we're out of sight we may live through this!"
I'm swinging down from the top of the garbage truck and trying to get in the back where the garbage goes/where the computer are now. I'll get in position to close it as soon as all 4 of us are inside.
I'll have one hand on the lever to close it and one on the 38, aiming to shoot whatever zombie looks like it's getting closest. Hopefully we all manage to get in and the zombies short attention span works to our advantage.