Ok, that all makes sense, then. Just in case you hadn't seen my earlier post, using my phone to post to the forum, while convenient, seems to prevent me from making a post when that post would add a new page to the thread. So, when you're ready to continue, if you could just bump the thread to the next page for me, I'd be more than happy to post my response. edit: ..... I have no idea why sometimes it just works and sometimes it just doesn't.
Glantri,
Not an issue. You and I are both here to learn.
@ John 2's game w Eric: No, it means that you seem to have witnessed someone teleport, although whether the means used were psionic, magical, technological, or some physiological structure remains undetermined.
if it was a real teleport to start with :)
@ "the picture" in John 2's game w Eric: Never got a chance to see that til now -- wait a second, that's little Ky. haha. Looks like Isky and Baron both wised up and left him; not impossible to imagine, given the direction his character arc has been heading. I really do love playing him. He's very quirky.
So far the parameters are...
1. A fictional or real character already made (which the referee can modify because the hero may come form an alternative reality). No characters made up for the occasion.
2. On the side of Decency. Unless of course, the verser is Evil. Then he picks from Team Scum.
3. About the power level of the character or less. This is flexible. I would not let MJ have Clark Kent for this reason. I'd be iffy about the Doctor for Niko, but then his other character choices are weaker.
Hmmm--if I'm playing the Architect, I would probably choose Michael di Vars and the Psientist. Those both have the feature (which you might consider as a requirement, depending on how you're doing it) that my character knows of his own personal experience that both exist. I might also pick Whisp, although I've worked with Whisp and he's very flighty and difficult to lead--I've had to rescue him from situations he created by his own foolishness. I would also be inclined to pick the Kid with the Stick, but that's a personal favoritism thing--I'd like to have my sons working with me--and it faces the problem that there's to date no evidence that the Architect is aware that the Kid with the Stick is in the verse, never mind that they're related. Adam Keller would also be high on my list, except that he, too, is a complete stranger to me.
I think again that the way to do it is either to limit it to people the player character actually knows and reasonably believes would answer his summons to help him, or to open it wide and make the choice subject to a GE roll. The latter is how we do it in Why Spy's Tower scenario: you get to make a list of exactly who you want, any way you want to make that list (bearing in mind the biases of that world, I would think), and then once the list is made the referee rolls a GE roll. If it's the worst possible roll, you hit the scene and they tell you that you've got to go now and this old guy with almost no other skills is your bomb specialist who can defuse the device, so take care of him. If it's the best possible roll you get what you requested along with some extra skills you did not anticipate. Between those extremes--well, that depends on exactly what you requested. You'll get a decent team on an average roll.
I was under the impression that during skill learning roll you get the worlds bias level, regardless of your bias (this is how MJ has been doing it for me) so he would be getting +15, not the 42 cited. Then in cases of skill use he gets twice the lower of the world or his bias level.
Yes, that seems to be a confusion.
If you are learning a new skill, you always get:
- Your bias in that bias area, decimalized thus: if you have a 9@10 skill, that's +100.
- Your BRA for that bias area, also decimalized: if you have a 2@10 BRA, that's +30.
- The level, and only the level, of the world bias in that area, so if the bias is 15@10 you get +15.
- The SAL of any example you are citing. If you are citing an example from a work of fiction (and not a world you've visited, for example), it's usually assumed that the author of that work did not really have the skill so it's a 1@1 SAL, +11. A referee might take into account knowledge of the author's actual skills--a former law enforcement officer describing how to use a gun might be a better example, although because it's in writing and not a demonstration that would be less than the author's actual skill.
- Half of the BRA in that bias area of anyone acting as an instructor. To act as an instructor simply means that someone is explaining to you how to do it. It can be in a book or by a video or in person; it can be specifically directed to you or generally directed to a non-specific audience. Instruction can also be example, but the two are distinguished. If your instructor in how to fire a gun has a 2@1 Ed Lev and that's his BRA, you get +11 for half of that.
- If the person instructing you (or one of the persons instructing you) has skill at P0@1 teaching or training in the field, you get the SAL of the teacher. Thus an average amateur 1@5 teacher gives his student +15 to learn.
- If your attempt to learn the skill directly involves attempting to do it--such as shooting a gun at a target--all the sit-mods that would apply to an attempt to perform the skill (range, target size, target value, ranged strike value, cover value, movement, targeting skill bonuses, avoidance skill penalties, et cetera) also apply to your attempt to learn the skill. This is tricky, because on the one hand it means that if you're trying to teach yourself a skill in a situation in which there are strong penalties against it, the fact that you are probably going to fail this time means you probably aren't going to learn it, either, and it might be better to attempt to learn the skill without doing it and then do the skill once you've learned it. On the other hand, it also means that you can increase the probability of learning a skill by heavily bonusing the circumstances--bring the target to point blank range for +20, for example, and use a target with a large size and low density so you won't miss.
- All of this is set against the decimalized bias of the target skill. If you're trying to learn to fire a cannon, a 6@1 skill, you subtract 61 from the total, and that gives you your chance of successfully learning the skill.
And yes, successful skill learning rolls greater than 50 (which means at least 51) give 1@2 SALs, and those greater than 80 (at least 81) give 1@3. In theory, if you could work positive die mods into the numbers and roll greater than 100 (at least 101) and be successful, that would give you 1@4, but no one has ever done so in my experience.
Skill use is simpler:
- Skill ability level, obvious, decimalized, so if you have a 1@1 skill ability level that's +11.
- Best revelant attribute, again decimalized, so a 2@1 BRA gives you +21.
- Bias level, level only, of whichever is lesser of the character or the world, doubled. Thus if you have a 15@ bias but you're in a 6@ world you get +12, and if you have the 6@ bias in a 15@ world you again get +12. You only get the +15 if both you and the world have 15@ biases.
- Sit-mods as previously discussed which would apply to performance of the skill. Sit-mod is short for situation modifier, and ultimately means that the referee can and should bonus or penalize chance of success based on circumstances, difficulty of the task being attempted, and similar factors.
As to the Doctor. The tenth doctor is a pacifist :P
I think they all were, to some degree. The first Doctor wasn't so much a pacifist as a pragmatist, and although the second, third, and fourth worked for UNIT (some United Nations military division for the protection of the planet) they were never combatants. Sylvester McCoy (#8?) would work to set enemies against each other, but then I think that all the doctors did that in one way or another.
Being a pacifist, though, doesn't mean you don't find a way to stop the aggressor.
On the subject of playing little Kyler: one of your brothers (I think it was Adam?) this week complimented you on being able to retain the feel of being a child in the play of your character. And I agree that he's lots of fun.
I never did four characters for me in my forum game persona. Well, I'm not sure he's met four people that he would choose--Jefferson, maybe, because he is intelligent and resourceful. I probably met a good wizard or two in Haston, but I don't remember them. Daedalus has promise; I'd go for the girl with the brush, but I think her power was limited to Northgate so that's not helpful. I might pick Twilight, but that's because we worked so closely together; Mentat and Icarus are really the only other two I knew well enough to ask.
And it would really depend on what we were supposed to do and what the biases were going to be.
As for my character's power level, his defeat of that non-corporeal guy no one could touch (pun incidental) certainly causes the people in Northgate to think him a lot more powerful than he really was.
--M. J. Young
Kyler w/ MJ...
Daedalus, given his, err personality, is unlikely to tell anyone secrets he did not tell intentionally. Icarus, being more American, although having some security consciousness, and aware of super heroes needing secret ID's is a different case.
As to MJ's picks for the Iron Plains of Kharigen aka Warworld...
Di Vars would obviously love being chosen...after all, Kharigen is the prelude, the skirmishes, that lead up to the Ragnarok of Ragnaroks (maybe).
The Architect has certainly met other versers, and I suspect one of the chief topics of conversation between chance met versers is 'so what other versers have you met?' So he may have heard of the Kid with the Stick, and he's certainly capable of deducing a great deal.
So you meet the Psientist and he says 'hey, good to see ya'. I met, mmmm, since we met last, this married couple, Captain Chris and Lil Miss Sure Shot, and they told me they'd met this guy Jhiaxus with his Drow bud who is very good with his swords, and some Wolfrider named Krill, and he'd met some guy called Tadeusz, really scary, and T. met this Kid with a Stick who had a New Joisey accent."
Something like that happens a few times and you start to build up a map in your head.
The GE roll is a good idea, if you preset decent to what the ref finds reasonable. And the biases in Kharigen are 15@10 across the board with the area above the clouds being a Border Supernatural, I think.
A New Jersey accent? Hardly. With all the languages he speaks, I would imagine his ideolect to be more solidly "proper English", not British English, but clear annunciations across the board. been like 40 years at least since he was in Jersey already.
been like 40 years at least since he was in Jersey already.
You can take the man out of New Jersey, but you can't take the New Jersey out of the man.
Little Ky would probably have difficulty with sch a list; but then, he categorizes people are previously stated. If they weren't too powerful for him, he'd be bound to choose between versers on his own cycle other than John Pharaoh, better known as Kaiser Sozei, better known as John 1 on this board. That would mean Chris, Bill, and Tristan; his exposure to fantasy in popular entertainment was rich, and he might suprise me by wanting Usagi Yojimbo or something, but I would expect the former rather than the latter.
John 1 did nothing to you, why the animosity :P
he tried to kill mariska. she ended up getting him, but it's highly unlikely he'd willingly come help. edit: to clarify, in an ooc sense I consider John 1 to be the best closest friend I've ever had, and agree oocly that trying to kill Mariska was the IC thing for him to do in light of my character's actions.
I know, brings a smile on my face that he missed a point blank double barrel shotgun blast to the skull of another being :P
...met this Kid with a Stick who had a New Joisey accent.
He doesn't have a "New Joisey" accent now--and anyway, there really isn't any such thing. The one you've caricatured is a "Joisey City" area accent, but not found in the suburbs there. Get over to Hudson County and you've got the accent of our former governor Brendan Byrne, who used to repeat the promotional slogan "Niew Juhzee an' yiou: puhfect t'gethuh." The most distinctive feature in South Jersey accents is the nasality (hard to capture that).
But none of my kids has any of the accents of their native state. They are much closer to the idiolect of their parents, which is pretty close to standard network television English. On my side, it comes from the fact that my father came from Mississippi and managed to discard the accent entirely within three weeks of living in New York, and my mother was so isolated from her peers (graduated college at 19) that she got most of her pronunciations from radio, so I grew up in a house with very non-regionalized speech. Their mother discarded the south Jersey accent when she attended college in North Jersey, I think, but I didn't know her before them--her mother had a very nasal accent, although her father did not have much of that.
The point is, Eric, you could tell he was a Yankee and that he wasn't from Bastan, or New Yawk, or New Joisey, or Niew Jushee, but I don't think anyone could tell from his speech patterns where he was from.
...Chris, Bill, and Tristan;
You forgot Dorian, who was also part of that starting group; also, I'm ninety-eight percent certain Ryan (early Psientist version) visited you all at Umak Tek. You wouldn't think of him as a lot more powerful than you, because by the time you'd finished the D&D world you had the magic and the martial arts going for you, so you were probably equal to where he was when you last saw him.
I don't know whether Mariska would count or not--she's your associate already, so one might argue you expect her to be there as a matter of course, but Eric would have the right to exclude an associate if he so chose, so you might need to choose her to include her. You also met Miralla, although I don't know that you'd have any interest in bringing her.
I'm also omitting Aaron and Anna (Paul and Annie, for the rest of you), as it's difficult to say whether or not they would count as versers (never having left Umak Tek).
...brings a smile on my face that he missed a point blank double barrel shotgun blast to the skull of another being.
Yeah, well, in fairness, she was much more skilled at ambush and surprise situations than he was, and he thought he could catch off guard someone who is never off guard.
--M. J. Young
Yeah, but, no offense against Dorian, I'd be more likely to try to get Chris, Bill, and Tristan. (edit: Besides, even though we were on the same cycle, I don't believe we ever met in person) The Psientist, of course, would be an excellent choice, and I suspect would be eliminated from my choices by how strong he is. Mariska is great to have around, and probably would be my character's first choice, and Baron his second, solely because of his personal responsibility to them.
I was under the impression that I had to choose 4 Heroes/Heroines other than my followers. I on the outside would like clarification, since the Jhiaxus inside is once again confused and hurt why Tessa and Siljonic didn't follow him, and after that last battle, that they didn't have his back, has lead to him doubting his faith in them.
I'll say you don't get followers in Kharigen. As for game reasons, you already have a bunch of NPC's, and adding more complications would be rough on gm's.
In other words, they're in limbo or off having their own adventures, similar to when they verse first and depending on the scenario.edit: I was under the same impression as Adam, which is why I didn't mention them to begin with.
Nods it's just unfortunate that circumstance and worlds have caused Jhiaxus to doubt that his followers really have his back, it makes for good gaming and good story.
@Kyler, at the game I run, I should mention, that using temporary skills in my book, is like being trained in them, so your getting skills, not just the super start at professional skills.
@Kyler in the game he is running for me. If you want the list of skills he would want, I will go through them tonight. I want a streamlined list based on things that he would use a lot, to give him a good solid base.
to Adam, in the game I run: when I can sit with the book tonight I will tell you the skills in the categories you've chosen. regarding the character Arziay, so I get it now, the Dragon Rogue style is RF 1.5, RF 3 at professional level.
@Kyler, something like that depending on how long your here, what skills you use, attributes, etc, most if not all bonuses will be lessened, but time spent using them will be considered mentor assisted training, and examples to use for learning in the future.
As for the game, I went through the psionic section and highlighted the ones that would interest me, in magic, I like surprises :)
@MJ in Kyler's game...
Toller is indeed arrogant. His favorite quote is "Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." And then he, while incorporeal, sticks a dagger in your chest, and releases it. Its now corporeal. And now you're dead.
The daggers have tiny little bells of a cheap nature on the hilts.
He's a punk who thinks because he has one clever gimmick that he's just about the baddest so and so around except for major powers like Soliton or Dr. Zhorbhakian. And it is true that a lot of people have no way of stopping him...although Mentum and Dreamweaver could stop him very quickly.
He mostly assasinates non-supers for money.
@ MJ Running me:
I feel like I've put Nikolaj in something about as near the tension between first century Jews and Christians as I can manage in a fantasy setting, and he's responding in intriguing and promising ways. It's not the same, but his preaching is building the old Gaian faith into the new Christian faith, such that those who believe see Christianity as the continuation of Gaianism and those who do not believe see Christianity as the enemy religion that is destroying the faith of good Gaians.
And it's indeed getting very interesting. I'm approaching it like how I feel I would do it, which is to delegate, train and delegate. A bit like Adam with his plan for 'Vampire Extermination Inc.' Only with me this church just starts growing and they need someone to teach them and take care of them. And I would burn out and stress out if I need to carry it alone and expect it to grow. I can't be everywhere at once.
Also, I feel like we're finally moving into something here. The pace is picking up and I'm starting to see progress here, which is motivating, since it's not only problem-solving here.
Kyler,
I don't think that's how it works with accents. You learn new languages, but that doesn't mean your original language 'improves' to some normal standard. Now you might 'improve' by having your teachers speaking normal English as they taught you other things and you picking it up that way.
Also, I don't see the New Joisey accent as really wrong. No more than the Southern drawl, or the Mainian 'ayup' is wrong. There is good and evil, and then there's simply practicality and taste. Practically, you need to be understood by others and vice versa. New Joisey is clear. Taste...well everyone has an opinion, and only mine is right. :)
@Eric, I didn't want to suggest it in game, but it would be a perfect opportunity for Sakura to break her curse, Jhiaxus would offer himself anyway, but knowing it would helping someone out more, he would step aside only for Sakura.
Personally, I almost never disconnect associates from their primaries; but the rules say that the referee can do it for worlds whenever it suits him. Where is the associate?
- Since the scriff is timeless, there is no such thing as "now" for the associate. In Old Verses New, Joe Kondor is with Derek Brown and Lauren Hastings when Derek verses out. Derek then becomes that sprite in For Better or Verse, while Bob Slade is rescuing a cleric on behalf of his friend the Caliph of the West Wind and Lauren is practicing her skills on a tropical island somewhere, and then Bob (and his wife) and Derek meet up with Lauren to fight vampires in the future. They survive the end of the book, but are both versed out in the last battle of that world in the first pages of Spy Verses, and Bob (along with Shella) catches up with Joe in a race wars world. Both Bob and Joe just left Derek moments before, but Derek had been through two worlds since he left Joe. So in the same way the associate doesn't need to be "in limbo"--he just went directly from the last world you were in to the next world you are in, and is completely unaware that he missed a world, until he finds out that you've been doing things without him.
- The associate could have his own adventures in some world without the primary. This really amounts to the associate having stories to tell (along with new skills and equipment and possibly some new ideas or attitudes) from separation. Of course, what's interesting about this is it's entirely possible that the last idea can be reversed--the primary goes from world A to world B and finds the associate with him, but the associate has been in world C for a decade or so wondering where the primary was and doing whatever fit in that world.
--M. J. Young
@Eric running Adam: I'm laughing! Very cool and funny world.
Just to be clear, an associate is a forever and ever, eternal life partnership, right? Who in their right mind would do that? I thought you could split up after a couple worlds. Just shake hands, part company, and hope to see each other again. You think divorce rates are high? I wonder how many associates got so tired of each other that it's Whisp and Mother. One better pray the other lands in a different world for a decade. The marriage vows say "Till death do you part." Well, I versed, I must have died. Isn't that good enough?
(Doing Therapy)
I would :)
And I'm still in my right mind.
@John, Spend 500 years alone with just a preprogrammed hologram for company, and you can see why some of us do like associates.
Actually Adam, that wouldn't bother me. That would be Utopia.
(Doing Therapy)
Nikolaj,
Sure about that? :)
@ Nikolaj in Eric's game, you should marry that Stephanie chick, she sounds like a keeper :P
@ Eric: Which of the two suppositions?
@ Adam: No way dude. No witches for me. ;)
Oh yeah, John? You'd like to go to Teren's Verser Habitat? hunh... anyone else thinks that's a good world? I felt it would be necessary for Adam to get souped up before Syatan Fanilf, so I made that one up largely off the cuff. Syatan Fanilf, on the other hand, has been a work in progress for... over a decade at least. Never to see print, because it's much too large for even a gather world; but it's my baby, all up here *taps his skull*
It's a great world to train in, but it's also one to make a verser go insane. No being is meant to be in solitude for that long. It will break you :P
True. I should come up with a mechanic to lower charisma for someone there to show the lack of suitable interaction over a long period of time if I ever use it again.
Well you kinda did Charisma is the only stat to my knowledge that didn't go up :P. Of course I did have company at the end and might have repaired it.
Oh yeah, John? You'd like to go to Teren's Verser Habitat?
Is that an offer to pick me up and run me in it after Eric is done? Build up some mad skills before I go back to Terminator. I could live with that.
(Doing Therapy)