So, I've decided, upon his own request, to run a game for Kyler. It makes me feel like I can do something back for the Forum, since they are running me in two games already. I can do more then give ideas now, anyway. I'll try to make this my first successful game mastering experience. Without having a rulebook. So I'll be asking mechanics clarifications a lot.
I like to make stories, but we are with two that write this story, so Kyler, what do you want out of this? What kinds of stories do you like?
Also, since you are the main character, I'll need to know a bit about you, relevant to the story. If you could summarize yourself in one paragraph, what would it read like? Mainly in terms of character/drives/attitude. I think your physical description is on your character sheet, right?
I know you have a recent character sheet floating around on the forums somewhere. If you know where, can you link me up here?
This said, I'm going to stretch the first death-scene and make it interactive. I've set some things that need to happen, but this will give us time to work things out character wise, so that I can decide where you should end up and what will happen there.
**********
It's your birthday and you get a present from your parents. You unwrap it. It's a brand new iPad. "It's a new experimental version.", your father tells you with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. "It just came out, and I know someone who knows someone, so I was able to get one before they were sold out."
It has WIFI, the box says. There are other symbols on it.
(I'm not sure whether you are an Apple fan or the opposite. If not, treat it as a counter version Microsoft made or something.)
I love to write stories. Mostly I'm interested in seeing how things develop and watching my character development as sort of an outside influence; however, personally speaking, the stories I like most are the ones which test the ethical and moral boundaries of the characters.
As for summing myself up in one paragraph, I have upset many an English teacher by writing a paper discussing the reasons that I could not be summed up in one paper. I am a diverse, multifaceted person, and I pride myself on my unpredictability. Many people would describe me as impulsive, and at least one person has said that there isn't enough liquor in the world for a person to put up with me. My feelings about people and situations are almost always right.
The last time I took the alignment quiz, I scored Chaotic Neutral, with a slight tendency toward evil. I used to score Neutral Good all the time with slight tendencies toward chaos, but events in the last 2 - 3 years have caused a drastic shift in my morals.
My number one drive at the moment is to care for my fiancee and daughter. I've always scored as a type 2 personality (I need to be helping others to be happy), and generally I come up as INFP on meyers-briggs inventory tests (introverted, intuitive, feeling, perceiving, as opposed to their opposites, extroverted E, (I don't even remember the letter), thinking T, judging J).
As for my attitude, I have an emotional disorder that makes me something of a loose cannon. It's ultraradian cycling Bipolar disorder; I experience very rapid changes in mood to extremes between depression and mania (a state of intense feeling of "upness" -- I may stay up for several days with an idea as I put it to paper, and may also lash out irritably and consider actions without thinking of the consequences), and at times also experience mixed states. I have not taken medication for this in quite some years now.
Being considered a respectable person is important to me, but not as important as being true to my self.
I have been told before that I say or do things for "shock value", just to do them because they're unexpected or deviate from the social norm.
My most recent "starter" character summary as well as commentary provided by MJ are located in the thread "boredom" on the first page. It's about one month old.
That's more about me than I usually care to divulge, but it's all in the name of a good story. I hope it helps without being too much for you.
§
I entertain my parents, glad to have them visiting, and once they go, I let Lexi (my fiancee) fire up the IPad; I like it, to be sure, but I can tell she's got her eye on it, and I want to give her the first shot at it. She tries to say I should, to be sure, but I am insistent.
( =p )
That's cool. Actually, I remembered the bipolar disorder. I'd like to see that in the game. How quickly does it change normally and do you have any sort of control over it? I'm thinking of making a small system for this, rolling a die every certain amount of time to see if it changes.
Lexi is your fiancee right? Is Mia a child you have with her or does it come from a previous relationship? If you don't want to answer, that's alright too.
§
Lexi (I take it that's a nickname?) fires it up and uses it. Flipping it sideways and seeing how the image adjusts. Typing is a bit difficult but that's no real problem. There are a lot of handy programs on it. She shows you how it works. It's very fast and it's a bit more heavy then expected.
Time goes by. Pictures of your baby girl have featured the background of the iPad. Working as a manager, though time-consuming, fills the wallet and thus the stomachs of those you love very well. It's a lunch break and you decide to go out for food. You take your iPad with you because you know this place that's got WIFI and you can check the message boards of a role playing game you like while eating.
For some reason the intern at this place is mopping the floor near where you are eating. It's a teenager resembling more of a scarecrow then a regular teenager. He is tall and skinny and moves like his joints are kept together by elastic bands. You know what I mean. I know you do. The back end of the mop hits your drink and it spills all over your iPad.
What do you do?
To the personal questions, no, I don't have real control over it; I am usually able to ignore my emotions thus control my actions once I realize I'm over the top, but sometimes, I feel so strongly that I don't care to control my actions; this is particularly the case when I am already irritable and perceive some insult from someone.
The psychiatrist who diagnosed me said that to qualify for an ultraradian diagnosis, I had to have more than 4 notable changes in mood in a 12 month period; she said she witnessed more than 12 in an hour. Personally, I'm a terrible judge of it; though I was diagnosed at 16, this is the way I've been my entire life.
Lexi is short for Alexandra. Mia is our daughter together.
§
I am sad.
I realize this right away from years of therapy, so I leap right to mourning right away, presuming the worst. I set the device down in a dry place and kill the power, hoping against my pessimism that it will dry out and be usable again. Once the power is off, I will begin drying it with napkins. I assure the boy(/man) that it's quite alright and ask to be left alone. If he continues to bother me, I will tell him that unless he wants to buy me a new one, he'd better bug off before I become upset.
It was carbonated soda, or, failing that, juice. I detest the flavor of coffee. I drink a cup, maybe, once every three or four years, then think, "Man, why am I drinking this?" (Ask Jhiaxus, he'll tell you, I really don't like coffee.. "So why did you get it?" he asked me, and it was a stupid answer I gave him)
As you touch the device to set it down in a dry place, you get zapped. You let go of it and see a golden like liquid on your fingers, it seems to penetrate your skin. It's trickling out of the device. The boy scuttles off clumsily after he's scolded, nearly flooring a potted palm tree.
The shock leaves you dazed and unfocused. You decide to go back out and to the company again. Being still disoriented you are surprised by a honking sound. You realize you're on the street and as you turn to the sound you see a terrified face in a car going straight for you. You get slammed and feel things snap and break inside you. Before you know it you are on the ground and feel something heavy rolling over you. It's very painful. You can just make out screams before you lose consciousness.
§
You awake to the sound of birds. You are lying on something hard and smooth. There is a sweet, minty smell around you. Temperature is comfortable (at the moment your eyes are not open yet).
§
Do I need to roll something for the versing? There's this thing with stages and dangers and something, right?
No roll for the first verse; it takes place before the game starts.
I will open my eyes, still laying on my back, and turn my head, looking around, then prop myself up on one arm and take in my surroundings.
So, then... this is the afterlife... somehow, I always thought it would be, kind of, I dunno... hotter, with more fire.
Do you prefer 1st person or third person view? I tend to treat Ky as a character and talk about him as 'he' and not 'you', but I'm not sure how you like it. Out of board convention I've stuck with first person view for now, but I meant to ask it.
Other OOC questions which might come up in this tale:
1) Do you have any knowledge of how animals behave and their body-language stuff?
2) Do you have any skills that would make you stand out or make you unique?
3) I don't see many skills on your sheet. Could you list some things at which you are good. Like from 'high amateur' to 'expert' level (and everything in between) I think you wrote somewhere in a thread that you were good with knots. Do you have any survival skills?
4) If not mentioned yet at 2 or 3, what languages can you speak/understand/read?
5) Would you have the suitcase with you? How far is your work from your home? (And in what direction (roughly speaking: north, south, west, east or the directions in between)
6) I'm researching the Bipolar disorder (yuck, bad name!), but will only continue with it if you are OK with it. If you rather ignore the issue we can do that as well.
Since we are writing this together I'll let you know that I've set a theme for this tale. Do you want to know it so we can write to it together, or would you prefer to be kept in the dark? Whichever path you choose, you will be mostly kept in the dark, but you'll have an idea about where your character should go. It might help to create a better story if we're on the same page. I would reveal key-words.
§
Who said there was no fire?
... There is no fire. (:P)
You open your eyes and look into a blue sky with some clouds and feel a sun shining down on you. Looking around you seem to be alone, except for the bird singing a song sitting on the stone railing. It's about as big as a fist with yellow and blue feathers. It's legs are red. You prop yourself up and see that you find yourself on some sort of a walkway. The bird flies away.
The stone from which all is made is slightly reddish in color, which feels a bit tiring to your eyes. The carving on the railings where you are at seems to just change from a leaf motive into that of streaming water and rocks. It's fairly abstracted, but still recognizable. (I don't want to start drawing out things to see if you get the motive)
At regular intervals trees are placed along the road. The sweet minty scent seems to come from them. As trees go, they seem young, their trunk as thick in diameter as an arm. The trees all have a jar between them. They switch: Tree, jar, tree, jar, tree, jar. In the distance, very far away, you can see the hazy blue outline of a mountain.
Slowly you are becoming aware of a certain sensation within yourself. Like a knowing you have to be somewhere. (GE roll=20, which is pretty bad I guess) It points up a bit, as you look to the direction of the feeling, you see the road leads up into what seems a city built on a steep hill. It is almost like a tower instead of a city. No rock is visible though.
You feel pretty alive for being in the afterlife.
edit: Probably worth noting that the walkway/road is about 100 meters wide!
Generally I use first person when playing Multiverser since it's an "I game", but I'm quite good with language. I could easily do third person; how about you write in third person removed and I'll write everything in second person: you, instead of writing, "You see a city," write, "He sees a city," and I, instead of, "I walk to the city," write, "You walk to the city". Ha ha ha ha. Just a joke, but it should indicate my flexibility in this regard.
1. Knowledge of how animals behave? What sort of animals? I would say with mammals I am at least an above average amateur; I have caught wild kittens, cats, and dogs on more than one occasion. Animals usually like me a lot. =) Through the course of my 25 years I've likely owned at least 50, maybe over 100 different cats (it starts with one female who gets out, ends up being 20 at a time x.x), so my knowledge regarding cats is much higher than that of most other animals.
2. My fiancee says I don't.
Currently, I work in retail; prior to that, I worked in several other fields; the tree work, where I expanded my boy scout knowledge of knots; in a sub and pizza shop, where I expanded my knowledge of cooking. In my early school life, I was largely ostracized from my peers due to several factors, I'm sure, but all in all, I got into a lot of fights ad learned to carry myself in a way that promoted fear of me to prevent others from bothering me. This history of fighting prompted me to look into several martial arts styles; due mostly to a lack of funds nothing professional has ever really panned out in that regard, but I do tend to move very surely and quietly and often startle people when I speak to them.
3. My high amateur tech and bod skills are so varied it could take us hours to list them all, which is the reason they were not listed. As for survival skills, it's likely I could survive in either a temperate deciduous forest or an urban setting without much difficulty; I can build a fire quite well.
4. English extremely, hablo español un poquito, from Spanish understanding I can get Italian and Portuguese (sp) a little, German a little from English understanding and a little instruction, and a smattering of Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and Jamaican from personal interest, but I can't read them.
5. The suitcase with me? Certainly not. It's much too large; I believe the dimensions are given on the sheet. Not to be confused with a briefcase, in which important documents are often carried by businessmen. Work is maybe 2 miles from home, mostly west, a little north too.
6. It has also been called manic-depressive illness in some circles. I've told you before, I'm very difficult to offend. Most of the time. ;) At any rate, I accept it about myself; as long as you accept the fact that I have mastery over my actions more than my feelings do, I don't have a problem with being told I feel a way which is clearly not appropriate to the situation. I expect you will find in your research several places where the text reads that there are huge differences between two people with the disorder; no two disorders are the same.
Well, I'll tell you what; keep me in the dark, and we'll see if we end up where you have in mind ;)
§
I'll be walking towards this strange feeling.
My assumption is that clearly, what I believed was the afterlife in life was possibly mistaken.
Lets keep it an I-game then. iGame, is that from Apple?
1. Boy, did I make the right world for you! LOL, this might become a bit easier than I thought. So how would I handle that? 1@8 Animal handling (Mammal) with a modifier for cats/felines, or would the Handle Animals (Feline) be a separate skill at 1@10 or 2@0?
2. Thanks. Not any hobbies you did or do besides role-playing or reading? Origami, macrame, ... If you had "show and tell" about yourself in class, what would you talk about about yourself?
3. Ok, cool. We'll see. I'll note the move silently and the knotting I saw in other threads. Would the "learned to carry myself in a way that promoted fear of me to prevent others from bothering me" be an intimidate skill or more of an instill fear kind of ability? How would you guesstimate your ability to survive in a swampy or mountainous region?
4. Thank you. Do you have any 'talent' for picking up languages or do you really have to study it? I tend towards the first as you can derive things from other languages to understand another. How does that talent translate to mechanics?
5. Thanks.
6. Yeah, I read about the differences. It's all a bit more complicated than I thought. (Duh!)
7. I noticed your equipment list mentions 3 extra pairs of socks and undershirts and stuff, but it doesn't mention any boxers or underpants. Is that a slip or is it intentional? It's useful to know for momentarily hidden reasons. (You had a bad GE roll on where your equipment landed.)
§
I need to correct myself. I tried to visualize the 100 meter wide walkway today and have to say that it is more of about 50 meters. Which is still wide. (Apparently it is about the same in yards, about five more. 55) I'm not very good in visualizing and guessing distances or measurements.
You start walking towards your feeling. (Is your character looking around or more focused in thought right now?) The walk goes smoothly and you notice a small pouch on the ground. It's close to where you are.
You also notice some kind of a miniature obelisk like stone standing close. It's about as big as you are, a little shorter. It has deep scratches in it. If you have ever seen Cuneiform script, you might find that is reminds you a bit of that. Otherwise you do notice that there seems to be a certain order or structure in the scratches. Indeed, the scratches seem to be ordered in two parts. One part, the top one, between two bands of leaves engraved in the stone. The lowest one also is situated between two bands, but then those bands are decorated by the water and rock motive.
I'm thinking that I should have rolled a perception roll or something to see if you identified the symbolism of the leaves and the rock-and-water or just saw some abstract looking figures. Ah well, consider it a gift. ;)
oh, and what was the GE scale again? You had a 10 for the trip, so I made it favorable, but not EPIC.
Apple? I don't think so, but maybe we can get a few of their guys on the marketing. =P
1. Either way is fine by me, but there is no 2@0 with skill ability levels. Decimalized, 1@10 is 20 and 2@1 is 21. There's no 1@0, either; just 0@10, if your skill level could get down that low by some means.
2. Hobbies, ahhh... well, there was the martial arts thing... watching anime from time to time... show and tell? I would expose myself and say, "This is my greatest asset." I'd spend the remainder of the afternoon in the principal's office, and the next few days at home on suspension, but the number of girlfriends I'd have when I got to high school... Just Kidding!!! I'm shy when it comes to talking about myself in front of groups of people (you caught the deflection of the question hidden within the joke, right?), so I would probably pass when it came to my turn.
3. I would say an intimidate skill, because some people are actually drawn to the get-away-from-me-before-I-kill-you way I carry myself at times like moths to a flame; mostly goths and perky cheerleaders with daddy issues =P I actually grew up in a swampy temperate deciduous forest, and have amateur fishing skill; not sure how well I'd do in the mountains.
4. I don't really tend to study anything. Probably a high intellect coupled with a high intuition, so that would be the mechanics part of it. =P
5. You're welcome =)
6. Yeah, try living with it =D
7. I didn't bring any underpants? =O that's going to chafe.
I wear boxers.
§
I will examine the monoliths. If I don't notice anything else out of the ordinary with them, I'll continue in the direction I was going; if the feeling that I'm suppoed to be somewhere is coming from there, I'll return.
Okay, so how does rolling for skills/attributes work.
I see no investigating skills so I'd go for an Intelligence and an Intuition roll. Unless you have some relevant skills to investigate I'll go with those two.
You missed two things in the previous post (or forgot to address them)
1) There is a pouch lying in the middle of the road. No one is around.
2) What is the GE scale again? there's something with as expected, as bad as... etc...
I will grant you 3 pairs of boxers. *poof* they appeared somewhere in the world, your feeling of destiny intensified a tiny bit. ;-)
I did miss the pouch; I don't have my book with me at work, so I can't give you a direct answer on the GE roll thing, but there are 27 possible results, and 16/17 are both neutral result or no effect. It goes in stages after that; towards the lower numbers it gets better and better, higher it is, worse it gets. There are word descriptions listed in the book, but they're more to give a more general idea of what the roll indicates than a description of what happens. Judging by nine's placement, it's probably less than my best hopes but as well as I expected; might be a little better than I (as the character) expected.
§
I eye the pouch in suspicion and walk past it. Then I stop and look back at itl my curiosity gets the better of me and I go back, pick it up carefully, and peek inside.
So, this is before you look at the obelisk then. Alright.
The pouch itself is made from a woven fabric. It is colorful, banded with various yellows, reds, oranges, and purples. A few darker brown bands are on it as well. A bit of dark brown fabric ribbon is used as a drawstring. You pull it open, and look inside. It's fairly dark. You see a few flat circular shapes and a prism-like object. It's a bit heavy. One bit gleams as it catches some light.
So, before we roll any skills with the obelisk investigation soon, what dice do I roll for skills?
For skill USAGE checks, you add together the decimalized skill ability level (SAL) (11 - 40) of the skill along with double the lesser of the character's or world's area bias level (ABL, 2 - 30) in the bias area of the attempted skill along with the character's best relevant attribute (BRA 11 - 40) for whatever bias area of the attempted skill. Include any situation modifiers that make the skill easier or more difficult depending on the situation. Once these numbers are added together, you have a number from 24 - 110 before situation modifiers, and that is the percent chance of success. You roll a percentile, that's two d10 where one is the tens and the other the ones, and determine whether the roll was a failure or success.
What you want to know I think is how to do an attribute check, for instance, an intuition check. Simple check: roll 2d20 and add them together. If the sum is greater than or equal to the decimalized attribute score, the check was failed.
Difficult check: Roll a d30. Add ten to the result. If the result was greater than or equal to the decimalized attribute score, the check was failed.
§
Pretty stuff. I'll hang onto it as I keep walking. Maybe I'll run into the owner.
Thanks
intuition check= 10 It needs to be lower than 20 (1@10) = Success!
intelligence check= 28 It needs to be lower than 21 (2@1) = Failure!
If I've done this correctly I'll keep them secret next time. This is to see whether I do them right?
Now to figure out what you will get from it.
You keep the pouch with you and walk, seeing the obelisk like stone. Instead of four sides, this obelisk only has three. You look at it and immediately understand that it's some kind of milestone. The scratches feel like it's language and the bands seem to indicate to what they relate. What it says or where it points to, you do not know.
Whatever it is, it's weird. Your mind also connects the leaf pattern on the stone to the leaf pattern on the wall/railing. The waves and stone pattern fits the one like on the spot where you woke up.
You keep going (I assume) and notice that as you get closer, the feeling of belonging seems to move a bit. It still stays in the general direction. You move closer by and suddenly you hear the sound of a gong being hit. Several times. As you look to where the sound comes from, you see the tiny shapes of people running around. One even crawls on hands and feet to get somewhere quicker. They seem alarmed.
Midgets!
Just kidding.
To be clear; are these people tiny, or still far away and so small in perspective?
Hahah, sorry, LOL, far away and small in perspective ... as far as you can discern from that distance.
Yes, the mechanics look good to me, I believe.
§
Continue heading in that direction.
You continue walking on and close the city. You notice that it the walkway going around it as well as leading up to the gate. You don't have time for detail yet because because of the uncanny scene in front of the gate. There are several dark figured men waiting there for you. They are wearing Egyptian looking clothing. There are differences but you don't really have time to ponder about them because they have their spears pointed at you.
They are hissing and growling at you. Their ears are ... laid back into their necks? Wait what? They have cat ears? Further inspection shows that they also have feline tails and that the darkness of them is the black fur they are covered with. They look like cat men or more correctly, panther-men. Snouts, teeth, the whole thing. You notice the leaf symbol on their shields. Things click into your subconscious and you get that they are the leaf-city/tribe/clan ...
There are six of them in front of the gate, shields up and spears raised above their head, ready to throw. A larger man-panther stands behind them, a worried look on his face. Heads are peaking out from windows up above.
You also seem to notice that the hissing and growling is them speaking. Asking or demanding something from you/about you. They seem to be discussing among themselves.
I raise my hands slowly, show them I am unarmed, and slowly turn around in a circle, letting them see me. Then I lay down in a prone position (face down, as opposed to supine, which means face up) and place my hands on top on my head.
I think this calls for Persuasion, right? Or do you have a skill here that applies?
2!!! Wow! Let's see how that goes.
You raise your hands above your head and see them tense up. You recall that animals in general would see that as a sort of contest of dominance so you lower your hands more to the side. Going down works. You recall that it shows submission. You try to avoid eye-contact as well.
It works. Before you are even on your knees the spears are lowered and the taller one steps forward. He seems to be communicating with the others now. It's not as aggressive a language as it seemed, now consisting of purrs and mewing sounds. One of the spear-men ... well, spear-persons runs off.
The tall cat tries to ask you something, several times. You do not understand him.
I will let you some room for reaction now.
You also get a better look at them all now. Their hind legs are more like the animal legs than the human sort and their clothing is more like a mix of Egyptian with Early Native American (Inca, Aztek, ...) clothing. The guards all wear a thick piece of cloth around their neck that, in shape, looks like the Green Ranger Shield, if you are familiar with the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. (If not, it's a square with a hole in the middle for your head. You wear it in such a way that you have a triangle shape across your torso.) It is decorated with leave-pictures and has the color scheme of the purse you found. They wear a loincloth that must have once been white and the wrist and ankles are decorated with beaded and feathered band and bracelets. The same kite-formed piece of cloth is worn on their heads (a bit like the Jewish prayer-cap)
-- End info-dump --
Oh, I see there was a little misunderstanding. By raise my hands, I meant hold them outward in front of me, palms up and fingers splayed, to show that I have no weapon; not try to make myself look big. =P Still it seems to have worked.
I will remain, watching them and not making eye contact. I'm a little bit nervous, considering backing away slowly, but for now I'm waiting to see what happens, since they seem like highly intelligent creatures; the notion that perhaps they are some sort of divine being does cross my mind, in spite of the evidence to the contrary.
Good thoughts about the divine beings possibility. You have impressed me. One gold star. (I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I'm pretty sure that if you save up on them you could trade them for a boon, like a re-roll or a raising or lowering of a rolled outcome.)
Seeing that you don't understand him and that you are afraid he lays his own spear down on the ground. He looks at you with what you think is a compassionate expression. He mews a bit to the other guys, looks up in the sky a bit and looks back to the city. He looks back to you and seems to read your uncertainty and mews something to the others. Two of them sit down behind you with crossed legs and their spears laid on their knees. Their hands rest on it in an idle and relaxed manner. They seem goodhearted and don't mind you to much attention. Smiling they converse with each other and laugh a bit.
The tall one looks at you again, puts his right front paw against his chest. He emits a slow low purr, followed by a short hiss. (You may react here separately to the below)
After a while the spear-person that left comes back, followed with a carriage carried by two more soberly clothed panther-men. Out of the carriage a cloaked and less solidly built panther-man steps. The cloak is Turquoise. He removes the hood and you see that he has a distinct white spot on his chin. The other all rise and seem to salute him with their spears.
He walks over to the tall one, and it is evident that this one is of a smaller ... breed? He looks at you and, if you allow him, lifts up your chin and takes a good look at your face. He looks at your hands, feet and posterior as well. He does not touch your posterior.
He makes a short sound. He seems to be saying something to the tall one. The tall one then addresses the others and they help you up and point with their spears to the gate.
You are now surrounded by the panther-men.
Woo, gold star. I likey. I'll just keep them all, though, thank you =)
§ To the first segment
I respond with a slow low purr followed by a hiss (I am actually pretty good at making a purring sound from the back of my throat) while gesturing to him with an open hand. Then, I motion to myself, and say, "Kyler."
§ Second segment
I allow the elder to examine me like a piece of meat. Then I'll allow them to escort me where they would like me to go.
I'm paying close attention to what they sound like when they're speaking and what they seem to be talking about. It won't happen overnight, but I've a feeling I'll be going to need to take a crash course in Pantherese if I'm going to survive.
Nice. Up until now you haven't derailed anything yet ;). Maybe I've been a bit busy railroading, but still. Your excellent persuasion roll kept you out of a jail cell though.
Oh, I just realized that the cloaked dude couldn't have examined your character's feet toe by toe because your character probably is wearing shoes. so let's say he marvels at you feet, touching your shoes briefly. Or something like that.
§
He is perplexed when you say your name. Probably because he's never heard someone utter these kinds of sounds before. He releases a deep but silent purr while he absentmindedly licks his hand. He has a frown on his face when he looks to you. It's not a bad frown, more like a studying glance.
He nods and flicks his tail a couple of times. Then he looks to the others. They are perplexed as well. He looks to the gate ... and the rest you know already.
§
The cloaked one boards his carriage again and all of them enter the city. By now several other panther-men and panther-women are standing at the road to gawk at you as you are led up and up and up.
The locals seem to be dressed even more soberly than the carriage um carriers(?). The men wear loincloths or skirts up to the knees (like the Egyptians) and the women teem to wear single piece dresses, more like closed robes of a simple nature. The clothes are an off white, a bit dirty and have some green details here and there. Some have the color scheme that the pouch you found has.
You pay attention to the Pantherese. (How do I roll for skill learning? I would figure it a hard language to learn. And you are not learning to write either, so ... enlighten me. I owe you a result here next post.)
After moving through the main street for a while you arrive at a big building. It looks a bit like a step pyramid. You go up the stairs and enter the complex an are led before someone of importance. His clothing is very imposing and colorful. They speak, they showcase you. The cloaked panther-man and the tall panther-man seem to discuss things.
The imposing panther-man, who sits on what logic dictates to be a throne, seems to decree something official. A humble panther-man on the side starts scratching things on/in a clay roll.
After that you are led further into the complex and down again. You arrive in a place where at first you would doubt you where inside because of all the greenery, but soon you realize you are inside in what must be an inside garden. It is surprising, because it is light as day in here. You don't have too much time to think about that as you are led further into the garden to a panther-man who seems to be in charge. He's got a sort of official stance and is dressed in such a way too.
They seem to be explaining things to him and he seems to say things back. After a bit back and forth they leave you with him. He looks at you with a frown on his face. He puts his hand to his chest and gives three short mews.
Let's go until here. You are almost settled. :)
Skill learning rolls use in positive, character bias, decemalized world bias (If the bias were 15@25, that would be +175 ; I've never seen a world with such potent biases; 1@1 is +11, 0@2, +2), best relevant attribute for psionics, the trainer or teacher's decimalized teaching skill (I believe it's half the sal for teaching and the full sal for training), and half the decimalized sal for any example (positive sitmods also would go here). This is all put vs. the decimalized bias of the skill to be used as well as any negative sitmods.
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When before the ruler, I will take out and present the bag of stones I found, and say, "I believe an individual of your town may have dropped these."
Right, so now I need to learn about Biases, both from characters and worlds. What stands for what? Language is Psi I guess, right? So I'd have to set the Psi Bias of this world now, right? How do I do that?
What are your best relevant Psionics? The languages on your sheet say 1@0 behind them (that's bias, right?), but maybe you've got something else going that isn't mentioned?
Best relevant attributes are those three attributes which best apply to the use of the skill. For psionics, it's ... intuition, and ... will power... and... drat, I don't remember the third off the top of my head. nope, not coming to me; maybe persuasion? Blah, I can't think which other one it might be, I doubt intellect, and I'm a couple miles seperated from my book. I do believe will power applies to mag, tech, and psi, though; good to remember.
To set the bias for any world requires stepping back and saying, what is the highest bias skill in this area that indigs can use? You could work at it the other way for a low bias, of course; if no one in the world has the ability to use any kind of mental force, including reading minds, the level of the world is most likely 0@2 (I believe so; at any rate, it is most likely the same as earth normal).
Alright, let me know the third attribute once you can then? Good?
What is the needed bias for say ... astral travel?
You say astral travel, and I say magic.
You mean teleportation? I believe that's 12@ in psionics, but I need to know more specifically what they're doing to give it an exact intensity or know even whether it's a psionic ability or a magical ability.
I meant out of body travel and stuff. Maybe a combination of clairvoyance and clair-audio or something? But maybe it's magic. What is the exact difference, concept and ruleswise?
The difference is that magic abilites come from the supernatural: higher powers, spirits, the magic in nature or inherent in all things or etc. Psionic abilities come from inside the user, generally inside of their mind; as for differences mechanics wise, some things are easier to do psionically, and some things are easier to do magically, but for certain, there are very few things you couldn't accomplish using either one.
Out of body travel can also be accomplished as a bod skill or a tech skill; the question is as to how they do it.
Right, so yeah, I haven't worked that out yet. It's like the most heavy stuff I'd like to see being used by them. It wouldn't be tech, unless it's a tech that somewhere branched off in another direction from ours in development. Oddtech, so to speak. But even that. No, it would be mind over body or mind over matter stuff. Their Spirit rises from their bodies, shedding the slow and impractical body. They would bring themselves into a state of trance through certain techniques that could involve fasting, drugs or both. Maybe even self-chastisement. I haven't really decided yet because it does not happen in the city where you are at for now.
What you've just described sounds like a ritual to perform a magic skill.
Rituals aren't involved in psionic skills.
ah, okay then. Psi will probably be not available; Like the 0@2 you said.
So, bra for me should be intuition, what did you decide on, 1@10?
So, looks like it's 2 + 2 + 20 - 2 = 22% before sitmod penalty.
I think your sheet says 2@1, so that would be 2+2+21-2=23%, right? So now I'll roll a percentile 2d10 (or d%), to see if you succeed right? Chances are looking slim, and it's an extremely difficult language because of the sounds being alien to any language you know. So that would add maybe a sit modifier. What should that be, -5 or is that very hard?
roll=5+10 = 50% = failure with or without modifier.
The king looks at you a bit alarmed after you speak, but he takes the bag. He looks in it, a bit surprised and makes a sound that may be laughing. He looks at you, smiles and tosses the bag back to you.
You study the language a bit but you are totally not getting anything. You may be missing something. You don't know what (hence, you are missing it).
They take you as described before, to an inner garden that's light as day and leave you with someone.
I would say a modifier of -20 at least would be appropriate for attempting to learn an entirely alien language.
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I repeat what he says, motioning to him, then put my fist to my chest, saying, "Kyler."
Like the others and their reaction to it, he blinks. He repeats the process, I assume you do the same. Then he shakes his head quickly and twists his ears some. Again he points to himself and pronounces his name and then he points to you and says [growl-purr-mew].
He says some more things to you, turns and walks off. You didn't understand him, but it seems like he wants you to follow.