[OOC] Graveyard Shift

This is the place to post questions, comments, or discussion about the first adventure we'll be running, "Graveyard Shift." Smaller OOC comments are fine for the IC thread; just put them in OOC tags. But this thread can be for more in-depth questions or conversations.

So I'm trying to figure out how long everyone has been working at Argus so I can figure out if my character has worked with any of the other characters before. So far I've got that that Nera is new and that's about it.

CESN has established that Nekurr has been around for awhile. Mengus and Hildar are currently up in the air.

As I mentioned, I don't want to prolong this initial information gathering. I'd like each of you to just give me a general idea of what information your characters are looking for and how they intend to get to it. (Do this in the IC.) I'll then tell you what skill checks you need to roll. More than likely, in each case, one character will do the roll with assistance from the other character (skilled assistance or unskilled depending on who is paired up; I'll let you know.)

This is also a good time to remind you of Story Points. You currently have six of them. These can be used to 1) enhance your rolls (upgrading a green in your pool to a yellow) or to handicap an enemy (upgrading an enemy's purple to a red). 2) They can also be used to power your Heroic Abilities. Each of you has one of these; for 2 Story Points, you can use it. Some of them may come in handy at this stage of the adventure. 3) Finally, Story Points can be used to influence the narrative. I fully encourage you to take advantage of this! For instance, you might say, "I'd like to flip a Story Point to say that today just happens to be a major Catfolk festival in Nornholt, so Catfolk are all over the place right now. That should make it easier for me to sneak around." Or, "I'm flipping a Story Point. As luck would have it, my ex-partner is working the front desk of the constabulary."

Be creative! Story Points flow back and forth between players and GMs, so if you don't use them, they go to waste (and the game is much less fun.)

Happy XP Day, everyone! As I explained in Session 0, I'll award XP both monthly and at key story milestones. It's August 1, so everyone gets 5 XP to spend on anything you want. For those of you who are new to the system, 5 XP is enough for Rank 1 in a Career Skill (so one of your Career Skills without any ranks in it yet) or for a Tier 1 Talent. You can also bank the XP to use it later if you prefer, but you'll have to wait until another XP grant in that case (so no taking Toughened in the middle of play when your character is down to 1 Wound, etc.).

Please post here to let me know what you're doing with your 5 XP once you've decided. (Also don't forget to update your character's point total on your character sheet.)

I will not use it

I will bank it for now.

hey! XP day :D

I may buy Deep pockets: Once per session, your character may use this talent to produce a small but narratively useful item from their pockets, backpack, or similar receptacle (it turns out the item had been there the whole time!). It fits the character and seems like widely usable :D Luckily, Nekurr keep all sort of stuff in his backpack!

Sounds good so far! Remnant, mcneils5, and arMedBeta, let me know what you're planning to do with the 5 XP.

Incidentally, most months, the XP will be a bit higher, we haven't played for a full month yet, so 5 seemed about right.

I think I might pick up knack for it. Not sure which skill yet, but I'll mark it on my character sheet.

Always a good choice. I like to pick up at least two ranks for my own PCs. (And I hope folks have noticed that I don't shy away from the setbacks, so this is never a bad buy in my games.)

I'm banking it for now, might go with a 10 XP spendature first, the 5xp reviewed options don't seem too necessary yet I've looked into. (There's a shopping list and I don't see anything yet that immediately catches my fancy).

Also I am enjoying the old man Tronus and young lady Nera dynamic so far.

I agree, they make quite the duo.

Banking Hildar's XP for the time being

Figured this may be better here than clogging up the IC thread.
Ok, I get that for other things but the Utility action does not have any additional effects you can tack onto it (such as boosting it's range) and on page 214 of the rulebook theres this section:

A check to cast a utility spell should always be Easy. If that check seems too easy for what you want to accomplish, then what you want to do is probably beyond the scope of utility magic!

If you're cool with adding aditional effects onto Utility then that's fine by me but RAW it seems to go against the intent of that action.

You're right about RAW, but we can play it by ear. I guess for the light at medium range, they'd suggest the Conjure action? If it looks like someone's abusing Utility, I'll say something. But extending range or number of targets affected or whatever doesn't seem game-breaking to me.

A few notes on magic (since CESN has come up with lots of good possibilities for Nekurr):

Detecting whether the prints are magical: Hildar already did this, and they didn't get detected, so there's nothing inherently magical about them. Using magic to determine whether they were created by a magical being is another question.

The default rules don't really say how to do something like this. It's arguably a Utility spell, but some GMs have created entirely new magical actions around Scrying and Divination! Let's say the default difficulty would be Easy (P) with another P for the time since the tracks were made (about a week ago), yielding a difficulty of PP. If you do this, I'll upgrade once with a Story Point, for a final difficulty of RP.

As for improving your knowledge with spells, Augment is a basic function of both the Divine and Arcana skills, and it's very powerful! For an Average check (PP), you (or another engaged target) gets to add an ability die (G) to all checks until the end of your next turn. You can even maintain the effect by expending a concentration maneuver each turn, so in a narrative scene like this, basically, you could just keep the effect active constantly unless something bad happened (like rolling threats). So, yes, by all means: Buff yourself or your allies with Augment as much as you please.

Last one! I'm off until the 17th or something like that. I'll try to post but my posts will be more confusing and I won't be able to search the proper names and facts on my mobile. Hopefully it will not be too disruptive :D

Thanks for letting me know! Have a great holiday(?), and try to check in when you can.

I wanted to let you all know I've removed steef99 from the game. The game's stated expectations ask players to post regularly, and to let me know of any extended absences. Unfortunately, steef99 has disappeared a few times now for days on end, and he never really seemed to be keeping up with the story. I hate to remove a player, but we all put a lot of effort into our online games, and we deserve each other's full respect.

Let's assume Mengus has stayed behind at the Dribbage house and will meet you at the road when you're done with the Thistlerocks.