Scene 2 - Seizure Day

Assuming you make your way out into the corridor, please let me know any precautions you might take to be sneaky (maybe strapping down metal so it doesn't clink so much?), what you plan to do about the lighting conditions, any other tactical stuff you might think of.

Rose, having sketched out the map that Baby D showed you of the facility, would know that turning left will be the quickest way to a stairwell and elevators that were shown going down to the public transit station i.e. where Baby D indicated Laughing Jack said he would be going towards.

Love your creativity there, Oscar/@microtheMacroBear! You now have two torches!

I went back to check the rules about 'basic' adventuring gear, and I think this is relevant:

"Your character starts the game with Ud6 worth of Supplies, that represents your overall traveling gear (food, water, rope, flashlights, etc.)."

So if other people want to roll their supply utility die, currently a d6, you can grab yourself e.g. one flashlight (you roll the d6 and if you get 1 or 2 your supply die is downgraded to a d4)

I think you're good to go out into the corridor now. @Adrasthea/Mattie can let us know when they post, any prep they did before heading out to join you (assuming Mattie does go out to join you.

To move things along, I'll also post here already what you see as you move out into the corridor, I am assuming as quietly and as stealthily as you can.

There's no "group roll" rule here - and I want you to roll to see how stealthy you can be in this situation, so that will be a DEX test. But it feels to me here too punishing to have you each make such a test - chances are fairly high that you'll fail that, and that's not the vibe I'd go for here.

AND you're up against a pretty big threat here. Hm.

I'm going to say you just need two DEX successes out of the four of you AND if someone rolls a natural 20 then it's a group fail.

I'm not going to adjust your roll based on the threat level of your opponent(s) - I'm going to say that your preparations negate that. For now.

AND this roll will cover you for some distance of moving through the Sanatorium. I'll ping you the next time I want you to make one.

I don't know how long we'll want to keep playing this game. I assume at least to the point where you'll have a chance to move a big step closer to the Tower, which you will have an opportunity to do depending on what happens in the sanatorium.

If you are interested in moving on and playing out some more locations, to continue the quest to the Tower, there are mechanics for how that works, and I have a map of the world and the spokes prepared for that.

When you move to a new location, the ease and danger of up-coming locations is effected depending on whether you managed to strike a significant blow against the forces of chaos, or if you suffered major losses to those forces. Thus you might want to consider trying to take out or disable major players/"bosses" you encounter here, to make your next steps towards the Tower easier.

You are currently on Sub-Level 3.

The transit station is six floors below you i.e. Sub-Level 9. The lowest level shown is Sub-Level 10.

Assuming you want to head directly to the transit station below you, the following locations on the map/plan/schematic seem of particular interest.

You're also each welcome to choose one additional location that one could imagine finding in such a futuristic-and-magic-aware sanatorium, and I'll add it to the description below.

Sub-Level 3: morgue and autopsy room (i.e. where you entered the sanatorium)

Sub-Level 4: a storage room (maybe you'd find some still-usable supplies there?)

Sub-Level 5: a security and observation office (maybe there are cameras around the sanatorium that you can use to find out what's going on there?)

Sub-Level 6: a cafeteria (a chance to see what the people who built this used to eat...?)

Sub-Level 7: a pharmacy (maybe some useful medication and drugs and devices?)

Sub-Level 8: central control room for IT and data-centre (if you wanted to try and do something about Davy B).

Sub-Level 9: Surgical teaching arena (who knows what might go on in here...?!) and transit station.

If you'd like there to be some other location e.g. an armory, a robotics workshop, a blood storage facility, something that fits the location, then you can let me know and I'll add it to the "map" as long as i feel its reasonable to have here.

If you'd like there to be some other location e.g. an armory, a robotics workshop, a blood storage facility, something that fits the location, then you can let me know and I'll add it to the "map" as long as i feel its reasonable to have here.

I have managed to confuse you. Sorry!

What I meant was...

In addition to the locations I put on that list, you can add each another one that's not on the list, that you make up yourself, and if I feel it's something that could be in the building, then I'll put it in there somewhere.


And for the rolls I meant for each of you to do one roll - and then we'd have a total of four rolls, and then as long as you didn't get a majority of failures, you'd have passed the test. I'm going to take the two rolls so far (from @SenorDeebs and @microtheMacroBear) as successes, as both rolled three successes, one failure.

@Adrasthea and @DragonDweller62 please just roll 1d20 each - as long as you don't roll a 20, then you've all passed the stealth test.

If you can think of a better way of doing a group stealth test, then please let me know - I find this clunky and still not very satisfying...

Ah, yes, @microtheMacroBear, I like that mechanic for the stealth. Thanks for the idea.

Next time, I'm going to use that with an adaptation i.e. one roll with advantage for the person with highest DEX, and one with the lowest, and then use the table you suggested to work with the results

Both save - pass
1 saves - pass with consequence
0 saves - fail

And maybe I'll adjust the target numbers based on the threat you're rolling against.

And I'll do the rolls for you, rather than waiting for those characters to do them, to speed things up, as there's no player agency involved in making the roll - it'll just be that I've decided it's time for another one based on the narrative.

And I love the idea of the area-style operating theatre! Editing my previous post to add that!

Ah, y'all are so creative! Makes me so happy :)

If there's a location you'd like added to the 'map' like the arena-style teaching surgery room we've just added, @DragonDweller62/Rose (or indeed @Adrasthea/Mattie or @SenorDeebs/Henry) just let us know. And we've got plenty already, so no need or pressure for you to come up with one

I'm assuming you're all following Rose, and taking a left turn as you leave the morgue. If you want to do something different, let us know.

Oops my bad I totally forgot about the storage room there. Sorry! I thought I'd put it on one of the lower levels...

You know what, lets's play it like that rather than retconning my previous post.

It's now on Sub-Level 4 i.e. the floor below this one. And an automated cafeteria on Sub-Level 7 (same floor as the pharmacy).

I'm assuming you're all speaking very quietly to try and be as stealthy as possible. If you are speaking louder than that at some point, please let me know.

It also sounds like Oscar has opened the door into the stairwell - and that Bertie moves onto the platform that the door opens onto, so I'm going to narrate what happens on doing that...

If you go as a group out into Sub-Level 4, I'll ask for another stealth roll.

Now that players are rolling for stealth in the Alien RPG game I'm in here, I am changing my mind AGAIN on how I want you to do this. I'll follow the way Alien RPG does it i.e. PC with the lowest DEX makes one roll for the whole group. Here that will be either Rose or Oscar - both have a DEX of 10.

The failed stealth roll will have its impact once you start to move onward, so I'll wait to narrate it.

If you want to try and hide, it would be another stealth i.e. DEX roll by either Rose or Oscar. You do have the choice to roll your Doom die and subtract what you roll on it, from the number you use in the DEX attribute test. This automatically downgrades your Doom die. Note that a long rest somewhere safe will return your Doom die to its maximum value.

If either Oscar/@microtheMacroBear or Rose/@DragonDweller62 (I think it's fair to make the option available to either of you - although not both - as you both have the lowest DEX and hence chance to stealth successfully) want to try and make the stealth check a success then you could "Spit in the eye of Doom"

To do this you roll your Doom die, and subtract it from your roll on an attribute test. This works post-roll i.e. you can apply it after you've seen the result of the initial roll. Your Doom Die automatically downgrades after this, regardless of what it rolls i.e. not just on a 1 or a 2. Your Doom Die returns to your personal highest value after a long rest.

ah, yeah, once you are fully Doomed it gets pretty rough - at least it looks that way... never seen it happen in game before...

I'll wait until the end of tomorrow (Tuesday 6th) for Rose/@DragonDweller62 to post whether she'd like to roll her Doom Die. If I haven't heard from her by then, I'll assume you don't roll it and the test failed. But yeah. They mean you no harm so why all the fuss anyway...!

It sounds like you're continuing to make your way towards the storage room?

Let's see what Davey B thinks of this joke...

EDIT he likes it :)

A look behind the scenes - I'm sharing each joke you tell with a friend, they're rating them on a scale of 10 (best joke ever) to 1 (indescribably unfunny). I'm then using that as a target for a roll-under with a d10.

Let's see how Davey B responds to this joke...

EDIT not so impressed this time...

I'll wait for one of the other PCs to open the door before posting - AND will check now to see how this joke resonates with Davey B...

EDIT the answer is "not well"

What you find in the store room
Mechanically the store room will allow you to upgrade your Supplies Dice to d8.

You also find each one specific object that you could reasonably expect to find in a near-future hospital storage room. You each have the choice to either describe this object to us i.e. choose for yourself (I'll then provide it with any relevant mechanical details e.g. amount of HP it recovers on use or something like that). Or you can leave it to me/a roll to decide what you find.

I leave that choice to each of you individually i.e. some of you can make up your own piece of kit, others can roll against a table I put together.

Taking a rest
If you take a Long Rest, you restore your Doom Dice to their highest die (a Ud6 for all of you, I think), reset your Hit Points to maximum, and there are some other specific features that rest on a Long Rest (Oscar has one of these).

However, you can only take a Long Rest in a safe location - a nights sleep in somewhere like a town with safe lodging, or somewhere your party can fortify. It comes down to how safe the PCs feel they are.

My sense is that you're feeling pretty edgy and unsafe at the moment, so my default would be to say you can only take a Short Rest mechanically in this room. This gives you Hit Points regained equal to half your CON score rounded down. Only one short rest is possible per day.

However (again) this is the first time you are looking to take a rest, and the first time you engage with that aspect of the rules. Thus, I'll again give each of you individually the choice whether you want to take this rest using RAW (i.e. it counts as a Short Rest OR you make a post describing how and why your character feels safe enough to get a good rest in this situation), or if, for just this one time, you'd like to take the mechanical benefit of a Full Rest if you do sleep a full night in this room (with RAW then applying for all future resting situations), then that's indeed what you get.

Map of the sanatorium
Based on your feedback, I'm going to try and put together a rough map of the sanatorium, based on the descriptions I've shared of it in this thread.

That's not the kind of thing I'm good or quick at, though, so if any of you would enjoy doing that, just let us know, very happy to go with what you come up with. If there's something that would cause a big problem to the adventure, I'd change it, or ask you to change it - but I don't think that's very likely to happen.

@microtheMacroBear when you used your powers, and your Doom Die, I expect it was unclear how difficult it would be to recharge them. So, if it doesn't spoil the tension for you, I'm good with you getting them recharged this time.

I'd thought to change that for the future, i.e. be RAW in the future.

But I'm happy to homebrew this rule - I assume it makes players less likely to use their powers and their Doom Die when it's harder to recharge them, and there's fun in using the abilities you have.

So if you'd enjoy it more, to feel freer to use these things, we can just go for "these things refresh once a day i.e. overnight"

I'm going to assume you all take a rest, go to sleep, in the store room. I'll wait until tomorrow (Friday 16th) to narrate that, in case any of you want to do something else than that.

You can post the object you'd like to find in the room, and whether you want to take a full mechanical Long Rest or not, later on i.e. we can retcon those things, as they are unlikely to have an immediate effect on the narrative.

Re: running Homebrew (powers/doom dice/HP lost reset once per 24 hours when you have a solid rest, independent of the safety of the rest) vs RAW - what I care about most is that we run the game in a way that you enjoy.

I know some people who'd prefer the grittier harder RAW. And others who'd prefer this homebrew.

It sounds like @microtheMacroBear would have more fun with the homebrew - what about the other players?

No problem at all - these conversations are so much slower and easier to lead to misunderstandings than if we were using voice!

Sounds like the preference is to keep this grittier and tougher for the PCs - and that's indeed my preference too, so we'll play it like that.

Each of you finds the item you were looking for
- @DragonDweller62/Rose finds a healing spray that can be applied as an action during combat, to heal 3HP. There's enough in here to use it four times.
- @SenorDeebs/Henry looks through the gear in the room, and is able to patch together a bandolier out of some leather strapping he requisitions off some kind of medical exercise device, and from some glue and the wide selection of plastic vials that are lying around.
- @microtheMacroBear/Oscar finds a hand-held flashlight. It's small, light, fits easily into one hand, and has beam control at its lens - it can be focused and very bright, or wider and less bright. "North Central Positronics" is written on the flash-light.
- @Adrasthea/Mattie just let me know when you post, what you'd like to find in this room.

Additionally, each of you upgrades your Supplies die to a d8 from a d6

I'll assume you get your gear up and packed away, and are ready to head out when Davey B says this to you.

ARGH I was sure I'd made an at-least text-based description of what's in the facility, floor-by-floor but I now can't find it anywhere in my notes or in the Threads?! Will take me a bit of time to put that together, might post it later today or tomorrow.

EDIT: ah I finally found it again... don't know why I had trouble with that? Here is the post with the "map" in it

I'm tracking your relationship with Davey B using a simple mechanic to assess whether or not he's treating you, er, nicely (well, nicely-ish) or nastily...

Would you prefer to know what that mechanic is, to know how you're doing with him and his attitude to you?

Or do you prefer to just experience the fiction without any knowledge or awareness of what's going on behind the GM's screen?

I don't want the interaction with Davey B to get in the way of your interactions, or actions, as a group. My idea here is that it's a bit like in The Wasteland when they are on the train, talking with Blaine. He's there. Might be listening in. They can't really get away from him. And he wants stuff from them. And they continue working through their challenges despite that.

I lost track of the approximate "when" that Rose and Oscar left the "standard" timeline. So when it comes to guessing who Davey B has drawn his inspiration from, I'm going to wave my hands and say that in this place when time is more flexible than it used to be... you somehow have knowledge of some of our timelines North American popular culture and TV up to the early 2000s