Worldcarrier Sigma OOC thread

MN: It would mean you only get +1 from the Combat talent, yeah. And Ringo's underselling himself when he says that he and Iriah have helped with "some stuff", big chunks of the setting wouldn't exist without their efforts!

I'm actually trying to work on a big database of setting junk right now because despite this being a collab, boy, I've done a really poor job of collating all the fluff. Doesn't exactly make it easy for newcomers.

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Klone: Sorry, I think the rules as they stand are just poorly explained, it's not just you who's had trouble with a few things! I'll have to do a rewrite, or at the very least present the information in a more logical order. But as a quick summary...

A Debuff is a generic persistent negative status effect that can represent a bunch of different things. You roll 1d4, and that value hovers until an enemy decides to spend it: they get to add that value to one of their attacks, or subtract it from one of your attacks. A Buff is the opposite, beneficial version. For example Iriah's character, Kree, is built around using Buffs: she rolls 1d6 instead of 1d4, and has a couple of abilities that can spend the Buff bonus in different ways.

Strain was initially just Encumbrance: each point of ENC required a point of STR, and if total ENC ever exceeded STR the characters were over-encumbered (and they'd suffer whatever negative status effect seemed appropriate at the time). So put simply "Strain" was just my attempt to make encumbrance attribute-agnostic so it could be tied to stats other than STR, such as VIT for implants and stimulants, WIL for psionic techniques, that kind of thing. But I appreciate that that's not explained very adequately in the rules, I think it needs more than a single paragraph...

Thanks for the clarification, and no worries on the rules layout, that's what playtests are for right? Besides, it could be worse. I could be writing them...

I am playing a stealth character

Okay, question time! I tried going through most of this OOC thread, apologies if I missed an answer to one of these questions somewhere in here or the rules!
regarding an aspect's "spend" ability:
1) does that cost the character anything other than disabling the aspect until the end of the encounter? i.e. does it take any kind of action?
2) Does disabling the aspect render all of it's passive and active abilities unusable?
3) Does spending the "1HP" or "1EP" aspect abilities also disable the aspect for the remainder of the encounter?
4) What exactly constitutes an encounter?

Regarding Resources:
1) How/when exactly does Strain accumulate?
2) A resource aspect uses up one of my 5 aspects slots, not one of my 5 resource slots, correct?

For my character, I'm thinking about a Doctor/Mad Scientist. A little unhinged, he likes to self-medicate from his own supply and has a penchant for explosives... >:)
I would take the Bio talent, but not sure what else, maybe a little bit of combat and/or social (high society to offset Kree's underworld)? Aspects from Fixer and Blaster mostly. Still working out Resources, but a Doctor's bag is a given to produce all his chemical concoctions for both restorative and destructive purposes.

One other thing (for now), where can I find info on races of Exigency? I didn't see any in the "setting" thread in the Old Guard game?

1) Spending an aspect is a free action unless it's stated to require a specific category of action, or that it's tied to an existing action.
2) Yes, a spent aspect loses all its passives etc.
3) No, you can repeatedly use Empowers/Edge powers. As long as you have the Hit Points/Edge Points for it, of course! And you can only perform 1 Empower and/or 1 Edge power in a turn.
4) Totally arbitrary and decided by the GM! But generally speaking, an encounter is any fight/otherwise significant event. An encounter persists until circumstances change (e.g., you finish hacking the computer, you beat all the enemies in one map and move on to another, and so on). If an encounter is going to be particularly long, the GM will be expected to announce that (and justify it) so the PCs will know how to budget their aspects and EP.

Resource questions:
1) Strain is ongoing and applied immediately if the Resource generates it. For example: you have three item Resources, each with 1 STR Strain (encumbrance)? Then you have 3 STR Strain, and you need 3+ STR to match that amount. There are a few abilities out there that might otherwise affect Strain positively or negatively, but generally it's specific to Resources.
2) Resource aspects are granted by aspects with a certain number of slots, but don't consume aspect or Resource slots themselves! I'm regretting calling them "Resource aspects" and think "properties" would've been better: you'll find that in the descriptions for some of the Resources, they specify that they include a Resource aspect, by which it's meant that you get to pick out one of those passives and apply it to that Resource for free, no further slots consumed.

As for background like that, that's something I'll be working on in the next couple of days! I'll try and get a decent write-up done for you all because the current doc is years old and full of typos, yeesh.

Awesome, thanks for the clarifications! I'll get some raw numbers and firmer apsect/resource ideas today or tomorrow.

Ok, here's a rough 1st pass at my character:
Attributes
VIT 1
STR 0
AGI 1
FOC 3
WIL 1
MND 6 (4 + 2 from background)

Talents:
-->Bio +2 (chemist? maybe a cooler name to encompass healing & making explosives?)
-->Combat +2 (explosives)

Aspects:
Amplify [MND] (Fixer)
-->Passive: When you restore their HP, for every HP that goes beyond their maximum allies gain Block or Inspiration (max +2) instead of it being wasted.
-->Spend: Grant an ally a +3 bonus to an attribute: counts as an Augment, bonus cannot go beyond attribute’s base score (MND 4)or be combined with other Augments. Lasts for a number of turns equal to your Attribute (MND 6). Applies 3 Strain to your Attribute.
Stimulating [MND] (Fixer)
-->Passive: Your mend actions simultaneously serve as aid actions of the same category.
-->Spend: Grant an ally a Buff. When they spend this Buff, they gain another at the start of their next turn. Lasts for a number of turns equal to your Attribute (MND 6). When the ally takes a Lethal hit this effect ends early but the Lethal hit is downgraded to an Injury.
Deep Pockets [MND] (Artificer)
-->Passive: You have an additional Resource slot.
-->Spend: Resupply multiple Resources. Affects a number of slots equal to your Attribute score, spread across both your own Resources and those of adjacent party members.
Enhance [MND] (Artificer)
-->Passive: Standard action. Create a 1 slot Resource: grants a passive +½Attribute bonus to critical range (+3 from MND 6). Lasts until user critically hits.
-->Spend: Full action. Create a 2 slot Resource or add 2 slots to an existing Resource (still capped at 3). Lasts until an Exploit is rolled: one of the slots fails and vanishes, but the other will persist until another Exploit.
Rumble [FOC] (Blaster)
-->1HP: Tied to an attack. Target’s cover now serves as a bonus to an attack instead of resisting it (i.e., +4 to skill and ability against a target in heavy cover).
-->Spend: Standard action: collapse a non-neutral tile. The occupants are out of the fight, unable to attack or be attacked until they spend two full actions to free themselves from the debris, or one full action on a save. Mobs roll morale. Tiles can only be affected by this encounter power once.


Resources:
Superior Background OOO (Order-trained Scientist, what order?)
-->Passive: +2 MND
-->Passive: You roll with Advantage when the Attribute/Talent bonus and a speciality both apply.
-->Resource Aspect: Quality (+3 to skill & ability when applicable)
-->Spend: Spend to succeed on a check outright. Does not count as a critical. Gain 3 Inspiration.

Minor Weapon O (Personal Modular Mortar)
-->1 [FOC] strain
-->d4 -> d6
-->AGI|FOC

Advanced Tool OO (Chem Bag)
-->3 [MND] strain
-->Ability Die d4 -> d8
-->FOC|MND

Not sure if I got everything exactly right, corrections/thoughts/criticisms are appreciated! He should be pretty bad ass at healing and able to hold his own in a firefight. Also Enhance will let him provide +3 crit bonuses on the fly and straight up create new resources for the crew in a tough spot (i.e. Cobbling together some improvised chem missles for Bane during a dogfight or something like that :))

I made some changes and spent some time organizing and coloring up the sheet. I know you are going to make make me one of those sweet char sheets Edcrab, but in the meantime this helps me keep everything straight as I make changes.

Looking good! I promise I'll have a proper read through and make you a full sheet, but in the meantime (this goes for everyone!) I present:

the Exigency Setting Master document

It is not exhaustive and there are various factions/alt-humans I'm yet to mention, but hopefully it's a good start for fluff and backgrounds!

(The Nacasei got a lot of fluff when Ringo played one and had some ideas, and likewise the Wary Order was fleshed out by Iriah after he played a Wayfarer, just in case you're wondering why their entries are so long!)

The way you present aspect bonus calculations makes more sense than just showing final stats, I should really do that myself! Might have to go through my character sheet and tweak the layout to match. And I'm sure there's a better word than "Chemist" for someone who alternates between making cocktails of stimulants and explosives but I'm yet to think of one myself...

One note on the "Quality" Resource aspect: I've an inkling that property might be slightly over-useful compared to the others. I won't nerf everyone's builds prior to trying it in action, but it might need to be capped at +2. I don't know, we'll have to see how it operates ingame!

Also Klone: noticed C29 is still entitled to tie a Resource aspect (or even just a regular aspect) to his background. Remind me if we ever decided on one? It might just be that I forgot to add it to his sheet.

Looks awesome! Ok now that I'm getting more familiar with the system I have some more questions/changes:
1) I think I'll switch out Rumble for Splash. I was having trouble visualizing how my character would use the "Explosives" specialty during a standard attack and that Splash makes way more sense to utilize that specialty.
2) After reading the alt-humans I feel drawn towards the Desz (pronounced just "dez"?). Their symbiotic relationship with the "Myre" and synthetic healing agents seems to fit perfectly. Also as I was searching for doctor & scientist character images I kept coming back to a sci-fi-ish looking plague doctor which also seems to fit. He wears that mask so he doesn't freak everyone out with his giant face-mouth and lack of eyes & nose.
3) Instead of "Chemist", how about "Alchemancy"? Sounds pretty cool to me, that can be his character role (Desz Alchemancer) and his Bio specialty.
4) We can work out the specifics when I test my character in the near future, but I just wanted to make sure I'm wrapping my head around the core mechanic first. If I'm reading the rules right with this current build I should be getting MASSIVE bonuses to rolling a mend check. That's by design; I made him with the intention to be a fucking POWERHOUSE for healing, and only just competent in other situations but I just want to make sure:

Skill roll: Att (MND +6) + Talent (Bio +2) + specialty (Chem +2) + quality from background (+3) = 1d20 + 13 WITH ADVANTAGE!

Ability roll: Att (MND +6 if standard mend action) + Talent (Bio +2) + specialty (Chem +2) + quality from background (+3) = 1d8 +13 with advantage!

In addition the mend action ALSO counts as an Aid action (ally being healed gets +2 to next skill & ability rolls for standard action) AND if there ends up being up to 2 HP unused by the healing that ally can convert those into Block or Inspiration.

Does all that sound right?

Also I think he will be SHARD-trained for his background

Yeah just "dez", although I reckon in their language it sounds more like "des-sch" with an awkward noise-at-the-back-of-the-throat that humans can't usually manage.

And yep those massive modifiers checkout. Advantage only applies to skill rolls but all the same, you are virtually guaranteed to let a target recover 2-3 HP per standard mend action, or gain up to 2 Block/Inspiration if they're already at full HP/already been healed up by a mend action. That's... damn. That's pretty significant!

So you're more than welcome to call the speciality/role "Alchemancer" and be SHARD-trained, and just thought I'd mention background-wise that your character sounds like a perfect fit for the Evur caste. Well not exactly a caste but still:The Evur probably don't fight very much, as a rule, but there's no reason why this particular one couldn't! SHARD-trained after all. They're all about pragmatism. I've been working on these sort of class-ideas for EVERY alt-human, but it's going to take forever...

Cool, glad I'm understanding it! And yes, at first glance Evur seems like a natural choice for him. I'll work on some finishing touches (name, portrait, back story, etc...) and maybe continue to make changes within his mechanics and then at some point (maybe next weekend?) I'll ask to throw him into the simulator!

Anyone know how to insert a picture from my PC, not directly from a website link?

I doubt the forum is able or allowed - why not chuck it on Imgur?

Hey Iriah! Kree vs Nerves!

Whaddaya say?

Moldy, yeah the forum doesn't host images, so you have to use an image hosting site. I use imgur cuz its pretty quick, just upload, open the image, and copy the url

Yea, I have a picture saved on my work PC that I really like and I can't find where on the interwebz I originally pulled it from. I don't know if it fits the Dasz, so I wanted your opinions. I'll have to upload it when I get back to work tomorrow.