The Old Guard OOC Thread

For out of character chat and feedback in general. If you're still thinking of a character concept, feel free to brainstorm and bounce ideas off each other here! Or PM me if you prefer.

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We've begun in media res. Chief Cáceres will be chipping in at certain points: but what you tell him and what actually happened might be different matters entirely!

It's roughly 72 hours since the planet Valon's phase beacon went dead and things are pretty chaotic. There are reports of isolated fights beyond the city limits and everyone's friend's cousin's aunt swears blind they saw two Mercenary League gunships blowing the hell out of each other downtown. That's when the explosions start.

A couple quick feedback things and questions:
- Character creation is awesomely fast. It only took me 15 to take care of the math and be done. Great for just jumping in.
- Can you repost the game mechanics the game forum?
- Personally, I think Will makes more sense for the HP increase than KNO, but there might be a balance thing there I don't get.

I'll PM you about your character but yeah you're dead on about Willpower, it used to be the HP determiner but I decided to switch to Knowledge as it felt like a better mirroring of derivatives (and WIL already has an awful lot going for it, whereas KNO used to have very little application for a purely combat-orientated build, not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that)

Are we good to start once our characters are approved?

Sure! And with regards to the whole team: don't overly worry about the range of talents represented across the party, I'll try and make encounters/challenges interesting without penalising you for lacking specific talent ranks

And the more I think about it, I think I might raise the player count a little. There's no reason we can't introduce new characters later after all

Before we get rolling, what's the setting? Are we being interrogated in a police station type building? Are we suspects of something? Or are we being treated as informants? Do we know the chief? Do we know each other?

I went to go make the first post and realized that all of these details would impact how I would respond.

You're assembled in the (severely damaged) police headquarters for the planet Valon's capital city. You're not suspects as such as you came willingly and Cáceres has no reason to believe you're capable of inflicting so much widespread damage. You have heard of the chief from spending time on the planet, but this is the first time you've met him in person (unless you've been on this world working closely with the police, it's up to you!). The party members likely all know each other by now, as the events you're going to start a flashback to would have had you meeting and interacting and in all probability working together.

Odd thought: what does my 7 STR equate to? In terms of lifting power. I'm just curious after the chief thought of me as military-grade.

I hadn't thought about it that much... I don't think of STR etc as following a linear scale, but probably about 2 tons as a peak? You could lift a car, although not without effort, and I guess your middling Vitality score means you wouldn't be able to perform a great feat of strength for a particularly long stretch of time

I can work with that.

So what's with the bold dialogue? Is that just the done thing in PBP?

I'm in a couple other game threads on this site, and it seems to be fairly common practice. Not everyone does it, but it seems helpful, if you want to scan back and see where a character may have said something out loud.

All right! Now I'm thinking of screen-wiping to just outside of the headquarters where, inevitably, you are ambushed. Our first fight scene! Is there anything anyone wants to do in the police station before you leave, or should I fast-forward you to the streets?

Jumping us all outside is great to me. The mainframe in Police HQ is down, so it's of no use to me. :P

Happy to transition. I want to see how we do in combat!

I'm interested to see how these fights go.

Sorry about the scrappy map, but hopefully it'll do! I don't believe anyone has an Initiative bonus granted by their aspects, so just roll Reactions (AGI or FOC) + a talent rank to determine action order. You can use any talent rank, assuming you have a good explanation as to why it applies!

The orange strip represents heavy cover, in this case a small armoured car. Heavy cover grants +4 defence and +4 damage reduction but this does not apply in Melee.

A standard attack's damage/effect roll is [ability dice, default 1d6] + attribute + talent. Performing a standard attack as a full action is generally called "aiming" and by default will grant +2 to skill and damage rolls. But remember that full actions apply Priority to the user, either because it takes time or because it's obvious and attention-grabbing
A minor attack's damage/effect roll is [ability dice, default 1d6] + talent.

Movement is 1 tile minor, 2 tiles standard, 3 full action. If you try and go through/over the heavy cover, that will necessitate a Mobility check (failure makes it count as an additional tile), but nothing else on this map serves as difficult or hazardous terrain

Lot of questions. Can I expend (burn?) an Edge point and perform a 'feat' on my initiative roll, and max the dice? Not sure where the free empower will go though.

How much damage does a repeater do? Would Serana know if she can survive it? I have 7 armor rating if the primer is accurate, much higher than anyone else in the party.

And finally, can we analysis the situation ourselves to know these things? Does it cost an action to examine the enemy and learn of their firepower/HP/armor level etc.

edit - and do we only make one skill roll per turn? For everything we do?

Just to clarify, rolling for action order is 1d20 +AGI or FOC + a talent rank if applicable.

So for me, it'd be 1d20 + 3 FOC + 1 PSI (I can sense the hostility before they move)? 1d20+4?

Then when rolling standard attacks we roll 1d6 + attribute + talent to hit? Then roll the same for damage? Or is it just one roll that determines hit and damage? Or is the To-hit roll a d20?

I was going to ask the same thing, ha. For now I'm thinking I'll walk over to no. 4 and use Smash once it's my turn.

Okay sorry, I explained this very poorly (if at all). With Initiative, it's still a sort of "who's most on the ball" check but you roll skill for turn order, and effect for, well, what effect you apply if you roll high. Yes, you generally only make one d20 roll a turn, even if you make multiple different actions: you can attack/attempt to gain Advantage/perform an aspect ability etc in the same turn you roll for Initiative and using the same skill roll

So whipstache: you still roll 1d20 to-hit, but you can use your Initiative roll as the to-hit roll. Then you roll damage as you stated

Albionest: You could've burnt Edge for a Feat on your Initiative, yes. And then used the Empower to move one tile more or add a hit to an attack and so on. Analysis is sometimes free/instant if your stats are high enough to make it an automatic success, otherwise you need to treat it like any other act and spend a minor action

So! I'm going to declare that the party goes before the enemy this time, as we'll use Wilhelm's first Initiative roll (12) instead of the 2. That's on me, I didn't adequately explain how things work

And I only just saw your post in the Mechanics thread, I'll write up something fuller to post in there. I should've done it sooner, really!

I think I like using one roll, I don't think I've seen a system do that before. It's an interesting mechanic because for some builds that makes their first turn/Initiative turn stronger than their others, but for Serana (poor FOC and so on) hers is weaker. Does the effect roll have to be FOC based or could I have used my sword's dice?

My move stands, but I'll post it after someone else gets to go first. And I assume the turn order between the party isn't important, I can choose to go after or before if we decide it works better?

edit - I just realised I can't move and Smash in the same turn because Smash is a full action. So standard move, minor attack. I'm aware of how many questions I'm asking but I'll guess my minor attack has to be a 1d6 fist, not my 1d10 sword.

Doesn't Feedback Stun the person benefiting from the Shield, not the attacker? I don't know if Pudge even needs to use Edge really. He's only down 2 HP (since the edit, which you may not have seen whipstache. Sneaky how the site makes it that GM doesn't leave a notification when they edit!).

I don't want to order anyone about but I'd suggest Wilhelm uses that Lethal power of his on one of the enemies, and I'll just face off with the heavy. He's fairly durable but I don't think he can do much to me so we'll slug it out while everyone else does clean-up. Tempted to use Smash but Knockdown only seems useful if there are other people there to take advantage of it.

You're right that Feedback is meant to Stun the beneficiary (otherwise a Shield token for just 1 HP would be too good) but honestly, I think something like "spend an Edge point to use an Empower as an interrupt and/or with some other bonus" would be an excellent mechanic.

If whipstache still wants to spend an Edge point, I'd allow using Feedback in that fashion. Maybe it has a passive element where using an Edge point on Shield automatically Stuns one attacker

Swamped at work. I'll try to look at this when I get a few spare minutes. :/

Okay, cool. So, I've changed Feedback's description to include "If and Edge point is spent, Feedback can be used as an interrupt reaction, and the Feedback stuns the attacker." I'll play that in the main thread.


Out of curiosity, how does one replenish Edge points?

I think we might rule that Edge points can only grant bonus standard actions, not full actions, but since Kenny performed a standard attack anyway it won't change anything there. Also Brutalise is a Pure effect, so you only have to roll your 1d10 sans modifiers versus the target's attribute score. Speaking of which, we never discussed what attribute Brutalise targets! (not that it really matters in this instance, as none of #3's attributes are 7 or more)

And whipstache: you recover one Edge point at the end of an encounter, and others are issued as a reward for meeting major objectives or just generally being impressive. The GM is also obligated to give you an Edge point if they Compromise one of your Resources. So if a boss grabbed Wilhelm's scythe and attacked him with it, of if an ion mine went off and disabled all of Serana's implants, I'd be expected to give them an EP as a sort of consolation prize

How can we tell if an 'elite' enemy has an Edge point? I'm suddenly very conscious that I suggested Kenny blow his encounter power when the target might be able to shrug it off.

edit - And looking at Pudge's d6 gun, that doesn't seem like it would ever be able to harm anyone. The damage seems awfully low.

It's not really designed to do tons of damage, as far as I can tell. But, as I understand it, any successful hit does a minimum of 1F damage, so it's better than not being able to use a minor action because I don't have anything that fits that action slot.

I think it makes the most sense for brutalize to change target attribute based on how Wilhelm is using it (for better or worse). In this instance, it's probably agility or vitality. I'll let you be the judge. That said, in an instance in which Wilhelm is using it to mentally feedback a witch, it would probably use his Will vs their Will.

Yeah, as whipstache said it's mostly just so there's something to use that minor action for other than moving/guarding. Keep in mind that enemies without armour and/or with very low Resistances might still take multiple hits even from a humble d6. If damage dice ever seem low, remember that Resistances in this system usually tend towards being pretty low themselves.

Although speaking of minor actions, you can use one to attempt to gain Advantage: roll 1d20 then effect as usual, and if you beat the target's Resistance you gain Advantage. An Advantage action can represent anything from trying to gain the high ground, or analysing an enemy's weaknesses, or sneaking into their blindspot etc

Kenny: Okay, I'm going to write up an IC post that assumes you're using Brutalise fatally, but if you want to declare that you're actually just knocking the guy out that's a legit use of a Lethal hit and we can retcon it

So I could have gained Advantage with my first action in this combat and stacked that +2 with the +2 from the full attacks? Hm.

And looks like we've more or less won this encounter. Might blow my own Edge and encounter power to wrap things up.

Blerg. I wasn't expecting these dumb thugs to be able to deal so much damage. What happens if I take the damage and an reduced to 0?

Also, is it possible for me to move to some empty space behind the cover?

I'm curious about that as well, but as far as I can see hitting 0 HP is mostly a nuisance. You'd be Exhausted which seems to disable a lot of passives but you're not in real trouble unless you take a Normal hit after that.

Haha, yeah elites tend to have good damage. Maybe should've opened with mobs instead!

Moving into a tile makes you a viable Melee target for any enemies occupying it, but considering that 4's been defeated that's not really relevant if you're moving into the tile with cover

As Albionest said, hitting 0 HP has no lasting effects, it's just that any N damage taken at 0 HP becomes a Lethal hit. PCs don't die outright, allies will get a chance to rush to your aid and stabilise you, but you'd still get back up at the end of the encounter with an Injury (an attribute's modifier is halved, and also disables associated aspects). As for #4 and the critical hit, you don't have to kill a defeated foe unless you explicitly state that that's what your character does.

Anyway, by my count everyone is down except for #1, at 3/4 HP. I'll let whipstache make a move then roll Mind for the guy's morale, and if he fails (almost certainly will) he'll surrender

Would I receive an Injury for reaching 0 HP, or only if I were hit with N Damage after reaching 0 HP? If I take this 6 HP Damage (and get to -1, if there are negatives, will I take an injury?

My question is, should I spend something to negate this damage or not?

Pudge only lost 1 HP though, I believe he's at 5/7: the attacker's damage was 6 and Pudge's Reactions (used to resist most ranged attacks) is 4 (FOC 3 and Psi +1), so the damage roll beat the Resistance but not by enough to apply multiple hits

But if you meant it hypothetically, one attack can't empty an HP bar AND deal a Lethal hit. I'd make an exception if it was a very, very large amount of damage bleeding past the HP, but usually it'd have to be two separate attacks

Ah! It's all suddenly clear. Damage told get translated into hits, and the number of his determines HP loss. Great.

I think I get it.

... I think.

Okay, before we interrogate thus guy, I want to use my hacker skills to find out as much information about him as I can. I don't know what technology would be common place (facial recognition?) or what info would be public, but I want to get something personal or private... Something he'd keep secret. An equivalent might be a social security number or the schools that his kids go to.

I want to be able to intimidate him into doing something for us, and keep that fear going after he's gone.

Question- can we pick up the SMGs and the heavy repeater? Or does that not jive with the resource system?

SMG: 2d6 standard action attack, Encumbrance 1, Prereqs: STR 2
Heavy repeater: 2d8 AP5 full action attack, Encumbrance 2, Prereqs: STR 4, Tech +1. Inherent Aspect: Minor Sweep: Deals 1F to a target that shares the initial target's tile.

Both are ranged weapons that rely on FOC+Insight for a skill modifier and Insight alone for a damage modifier.

For every point of a prerequisite you fail to meet, -1 to skill and damage (so a STR 2 player character with no Tech rank could use the heavy repeater at -3). Likewise the Encumbrance: your max ENC is equal to your STR and ENC penalties apply merely from carrying the equipment, not just using it

I'll say that it takes you a standard action to switch to the SMG, and a full to switch to the repeater. That is, you can put away your current weapon and equip the gun with the listed action.

A note on found Resources: they are not subject to the same protections as the signature Resources you took at character creation. These are effectively temporary items that might permanently be lost, destroyed in combat or accidentally dropped down the side of the mile-high superscraper in the course of the narrative. But if at some point you level up and want to use a new slot to turn a temporary Resource into one of your PC's permanent fixtures, that's fine

In that case, Serana could carry all four guns within her ENC allowance? Ha.

"Serana, could you carry this SMG for me? I'm a frail human."

Do you want me to make a skill roll? (Will, social?)

Yeah, a roll is needed if your next response is trying to intimidate/persuade NPC to do something they'd be against somehow. WIL + Social sounds like the right fit

Can all of us roll to see if he's lying?

Absolutely. You can roll using Insight rather than Social if you prefer (although I don't believe anyone in the party has an Insight rank at present)

Sounds like we need to do some interrogating of Garlen. Can I try to find some info on him before we question him? With a name, I should be able to find something, right?

I can still use Disabling Virus, right? It's an empower.

Sure. Pass a DC10 Reactions check (and I'll let you include your Tech rank) in order to get that off in time

Can I attempt the same with Melee, swinging my sword in an attempt to disable the car?

Hmm, okay. I was going to object re: the low visibility and the fact the car is armoured, but you 1) know where the car is parked and 2) have a passive to help counter the armour. Same DC if you want to try it

And yes, you get to include FOC, but I thought Pudge's total FOC was 3, with a base of 2 plus the Resource?

You're right; my bad. I was thinking of my WIL score.

No worries, I had to check myself! And on a tangent, this is a WIP but eventually I'll want to make everyone a character card (or a full blown sheet):

Nice. And in hind sight I just realised French wouldn't be a language spoken in your setting. Woops.

Well, technically English wouldn't be either. Everyone is speaking Domarian, we just parse it as English, so maybe Space French exists somewhere. In fact, bam, now it does: Lodori, the spoken language of the Lodorions, with widespread presence thanks to the fact that the High Council proper is situated in Lodori space

Besides, if this setting wouldn't allow for French-speaking Lady Vader, it's not a setting worth playtesting in

Can I just take his head off, cuz Wilhelm really wants to just take his head off.

You can do whatever you want! :)

Was more asking if I need a roll for execution or not.

Well, I was giving you my permission. But, I guess I'll let the GM decide. :P

I'd go as far as saying he's defenceless and can't provide any opposition: wouldn't need a roll

Where to next? This seems as good an opportunity as any for a scene change, especially if we have a new joiner.

PS from now on I am picturing Serana with a slight French accent.

We'll wait a little bit until I've been able to work something out with spaceseeker, if people don't mind? Can just as easily declare you meet his PC at the next location, or have him appear at the bottom of the alley

Oh no problem. I just wasn't sure where we were planning to go next.

What do I need to do in order to determine if he's who he says he is?

Also, I don't know if this is within my ability or not (although it seems like it would be, given enough time), but I'd like to do some kind of scan or something to see if I can determine if he has any specialized tech on him that would make him a threat.

PM'd whipstache about this so this question is more for spaceseeker's benefit: I think Pudge would be able to detect the nature of the bag of tricks (and be suitably shocked and/or impressed) but would you disagree?

Absolutely agree: he should be able to tell with his scanning. Upon careful inspection, I'm sure Pudge could tell Darghibous a lot he doesn't know about his own equipment!

Okay, if people want I can skip us ahead to investigating the Diamond Cavern, unless there's another location you'd rather visit?

Seems good to me. How do we travel?

Trudging on foot, or can we attempt some sort of Underground Contacts check to see if we can get a lift? Or could it be that there are still some crazy, daredevil cab drivers onworld despite the faction warfare?

Also, would it be possible for me to roll to see if Darghibous saw/overheard anything to do with the interaction between Garlen and his employer's contact, or was I not at the Diamond Cavern long enough to catch anything useful?

I was thinking walking or using the automated subway (although it'll only be able to take you part way) but NPC cab drivers so desperate for fares that they still brave the streets sounds like something that should exist! If you want to call in a lift, that sounds like a viable use of Social and/or an associated Resource

And lets say that seeing/overhearing something pertinent is a DC15 FOC+Insight check. If you pass, Darghibous overheard something about a meeting between Garlen and a visitor, and knows exactly which security camera he should be checking at the club. Otherwise, you'll have to ask around when you get there...

So could I roll WIL to harass some old Council contacts into sending us a lift?

Hmm, sure, but if you're using your ex-Councillor background as a hook I'll say it can't also grant +1 WIL, so 1d20+3 at DC10.

REMINDER: using a Resource in that fashion is encouraged, but every time you do it I'm more likely to Compromise it

Anyway, onward to the Diamond Cavern! If anyone wants to announce/do anything prior to disembarking just say the word and I'll delete that area transition and repost it later

I'd like to intimidate the mercs into backing off of the Arbiter. I think d20+8 for Will (4), social (1), and the harder they fall (2) b/c there are 3 of them, and my hunter rep resource (1)

Does this system have any kind of 'aid another' action? I can't beat Kenny's roll but surely I could give it a +2 somehow.

That's pretty much what happens yes: you can grant him Advantage, meaning he can add +2 to one roll in his turn and keep it for future related rolls or spend it for +1d6.

And sure, roll 1d20+8: quick question for future ref, should I be rolling on PC's behalf in situations like this? I know different parties have different tastes: in this instance the game would move on quicker if I rolled it myself and made an IC update (i.e., we don't have to wait for me to reply to Kenny and for Kenny to get a chance to respond) but some have a preference for rolling every check themselves so that it's their luck, not the GM's

Ha. You tell me! I have no idea what is considered standard in PBP. Now do I need to roll the 1d6 or can Kenny roll it himself? (And for record, I am happy for you to roll my dice when I'm not around to do it myself.)

I'm fine with you doing the player checks. Hell, I feel like you're more likely to get the rolls right anyway. There have been times already that I've left off bonuses. :)

Sorry I've been out of pocket lately. Daughter's been sick. I'll try to post on the game thread sometime tomorrow.

Go ahead and do the checks if it's something I ask about rather than just doing. It'll speed things up.

Are you going to post IC Ed or are you waiting for whipstache?

Sorry to hear about your daughter whipstache, hope you and her are doing okay. And yeah Albi I'll wait a little bit

How does Psi communication work? I know I have no Psi rank but fluff wise I used to. Would Pudge be able to communicate with me/us telepathically?

Because we could plan what to do here. I think it makes sense for Serana to keep the barkeep distracted while Pudge hijacks the drone and uses it to... I don't know. Plug into the basement mainframe or something.

Well, with the aforementioned music etc I'm sure you could pull together and have a whispered convo that no one else can overhear, but that's a good question all the same.

Maybe to have a party-wide telepathic conversation you/the psion have to part with 1HP, as if it was an Empower ability? Just so there's some sort of investment or cost, otherwise there'd be no reason not to use it constantly. And in turn removing that cost and/or greatly increasing broadcast range would be good fodder for a passive aspect ability, haha

But for parity I imagine Tech can allow for the same thing: that is, long range communication that eavesdroppers aren't made privy to

Appropos of nothing, been working on a few bonus aspects for the party's consideration when it's time to level-up! The character names are just suggestions by the way: if you could think of good flavour for an aspect, it can be yours regardless of whose PC is listed next to it

Somehow I miss this post. Over thinking tactical abilities is my raison d'etre.

Cleave is Wilhelm's better DPS or rather damage per round choice but Opportunist has excellent synergy with my Miring Field power.

Celerity is an interesting power but I think Block would better benefit the party and Demolish would better benefit me. Would be nice situational steroid, although annoyingly Smash only applies Knockdown for one round so I can't Smash > Demolish.

Both of Pudge's powers seem good. Especially for pisisng off bosses.

Darghibous's Blindside sounds ridiculously powerful but I'd have to suggest Captive Audience, if only so I can use Demolish on some unlucky Pinned enemies. I assume Pinned counts as immobile.

And the rest are ok but seem outclassed. Although I'm not 100 per cent sure what inspiration is as far as status effects go. Ridicule is a funny one though.

how do enemies become priority?

It's something you can force by spending a minor action and attempting a skill roll, just like trying to gain Advantage, but usually it's as a side effect of something risky they attempt (for example, most full actions apply Priority to the user unless otherwise stated) or it's been applied by one of the party's abilities

Ed. You sneaky.. can I overhear the woman talking about Graves-Burton?

I imagine Darghibous is about to tell you! For the record you're welcome to roll +FOC +Insight any time to try and overhear things, but generally we can just assume that you'll end up sharing information when you get the chance to compare notes

Should I just bust through the elevator/the trap door? I honestly wonder if a smash, grab, run on the mainframe is an option.

not if we want to plug in and watch what's happening in the council meeting.

Maybe not if we wanted to watch it live, but would it be recorded -- We could make off with it afterwards?

Not a bad idea.

Although, thinking as a character who would prefer to avoid conflict, I'm not sure how that plays out given we are in the mercs base of operations.

We might also be able to create a huge distraction, get everyone moving around, and head downstairs unnoticed in the midst of the chaos...? What do you think? Hopefully that would keep Pudge from getting shot.

A distraction is a good idea. A couple of us could fake a fight while the others go down? I was going to say we could fake a fire alarm, but then I realised that would just lead to the meeting being cancelled or postponed.

Ed, thoughts on the mechanics of hijacking the droid? Is it something I can do remotely?

I'd like to try to hack the droid, send it down to the mainframe and try to use it to gain access. Help me out here.

Doing it remotely sounds like a reasonable use of the Tech talent, yeah. Let's say a single check, DC14 (Tech + KNO) to hijack the drone via wireless transmission and to have it interface with the mainframe. If you roll under, you still succeed, but you realise you've triggered some kind of alarm and have mere minutes before your incursion is detected.

Two things. I think I might retcon Serana and say she has little or no psi power left. Maybe refluff her Miring Field as something intimidating, if thats allowed?

Also, is there a hunter organisation for Wilhelm in the same way there's the Merc League for mercenaries? I just have an idea for how to tie all this into my char's backstory you see.

I don't think there is an organization of hunters. Wilhelm basically just collects bounties on witches from the Council because he's built up a reputation worthy of being on their radar and so they work with him.

As Kenny said, we haven't considered any sort of hunter organisation, at least not one that has any association with Wilhelm and the High Council. Feel free to PM me your ideas though, there's plenty of room in the setting for some kind of bounty hunter faction if you think your backstory would benefit. Likewise how you flavour your aspect abilities is entirely up to you: I don't think you've had a chance to even use Miring Field as yet, haha.

Can Pudge hack into a different car? He would definitely suspect the council, so, getting into a different vehicle would make sense. Same roll or different?

That's a fair point, he certainly has good reason to be suspicious. Let's say DC13 for a different car, but he can't attempt to hack both vehicles with one roll, he has to commit to one or the other.

Okay just as an update, been hammering out setting stuff for Serana's backstory: the "Vigilance Movement," aka the Vigil, which is effectively the bounty hunter equivalent to the Mercenary League (i.e., it's very similar in many respects so there's some crossover and rivalry as a result). If you've ever watched/read Hunter x Hunter, it sounds like it's setting up to be a helluva lot like the Hunter Association, haha

Anyway the main takeaway here is that Albionest has decided that Serana obtained a licence and had a brief phase of accepting Vigil contracts after her initial implant procedure, mostly as a way to let off some steam. And to hit people with a big sword

All sounds good to me. now here's something I should've asked before: do we actually know where the Vault is?

Good question! You know that the city is built on top of it and that the recently found entrance is somewhere at the centre: so in short if you don't know its precise location already, you could suss it out with a few infranet searches or a little bit of recon

My first thought- we're outnumbered. My second thought- Wilhelm is about to go all Tasmanian Devil on those drones.

Just a quick note (and I'm really sorry to do this partway into a playtest but needs must): I've crunched some numbers and I'm changing how HP are calculated. Everyone was so squishy!
It's essentially a very slight buff to all PCs, but it's a buff all the same: instead of HP being calculated from VIT+KNO with a minimum equal to your level, it's changed to (VIT+KNO)/2 + your level. This also helps means that spare points in VIT and KNO aren't wasted.

Am I the only one who thinks it's hilarious that pudge is now the tank and Serana is squish? Not sure of it's an issue but it seems kinda off.

lol. Well, I still have 1 more HP than I did before. I'll take that!

No I agree it's a bit... funky. She's especially fragile vs attacks that target Reactions, such as most ranged weapons. Ultimately I'll probably change how the Defence system works (it's armour class, basically, but tends to be very low) but as well as that I've been toying with some sort of "Durability" statistic derived from STR and WIL somehow.

I think Serana is up, correct?

I think I'm next but first I think Pudge still had a turn to take?

Sorry, guys. Work is nuts right now. I'll try to post something in the combat within the next little while.

Hey, just to say that your virus ability is an Empower ability and doesn't have a fail state even with a low roll, you spending an action and a Hit Point to power it is considered enough!

Oh, great. I didn't realize (or maybe I knew, and just forgot). I'll edit the OP.

Seems powerful but that's a cool ability. Also I think there should be some sort of mechanic for bonus damage when you have a really high d20 roll because of your modifiers (and of course I'm only saying that because I keep managing it).

Are you around Ed?

Sorry everyone, I'm here, just had intermittent power/internet what with all the flooding happening in my neck of the woods. Should I jump the narrative to the Embassy and you can set up your ambush? Darghi's statement there seems like a good place to screenwipe.

I understand brother. Yeah that seems fine.

Good for me, too.

Do we need to do something specific to recover hp and whatnot? I can't remember.

Technically you need to perform a Surge or make a Bio check, but I think it'd be fair to say that so much time has passed that your respective HP counts have returned to their normal levels.

Sorry. Forgot to actually make any kind of mechanical move. If I wanted to go up to the Arbiter and goad/distract him, what do I need to use? WIL?

edit -- Should add I'm thinking of trying to get him to fight me. I think it would be quite the scene to have a power armor warrior swapping blows with a cyborg, enough to get that pesky psion out of hiding.

WIL sounds appropriate, yeah. But remember that if you specifically invoke your High Council background, it can grant the opportunity to make a check but it can't also grant a bonus to that same check.

Question: Maybe I missed it in the thread, but do we have eyes on Reave, the psion? Do we know where she is or what she looks like?

Sorry about the late reply. This hasn't been my month. Anyway I'm very wary of Reave deciding to attack because Serana is, as Kenny once said, squishy when it comes to psi. I don't want to lose all my HP!

Got you covered bro!

Ed, do you think you could give a short recap? I seem to have lost the current track of the story. I know Graves-Burton is the enemy, and Reave is his Psi-heavy pet. But I feel like I don't have a good grasp on what exactly we're doing and why.

Just a quick scene reset would be really helpful.

OK um, wow. Could we also get some more input on what an enforcer is exactly. Some kind of super cop is all I've gathered so far?

Wow, these dice are cray today.

So, are we just sayin Pudge's thing happened or is he gonna make a post

Sorry, I'm gonna post. Gimme a few minutes. Work has been crazy.

Yeah no worries. I definitely know that feeling! And for the record if I end up being absent for a long stretch Ed/anyone is welcome to take an action in my place.

Sorry if you felt rushed. I was just trying to figure out if I was supposed to go.

Not at all. I actually appreciated the reminder. I tried to sit down and write something a couple times, and just didn't get to it.

I feel like Darghibous got a bit sidelined by the fight. But the meeting is still on!

Are we just waiting for spaceseeker?

Not sure. I'm still here.

Sorry, everyone. I posted on the Absences thread, but not in each of my games: I was pretty sick for a week, and have barely made it onto the site. Very sorry to hold things up!

That doesn't bode well! Can the rest of us hear what GB is saying BTW?

I'd been assuming that Pudge is still in contact with Darghibous, but it may be that he hasn't noticed that communication drop.

Yeah that was my assumption: there's been no attempt (at least no successful attempt!) by the embassy's security detail to reverse Pudge's hold on their communication systems. Seems reasonable to say that you can hear each other's conversations, at least until such a time that you choose to turn off your comms.

Darghibous is in a bit of a quandary here. His knee-jerk response to Graves-Burton's offer to escort them off planet so he can open the Vault in peace is No, by the fifteen Hells! but he's trying to figure out a strategy to get out of this situation that doesn't involve physical violence...er, more physical violence. Not that he has any fondness for GB, of course: he just realizes that any situation where he attacks GB will probably result in his death, even with the bag of tricks and his ring of acceleration helping his escape. He'd do it in a second, though, if he was certain that it meant no one opening the Vault...

So...at this moment, he has inhaled and is considering his response. Anyone on the team can talk to him through Pudge if you have any suggestions.

I think we can safely assume that Pudge would have patched the other two into the comm feed. So, Serana and Wilhelm would have been able to hear this conversation and respond directly to Darghibous.

Cool with that, Ed?

Yeah, that's cool.

You could try attacking him and running for it, although I agree it probably wouldn't work. Although maybe Pudge could slow down GB with his newfound horde of roombas.

*motions to officially change the name of the campaign to Exigency: Horde of Roombas.*

It's a Horde of Roombas up until we capture them all and put them in the Vault...

Then it's a Hoard of Roombas.

Eventually they form a committee to manage the running of their society. Board of Roombas

Then democracy breaks down and one takes charge. Lord of Roombas.

When intruders threaten the Vault they stack together to form a barrier against entry. Ward of Roombas.

The intruders successfully breach the vault, capturing the vacuum robots and ending the conflict. The Lord is forced to sign the Accord of Roombas.

Eventually, centuries after the fact, the Roombas degenerate into a medieval society in time for the fantasy reboot. Sword of Roombas.

Ahem. So being a pain but I've been re-reading the story so far and have another mechanics/scale question. Touched on it before but in say D&D terms, what are our stats like? Are we what super hero fans would call street tier or a bit beyond? What does a 'rank' in a talent represent exactly?

Sorry, I hadn't noticed the post somehow! I'm not big on comicbook tiers but a score of 5 is arguably peak human or perhaps slightly beyond, and 10 is out-and-out superhuman. 10 STR is tearing metal with your bare hands, VIT 10 means you can go for days without rest and be immune to disease, and so on.

And a talent isn't quite equivalent to D&D skills (or the old-school proficiencies), although there's obviously some similarity. There are no trained/untrained skills, it's assumed that virtually everyone can try their hand at a task and not be completely incompetent at it even if they have no talent rank. A talent represents some degree of expertise and even a single point is noteworthy. They were actually called "specialities" in earlier versions, but that seemed odd when you consider how many of them PCs end up getting!

I'm not very good at the nitty gritty of D&D scaling, but STR 29 let you lift about 3/4 of a ton I think? Which would be roughly equivalent to a 5 or 6 on Exigency's scale. Yes, Serana really is that strong... and I think I'm okay with Exigency being a little bit silly in terms of power level.

Coming from 3.5 my idea of 'silly' is STR35 centaur-vampire-dragons that can drag half a dungeon along with them when they charge. I think we're grounded by comparison.

All right if everybody that wants to chime in has chimed in, I could screenwipe to the next scene/location if you all have one in mind?

I guess we drive somewhere secluded and interrogate Reave. Maybe we head towards the vault and stop halfway to grill her?

I'm down.

I only just noticed that SpaceSeeker is away for 19 days... should we maybe start the interrogation without him?

I think so. I'd hate for things to get bogged down. I think Pudge should respond to Serana and then I'll jump in with the interrogation.

That's reasonable and on my part I'll try not to rush through it!

---

So! Long time coming, but big thoughts on mechanics:

I'm not sure how many of you agree, but I feel multiplicative calculations for Hits are, well, proving a bit clunky. I think there might be value in instead declaring that an enemy simply deals a set number of Hits on meeting a Resistance? Rather than having to determine how many times over the Resistance has been beaten. A mob might deal 1 Hit, an elite 2, a boss 1d4, and so on

(I'll also start posting statblocks for enemies/challenges. I did say I'd start doing that months ago, but I mean it this time! Not knowing an enemy's stat until you challenge it/reduce it doesn't really add anything to fights, and showing the numbers up front means players can get more done when I'm not there to reply)

Defence started off being exactly like Armour Class, and I think I'll make a change to that: a miss now deals half effect instead of none. In practise the half damage might well fail to meet the Resistance anyway, but it does mean basic attacks are less likely to be wasted.

Here's something I'm less certain of implementing, but I'm intrigued by it all the same: declaring that Defence is challenged by the d20's natural roll. But if the total roll beats a Defence by 10, +1 Hit. By 20, +2 Hits, and so on.

This would mean modifiers are important but the dice always plays a part. Normally I'd be wary about something like that, but coupled with the Defence change and the idea that every fighter is competent and "misses" are more like glancing blows, I think it might work. Proviso: mobs still miss when failing to meet a Defence. Because they're mobs. You can definitely dodge crappy drones far more easily than trained killers.

I obviously won't implement massive changes like that without running it past the people who are actually playing the game, but I'd be interested to know what everyone thought!

Yo, so what's up? I'm still here just kinda trying to let our other bros have a shot at talking but if we gotta Wilhelm and Serana can just go murder SPACE HITLER and VOODOO B*TCH ourselves. All jokes aside, who's out there and still playing?

Spaceseeker disappeared from one of my other games too. I reached out to him on Twitter and he said he was hotel that he'd be able to get back into it, but that was a number of weeks ago. *shrugs*

That's unfortunate :/ Should we be opening the game up to a 5th? Or does Ed/everyone else think we should just try with three?

It might be a little unfair to any new people to bring them in this close to the climax (I'm assuming after we have our big fight at the vault the play test is over).

Yeah, Act I was always intended to end fairly quickly so bringing in an additional player might not be the best move. I'd be more than happy to revisit this world/these characters again, of course!

Ah? Right. I admit I had thought I'd signed on for the full Act 1, Act 2, Act 3 etc experience! But that makes sense.

So, what's going on eveybody? We still doing this?

I'm in. What are we waiting for?

I was waiting for someone other than me to post. Aside from that not sure.

Although I'm not sure if Albionest is about I'll happily jump ahead to the finale. I think whipstache's post would act a good scene closer, haha

With luck spaceseeker will pop by to get a word in, but for now I think we'll proceed with the three (you here Albionest?) of you and sort out a retcon of some sort if spaceseeker does come back and wants Darghibous to participate more

I'm here! Sorry everyone. Yes, please do jump ahead.

Yay!

Regarding the aspect Serana is entitled to from Pudge's use of Enhance: perhaps some sort of "true strike" Empower ability? Spend 1HP to hit a target automatically, regardless of evasion/concealment, but forfeit the potential chance of rolling a critical. A power that might have some use, but nothing game breaking.

That's cool. Honestly I'd be fine with the to-hit bonus by itself too: I feel uneasy about using empowers. Maybe I value my HP too much.

Whatever y'all decide is cool with me.

Hah, wait, if Pudge gets to act first does that mean he can just throw a virus on the turret and disable it?

Oh geez, I didn't realize it was my turn. #embarrassed
I'll try to get to it tonight, but it may be tomorrow.

(but that was my thought too)

Is this a new round?

Bump

Yep, new turns for all!

So, four stasis pods suspended in the air... Are we above or below the pods? How far are they from the ground below?

My actual question is... it's it possible for Pudge to somehow get to one of them?

The ground below is about two storeys down and the walkway is very slightly below the pods, but someone could jump the gap and reach a pod without too much effort.

I have to admit. I didn't know what I was signing up for when this game started but things are getting weird!

Are we just waiting on whipstache? I've been wanting to hit Valon upside the head for over a week now!

So... what are you guys thinking? As a player, I'm interested in seeing who else comes through the gate.

As a character, I think Pudge would probably focus on the two most immediate problems. Valon seems to be a more long-term issue, but if he's really leaving, then he'd be out of our hair... for now.

Wilhelm has stated that his two plans are to smash this gate and then kill Valon, but with the destruction of a civilian population is probably going very angrily let Valon live for now.

Yeah same. Looks like Valon is going to live into the next campaign! :p

Maybe Pudge could say how he's tracking Valon's progress and then, begrudgingly, Serana is going to agree with the others that heading to the base is the priority.

I would like to see the ancients we would've encountered but considering Valon by himself could stun us probably not wise to let them come through.

That all sounds good. Let's play it out.

And then maybe Ed could just fast forward us to the base? I feel like this finale is taking a long to time to finalise!

That sounds fine, I'm just waiting to RP the decision then I'm all for a jump cut.

All right! I think, as mentioned, that's a great spot to jump forward to the Ivory Cliff base. I'll work on that this evening/tomorrow

Hm. What are we thinking? Having only one cover tile on the entire map is an issue and I'm not sure which enemy we should target first.

Wilhelm jumps out and goes crazy on the squad immediately in front of us. Pudge tries to hack the Hellfire Cannon and generally disable enemy weapons while Serana rushes and gets into a cyborg duel. Wilhelm will move from one squad of mercs to the other in front of the Arbiters. Hopefully that'll free them up to assist Serana. That sound like a decent plan?

That makes good sense. Definitely need the cannon disabled and Wilhelms bonus versus groups aspect means he's best utilised attacking squads. Hopefully the Arbiters will hold out for a turn or two while we get into position! Want to have Wilhelm RP the plan, seeing as it was your plan?

P.S. if the cyborg turns out to be really difficult we can use up all our encounter powers on his head.

I'm definitely planning to go for the Major and his cannon first.

cool. One quick question: how does the cannon disable get reverted? I would look at Pudge's character sheet but for some reason it's not letting me. IIRC it requires the enemy to make their own technology check right?

they have to succeed on a KNO check, then spend a turn repairing it.

I don't know if I posted these before (I think I did?) but talking about the aspects reminded me. On these KNO is referred to as MND which is... well, not necessarily a change that'll be made, but it was what I was thinking at the time.

Note that those additional effects on aspects aren't set in stone, it was just an idea I had so that every aspect has a passive effect and a spend effect (or a HP and EP effect in the case of Empower abilities). It means that not spending an encounter power has some sort of benefit too!

Well it must be old because my avatar isn't in it :P

Considering I haven't used my HP ability ever can I ask- what is priority anyway. I'm thinking it might be useful to stick it on one of the enemy squads next turn.

Priority is a negative status effect that's spent to power certain special attacks. If an NPC has Priority, any PC interacting with them can add +2 to one roll per turn, be that an attack or some kind of defensive save. It's basically a generic debuff that can be used to represent various different things

In turn if a PC has Priority, enemies will (appropriately enough) prioritise attacking them over anyone else.

I'm only playing here so I won't bother with the absences thread but I'm likely to not be around for the rest of December and possibly good part of January. Christmas, yknow!

can willy get to the other squad in a single turn and attack?

He'd have to spend 1 Hit Point in order to move the additional tile, but yeah, he can reach them and attack in one turn.

In hindsight I should have really made a "Charge" aspect for PCs. Or perhaps it should be some sort of free ability made available at a certain rank of Melee, hmm.

So if I'm reading the image right does that mean my sunder abspect has encounter power component now? Because I'm thinking like to spend that power so everyone can damage the major litle easier.

(sorry on phone)

If you want to go with that, sure. Remember that those were just suggestions so you're welcome to come up with your own tweaks to the aspects.

And I'm back. Happy New Year!

So I had a thought: instead of having Reave and Lyra as GMPCs like in the last battle I could let the PCs control them. That is, instead of getting their own turn separate from the party, Reave and Lyra team up with a given PC and grant them bonuses: almost like Resources, if you will. And the tram could be similar, meaning that every player gets to pick some kind of bonus for the finale. You have to move and act with these allies however, you can't send them off to do something by themselves. What do people think?

That seems like a super cool idea. I'm definitely down.

Hm. Who are we thinking gets what? Seems obvious Pudge should be the tram driver but I'm not sure about the others. I guess Serana wouldn't really be penalised by Reave's mobility penalty but TBH any of us would benefit from those buffs.

Serana does want to find out what the hell is going on before she stabs people, of course.

Wilhelm already spotted the snipers correct? He's going to start moving around to take them out pretty soon. He doesn't appreciate having guns pointed at him. Lyra would work great for what he's doing if Serana wants Reave.

Yeah, Wilhelm knows there're enemies on the grey walkway directly adjacent to the tram's tile.

Let's go with Serana/Reave and Wilhelm/Lyra then. In meantme I'm going to try to talk to my sister but Serana's not one for going easy.

Wilhelm's natural reaction is to keep going, but I don't want to screw up another character's go at diplomacy. He'll probably hold in cover for a second.

Alright this is my PC's sister and all but I don't want to dominate the endgame... what do people want to do?

I'm torn. In-character there's no way Serana will let her fire that cannon even if it means fighting her own sister. She'd definitely try to talk her down before anything else but we've been trying that for a while and there's no guarantee it'll work out in the end. And if it doesn't we squandered the opening round bonus.

Pudge is likely to make the decision for the group at this point. Her bringing up Pudge's dad was the wrong play if she wanted to avoid conflict. He's going to try to hack the startup sequence. And, since he's pissed, he probably wouldn't think to warn y'all. 😁

Oh believe me, Wilhelm is beyond pissed that she brought up Erdain.

Cool, as long as we're on the same page. If I didn't know better i'd almost say it was as if the GM was spoiling for a fight :P

Sorry for the absence. Will try to post tonight.

Is the turn over or did pudges hack count as a bonus action/surprise round and he gets to go?

I started to post, then had the same question.

Sorry, reading back over my post I realise I never actually made it explicit did I: I was thinking that Pudge is still entitled to a turn. So yes, we'll treat the hack as a kind of surprise round.

well! are we rapping everything up now? Also are Reave and Lyra still there or did they leave.

Yeah Reave walked off, although Lyra is still there. And yep that's a wrap! Meeting with Valigael is probably best left as something that happens off-screen. Or maybe at the beginning of a new campaign, who knows.

Obviously I'm not going to lock the thread or delete the forum or anything so feel free to keep chatting if you feel your characters have got something else to bring up. We're winding down now.

I'll probably do a longer breakdown when I get back home but I'd just like to take the time to say: thank you! You've all been really patient with this new system (even though a few things were straight-up broken and had to be fixed on the fly) and you've brought a whole lot of life to a vaguely-defined setting. Some great RP moments!

Thanks for letting us test drive your system! I think the blocks are there for a really great game.

Yes it's been a lot of fun! Wish you luck with it all. You'll have to let us know when its finished..

Was a good time. Had a lot of fun with both the story and the characters.

Hey, all. Thanks again for the fun game.

I'm going to leave the game, just to try to clean up my subs here on GP. But if any of you ever need anything from me, you can always invite me back to the game. Or, you know, message me.

Cheers!