[Fugu]

Morgan's spells work as intended.

[Fugu]

Glasgow's intimidate: 19 + 2 = 21. Success.

I'm about to PM each of you the results of your sense motive check to detect deception on McCale's part, in case you'd want it.

[Lynx Cat]

Well that would be nice. Now, and at any time when we might be suspicious about someone.

[Fugu]

Indeed. I should have done it plenty of times already, but I didn't think to.

[Lynx Cat]

That was quick. Thanks!

[Fugu]

Fastest dice in the (mid)West.

[Fugu]

Map'd!

[Lynx Cat]

Uh... wasn't I in HWW's shoulders? Not that it should matter much anyway, just sayin'.

This post has been edited by Lynx Cat: 03 May 2006 - 07:20 PM

[Fugu]

Well, you got on McCale's shoulders briefly, and then I didn't know that you had gotten back on HWW's. It is now noted that you are on HWW's shoulders.

It was just a move silently check that you failed, and then McCale failed as well. So even if you hadn't made a check, McCale would have made noise some other way.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 03 May 2006 - 07:29 PM

[Lynx Cat]

Oh. I think that wasn't very clear then. I said it as a sort of a conditional, that I'd slip into McCale's shoulders if neither of the elves took the initiative to touch him, and since neither did, I assumed I just stayed into HWW's shoulders. Like I said, not much of a big thing.

[Fugu]

Glasgow's Pilot check: 11 + 5 = 16.

The DC is 12 for basic operation of the cormi ship. DC 14 for basic operation of the wariti ship. More complex stuff like long-term navigation or evasive maneuvers have a higher difficulty. If you have at least 20 minutes to prepare for the operation of a craft, you can take 10. If you have a few hours, you can take 20.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 05 May 2006 - 02:06 PM

[Fugu]

Remember that not all of your colleagues know which is the wariti ship. :P

I'll give Barak and Lynx a chance to post before moving on.

[Benevolance]

That just means I get to pick which ship we board regardless of the vote. :D

[Fugu]

Unfortunately, the vestibule door will make a Star Trek-type noise when opened, loud enough that it is likely the cormi will hear.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 06 May 2006 - 02:55 PM

[Fugu]

Morgan's Knowledge (Geography) check: 16 + 2 = 18.

Modern wariti skirmish combat is very like human combat. They rely on guns and armor/cover. One difference is that wariti can double-voice during combat, producing war cries that are terrifically unsettling to their opponents. (-1 to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saves, and skill checks for the duration of the cry.) Wariti are somewhat frailer than humans.

[Lynx Cat]

If we don the gelsuits, would they become invisible as well? Being equipment and all? And how long would that take anyway?

[Fugu]

They would become invisible. Putting on a gelsuit only takes a few seconds. You just walk into it.

[Benevolance]

I have open lock, but...can I open a high tech lock?

[Fugu]

I thought about that yesterday. I'm afraid I can't justify it just from the Open Lock skill. I think we should create a trained-only dex-based "Security" skill that has a +2 synergy bonus from Disable Device (when manipulating a security device) and another +2 from Open Lock (when dealing with a lock specifically). As a rogue, Glasgow pays attention to these sorts of things, and from this past week's observations of modern security he has earned 1 rank in that skill (deducted from your allotment of skill points at level 11).

So, your Security check modifier is d20 + 10.

Security will be used for technological devices only. Mechanical locks (which you will still encounter from time to time) will require Open Lock.

Incidentally, when I restricted class choice to Monk, Rogue, and Sorcerer, I tried to pick the three that would be the least weakened in a technological, interstellar society. Rangers and Druids would have little of their native wilderness to exploit, wizards would have no way to learn new spells, and barbarians and fighters would be obsolete. And with clerics I'd have to be much more up front than I care to about the state of the old gods. :) I could have allowed bards, but I like rogues better. Despite all that, Open Lock is kinda nerfed.

[Fugu]

You said you were going to go ahead and break into the ship, but that was before I told you the DC and about the alarms, so I'm waiting for your confirmation that you want to break in the way I described.

[Benevolance]

Yes, the way you described it is fine. Just to clarify: the wariti is in another room, and we are seeing him on a two-way vid screen?

Are the alarms local (just internal?) or will they sound outside the ship?

[Fugu]

Quote

the wariti is in another room, and we are seeing him on a two-way vid screen?

Yes, it appears so. It's not a window, if that's what you mean.

Quote

Are the alarms local (just internal?) or will they sound outside the ship?

No way to tell. If you ask McCale, he responds that it will almost certainly be only inside the ship.

EDIT: changed my mind.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 08 May 2006 - 11:11 PM

[Fugu]

Glasgow's Security check: 2 + 10 = 12. Failed.
Round 2 retry: 12 + 10 = 22. Partial success.

Just to make sure things are clear, I drew a picture.

[Lynx Cat]

Of course, I'm no longer riding HWW by now. And I'll turn off the invisibilities, there isn't much of a point to that by now.

[Fugu]

HWW's Jump check: 9 + 15 = 24. Just made it!

[Fugu]

If I presumed too much by having Morgan follow McCale on Glasgow's shoulders, we can backtrack.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 10 May 2006 - 03:01 PM

[Benevolance]

Nope, that's good.

Is there a way that Glasgow can climb up to the ladder? His Climb modifier is +9 if its possible. He'll toss the rifle up to McCale before climbing.

[Fugu]

Technically, "A perfectly smooth, flat, vertical surface cannot be climbed," but I've seen people use the momentum of a jump to climb a few feet of a tree without a branch, so I'm going to say you can jump at the ship and climb the rest of the distance with DC 25 + 2 per foot of distance to be climbed. And by using the corner between the ship and the stair, that DC is reduced by 5.

Glasgow's jump check: 18 + 0 = 18. Jumped 4 feet.
Distance to go before you can reach the lip: 5 feet. Climb DC 30.
Glasgow's climb check: 12 + 9 = 21. Failure.

IC post en-route.

[Fugu]

Glasgow's damage taken: 4d6 = 10.

Again, if I presume too much, we can backtrack.

[Benevolance]

Aw, man. White elves can't jump. :(

[Lynx Cat]

Nah, it's cool. You did what made sense anyway.

[Benevolance]

Has HWW caught up to the fleeing Wariti in this time? I don't want to jump too far ahead of Barak's actions, but if it's cool, Glasgow will take the rifle back from McCale and lead the duo to the cockpit.

[Fugu]

Sorry to be unclear, Lynx, but the cormi are not visible. The stair enclosed them in a space somewhere below the floor you are standing on. The stair fits into the ship in such a way that its full length rests below the hatch, and it doens't just fold out, it snakes outward as it unfolds folds so that the stair itself is longer than the portion than was visible as the hull. I updated the picture to hopefully make it more clear.

Barak and I have been handling He-Who-Watches in PM--I'm going to let him take another action before we get back to you guys.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 10 May 2006 - 07:59 PM

[Lynx Cat]

Oh. I guess I completely misunderstood the ship's layout then. Please disregard my action, and sorry about that. Also, your link doesn't work.

Hmm. So they're outside the ship then?

[Barak]

I believe they are inside the ship, but sorta stuck in the stairs thingie.

[Lynx Cat]

Wait, now I don't get it at all.

[Fugu]

The link was to the modified picture of the ship, which is also accessible in the map thread.

Imagine the ship like a dresser (or bureau, not sure what it's called in the English you learned--thing you put clothes in). The top drawer is the door to the ship. The drawer below it is the stairs. So the stair 'drawer' came out, and you climbed up into the top drawer. The cormi followed, but the stairs closed before the cormi could get to the top drawer, so they are now stuck in the stair drawer.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 11 May 2006 - 01:25 PM

[Fugu]

Morgan's will save vs sonic stun: 14 + 7 = 21. Success.
Glasgow's will save vs sonic stun: 6 + 3 = 9. Failure. 1d6 sonic damage = 3. Stunned for 1 round.
HWW's will save vs sonic stun: 5 + 9 = 14. Failure. 1d6 sonic damage = 2. Stunned for 1 round.
HWW immune to goo's sleep effect. 1d6 damage = 4.

Initiative
Morgan: 2 + 6 = 8
Glasgow: 15 + 5 = 20
HWW: 16 + 4 = 20

Map forthcoming.

Barak, how much damage did I say you took from the first red blob, in PM? By the way, I realized that even though Englis hit you with one of his rifle blasts, I don't seem to have marked the damage anywhere. So I rolled 2d6 just now and got a 6. So in this scene you've now taken 12 damage, plus whatever you took in PM.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 11 May 2006 - 02:18 PM

[Fugu]

Here's a map of the interior of the ship, as much as you've seen so far, anyway.

[Barak]

It was 4 points of damage.

[Benevolance]

My first high initiative roll and I'm stunned. :(

[Barak]

I know what you mean! Stupid init of 20

[Fugu]

HWW's attack: 20 + 14 = 34. Critical threat: 6 + 14 = 20. Confirmed. Damage: 2d10+2 = 15. The wariti is stunned.

[Barak]

Weee! Interestingly, my inspiration for that particular move was from a UFC match I saw last night, and it had much of the same effect. Flying knee hit FTW!

[Benevolance]

Both Wariti are now stunned and very susceptible to sneak attack. Woohoo! I'm assuming that Glasgow got the rifle back from McCale as planned? The rifles are set to non-lethal by default? Just confirming before I do my IC post.

[Barak]

I.. Was about to make a very metagaming suggestion. Carry on.

[Fugu]

Yes, the guns are both set to non-lethal. And you did get it back from McCale.

[Fugu]

Am I just imagining a rule that eventually non-lethal damage against an unconscious target becomes lethal? I can't find it but I thought I remembered reading it. I can't remember the specifics but unless someone knows that the rule doesn't exist, or remembers how it works, I'm going to say that once non-lethal damage exceeds HP + (level times con mod), it counts as lethal and begins to take away hit points. If your con mod is 0 or negative, you still have a buffer equal to your level.

Glasgow
Attack 1: 6 + 13 = 19. Hit. Damage: 2d6 + 5d6 + 1 = 28. HWW's wariti is down.
Attack 2: 6 + 13 = 19. Hit. Damage: 2d6 + 5d6 + 1 = 31. Morgan's wariti is down.
Attack 3: 19 + 13 = 32. Hit. Damage: 2d6 + 5d6 + 1 = 25. Morgan's wariti is knocked the FUCK out.

Dayum.

[Fugu]

What do you tie them with?

[Barak]

They have clothes on, yes?

[Fugu]

That works. FYI, it's been about 15 seconds since the hatch closed. And HWW is still dripping with red goo. :D

This post has been edited by Fugu: 12 May 2006 - 04:13 PM

[Barak]

It's a fashion statement...

Actually, when he gets a second, he'll clean himself, but for now, it's a low priority, unless he senses that the goo still has some sort of semi-effect on him.

[Fugu]

Glasgow's Pilot check: 19 + 5 = 24.
HWW's reflex save vs inertia: 7 + 11 = 18. Success.
Morgan's reflex save vs intertia: 7 + 5 = 12. Failure.

I'll make another IC post tomorrow. Your characters may do whatever they like for about 10 seconds.

[Lynx Cat]

Fugu, on May 12 2006, 06:50 PM, said:

Am I just imagining a rule that eventually non-lethal damage against an unconscious target becomes lethal? I can't find it but I thought I remembered reading it. I can't remember the specifics but unless someone knows that the rule doesn't exist, or remembers how it works, I'm going to say that once non-lethal damage exceeds HP + (level times con mod), it counts as lethal and begins to take away hit points. If your con mod is 0 or negative, you still have a buffer equal to your level.

Lookie here, near the end. It says nothing about nonlethal damage becoming lethal after you're unconscious. Only thing it says is that you're unconscious if your nonlethal damage exceeds your hitpoints. Personally, I'd think that, if it were the case that it starts converting into normal damage, they'd mention it. But of course, you can always make that a house rule, it makes sense anyway. And I like the "buffer" mechanic.

Oh, and practical concern... next time you put up a map, could you please use JPG or GIF files? Because BMP files are t3h big, and the drop in quality to, say, JPG won't matter much to a practical thing like a combat map. (And GIF has pretty much no noticeable loss of quality.) If you're using MS Paint, you can just choose the file type to save as. That would save on bandwidth and loading time. No really big concern though, and I wouldn't ask you to convert the files already there, just keep it in mind for future maps.

[Barak]

Yeah, from the RAW, the only time non-lethal damage ever starts becoming lethal is when it's due to environmental issues, or thirst/hunger. But I have no problem with your system, as long as there's a big enough buffer.

As for what HWW will do during those 10 seconds, he'll simply checks the wariti's bonds, or assuming he was done with that, start exploring unexplored parts of the ships for other stowaways.

[Fugu]

The ship is far below top speed, but not terribly far from its top atmopsheric speed (air resistance and all that). Your top atmospheric speed is definitely faster than theirs, however. You are within range of the cormi ship's guns, but only for about 20 seconds if you punch it.

[Fugu]

Glasgow's pilot check to evade: 19 + 7 = 26. (+2 circumstance bonus for distance and speed.)

You're lucky so far...

Glasgow's pilot check to evade the second shot: 14 + 8 = 22. (+4 circumstance bonus for distance and speed.)

Not quite enough.

I'm kinda making up the system for aerial combat. First the attacker has to aim well enough to hit the enemy--a normal attack roll resisted by Pilot instead of AC. If he succeeds, damage is rolled, and the hull has a certain hardness rating, and every 30 foot section or so has a set amount of HP. Depending on the weapon used, a shield surrounding the ship acts like an extra layer of hardness.

Do you guys know of a good standardized system for spaceship combat? I'll use it instead if I like it.

For the sake of flavor, I'm going to go all sci fi and explain the weapons that I made up for this scene. The first two weapons fired at you are called gravity cannons. They're powerful, but have a slow rate of fire and the "ammunition" is slow relative to other ray weapons. (Gravity cannons don't really have ammunition; they create a little ball of haywire gravity and shoot it at you. The effect is about as destructive as a conventional big honkin' missile, but as a ray weapon is much more cost-effective in the long term.)

Mirror charges are shells with little tesser drives in them, meaning that you can fire them just about as far as you want. But they aren't very powerful and the range increment is very low. They're effective at long range combat if you've got a whole mess of 'em and a big target (or a bunch of targets, like an unsuspecting fleet), but for one-on-one skirmishes they're basically like lobbing a grenade with your eyes closed while riding a merry-go-round.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 13 May 2006 - 09:45 PM

[Fugu]

...Aaand I think that's a perfect place to end Chapter Two. I'll start Chapter Three and figure out experience points Tuesday afternoon. I have a big project due that morning.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 14 May 2006 - 12:10 PM

[Barak]

Noooooooooooooo.

Oh alright.

The more I play He-Who-Watches, the more I see him as a Spock-like character. I hope that isn't a problem. But the combination of elf (as in, non-human, and with pointed ears..), monk and LN, plus the sci-fi element, and how detached from everything I viewed him from the start..

This post has been edited by Barak: 14 May 2006 - 12:14 PM

[Fugu]

Did you want to make another IC post? I can open the topic.

[Barak]

Oh no.. If you're good, I'm good.

[Lynx Cat]

Heh, I like HWW, he's doing alright. Speaking of that, I've finally decided to watch Lost... last weekend I watched the first 3 chapters at a friend's house, and this Friday I decided to rent the entire 1st season and watch the rest. So I watched episodes 4-25 over the last 48 hours, minus a few. Needless to say, I've got the whole setting in my mind a lot now, and had in my last few posting here... the idea of those 3 guys who didn't know each other brought together by pure circumstance, "stranded" in a strange environment, with all sort of mysteries to uncover, there was no way I wouldn't make a connection. Which only improved the experience, of course. For some reason, I see Morgan a bit like Charlie from the series - I guess that's why he's been nagging HWW and trying to be useful, kind of like Charlie does with Jack. Of course, this is just a temportary waft of inspiration. Before I started watching Lost, Morgan was already changing a lot from his original premise - somewhat inspired on stuff that was going on in my life.

But really, this PBP has been awesome, and I'll be honest here - it isn't so easy for me to like a PBP. All I've said above indicates that I've been getting into it a lot, which wouldn't happen if it wasn't interesting and compelling. My characters tend to get a bit out of my control and develop a life and personality of their own, when the campaign is good enough to encourage that. Great job.

[Barak]

Oh. Well, from a Lost perspective, HWW would be a healthy mix of Mr Ecko and Locke, I'd say.

Edit: Heavy on the Mr Ecko. Locke would basically be in there to remove the religious aspect.

This post has been edited by Barak: 14 May 2006 - 04:38 PM

[Lynx Cat]

Mr. Ecko? Uh, who's that again?

And I know he's nothing like Jack, I was talking more about the dynamic between Charlie and Jack. But that's probably not a lasting influence since it has little to do with Morgan and HWW, and with the way Morgan had been viewing the monk.

[Fugu]

I just finished tallying experience awards for Chapter Two. They're bigger than last Chapter, but this one had more posts in it. Out of curiosity I divided the average award by the average number of posts in each chapter, and the ratios were only different by almost 2%. That suprised me since my xp rubric feels pretty arbitrary. (That was a good line, he deserves 50 for that. Ah, he made the connection, 100 points to him.)

Lance's and Barak's awards are just a bit larger because they both briefly went solo in PM, and so there were more accomplishments to consider. Morgan's time for a PM adventure will come :) .

Thanks, Lynx, for the compliments. That made me feel pretty good for a minute :blush: . But I have to say that as I was reading back through the chapter, you guys are doing awesome. You frequently made me laugh out loud (for the second time!). You're really engaging each other and your character portrayals keep feeding me new ideas. It makes this thing hella fun to DM. I've been DMing for years now and I have never gotten so much out of it as I am here.

If you guys have any suggestions, things you want more of or less of, let me know.

Quote

there was no way I wouldn't make a connection.

Hmm, maybe I should find this show and watch it?

EDIT: Apparently, I was a doofus and didn't write down the freebie XP amounts that I gave you last time from the d4 rolls. So I gave you all 2's. Yes, I know that means you're less than 400 away from level 11. I don't want to do mini-experience 20 posts in to Chapter Three, but I don't want to deprive you of level 11 for the whole chapter either, since you'll have the experience for it pretty quick. So how about I lend each of you 400 experience points? By my tally, that means you all just leveled up. You just have to pay me back at the end of the next chapter :) .

This post has been edited by Fugu: 15 May 2006 - 01:27 AM

[Barak]

So we levelled! Yay!

Now to go check if levelling gave me anything fun, as a monk.

Edit: Oh.. Immune to poisons and an extra attack.. Sheet updated.

This post has been edited by Barak: 15 May 2006 - 09:42 AM

[Benevolance]

Hooray!

Glasgow had 3 ranks in Pilot and 1 in Security spotted to him. I don't think there were others. I hope it's not presumptious to boost my Piloting skill up to 8 ranks. Do you want new copies of our characters emailed?

[Fugu]

Yes, please. Is HWW's sheet link still the same, Barak?

[Benevolance]

Would you prefer a copy or a link?

[Barak]

Indeed it should be.

[Benevolance]

I've gone ahead and uploaded the sheet here.

Edit: Warning! There is no word wrap when viewed in a web browser.

This post has been edited by Benevolance: 15 May 2006 - 01:25 PM

[Lynx Cat]

Level up! W00t! Uh... okay, I don't get a new spell level, or a feat, but hey, I'm getting new spells, which is great. But 12th level is gonna rock for me B)

So I've already got an advance of 2 ranks in Astran geography. Let's see about the rest. And I'm thinking about putting my sheet online too, it's a pain in the ass to fetch the disk with the file when I'm using the work computer.

[Lynx Cat]

Now what about HP? Do we still gain maximum?

[Fugu]

Not anymore. I just rolled and I am sorry to say that Lynx gets a 1, Lance gets a 4, and HWW gets an 8. Sorry Lynx. 25% chance and all.

[Lynx Cat]

No fair! You're oppressing the little people! Racial HP profiling! Mwrah!

And it seems those 2 ranks in Astran Geography take up all my level-up ranks... just clearing things up, even though the answer seems clear - it counts as a class skill for me, no?

[Fugu]

Yeah, count it as a class skill.

[Lynx Cat]

Okiedokie! Character sheet can be found here.