A) Yes, there were several accidents, and they had to stop and untangle them before the rest could get through. I already posted that earlier.
B) Yes, the local reptiles are cold blooded, and their hide is very angular (if you look at the pictures), so radar either sinks into the skin (this is something that happens with organics, the radar waves get absorbed by the living tissue some), or it bounces off at random and highly refracted angles due to the bumps and ridges in the hide, so yeah, radar is all but useless as well.
C) Your leader is a PC. :) Robertson was taken over by a new player, he's the who's been posting.
D) I'm trying to find a topo map for you.
OMG!
I love that valley!
I assume the mountains around it are too rough for a large force to get through?
So We still want a wall around the perimeter, at least 100 yards from the surrounding mountains. Lots of pattern mines in that area.
For the opening, a nice V shaped set of walls with the apex of the V to the south. This creates a really nice funnel with killing field.
You guys can work up the camp and defenses using map shapes. I'll adjust afterwards.
Yeah, the mountains are very rough. You can fly over them, but getting any major force through them is a major issue. Scouts can get through, loners, animals, but not large armed forces.
So, I see issues with your map designs.
1) They've only had 60 days to build up defenses, and the base, so they can't build 2-3 miles worth of defenses (note the distances of the valley, which are in gray below).
2) With the wall as it is, you won't be able to fire on the enemy until the come over the ridge, which means you'll be in range of their weapons as well. The lowest point in the valley is in the center, where the small stream and lake are. Each line of elevation is a 20 foot rise.
3) You're putting defenses into areas that are naturally protected against anything other than small groups. That's probably not the priority, since you have dogs and guards to watch the pass, as well as IR cameras.
I would suggest putting a line of defenses just north of the ridge line top, in the shape of an inverted M. You get the same kill zone area, as well as using a natural bottleneck for defenses.
Now, they probably will be putting up a 10 ft chain link fence around the inside edge of the valley (with concertina on it). They just won't be building up walls. That can be done in a week or so with a backhoe.
Ok, so, Map Updated based on feedback.
Notice two walls built up at the bottleneck, each armed with mounted Chain Guns in spaced locations. Mortars behind the first wall, able to fire over the wall, with humvees ready to pull them back into the inner wall.
Ten foot storm fences with concertina wire up along the valley edges.
What else should be here? Other than the main base. Two choppers added near the gate. I'll be happy to add in a base as well before we start, just need feedback on it...
Current assignments for the squad :
AckAck gun : Rainwater
Squad Gunner : Tones (NPC)
Sniper : Horatio
Wall defense : Everyone else except Hudson
Hudson is pulled back behind the second wall, and is in the field surgery tent, ready to deal with wounded if any come in.
FYI : You will eventually get 'detached' for extended scouting duty. We just have to get through a few months in-game of getting the base secured, dealing with a few counter attacks, etc.
Unlikely there are any TOWs around, they didn't expect to need them.
However, the Apaches are likely outfitted in standard covering force configuration, 8 AGM-114L's and 36 Hydra 70's with M151 warheads.
Valley Map complete now. Sorry for the delay on it. Any objections, changes, etc?
Are you guys ready to move forward again? I'm trying to leave you time to post about things and interract. The first part of the game is kind of railroady, so trying to balance that with player agency.
Okay, back for a bit.
What's the chance I can get my hands on some dragon torsos/organs to dissect and document in a field report?
The reptile bodies were all taken back through (there was only 6 bodies).
However, the big giant alien creatures you could do some field work on if you like, there were plenty of bodies laying around, way too many to take back through the gate. They basically bulldozed the bodies into a mass grave and put up a grave marker.
The big guys accelerrated to about 350, but it took them several rounds to get that fast, so it averaged out to 250.
The rest of the army is much slower. They are way behind.
The flying reptiles are a lot further back.
Yes, it tore up a bunch of ground as it slammed into it, thus the 'sounds like a bunch of locomotives crashing'
You do have a stack of clips, but given the size of the army, command suggests single or burst fire until they are closer.
Yes, there's a line of anti-personnel mines (claymores) on the other side of the mine field. Those are already on proximity fuses, so as soon as people get close they'll go off. Then there's another layer of them that are on remote control, offset so they aren't damaged by the proximity fuses, for more control.
You know, the dice gods are REALLY hating the resident sniper. I don't think he's rolled less than a 12 since he started rolling.
I've had bad rolls in all my games this week, with my luck I end up killing my Hell's Rebels team when we meet and the dice turn to my favor again :p
I'll be traveling for most of the next week with uncertain internet, feel free to bot me as needed.
I am traveling too starting tonight. Back Sunday. This is my last trip til May. I'll be on vacation for 3 weeks in May but will have my laptop with me and should be able to most at least once most days.
Sorry, GM is slammed at work, should clear up tomorrow. I worked 30 hours this weekend.
Sorry about the break guys, I got slammed hard by work last week and things are just getting back to normal. I have worked about 90 hours since last Monday. When I do get some time off I'm exhausted.
I hope to get things back again tomorrow or Saturday.
No problem!
No sweat mdt it happens to us all once in a while
Recover. Take the time you need. We will be here when you return. I'll even try to read up on the rules. :)
Sorry for the delay, post up now. Man, that right hand hulk sure can make health checks.
So should I make a second character?
A broken limb would mean removal from the combat area.
Broken arms are 6-10 weeks recovery.
There's going to be some down time, about two months, so you'll be getting back in time to rejoin your unit. You just wont' be able to do anything on site during the down time because of the broken arm.
Broken ribs are about two months, so 10 weeks should be plenty of time. We can hang out in the infirm!
Mostly pausing to do a roll call and see how many players we lost.
Then, we can get to the scouting, which will end up with you guys heading out to explore, so less big army and more patrol to learn.
If we lost too many people, I'll see if I can recruit again.
I plan on learning healing magic as soon as possible (probably not that soon), which should help with injury recovery speeds in the future o.O
I am here and looking forward to the next phase of the game.
I'll be handing out EXP this weekend, then you can all update and we'll move forward. So far it looks like we might only have lost one player (hopefully none).
Definitely looking forward to some magic!
Experience :
Everyone :
For the initial fight coming out of the tunnel : 3 pts
For the assault battle : 3 pts
Individual awards will be given out going forward now that we're moving into a more traditional game branching.
Let me know what you want to spend your EXP on and we'll move forward as soon as we have all of it spent.
How do I spend the EXP?
Tell me what you want to spend it on. EXP is the same as character points. So upgrading a 1 pt skill to a 2 pt skill costs 1 exp. Upgrading a 2 pt skill to 4 pts costs 2 exp.
Upgrading a stat costs whatever the difference is between your current level and the next level.
Ok so if I wanted to upgrade DX from 12 to 13 it would cost 2 exp now.
I was thinking to upgrade my skills like
Guns rifle
Survival woodlands
Observation
And learn to be better at understading the nature of this new world.
No Laine, sorry. The exp cost noted from GM mdt was to increase a skill, not an attribute. To increase DEX from 12 to 13 would cost 20 points. In general you should be spending points on things you used too, or at least be able to justify why you are suddenly better at something. Not sure how much our GM will follow this though. Here is a quote from the book:
Daniel will spend 2 points to increase his Acute Vision by 1 and 2 more to add Acute Hearing. This represents all the time he has to spend waiting at ready for the enemy. He will also increase his Driving (Wheeled Vehicles) by 1 to 2 and his First Aid by 1 to 2.
Yep, you need to give a reason. Stats are usually easy to justify, just expensive. Skills you needed to use them, or you had to use down time to study them (which was why I kept asking what you're doing during down time!).
Ok I did wrote I was out studying the new nature and learn to make new camouflages as favor for the downtime so I'll focus on those things
You can also bank points in two ways.
First, if you want to boost Dex, you can put some of your points into a Dex bank. Out of the six we received, one or two points. These provide zero benefit right now. But once you have 40 in the bank your Dex goes up. If there is an advantage you would like to have, and is possible after character creation, you can also bank points towards earning that advantage. For instance, you might put a point into a bank for Very Fit to improve your Fit. You won't get a benefit until you have enough points though. This method represents time taken to develop yourself. During slow periods you talk about how your character is exercising more, practicing something, etc.
Second, you can leave points unspent. Once you have enough points for the advantage you want, you can buy it. This method often represents a forgotten ability. "Oh yeah, I forgot I knew how to throw knives while riding horseback." Or "you never asked if I knew how to speak Manderin Chinese."
So why use method one instead of method two?
Death.
If your character dies you get to make a new character. But you only get to make the new character with the character points spent on your recently departed character.
If your old character had 185 spent character points, you get to make the new one with 185 points. Even if some of those points were banked towards increasing Str.
If your old character had 175 points spent because you had 10 points unspent, then you only get 175 to make the new character.
Mdt can change this, but that's basic GURPS.
One reason to keep some points unspent is to account for "it makes sense my character should be able to do this. I'm spending a point on it now if that's okay." Or the GM says, hey, there's magic in the world. And you say "ooh, I can feel my arms tingling, can I spend my five unspent points on magery 0?"
The GM might allow a character without points to "borrow" some to get a new ability. This often happens in game when a character is granted patronage by a government official, given a knighthood, rewarded with a princess and half the kingdom, etc. Since most characters don't have that many points laying around unspent, they are in the hole. Generally this requires most, if not all, future point awards to go to paying off the newly granted abilities. Failure to pay off the points means your character didn't invest enough time and effort in upholding the knight's code and lost their knighthood, fell out of favor with the king, etc.
Well let's see, Dawn spent much of her time recuperating and doing paperwork. This could be a couple of things, but I think savoir-faire (military) would be the best place, that or administration.
She also spent her personal time reviewing the book work for SERE. This could be a primer in several areas. Survival, navigation, interrogation, and some other areas. But I think that naturalist would be a good place for her to have focused.
Early on she did a lot of work with getting the fortifications changed around. This could be a couple of areas as well. And while tactics looks promising, she'll focus on improving her combat engineering instead.
So, we have:
Savoir-faire (military) [1], improving the skill from IQ to IQ+1.
Naturalist [2], improving the skill from IQ-1 to IQ.
Engineering (Combat) [2], improving the skill from IQ+1 to IQ+2.
Her last point will remain unspent.
Okay, skills to ask about.
Are there prisoner-patients I can speak with to learn some of the local language while I treat their wounds? Thinking 1-2 XP on basic spoken proficiency.
1 XP spent on Physiology (orcs? ogres?) from performing dissections in my free time, unless there's multiple nonhuman races available, in which case it's 1 XP on each
1 XP on stealth from generally sneaking around and hiding.
Probably banking on the rest, unless there's a combat skill (rifles, gunner, driving, spotter, something like that) that the party would like me to take.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
I like to spend my points upgrading
Search Per-1 to Per for 2 points
Learn Naturalist for this world for 1 point
Soldier IQ-1 to IQ for 2 points
And bank one point on DX
So if I have 4 points in rifles, would I need to spend 4 more points to get my next thing in rifles (which would total 8), or do I need to spend 8 points to get my next rifles?
Oh, I see, it's up there. After having shot down her first dragon has definitely shown off her rifling skills to as many people as possible.
4 points to increase rifles to DX+3.
So, just to make sure I'm doing this right, 1 point can get me Acrobatics at DX -3, and my last point can get Acrobatics at DX -2?
Nadezhda's body might be learning from its mistakes and she'll most likely be better prepared to not fall off walls the next time.
@Laine Search only needs one point to go from per-1 to per. You have one point spent already, need one more to get to the next level. You will need to spend two more points to get to per+1. You also only need to spend one point to increase soldier from IQ-1 to IQ.
@Nadezhda You only need four more to get the next level of rifles. You will need to wait for mdk to rule on this, generally you can only increase a skill by one rank each session. Not sure if acquiring acrobatics and then boosting it up would be okay.
And Laine brought up something I forgot!
I'd also like to make my naturalist increase be for this world, I'll keep two points in reserve.
Then I should be able to get search to per+1 with the excess point from soldier being added up there so I spent 3 points to get from per-1 to per +1