So it appears Daniel is gone.
We're going to give Levi time (with her RL issue) to conclude RP with Trevor.
Then, my new plan is hook Gothic and Katie directly with them, so please hang in there.
cheers
I really was trying to play nice, I swear! :)
I might have been sort of subtle when posting about Katie's warnings, but I broadcasted what she mentally yelled to Levi and Trevor.
Levi stays listening at the door trying to focus on the details of the conversation beyond it, consequently disregarding Trevor's whispering and sickness. Levi thinks back to Gothic, 'Not really looking to cause violence. I don't even know what these guys are up to concerning their connnection or level of involvement with Skygarde. We just tailed these guys here and need to know more information, but they are ramped up to 11. I don't know how to get information from someone waving a gun in my face. But they have something worth killing for here, can I pass up on trying knowing this?'
@Levi There is no door "to focus on the details of the conversation beyond it."
I've drawn it in Roll20.
I've attempted to describe it in two posts.
Don't know what more you want me to do.
PS Your organization is Swiftgarde not Skygarde.
Levi stays listening at the door trying to focus on the details of the conversation beyond it, consequently disregarding Trevor's whispering and sickness. Levi thinks back to Gothic, 'Not really looking to cause violence. I don't even know what these guys are up to concerning their connnection or level of involvement with Skygarde. We just tailed these guys here and need to know more information, but they are ramped up to 11. I don't know how to get information from someone waving a gun in my face. But they have something worth killing for here, can I pass up on trying knowing this?'@Levi There is no door "to focus on the details of the conversation beyond it."
I've drawn it in Roll20.
I've attempted to describe it in two posts.
Don't know what more you want me to do.
PS Your organization is Swiftgarde not Skygarde.
I don' understand the map. Trevor is shown with Gothic and Levi looks like shes in a clear section with a brown line. The description given for the room didn't describe the two people in the room or their awareness or alertness to Levi and supposedly Trevor entering the room. I admit I'm having a hard time following what's happening and what we're tying to accomplish. That and I missed a spoiler or two.
Skygarde 'is' intentional mis-speak or I suppose mis-thought
I'll try and do better and get a correction to summarily address everything later tonight
I just checked out Roll20 and I think I see the confusion. Jubal put Gothic in the basement with Trevor, and left Levi still upstairs in the bar.
Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.
For reasons unknown (to Gothic and, I presume, Katie), Levi and Trevor have approached the Matador bar and checked out the van parked outside. Levi catches a glance of a goth girl sitting in the cafe across the street watching her.
Levi and Trevor go inside the bar, make friends and influence people, and get a bunch of death threats for their trouble. Then they hear a voice in their head telling them the number of threats inside the bar, so they leave.
Outside is the goth from the cafe. Trevor jumps to the conclusion that the goth is the one who warned them, but she doesn't let on. Despite this, Trevor and Levi sink into the ground in front of the goth to find the basement.
Once there, they get some more telepathic communications.
Thanks for the summary Gothic, much appreciated. The map really did throw me for a loop.
Sorry I didn't respond to your greeting there, I forgot to log off on my way to an appointment. Hi back at you!
@Levi. My mistake on Roll20. I'll fix that some time tomorrow. It's my RL game night.
Are you trying to use your ghost form to push your phone through the wall, so you can stay outside? If yes, that doesn't work. You know that from your swiftgarde days. The scientists discovered that electronics don't work well in Ghost Form.
@Katie - skygarde is a made up organization.
Thanks Gothic.
Cheers
Sigh... another drawback.
Sigh... another drawback.
This limitation is consistent with your ghost form's ability to foul electronics.
Again, do you want to change character concepts?
Also, you're game mechanic rolling is not yet correct, while appreciated. Levi has a Stealth specialty in Shadowing. Only when she is shadowing someone, ie tailing someone in broad daylight among random people, does she get to roll twice and take the better. All other uses of Stealth like Prowling which is moving while sneaking up on someone. Or Hiding, which is not moving. Only get one roll of 2d6. Then, Levi multiplies the result by 3. You only get to roll another 1d6 when the first result is doubles, eg two 1's or 5's. Then, you continue rolling as long you keep rolling th same number.
Hope that helps.
Levi,
If you don't mind some suggestions...
With your abilities, the easiest way to check a room is to go for either very high up or very low down. For example, if you stick your eyes through 4 inches below the ceiling of the room, it's a lot less likely to be noticed than if you stick them through at eye level. Alternately, kneeling down and sticking your eye through an inch off the floor is a lot less likely to be noticed than again eye height.
Levi,
If you don't mind some suggestions...With your abilities, the easiest way to check a room is to go for either very high up or very low down. For example, if you stick your eyes through 4 inches below the ceiling of the room, it's a lot less likely to be noticed than if you stick them through at eye level. Alternately, kneeling down and sticking your eye through an inch off the floor is a lot less likely to be noticed than again eye height.
It doesn't seem to matter. Blind luck negates any attempt to be discrete.
Sigh... another drawback.This limitation is consistent with your ghost form's ability to foul electronics.
Again, do you want to change character concepts?
Also, you're game mechanic rolling is not yet correct, while appreciated. Levi has a Stealth specialty in Shadowing. Only when she is shadowing someone, ie tailing someone in broad daylight among random people, does she get to roll twice and take the better. All other uses of Stealth like Prowling which is moving while sneaking up on someone. Or Hiding, which is not moving. Only get one roll of 2d6. Then, Levi multiplies the result by 3. You only get to roll another 1d6 when the first result is doubles, eg two 1's or 5's. Then, you continue rolling as long you keep rolling th same number.
Hope that helps.
I'm struggling with why stealth and prowling are not the same skill. I'm also struggling to see the value of stealth or prowling with intangibility since blind luck says someone will randomly he looking at that exact place at just the right time.
What can I trade Levi's eletronic shorting power out for?
I'm struggling with why stealth and prowling are not the same skill. I'm also struggling to see the value of stealth or prowling with intangibility since blind luck says someone will randomly he looking at that exact place at just the right time.
What can I trade Levi's eletronic shorting power out for?
Prowling is a specialty of the Stealth skill, just like Shadowing and Hiding. You get all specialties when you train any skill, like Stealth. However, you get to pick one specialty that provides an extra bonus of being able to roll twice and take the better result. Levi has Shadowing as her specialty of Stealth.
Yes, blind luck is a problem when using Ghost Form, because Levi doesn't have x-ray vision.
As I have written before, Levi is already at the very borderline of power level for this campaign. So, I would be hyper sensitive about trading your electronic shorting power for anything that makes the character any more powerful, e.g. x-ray vision. That said, what did you have in mind?
Ability points or maybe skills?
You already have the highest Mind without being a genius. You never really described her as a genius.
For the 2 points of the electronics mastery, you could get 4 skill bumps, which each bump could get you a new trained skill, a new specialty, or an increase in a skill multiplier.
What skills would you have in mind for your character concept, pun intended?
One thing that I like is player characters having different skills, which forces teamwork.
Cheers
PS. While you've never used the power, it's untapped potential. Watch what happens if Katie cuts the building's power.
Has anyone else noticed that we almost have the X-men going here:
-Levi as Kitty
-Katie as Cyclops
-Gothic as Jean Grey
-Trevor as the physical aspect of Beast.
Cheers
PS. While you've never used the power, it's untapped potential. Watch what happens if Katie cuts the building's power.
Yeah. Not sure how I feel about pointing this out, but at a mook and even low-level super level, you and Gothic together would be absolute carnage. Mental attacks they can't stop, and a defense they have no means of bypassing.
To all my games :
You may have noticed I've been iffy responding since Thursday the 4th. My wife is having surgery (again) Wednesday. Her mother was supposed to fly in to help, but she had an emergency Thursday and ended up having a minor surgery Friday. So I've been canceling work trips, and generally doing all the stuff she was supposed to be here doing. I'll continue to be iffy this week. Sorry. Will hopefully be more consistent week after next.
Good luck and take care.
Wow. Hope everyone turns out ok.
Without an NPC to interject in the RP, I wanted to post a note to ensure that everyone is enjoying the drama. This feels close to the Jessica Jones series to me with the discussions about what to do.
cheers
While you guys take IC stock of the situation and make plans, please feel free to have an OOC discussion about what you want to do.
With longer plans, we can jump time and do other things. Or continue the stake out.
Please let me know what you like and don't like. Let's make an enjoyable consensus and go forward.
cheers
I suppose we are just killing time until Beard leaves the bar so we can go in and search the place for clues and probably beat up his gamers.
Since Gothic has a unique way of communicating, here's my way of making sure there's no confusion over who hears her thoughts and who doesn't:
Whenever I use ::unspoilered, bold and italicized speech::, she's sending her thoughts to every friendly within the range of her telepathy.
Whenever she wants to send a private message, she'll [spoiler=Just the targets she intends] so it should be clear who's excluded and who's not.
As for when people decide to think at her, obviously no one else is going to be able to hear that. Until we reach the point where we trust each other for her to try some sort of mental link where she automatically relays everyone's thoughts, she'll only do so when explicitly given permission to do so.
So Gothic would have included Levi in that recent exchange with Trevor, but I'm unclear if Trevor thought back to her or spoke out loud. I think it might be smart to just assume that everyone's responding out loud to Gothic's telepathic communications, unless you specifically state you are thinking back (or use italics).
Jubal, you have any thoughts on this?
Gothic, we're aligned. That's how I've been trying to communicate information. Spoilers for particular people, and otherwise everyone knows everything.
thanks for the clarification.
cheers
Sorry everyone, life's been hitting me hard recently, and I've had a severe lack of energy when I've not been working or travelling. Every other week I spend about 20 hours on planes or in airports (sunday and thursday, 9 hours up and 13 hours back). On top of that, all the family stuff has taken a toll. Plus, my wife is working from home now, so when I'm home, she's working 11 to 8 and I'm working 8 to 4:30, makes it very complicated. Nothing like seeing your wife 24 a day or 0 a day depending on the week to make things topsy turvy. I'm finally getting used to it though, and I hope to be back to normal posting going forward (with occasional lapses from exhaustion).
I just realized I didn't actually include any details about Trevor's family despite using the Public ID disadvantage.
Obviously it would be simplest to just proceed if we say Trevor has no family in the area, maybe out somewhere more rural in Illinois or Iowa, but that feels kinda cheesy so I didn't want to say that without running it by you first, Jubal.
@Trevor. As you wish. I would've pushed before if it mattered to me.
Cheers
I think the plan is thus :
Katie & Trevor count to 60 and then go in through the front door. Levi runs around the back of the building, and walks through the wall into the office and searches it once Enzo leaves to deal with Katie and Trevor. How nasty it gets out front depends on how aggressive the gangers get. Goth keeps an mental eye on everything, and watches for Beard to come back.
OK. Thanks. Can I get some confirmations, and we'll start the party.
That seems good to me.
Ok yeah that sounds good.
First time I've used the ricochet, let me know if I didn't do it right. My assumption was the 5d6 wasn't enough to kill them, just bust them up a bit. If it was likely to kill them, she'd have dialed the power back a bit (still learning system). Not that she's worried about their lives, but she's not sure how Trevor would respond to blood...
Hi Katie
It's the first time that I've seen Ricochet used, so let's work through this together.
Katie has x4 (Agility) attack and x4 (Mind+Boost) damage to start. She also has 5 points of Variable to add Range, Ricochet and other bonuses. And a campaign maximum of x5 attack and x5 damage.
Katie wants to hit 4 guys, so she needs 1 of 5 points for a Range of 5 squares and 3 of 5 points for Ricochet (4 targets -1 = 3 points). Therefore, she has 1 of the 5 points leftover, which it seems you applied to damage. Final attack = x4 attack and x5 damage.
So your first attack is (2d6) x4 attack and (2d6) x5 attack
#2 = (2d6-1) x4 attack and (2d6) x5 attack
#3 = (2d6-2) x4 attack and (2d6) x5 attack
#4 = (2d6-3) x4 attack and (2d6) x5 attack
Considering, those cumulative dice penalties, you probably want to put that extra bonus into attack, so instead rolling x5 attack and x4 damage.
Since you rolled the damage like Champions, please feel free to reroll the whole attack. If you want to keep any of your 2d6 rolled, feel free.
cheers
Bad News : We can't go ghosty team and let Katie blast with impugnity.
Good News : We have the perfect way to permanently get rid of any bombs or evidence or any other things we need to. Pick them up, go ghosty, and throw them toward the core of the planet. :)
You can always test the limit of your powers...
So explain to me what just happened? Levi can throw things and they become material but Katie can't while Levi is sharing her ability with her?
I've reconsidered the game balance of that mechanic.
Essentially when Levi is in Ghost Form and releases something, it takes time for it to become solid. Bullets and Katie's darts travel too fast. And even when they become solid, they will be impossible to aim.
Dropping a grenade may land inside an object and fizzle.
These are supposed to be relatively low level powered characters.
Imagine how expensive a power in the hero system would be if you could do damage at range while staying desolidified and give that power to other characters for any of their attack powers. It would probably be crazy expensive.
Actually, while I think about, it may be better if anything Levi drops or releases whether an inanimate object or a person in her Ghost Form just disappears. Never to be seen again... well, at least until you find the place they go.
Cheers
Honestly I think it's more useful in the long run to have a way to vanish anything that we might want to (such as bombs, incriminating evidence planted on us, incriminating evidence we found but could go to jail for having, etc).
Except it doesn't vanish, it just goes someplace else. I'm nonplussed with the way this is going. I wish I hadn't picked intangibility, because it doesn't work like it does in the comics. I'm not exactly sure I understand how it works at all.
@Levi. I appreciate any discomfort that you have with my shifting game mechanics affecting your character. It would frustrate me as a player, too. That's why I offered you a new character.
On the other hand, this is a rules light game, and balancing powers continues to evolve as we explore more possibilities. If you want another point of view, ask Katie to explain how your character would be built in the Hero System.
With respect to comic books, I would have to disagree, especially about Shadowcat. I'm fairly familiar with the character having collected her various titles from X-men to Excalibur. I can't think of any example of someone that she is phasing actually interacting with the real world. Katie is effectively Cyclops, and I can't remember Cyclops ever shooting someone while phased. Çan you?
I'm starting to like this idea that anything Levi let's go of while in Ghost Form disappears. It aligns well with a plot line that I've planned. I'm still open to other points of view, but please consider game balance.
Cheers
Well that's new. Must be a new author. Even so, when she is affecting solid, she is solid. Plus, it looks like Kitty is only phasing when passing through something solid.
As for her threats to Emma Frost, I would suggest that is a higher point build, because that is an experienced Shadowcat. Building that attack in Hero System would be very expensive.
If you want, I can tinker with a rebuild. The main difference is that Levi will lose her invulnerability if she wants to affect the real world.
Meaning, to redescribe the past panel, Levi, Katie and Trevor would have become solid when they entered the room and instantly vulnerable to gunfire.
If Levi would have let go of Katie and Trevor before turning on the lights the two would have taken damage by being inside furniture.
If Levi would have let go of Katie and Trevor before turning on the lights the two would have taken damage by being inside furniture.
...it may be better if anything Levi drops or releases whether an inanimate object or a person in her Ghost Form just disappears. Never to be seen again...
There was third time we talked about this situation where you said the object or person would shunt to a nearby open space.
My point being, I keep telling myself you are not intentionally screwing with me, but that is what it feels like you are doing. You have changed your mind on how Levi's power works every time she has used it. I am glad you understand that this is frustrating. I have no clue what will happen from one given action to the next.
@Levi Yes, I remember saying that "the object or person would shunt to a nearby open space."
In the quotations above, I was reviewing the exhibit comics that you sent me. Kitty can't make good on a threat to Emma Frost to put her head in rocks if Emma would just shunt to the nearby open space, right?
Look. Levi's Ghost Form is more complex than the three sentence description that I've got in the rules. I'm trying to keep the game balance within the feel of the campaign that I want to run, which is low level Daredevil/Jessica Jones.
At the moment, I'm thinking that anything that Levi releases in Ghost Form disappears. It seems to resolve all of the game balance issues that I can imagine. Are you alright with that? Or do you want to change characters?
Before you say that, you should consider what happens if she grabs a bad guy and lets them go... Desolidification is very complex... You might actually want to use the Hero system rules for it.
I think the fundamental problem is that there's a struggle between making the phasing consistent and explainable, and in creating game balance.
I think you need to sacrifice consistency in this case, to preserve game balance.
Look at the invisibility spell on Pathfinder, for example. An attack cancels it, but other actions won't. How does the spell know this? Casting cure light wounds on a living person doesn't cancel the invis, but on an undead does. What if you accidentally cast it on a dhampir ally by mistake? Etc., etc.
See what I mean? We barely think about how inconsistent, because magic, and game balance.
So just pick what you want to let the phasing do, and not do, and don't worry so much about the in-universe whys and reasons. They'll either be ignored, or some strange rationalization can be cooked up.
Sorry for sticking my nose in this, and it might be that I'm missing the real point of all this discussion. But I'm trying to help. Be kind. :)
@Gothic Exactly the point.
@MDT I've actually been trying to use the Hero System rules as I can remember them. Levi effectively has the full Desol (not to Mental) linked with 5" Flight, both at 0 END, affects others. That's a 115+ point power? How would it work in Hero System?
* What I fuzzily remember from 20 years ago playing 3rd and 4th editions, Levi and anyone else affected would be unable to affect the solid world at all, unless their powers are built with the advantage affects desolid, right?
* If Levi releases something to become solid, there's no damage for being inside something, because it wasn't built as an attack or entangle, which is where I got that shunting to the next available space immediately affected by gravity.
* In this game, she's immune to energy too (which aligns with Hero) but susceptible to Mental. Meaning, she could be Ghost Forming Gothic who would be fully capable of using her mental powers in the real world. How does desol affect mental powers?
* What can't I remember?
cheers
When a character Desolidifies, any small personal objects he’s carrying (including any weapons or Foci) Desolidify with him. Larger objects he’s
carrying do not; he immediately “drops” them. However, a Desolidified character cannot drop objects (such as grenades or anvils) onto or near
other characters in the expectation that they’ll become solid and damage solid characters; such an “attack” has no eff ect on the solid world unless bought with the Advantage Affects Physical World.
If a Desolidified character solidifies inside a solid object, he takes damage (and the object usually does as well).
2d6 Roll Effect
2-7 3d6 of d6 STUN Only Damage
8-11 2d6 of d6 Normal Damage
12 1d6 of d6 Killing Damage
So, you can't attack others, and things become solid if you drop them. If you want to attack someone while desolid, you have to buy a special power to allow it. If you resolidify in a solid object, you and it take random amounts of damage (to signify you may phase in or out of partially).
When making others desolid, that's the 'usable by others' advantage. They'd have to do the same thing. For example, in Hero's if I wanted Katie to be able to attack while Levi had her desolid, I'd add a new slot to her multipower attack and call it 'desolidified blast'. It would cost me 3 times as much as a normal blast, but I could do it while Levi had me desolid.
The system just says 'no attack powers work unless bought with this advantage while desolid' even if it doesn't make logical sense, for game balance reasons.
Desolid characters are affected by one special effect, and also by mental, unless they buy desolidification vs mental attacks as well.