GM Rednal's Godbound on Post-Apocalyptic Earth (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

The gameplay thread!

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^^

Cracked and ruined buildings dot the landscape before you. This was a city once - a thriving metropolis home to almost a million people. Now it was little more than crumbling walls, the remnants of a Standing City that hadn't been able to survive a rapidly-changing climate and the onslaught of beasts from the wilds outside.

This was it - the big mission. The Organization had finally decided that you were ready to be given a chance to prove your worth. If you succeeded, you would become a full member with all the rights and responsibilities thereof. No longer would there be an overseer paying attention to your every movement, or guards watching whenever you were out of the building. You would be allowed to give input on plans, pursue more of your own interests in and around Athens, even request jobs in areas you wanted to visit.

If you'd learned anything during your training, it was that the Organization was fair. Harsh to violators of the Athenian Ultimatum, yes, but they clearly believed the carrot worked better than the stick when trying to get people to do as they wanted.

Fortunately, you'd already figured out what to expect from the main mission. The actual message itself was fairly short.

<We have detected signs of a Connection in the ruins of Indianapolis. You have been selected to investigate as part of a team. If you find a Rogue Gifted, deliver the Ultimatum and continue based on their response. If you find an unusual Shaped Beast as the source, kill it and retrieve the body. Your transport will wait at a safe distance and can be contacted by radio for extraction.>

When the message came, Tenchi was meditating. He sat so quietly, one might have mistaken him for a statue.

Getting to his feet, he strapped his katana and wakizashi to his belt and then headed to the location to meet the other so-called "Gifted".

Near the rendezvous point, Lucas sat on a burnt tree stump facing the ruins. Even here in the outskirts of the city, the smell was overbearing to his senses. Ash, decay, and so much smog, all blended together in a slurry of filth. Lucas wondered if he would ever get used to it.

When he heard Tenchi approaching, he turned and gave a friendly smile.

"Ah, hello! I'm Lucas, and you must be one of my teammates. Care to sit with me while we wait for the others?"

The Japanese man bowed and said "Greetings. I Kusinagi Tenchi." in imperfect English.

With silent steps, Raul padded up to where the others on the mission started gathering. He recognized them by face and reputation, though they'd had little in the way of formal introductions in their time training.

Breaking his silence and calling attention to himself, he called out, "Hey! Raul here."

This was the moment Photon had been waiting for, the moment he was made for. Though he was very excited he maintained his composure. He was going to make the First proud!

With his sniper rifle out, he ghosts toward the meeting position. He watches the others as they introduce themselves, then decides to do the same.

Stepping out of the shadows is a man clothed from neck to toe in tight, black padded armor. The chest seems to have some faded lettering '..W..T '. Two of the letters are illegible now. He has a belt that has a few things on it and a knife sheathed at his right calf. The man has a lean build. He stands around 180 cm and looks to weigh about 70kg. He has short black hair and a very dark skin tone. His eyes stand out however. Aside from the iris, which is white, the rest is pitch black.

"I am here as well. I am Pho" Phonton says simply.

Lucas nodded to each of them as they introduced themselves.

"Pleasure to meet you all. Now, before we set off, let me check one thing. My gift has a certain quirk to it..."

He rummaged through his coat pocket, and took out a small rusted coin. He flipped it, caught it in his palm, then rubbed his fingers over its surface.
1d20 ⇒ 1

He chuckled dryly and returned the coin to his pocket. "Tails on British pound sterling. That's very bad news for whatever we're chasing, and good news for us."

This is just some flavor for Luck's base power, the daily d20 roll. I know it won't be useful until I turn on my connection, but I figured I might as well make the roll now. Also, coin collecting seems like a cool hobby for a post-apocalyptic explorer. :)

I hope that roll doesn't color the rest of the mission. XD

Drawing on your lessons, there were a few things you'd need to take care of. The Organization had provided you with a standard mission pack - a set of tents, sleeping gear, preserved foods, and other items that would once have been referred to as 'camping supplies'. That wasn't enough to ensure a safe base to rest from, though - and you were going to have to figure out how to find your target, too. Just wandering up and down a ruined city might not provide results. Fortunately, it was fairly early in the day here, and you had plenty of time to approach whatever task you wanted to start with.

As the others appeared, Tenchi would bow to each of them. Once the group was assembled, he would ask "How. we. track?" asks Tenchi of the group, clearly hoping that one of them could track people.

"Perhaps we should look for signs of recent destruction. A Shaped Beast would tear recklessly through everything in its path, and a Rogue Gifted might blow up a few buildings as a show of power."

"Agreed. If we can find a taller structure we may be able to survey greater areas at a time."

"Any. Humans. Rive Here?" asks Tenchi, clearly still struggling with English. "Maybe we ask?"

From what you'd heard on your mission briefing, there weren't supposed to be any humans living here - as a failed Standing City, it hadn't been able to hold together between food issues, pressure from the outside, and probable disease, so it had likely been deserted for decades. Only the harsh climate held back the complete overgrowth of the place. That, of course, made it exactly the kind of place a Rogue Gifted acting as a Warlord would like to set up in. On the other hand, nobody checked ruined cities that often, and it was entirely possible some people crazy enough to travel had tried to resettle the place. Either way, if you could find any sign of human habitation, it would mean someone was here when they shouldn't have been. (And the lack of such evidence would point to a problem of a different sort. Either way, looking for human habitation could certainly provide information, even if it was just narrowing down the possibilities.)

Godbound is a very relaxed game when it comes to these sorts of things. A successful Intelligence or Wisdom roll - based on what your character would be most likely to do to search - can tell you whether or not the area is currently inhabited.

"I've spent enough time in places like this to know the signs. If there's people living here, I'll be able to tell."

I'm not 100% on how to do a roll (i.e.What my target number is?).
Int or Wis (they are the same): 1d20 ⇒ 9

Closing his eyes, Tenchi begins slowing breathing in and out; with each inhale, he identifies a noise; with each exhale, he ignores that noise.

In. the people standing around him.

Out. the wind moving through the buildings.

In. the creaking of old places as they settle, on their way to decay.

Wisdom Check 13: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0

Lucas uses his sensitive ears to listen for sounds like pumps and generators - sources of faint but continuous noise.

Wis: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17

Wis Check (with tracking fact), target 7: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 = 23

This is where the game definitely splits from Pathfinder. XD In Godbound, the most common kind of roll is an Attribute Check. Your Check number is 21 - your attribute score. You must roll higher than that number to succeed. For example, if you have 18 in Strength, your Attribute Check is 21 - 18, or 3. So, you succeed on a roll of 4 or higher. You don't add or subtract your ability modifier on attribute checks. Your Facts, if you can find a way to make them plausibly relevant, can give a +4. If you're pushing human limits, you may suffer a penalty up to -8 (at the GM's discretion). Attribute Checks always succeed on a 20 and always fail on a 1.

You will usually be making Attribute Checks while your powers are off. When they're on, you have enough raw power that basically any normal challenge becomes trivial and you don't need to roll. You'd only need to make a check for something truly taxing or impressive, generally defined as "beyond what a human could normally do". Hopping over a 10 foot gap: Trivial when your powers are on, so you can just do it. Hopping over a 50 foot gap: Roll, because that ain't normal by any standards. There are, of course, limits to even your mighty power - you're not physically jumping right to the moon anytime soon.

When making checks, be sure to explain what you're attempting to accomplish. You should be reasonably specific on this - if you don't actually say what you're doing, you may not get information that you otherwise could. For example, Lucas noting that he's looking for the sounds of faint but continuous noise is good - it's specific enough to work with.

Is anyone still unsure about how attribute checks work and how you can best apply your Facts to succeed at them?

I think I rolled mine correctly? I took the +4 since Raul is a talented tracker/survivalist and grew up in a similar environment.
Raul sifts through the local area, his eyes looking for the telltale signs that humans are living nearby, if they in fact are. Recently scavenged wreckage, the drag-marks from retuning and found goods or food, and even disturbed natural areas—he knows and remembers them all too well...

Photon deftly moves over rubble and artfully scales a nearby building, finding a decent perch to observe a large area. Pulling out his rifle after finding a position, he utilizes his keen vision as well as the scope to look out over much of the wrecked city.

Ok, let me try again. This seems like a fair use of Lucas's "trained hearing" fact.

Wis Check (with hearing fact), target 5: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (13) + 4 = 17

Okay, things seem stable again. Finally. XD Let's get this show on the road for real.

In this area, you don't see too much in the way of activity. There's a lot of dust and dirt, a lot of wilderness growing up and reclaiming what was once a great city... but eventually, you find a single footprint. That alone is proof enough that somebody is living in the area. The footprint in question is pointing to what seems like the center of the city - a mass of tall, mostly-broken buildings that still reach up to scrape the sky.

Tenchi loosens his blade in it's sheath and then claps Raul on the shoulder. He then starts walking towards the center of the city.

Photon trails behind a little ways with his sniper rifle out and ready. He manages to keep cool on the outside, but on the inside he is very excited. Finally I get to prove that I can be his right hand.

Lucas walks directly behind Tenchi and Raul, following their footfalls and still listening for continuous sounds.

Raul holds a finger to his lips and made a quiet hush sound for Lucas' sake, signifying that they should remain quiet as they tracked the locals towards the city-center.

The signal probably wasn't necessary; none of them had spoken yet, which suggested at least a minimum level of competence. That was good, Raul thought, as they made their way forward. The smoother the better.

As you made your way towards the center of the city, the ruins got taller and taller. This had once been near the heart of the city, a business district from which dozens or even hundreds of companies had been run on a day-to-day basis. Now they were all fallen, evenly scythed down by the hands of time. As you continue moving, however, you hear a louder sound - and a creature resembling a pig emerges from a burrow of some kind, extra legs beneath its body helping it pull up a ledge as it grunts in your direction. It takes exactly no expertise whatsoever to recognize that this beast has been badly corrupted by something.

Lucas freezes, closes his eyes, and turns an ear toward the creature.

"Does it look like it could be our target?" he whispers.

Does it match the tracks from earlier?

"It looks like we could be its target..." Raul says, adopting a defensive stance against the creature as he eyes it carefully, not willing to be surprised...

Photon sees the group freeze up ahead of him and and immediately readies his rifle and looks down the scope in the direction they are looking. After hearing the creature grunt, he trains his rifle on the creature, waiting for some sort of indicator whether it is hostile.

It does not match the tracks from earlier.

As you whispered to each other, the porcine creature squealed slightly, then darted around the corner of one of the ruined buildings. It wasn't immediately clear if it was running away or just trying to get to something resembling a better position - though Photonn's rifle may have played a part in its decision. Pursuit was an option, of course - but you could also simply ignore it until and unless it reappeared.

"I'll watch our backs," Pho whispers to the group as they proceed onward.

"That. Not. Thing. We. Hunt. Thing. We. Hunt. Wear. Shoes." said Tenchi in his broken English.

"Tenchi's right. Doesn't mean it's not dangerous though. And it might draw attention. We need to stay vigilant. Let's keep going."

"Right. I'll keep my...ears open." Lucas smirks jokingly.

As you moved forward, the ruins of civilization became denser and denser. The smells were less so - nature had claimed this place for so long that the scent of the city had long since been overtaken. It was an odd juxtaposition, but you put it out of your minds as you rounded a corner. The rubble was thicker here thanks to a collapsed building, and while the trail led this way, the rubble blocked off the road until it was nearly three stories high. Going around and trying to find another path was a possibility, but it did run the risk of potentially losing your trail.

Photon silently follows the group from a small distance.

Tenchi again placed his hand on the handle of his blade and moves forward to examine the rubble in detail, but it actually appears that he's looking for an ambush.

Perception (Wisdom Check DC 13): 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (15) - 1 = 14

GM, at what point would we think it acceptable to open our connections?

Raul eyed the rubble with concern, and looked back at Lucas with a frown. Scrambling through the rubble would be hard enough for the those of them with sight... Maybe going around was the better choice. After all, the thing they'd be looking for would likely find them eventually, if they didn't find it first.

Let's just assume someone is describing this to Lucas.

"Three stories? I think we'll have to go around. I doubt I could climb that even if I wasn't blind."

When to use Connections is covered in the first post of the Recruitment thread. Just scroll down to the four numbers near the bottom. As a general guideline, "don't be divine when mundane will do". Given the post-apocalyptic situation you're currently in - caused by extensive use of powers with little regard for the consequences - those who remain are very keen on avoiding a repeat where their powers are seen as the solution for everything.

There doesn't seem to be anything ready to ambush you here. However, as Kusanagi listens closer, he eventually hears faint noises from beneath the pile of rubble. The mound may not be quite as solid as it seems from the outside...

Tenchi prods the nearby rubble with the tip of his Katana to see how it reacts.

Photon maintains his vigil at the back.

Lucas takes few steps back from the rubble, and turns an ear towards it.

Hearing check, target 5: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

I guess I was wondering if our current mission qualified as #1 from the list.

Raul took a step back and readied his whip, preparing for anything that might jump out at them and but wanting to be caught surprised.