Sorry about the delay, tore a leg muscle.
Let’s keep an eye on our promise prompts and move into downtime. I think we’ll have better luck after some more PC interactions during Social Links.
Downtime is your time. Unless otherwise stipulated on your sheet, you get two Downtime Actions. They are the preparations you make for the mission. Keep in mind, Stress and Social Links both clear to zero, and the Investigation track is halved at the end of a mission.
Chronologically, these scenes can happen before or after your character found their magatama.
After you describe what you're trying to do, I'll give you some options on how to do that mechanically, and how you can increase your odds. These actions don’t have Position or Effect. That’s for clearing obstacles. Links and Clock segments gained for a Downtime Action are awarded according to the result rolled:
6 => 3
4, 5 => 2
1, 2, 3 => 1
Because you are Shrine Keepers, you have 5 choices for your Downtime Actions:
Maintain The Shrine: Only one of you needs to perform this action. There is no roll. After you describe what you do to tend the shrine, the whole team can see the Agents of Darkness for who they are and may ask an additional follow-up question while Gathering Information until the end of the next mission.
Social Link: Social Links are used during the mission to help someone recover from Stress, temporarily shrug off the effects of Harm, Help someone without spending Stress, or lend strength when someone must roll for Eclipse. These options are listed in a note over the Social Links label on your sheet. To perform this Downtime Action, you set up a scene with another character which you believe will strengthen your bonds of friendship. After describing the scene, the player of the targeted character may decide if the described scene is something their character would enjoy, and if so, you will roll an additional die. After the two of you play out the interaction, you roll an action appropriate to the activity described, and the targeted character gets Social Links marked on their sheet beside your character’s name. Social Links are kept separate by character.
Help a Friend Recover: You describe how you aid in their recovery process and roll an appropriate action. Advance their recovery clock according to your result. When the clock fills, level 1 Harm goes away, and all Harm is reduced by 1 level. On a crit, you each mark 1 Social Link with each other.
Investigate the Darkness: Describe how you seek out new information, and roll an appropriate action, advancing the investigation track. On a crit, advance the clock by 5 segments. I'll describe what you find, and you may ask 2 follow up questions from your Gather Information list. (If someone has tended the shrine, you may ask 3)
Work on a Long Term Project: Describe what you're setting out to accomplish, and I'll work with you to set the length of the clock(s) involved. As with the other actions, you describe the scene, choose an appropriate action, roll, and add segments to the appropriate clock.
Ao's personality lends him towards Maintenance or Investigation. As far as I know, he's got nothing Long Term yet.
Chessa is also willing to maintain the Shrine, but was [ordered] to investigate the darkness, so that's totally gonna be her first move. She's likely to do the social link thing afterwards! But I have to choose wisely. I'll come up with how I plan to investigate in a bit (My brain is everywhere!).
Given the fact that I get an extra downtime action, I had intended to volunteer for Shrine Maintenance. I was also likely going to go for an investigation action & finish with a Social Link. I did have a question, however. On the Team sheet, it looks like the Hideout has a map of additional rooms around it. Is creation/acquisition of those rooms one of the Long-term projects mentioned?
Edit; Another question, when you establish a Social Link with another PC, does it stay until it gets used, or does it go away after the next downtime?
On the Team sheet, it looks like the Hideout has a map of additional rooms around it. Is creation/acquisition of those rooms one of the Long-term projects mentioned?
Yes. There will be other opportunities to acquire some rooms, but a long term project is the most direct way.
Another question, when you establish a Social Link with another PC, does it stay until it gets used, or does it go away after the next downtime?
Social Links and Stress expire at the end of the Mission. The Investigation track also halves.
Also, I'll be opening clocks during investigation which should give you some idea of what mission you might want to take, and the urgency of those missions.
I've been watching the second season of Attack on Titan and realizing it's totally a Magical Girl series where most characters aren't Magical Girls. (Ymir 4 lyf) I'll try not to be that brutal; although, as a team, your lowest Resistance is Tsundere.
On the Team sheet, it looks like the Hideout has a map of additional rooms around it. Is creation/acquisition of those rooms one of the Long-term projects mentioned?Yes. There will be other opportunities to acquire some rooms, but a long term project is the most direct way.
'Kay, that leads to my next question; Closer rooms come before farther ones? I.E. lounge and kitchen, purification chamber, and practice room would be the first ones that could be built & if say, we wanted the vault, we would need the purification chamber, the power source, and the portal chamber first?
Social Links and Stress expire at the end of the Mission. The Investigation track also halves.
This kind of is in reference to your answer to my question some time back regarding best time to switch over from 'Only Mortal' to 'Hero's Destiny'; I.E. we will need to be able to consistently keep our Investigation track/clock at no less than 11?
Given that you are saying that at the end of each mission we will 'lose' half of our progress on our Investigation track.
Still got nothin'.
Aaand I'm looking over my action 'skills' again & realizing I suck at affecting 'the world' around me.
I seem to be great or at least passable at 'people', just not 'things'...
Which means I'm not gonna be rolling that great for a while...
'Kay, that leads to my next question; Closer rooms come before farther ones? I.E. lounge and kitchen, purification chamber, and practice room would be the first ones that could be built & if say, we wanted the vault, we would need the purification chamber, the power source, and the portal chamber first?
You may work on opening further rooms, but the clock will be four segments longer for each missing room. (If rooms are added while you're working on a further room, I'll reduce the clock size as appropriate.)
This kind of is in reference to your answer to my question some time back regarding best time to switch over from 'Only Mortal' to 'Hero's Destiny'; I.E. we will need to be able to consistently keep our Investigation track/clock at no less than 11?
Given that you are saying that at the end of each mission we will 'lose' half of our progress on our Investigation track.
That's the idea. Make sure the team is ready for an offensive push.
Aaand I'm looking over my action 'skills' again & realizing I suck at affecting 'the world' around me.
I seem to be great or at least passable at 'people', just not 'things'...
Which means I'm not gonna be rolling that great for a while...
Then work through people to affect the world. Make powerful friends.
Making friends is an important Long Term Project.
Oooh. Making Furriends as a longterm action is cool. Guessing you can unmake enemies in the same way?
I would like to suggest Chessa's first downtime action as using her Yokai cuteness to find out more about what happened where the darkness attacked. If you feel that it's better to focus on her ability to go beneath the surface, then perhaps Conceal is better. Ultimately, I think I would get the best information from an Analyze, though she isn't 'trained' in that.
Conceal suggests that something is being hidden that she could find, if there isn't, then I would like to use Analyze. :)
Let's go with your instinct, and look at 'using your cuteness'. If it's a front, or bait, or a distraction from your intent to get close to someone you suspect is an Agent of Darkness, like you're trying to be a fly on the wall while the Erohin talk, that's Conceal.
If you're getting close so they let their defenses down, or so you can use your kitty soul orbs to gaze into their soul, that's Perceive.
There might be other ways to gather intelligence with your kawaii-fu, but you're not as good at it. You might talk someone into sharing secrets with Express, but that's less cute.
Staking out the site of the Darkness might be Conceal because you're going somewhere you don't want to be seen.
If you specifically want to find hidden things by searching an area, that is Analyze.
Pps: yes, you can spend time getting enemies off your back.
What would "use my ophanim Yokai to investigate by proxy" (basically, do my job) use? (mostly because I con't think of a specific place to start, besides the latest corrupted site)
What would "use my ophanim Yokai to investigate by proxy" (basically, do my job) use? (mostly because I con't think of a specific place to start, besides the latest corrupted site)
Are we talking just Astre, or how might Cygnus go about it as well?
Astre, as a former servant of the Darkness, might try to Empathize with who/whatever this new shlub was feeling as they went about their dirty business; do the blood splatters indicate they might be just a little too excited at the prospect of striking out against their master's enemies? On the other hand, perhaps there is a lot of collateral damage, indicating they possibly felt conflicted, so they swung wildly hoping their victims might find a way to escape?Or perhaps you might Conceal yourself at the location, hoping to catch sight of someone who shouldn't be there...
Going back to Empathize, kind of, you probably had a post-assault protocol, where are you supposed to go, what are you supposed to do, once a mission is over? Perhaps these agents of Darkness are following similar protocols?
Damnit! I just lost half an hours work writing my post of how I was going to perform my actions & now it's all gone!
I'm going to take a break before I throw something I can't afford to lose...
Cygnus might be getting information out of Astre with Empathize or Forgive, and we can have Astre recall things while working through their trauma. Cygnus would ask the question, roll, and I'll give Astre an idea of how to answer.
Astre can lie about why they are sending Johanna out to search again, and be cagey about what they know about the Darkness.
Damnit! I just lost half an hours work writing my post of how I was going to perform my actions & now it's all gone!
I'm going to take a break before I throw something I can't afford to lose...
I've been there. Maybe this will be one of those times where it's better the second time, who knows?
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Augh! This weekend has been infuriating! To be honest, it has actually been fairly good, productive even. It just really doesn't help that a) our gas got shut off Thursday & won't be turned back on until sometime Monday
Then, just to frost the cake, the Driver's window in my car busted something inside & now it won't roll back up, so I had to turn right back around because I had to clean out everything from inside my car since anyone who wants to can now get inside...
On the bright side, I did get my car cleaned out & I finally cleared everything off my bed & was able to put clean sheets on it.
Okay, now that i have all that off my chest...
Tracy's downtime actions & how she will try to go about them...
1st)
One object amongst the mess seems immutable: a crystalline sphere like dark metal, spins atop a pillar as water bubbles up from the base, trickling down the sides as if it were a fixture in a fountain. Ao identifies the stone as hematite. The sphere spins and turns as if seeking.
Interestingly, the city I live in has a fountain that looks almost exactly as you have this described, only it is a marble globe rather than a sphere of Hematite. The odd way the globe slo-o-o-ly rotates from the pressure of the water is curiously fascinating...
So, once the chamber with the Shrine in it has been cleared, Tracy will spend about an hour a day in cleansing & meditation there. Particularly the initial session will reflect the techniques she has picked up over the years working with Loki2nd)
If we are only occupying part of the time in the Hideout, Tracy will take advantage of the fact that Loki & she will be responsible for purifying the site of the last attack to derive a kind of thought-impression of the mental/emotional state the Darkness' minions were in at the time & compare that to previous sites Loki & she have purified.
Now obviously if we don't get back out of the Hideout until after the whole several weeks are up... Well, she will basically interrogate Astre & Senshiro since they are the only people who have been at the site yet, then using their impressions, she will try the same thing as above, only second-hand as it were.
3rd)
So, Of all the PC's present, Senshiro & Astre are the only ones who have put themselves out there for Tracy, this isn't intended as a value judgement, she herself hasn't really put herself out there for others & several of the other characters already have reasons to involve one another. However, this does mean that those two are the closest she comes to comfortable or friendly, so they are the baby steps she is going to take to being a 'people person'. Again, over the process of making the Hideout livable, she will likely pass the time by...
sharing her feelings.
No really, this is a big step for her, particularly given that, while the previous world paradigm was not one in which she would naturally have thrived, the present one still sucks for her. Her response has been to withdraw, more & more, from other people.
She does what is required of her, she genuinely enjoys working to make the world a better place, but people suck pretty much & the fact that we now have actual, genuine anthropomorphic personifications of what were previously simple natural forces or even just basic cause & effect is a very Riddick moment for her
Her relationship/feelings regarding Perfection is a perfect case in point, given that Perfection in a very real way exemplifies both the best & the worst of the Erohin as a whole to her mind. Utterly amoral, petty, and terrifying in terms of the powers they/she are able to bring to bear, but at the same time, for whatever reason, evoking a genuine sense of affection & almost maternal instinct in her. Tracy didn't clean off Perfection's face because it was her job, she cleaned off Perfection's face because in that moment Perfection was in distress & adorable.
Getting back to the point of this digression, I am basically looking for a way that Tracy can use Confess for her roll to establish a Social link with either Astre or Senshiro, whichever wants to.
These sound good. I think for the Shrine of Eyes, rather than writing a scene, just make sure that if you're in a scene at the Hideout during this time, you're found either clearing clutter or meditating.
Generally, you'll have a week between missions for downtime. This time you have a little more time to get to know each other, discover your powers, and decide to band together as a team to face the Darkness.
I like your other two actions. While we wait to see who's into the third, let's set up your second.
Others may post their thoughts about actions, and we can run the scenes in parallel if everyone's available.
Not sure what to do with both of my actions.
For at least one, I'd figure it in character to find out why Astre and Cygnus are there.
As was said when we were establishing Fated Person stuff, before, it was just Astre, and he shouldn't have really showed up now he'd made off with his old magatama.
Now, it's both him and Cygnus, making two unexpected faces.
Only natural from there to try and find out where Cygnus got her Magatama.
Not sure what action that is.
Definitely less sure for the other. I'd assume with his memory back he'd take a little time at the very least to help get everyone else to grips with their new powers, try and act as a mentor that had been working on this for a bit rather than go in as clueless as the first time this happened, but otherwise, I don't have much.
A visit to Mercy's clinics? Snooping around there is a good Gather Information roll with Analise.
Did we actually settle on that one? I remember some speculation on what we'd match to, but I don't remember actually picking it as a transcendance theme.
Nothing's written in stone till it happens on-screen (and even that is maleable)
I'll put up a poll when the conversation in gameplay starts moving toward deciding on a mission if we haven't made a firm descision.
I think I'm moving towards a 'Make a Friend' long-term Project with Azu, now. :O
Do we have any thoughts on following up with that? :)
There are a few hidden factors which would affect the length of that clock. Who do you want Azu to believe they are becomming friends with? Chessa, Nobody, the team, or a unique disguise?
Take care to consider what move you'll use to advance the clock.
Still got nothin'.
It really sucks that with the new formatting the [ bigger ] format no longer works because I did finally have an idea...
[center][ bigger ]KAWAII[ /bigger ][/center]
[center]Season II[/center]
[center](Rebirth)[/center]
More of a stylistic change than an actual name change, but that can have an affect...
Definitely less sure for the other. I'd assume with his memory back he'd take a little time at the very least to help get everyone else to grips with their new powers, try and act as a mentor that had been working on this for a bit rather than go in as clueless as the first time this happened, but otherwise, I don't have much.
The simultaneously grimly amusing & terrifying thing about this is that, by his own admission, Junpei is clueless. At least regarding the factors in play now. Considering he has no Perceive or Empathize, he likely doesn't truly realize that yet...
We could always take the cheesy addition of
"Rebirth: Neo" or "Gilded Palace"
My favorite fighting game is coming out with this whopper:
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
Sailor Moon had a some Colon Cancer so it's apropos.
I think 'team' really depends on the team's perspective. I figure 'just one friend' is enough, but leads to some uh-oh scenarios. I'd contemplated a kitty-play-date in which I manipulate Sora into hanging out with Azu... but I settled on it probably being best that Chessa approach as Nobody. If others want to make it an 'everyone is your friend' thing, totally open to that. :)
If you're there as Nobody, Conceal is what you're rolling (unless you've got a compelling argument). In that case, it's hard for anyone to Help, because they would have to roll the same Action.
Express would be used to convince Sora to go befriend Azu, but you have a problem there with Help.
If you can get multiple helpers on an Action you suck at, it becomes a Group Action, and you take the max among everyone who rolls. You take 2 stress for each player whose result is 3 or below.
How does Chessa feel about knowing this might be easier if she told the truth and gots help from friends? -or does that even occur to her?
If you use Conceal, there will also be an 'Azu finds out it was all a lie' clock.
Larger works as a tag, still, I think. :)
Larger? I'm lost, sorry.
Larger? I'm lost, sorry.
I think that was in response to my bemoaning that we can't use bigger on text any more.
Come to think, the "how to format your text" bit won't even open for me anymore.
Other than that (and the inconsistent tabulation, font size on "(1 new)x" tags, and semibroken search) overall a ver successful upgrade... I think we gained some more unicode compatibility. ❀
Indeed. :)
I think there's drama to be had in 'befriended as a lie', but I dont think it's likely for the friendship remain that way. Besides, who wants to befriend youkai, anyway? 3:
That would have been a longer clock.
I'm 80% sure Shrouded in Secrets does not trigger for this roll. I think that's for using Chessa cattitude as a disguise.
Yup. It wasn't my intention to be a false furriend. And it also wasn't my intention to use Shrouded if I approached her as Nobody. I think I still have to ruminate on it all. :)
I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to answer that right now, Cygnus?
If this is from you investigating the darkness, I think any questions from that go to Bastian, and as has been said before revolve around the info you've gathered from making it.
Come to think, I'm not sure how much the Gather Information list sees use outside outside of darkness investigation.
Let's look at it this way: There is no PVP in this system. Player moves do no Harm and only cause your own Stress. You, as players can choose to share whatever information you want however you want. In this case, let's say Cygnus' player is just prompting Junpei's player for details, citing the gather information question as context for that prompt? You're not obligated to say anything more than you would otherwise, but you might include details in your next post that represent the truth without revealing it.
On the other hand, yeah. The mechanical use for those questions on the players' end is just about revealing information about the Darkness. (Although I swear I saw Andrew let a player roll GI mid-mission. Maybe it was Corvis using that Enigma move...)
The secrets I've handed out are meant more as exciting Confess ammo and less as backstabbing intrigue cancer.
If I remember right, you can totally use those during social links... I just can't remember whose power made it happen. I want to say Harmony or Unlikely Hero.
Looking at it, the Unlikely Hero has one move that lets them ask questions from other people's lists when using Empathize to gather information from Agents of the Darkness, and another word that straight up gives them another die when gathering information about people's emotions. That one also gives them the ability to do exactly what I was just confused about Cygnus being able to do or not, for free.
It would suggest that gathering information can be its own action, just by the way it's worded. There just doesn't seem to be anything written up for the action.
Two weeks after this first episode aired, the network green-lights a Tracy spin-off prequel following Tracy's activities during Season I. The pilot's title is Kawaii Redux: Least Magical Girl.
Two weeks after this first episode aired, the network green-lights a Tracy spin-off prequel following her activities during Season I. The pilot's title is Kawaii Redux: Least Magical Girl.
Wow
Just wow.No pressure...
Now I really do gotta go back & re-read the last game.
No, no pressure, just really digging the history here. If you've seen Steven Universe it's like the episode Lars in the Stars. The audience is suddenly super curious about what this character has been through.
You'll totally get XP for expressing your background.
No worries. It's actually kind of fun. One of the other PbP Campaigns I was in a while back, the GM requested we come up with a couple 'Flashbacks/Flashforwards' scenes as examples of our character's personality/history/interactions & It was helpful in giving me a grip on the character.
Of course, it also lead to my realization that a Golarion Changeling can be entirely the wrong kind of 'fun date' for a Zon Kuthon worshipper...
(I was playing a Changeling Paladin of Shelyn at the time & they get Claws as natural weapons, self-squick ensued...)
Not my intent, but if they would like to, I'm game.
Mostly, it's just that Tracy doesn't keep secrets. Also, Junpei/Iris felt that she was she was attacking them (or at least seemed to feel that way) & she was simply letting them know that she was reacting, badly, to all the memories from back then that seeing somebody transcend for the first time in a decade brought back.It didn't help that it was a guy transcending into a girl & when she saw that the first time it was Alex/Naiad & that was a desperate attempt to keep him from dying from having his throat slit.
Honestly, if Psychoanalysis was still a thing, Tracy would never get out of Therapy...
I think the fun part of this is that it doesn't have to be deliberate. Sometimes, things like these emerge as you play things out, and it's so often a joy when it does.
Hadn't even considered just what they were airing out to the world at the time when I wrote that, but it is a personal thing, huh?
The duo can't go back far enough to fix that one, no matter how bad they want to.
Some things just remain immutable.
I think that Chessa might host a Purity Party, offering an opportunity for everyone to get to know each other with the Youkai in a different room and the Erohin nowhere around.
I figure I could probably use Brilliance's help in setting this up, maybe... but I'm uncertain. The downside, of course, is that it winds up leaving my character out of the interactions, which complicates what kind of roll it is... since the end goal is 'Azu makes [a] friend(s)'. That also allows everyone who wants to participate in the scene to participate, and possibly gives us an 'official' clubhouse to play in, in addition to our unofficial one that Azu is left out of.
Perhaps the mechanics of that is that the longterm project is 'making a team of the council'?
A few options which come to mind:
A LPT to set up the support group as an ongoing thing, both as something the Erohin allow and as something the humans trust. The result being you'll be made aware of anyone who is feeling troubled, and future LTP to make specific friends within the committee will have shorter clocks. This would be a five-count clock. Kittynigma powers activate, giving you an extra die, you can push yourself for 2 Stress, and if you happen to crit, that will complete the clock.
If this is more of a one-time thing, the clock will be for 'Azu moves on' Team members can Help or use their downtime to contribute to the clock. This would be an eight-count clock.
Both sound like Express to me.