Take whatever time you need, obviously. And thanks for checking in.
My best hope for your father, and to your family.
Sorry. I will try to be more clear about progressing the rounds.
Hey folks, are we still playing? I had a few actions pre-posted so everyone else is up.
And another checkin. Tumbler, you ok?
Hey. I'm here. I've had the flu, which is part of the reason for my response lag. But, also, this campaign confounds me. Maybe it is the nature of having a bunch of lone wolf ish characters, but I'm having a hard time feeling a sense of continuity.
Sorry for being slow. Real life is not being kind to me at the moment.
Anyone here familiar with either the Paladium game Rifts, or the Savage Worlds System? Rifts (an interesting post-apocalyptic setting with robots, magic, and dimensional travel, but in its original form a horribly clunky and antiquated rule set) has been updated to run with a version of the Savage Worlds rule set, and it is far far better than the original.
I'm running a recruitment over HERE for anyone that might be interested. Feel free to pop by if you have an interest in either Rifts or Savage Worlds.
Feel better, Tumbler.
Hopefully you can work with Qi'n/Nite Owl while Batman and I chase the dude. Hopefully we can all reconnoiter soon, but didn't want to let the guy get away if possible.
Sorry for my absence. For those who don't know, I am a teacher, and my wife is also a teacher, and we live in Kentucky. It has been a crazy few days for us, and this is the first time I've sat down at a computer since last Wednesday.
Oh, silly Doc. Dottie doesn't pick locks (she doesn't have the Technology skill).
You just have to keep her from stealing all the keys.
Tumbler, best of luck to you in the pension struggle. My parents were both teachers in a state that ostensibly treated its teachers better (Maryland) but still getting fair pay and treatment was a constant battle.
Yeah just sitting on the sidelines for now... I'm looking forward to Icarus showing off his HQ... less so trying to keep Dottie from picking all the locks.
Oh and btw just in case you didn't see we are waiting for you to pick up the phone.
Before we get too much further into this part of the investigation, I'm going to give you some information that is a little more meta than I would prefer, but I don't want player frustration to become inaction.
Nothing about this adds up. The kid shows no signs of being a super genius. The tech isn't up to the task of hacking Horizon. Don't run from the fact that you can't understand what is going on. Lean into that with your characters. Getting together to hash it out is probably a good idea.
Yeah, I'd like to wrap this scene up. I followed him in since he matched the description, but I don't feel the need to follow him too much longer unless something significant happens (which it sounds like it's not).
I do appreciate learning that it's a red herring. Especially on PBP. I didn't suspect the kid was numero uno, but I hoped he'd lead us to somebody else.
I'll be travelling from Wednesday afternoon until Sunday morning with a group of students. I'll post when I can, but Thursday and Friday are unlikely.
Just so everyone is aware, I may go dark for a few days. I go in for an operation tomorrow that I've been waiting for quite a while. Nothing immediately life threatening, but something that has to be addressed sooner or later. It's one of those situations where they don't know what it will be like until they get inside, so it is hard to predict what recovery will be like. Hopefully all will go smoothly and I'll be back in a couple days.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
I hope the operation goes well, the recovery is fast, and that they have the flavor of Jello you like best.
Ditto.
I keep forgetting... I think I will do a slight rebuild of Dottie... just dropping Fort and Will by 1 and putting those 2 points into Dodge -- making Fort +7 and Will +7 and Defense +10 (all Dodge lost when denied Dex/Dodge). Since her Toughness is unlikely to be increased above 6, that should be legal. That ok?
smacking goons in the park is like a New York superhero tradition
Ya know, if this were 3rd ed, I could just Coup de Grace/knockout the the guy and we could move on... ;)
Of course, degree of success also means more in 3rd ed, so given how well the GM is rolling, that might not be good for us. :)
Yes more supervillains and Maggia to boot
Case it's not clear -- waiting on Doc Icarus (or Nite Owl I guess would be fine too) to respond.
Hmmmm.... Dottie likes movies... not so sure about watching television... but then there were the movies in the 90s which is before she would have gone to prison, so....
Yup!
Yeah, I can definitely see her indulging in the quiet anonymity and 40's action of a movie theater. Less so the boob tube.
Yeah. Even when she's not throwing poison gas around in a theater! :p I remember reading interviews that Dottie was named for the Wizard of Oz's Dorothy (presenting the same sort of wide-eyed farmgirl persona), and Bridget Regan said she therefore based some of her persona characterization off Judy Garland. And looking it from the fiction side, Dottie is also creating the persona, so then she'd be doing the same thing, and use movies and movie actors for character references (also, her cover-look when she seduced Howard was very Lauren Bacall). I know she told Peggy she didn't recognize Whitney Frost but I'd like to think she wouldn't want Peggy to think she was spending her off hours like a kid watching the flicks. It would be funny if she actually had been a fan of the actress (Whitney) and that makes the "holy shit you're actually a mad scientist with ultimate cosmic power" revelation even more terrifying.
(I don't know in your universe if Whitney Frost is the more traditional modern day Madam Masque or the evil-Hedy-Lamarr we got in Agent Carter, or somewhere in between.)
Checked the dates of the Charlie's Angels movies. I'd said she'd been in prison for 15 years so that would have been around 2002-3, so she saw the original, but missed the sequel (shame, she'd be one of the few people to pick up its random references to Singin' in the Rain).
I realize none of this is deeply important. Sometimes I get weirdly into details of my characters' backgrounds (even ones I technically haven't invented).
I keep forgetting... I think I will do a slight rebuild of Dottie... just dropping Fort and Will by 1 and putting those 2 points into Dodge -- making Fort +7 and Will +7 and Defense +10 (all Dodge lost when denied Dex/Dodge). Since her Toughness is unlikely to be increased above 6, that should be legal. That ok?
Realized I never got an ok on this. If it is, I'll update my character sheet.
And once again -- need an okay on the change to the character sheet.
Something completely different --
SuperTumbler, how on or off the rails do you care we go? I've got one GM IRL who recently flipped out because I ended up (unknowingly) trying to drive the party away from a plot thread (because I didn't trust an NPC) and he didn't know how to deviate from the module and had to ask me to just play along.
Other GMs like players to shake things up and they wing it as the PCs change directions. I know you like players to be creative and add things to the scene, but I want to check in on the limits here.
I ask because of course I nor Dottie trust our "informant" a whit. And one of my ideas is perhaps to try to seek out Manfredi in a peaceful setting and offer to work together to figure out who this guy is, rather than try to stop the casino (which--hey, if stupid capitalists want to lose all their money in a game of cards, why should she care?).
The other problem is that Dottie has decided, per the group's original agreement to work together, her mission is to track down the Ani-Men. Per her complications does not abandon her missions easily (unless her life is threatened). She would not want to be put off by investigating something else instead, and indeed suspects she is being put off on purpose and Charlie does not want them to investigate the Ani-Men. So to her, following the Maggia thread would be abandoning her mission and directly in conflict with her complications.
But I don't want to throw you for a loop if you've got something planned and need us to head that way to keep things going.
Sorry Dottie. I guess I keep replying to that request in my head but not typing it. The changes are great.
Dottie, you can go wherever you want and and do whatever you want. I don't so much have plans as concepts. And I've found that PbP is so slow that it is easy to keep up if the players decide to pivot.
And keeping on the Ani-men is also a fine plan.
Thank you! Sheet updated. As for plans... very tempted to take a risk to see how "Charlie" will respond.... not sure what it will accomplish...
Also, where is Q'in? We did say he was supposed to be in this scene, yes?
Rigor, his player, hasn't been posting much elsewhere lately. Not sure what is up.
I'm travelling again. Literally just got to somewhere with internet access. Will unfortunately be busy today, maybe tonight?
Folks, I am trying to balance activity with keeping things moving -- and acting as my character would. I fear I am coming off as too pushy or trying to overshine everyone. That's not my intent. I do want to be respectful of the 1/day activity request that the GM made and thus stick to that commitment where possible, and I'm moreover excited about the plot threads we've been given, and I have lots of thoughts about them.... so I'm posting a lot. (I am also used to much more active PBPs than this one.)
For this particular plot thread, Dottie's also gotten her paranoia turned up to the nth degree--she is an ex-Commie with a bent toward survival after all. Also as a centenarian she doesn't get this tech stuff the kids are so into anyway.
I want to be clear on the larger level that if I need to take a step back and you want more room to work in general or have ideas for what to do next -- please say so. And please by all means suggest alternatives. (Heck, if you all had attacked Dottie for admitting she's an escaped convict, I totally would have went with that. I wouldn't have taken the risk without accepting the consequences.)
Otherwise if any way I am playing bugs you, please say so, here or PM is fine.
On this particular thing -- all Dottie is trying to do is get us briefly (like for an hour or less) into a techless area without any sort of signal or electronics "Charlie" can access just so we can have an open planning conversation. Yes, it makes us vulnerable to attack during this time, but it's intended to be very temporary--and we all need to be together to be able to talk, share theories openly, and plan. I can understand the resistance to it--but if we can't plan any defenses, your technology is prone to being overtaken by "Charlie" anyway.
If you really are too afraid to go in that direction, I as a player am willing to move in other directions (just convince Dottie)... and I have an idea (a very risky one, mind) about contacting Manfredi and asking for his help, since Charlie was pointing at him/the Maggia as a target (which means they are a threat to his operations) which is probably what she would pursue next if no other alternatives arise. I am happy to hang back if you have something you guys would pursue as the "tech folks"--she'd be useless to assist anyway.
I'm glad to have somebody pulling the game. While some characters bring it out of me, I'm usually not that person.
I'm willing to follow Dottie, as only some of my powers are based on technology. It has absolutely nothing to do with him being a young guy having a bit of a crush on the mysterious lady spy. Nothing at all. No siree-bob.
Nah Dottie is awesome.I try to post here and there When I can especially if it's a really good and interactive part. As for this encounter I think a means to shield ourselves from the various technological signals.maybe an RF jammer or something
By all means if you can find an in-character way of signal jamming say so! Dottie's being driven by her survival instincts (one of her complications is to prioritize that at all costs). Maybe I can get a hero point...?
I get it... you can understand why Icarus wouldn't be too keen on being disarmed around Dottie after seeing what she can do in a fight... it's a bit intimidating to say the least.
Given she's only mostly rolled 1s in combat, I'm not quite sure why you're intimidated. ;) She ended the first fight in the game unconscious!
If you're more scared of Dottie than of a sinister mystery person/AI who can tracelessly hack any nearby tech, from cash registers to a computer genius's personally designed phone...
... then I'm either doing things really wrong or really right. :)
I'm glad to have somebody pulling the game. While some characters bring it out of me, I'm usually not that person.
I'm willing to follow Dottie, as only some of my powers are based on technology. It has absolutely nothing to do with him being a young guy having a bit of a crush on the mysterious lady spy. Nothing at all. No siree-bob.
Aww, poor Felix. :)
Alright then. If you have any concerns (all of you) still by all means let me know.
PPssst... we need someone to post a suggestion IC, or Dot's wandering off to Worth St Station (possibly with Felix in tow...?)