Forgot to dole out Paragon/Renegade points.
+5 Renegade to Mallene for Intimidating her way to the front of the line.
+4 Paragon to Halar for standing up to Mallene.
+4 Renegade to Enira for not taking sh!t from the Krogan Sergeant (+150 EXP for the well-written dialogue)
+1 Paragon to Secundus for sticking to the rules.
+500 EXP to all of you for doing such an excellent job role-playing!
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UserPrime: Query- input orders? y/n
UserHerald: "See to it that there are no survivors."
UserPrime: Processing. A consensus has been reached. Unanimous. All hail the old machines.
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A piercing alarm tears through the peaceful air of the space station. Worried onlookers stare confusedly at each other before an announcement comes over the intercom, its artificial tone of voice informing its listeners that its a VI.
"A state of emergency has been declared. Please evacuate to your designated shelters. This is not a drill. A state of emergency-"
Before the VI can repeat itself, a violent explosion sends the space station reeling from its gyro-synchronous orbit above the system. It is as if an earthquake has occurred within the giant hallways itself, as civilians have been sent flying through the interior. Alerts punctuate the screams and panic, warning the people inside of depressurized sections, multiple hull breaches and hostile ships are attacking the space station.
The four of you hear something charging up, a whining noise that can be heard above the din. When it reaches the apex of its pitch, the sound it cannot be described, noises that trigger a primordial urge buried deep within your genes to flee in abject terror from its origin. But before you can even do that, another series of explosions triggers debris to rain down on your heads, causing you to black out from the sudden impact...
As we're mixing it up in the gameplay thread I'm going to turn this back into a discussion area.
I've never had a GM before that recorded audio for a game before. It's very cool, it adds realism. I'm tempted to record audio for Halar. If only to practice my cool Elcor impression lol
Truth be told, mixing voices and sound for a tabletop RPG is also a first for me. I'm still fiddling around with Zerdok's voice because he didn't sound...krogan enough. So expect his voice to change a lot. Maybe I can even get my dorm-mates to voice other characters when necessary? XD
IRL, I usually make props for my players when they come up in the adventure. Usually parchment with calligraphy or letters sealed with wax. It takes awhile and its a pain to dye the paper that parchment color and write in the flowing calligraphy, but it's totally worth it when I present them the relevant item and watch their faces light up.
@Halar: Matter of fact: It's not too hard to sound like an elcor. Just needs some Audacity magic. And I'll be experimenting with the software to see if I can pull of more "Mass Effect"-sounding characters and environments.
Love the recorded audio. I get what you're saying about Zerdok's voice :)
@our initiative rolls : "we were not prepared" ;)
Sorry for the delays. College is being difficult as usual. That being said, I'm working on the map, and will most likely have it up either today or tomorrow.
Thanks for the update. Waiting patiently on my end :)
Map is up. And you can clearly see why I wasn't invited to design the levels for Mass Effect. XD
Not wanting to crowd the gameplay thread with these questions/observations, so I'll put them here :
- Concerning cover/defense
1) My base defense is under the Vitals spoiler tag under my name. It's 14.
2) While crouching a character only occupies 2/3 of their normal height and gets +2 vs ranged attacks, -2 vs melee, while prone only 1/3 and gets +4 vs ranged attacks, -4 vs melee.
3) A low wall gives a bonus depending on how much of your current height it covers : 1/3 gives +2, 1/2 gives +4 & 2/3 gives +6, higher than that it's massive cover providing a lot of defense, but making it unable for them to shoot back without using the blind fire special action.
So if I'm not mistaken this would mean I'm somewhere between 20 & 22 defense (as my current height should be covered for at least 1/2 by the 3 feet covering wall)
- Concerning them shooting at us.
Little bit unclear at what happened. If I get it right they all moved forward and 2 of them used 2 actions to shoot at us?
As far as I know, you only have 2 actions per turn (3 if you go full auto with an autofire weapon), so normally they should only have had 1 shot.
- I am not certain how you designed the encounter, but might I state as someone who has some experience in this game system : What a party of 4 can defeat in the Mass Effect computer game is not equal to that which you can defeat in the roleplay (especially since we lack a character big on tech powers). Unless you mean us to retreat from this battle, but it didn't seem to me that that would be the case.
Okay. Thanks for the heads up. I was somewhat half asleep when I was typing this, so the refresher on how cover works is much appreciated. So just take the appropriate amount of damage if the first shot hit you.
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The encounter I'm trying to set up is a "hold them off until X", in which case is Zerdok. Off screen, he's trying to re-calibrate the automatic defenses of the barracks. So hold the Geth off for at least three rounds and then the defenses will will take care of the rest.
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Regarding the whole shot thing, I was also half asleep and reinterpreted the action system in a way that differed from actual rules. Whoops.
So if we could kindly ignore the second shot that the geth fire at you and Halar, I would greatly appreciate that. This the fist time I am DM-ing a MEd20 campaign, so I'm still learning.
Sigh, I'm going to spend the rest of the day re-reading the rule book. Because clearly, I have demonstrated a need for a refresher.
Until next time,
GM_SPECTRE
First shot still hit me, seeing as you rolled quite well :)
Sorry if I made you spoil the dramatics you were going for, but due to the lack of knowledge of the place (I wasn't aware there were automated defenses in the barracks for one :)) it seemed like a very steep battle :)
I think this battle will be a good learning experience for most of us, but as I stated there are some important differences between this system and other D20 systems, especially on the actions in a turn & cover.
As a quick reference for all of us as I think we all still need to act this turn :)
The system is very reliant on cover for character protection (that and moving ... Per 15 ft that you move in a round you get a +1 bonus to your defense, which means the geth most likely are at +2 defense due to walking in this round.)
And we have 2 actions per turn which can be spend on attack actions, autofire actions (if one has an automatic weapon then they can go full auto fire using their 2 actions for firing & getting a third as a bonus), using biotics/tech, moving, or others in the list of actions (but I think these are the big ones we will be using ;))
I also want to note, that if you ever think I push to much on certain rules or overstep some boundaries in any way or form. Feel free to tell me this, so that I know I need to take it down a notch :)
If anything, I NEED you to push rules in the event I mess up. So by all means, push on! XD
I think I put in Eniira's options validly, Secundus, please comment if I got anything wrong or missed something.
Just waiting on the GM feedback on that to see if I need to roll anything.
@Enira, overload just happens. You point at a target within 60ft pay the tech points needed. And do the damage, if you target the geth juggernaut you deal 2d6 damage and he needs to make a DC 14 (10 + half your ranks in electronics + int mod) or be stunned for 1 action. Also don't forget you still have 1 action left after activating overload, so you could shoot at the geth juggernaut as well.
If stunned the following things would happen :
- his defense would drop till he has his turn again, most likely making most of our shots hit (as we acted after you)
- he would lose 1 of his 2 actions on his next turn, meaning he would only be able to walk closer this turn, as his weapon is not in range yet.
@Mallene, a predator is a semi-automatic weapon, so you can't do full auto with it. Only 2 actions. But you did have 2 critical threats in the first 2 sets of shots as you also threat on a 19-20. Also don't forget that you have the variant VI, which means +3 damage per shot that hits :-)
@Halar, don't think the cover will help to reduce recoil, but an elcor has the advantage that he already reduces the recoil penalty by 2 due to it being a VI doing the targeting. not certain how much cover you'll get from the 3ft wall as you are large. As I stated in recruitment. Due to the VI targeting an elcor can move and shoot in the same action without penalty. So your best bet is to move 30 ft for +2 defense. Call it "evasive manoeuvres". We have all been shooting the big geth, but I doubt we are close to killing it. Those things can take some punishment.
I hope we get through his shields fast, as that would allow me to possibly stun him next round due to disruptor ammo kicking in.
oops forgot that Secundus, GM should I just redo my round?
I would propose to roll confirmation rolls of those 2 that had a critical threat in the first 2 sets of shots and that the gm remembers to add 3 damage to every shot that was a hit.
But best to wait for the GM's answer
As I stated, this combat is learning experience for most of us. First time for me using a full-auto weapon and we also did not have an elcor in the group :-)
Well, if there is a conduit near him, then that would do a lot of damage to him and his cohorts, so that would be the best thing to do. Or blow up a tank near him, or a power core.
If there's nothing close to him, I will hit him with the disruption and then a sniper round. Unfortunately, I can't really aim and do that. I can aim/assassinate/shoot next round (if I have that right)
Aiming with a sniper rifle requires 2 actions (only 1 for other weapons) unless you have the quick stabilization feat which you can get through your class at some point.
Assassinate also requires 1 action and shooting 1 action as well.
So that routine takes 2 rounds. As I stated before sniping (taking aim and shooting) in close engagements is very difficult. Infiltrators want aiming even more due to them getting a bonus to attack rolls while aiming (through time slow), as aiming only increases threat range (by 2 for sniper rifles, by 1 for all other weapons)
You could assassinate and shoot next round though.
Assassinate shoot it is. And that would be two shots, since the sniper rifle is SA.
While we await the GM's return we need to keep in good spirits, so I propose a recollection of our MA experiences...
My question, who did we all romance? (Tali here, one of the best characters Bioware ever created)
Kaidan in my first play through, Garrus in the second. I love Tali, she was my space BFF in both playthroughs.
Here's another question. I've always played with a female Shepard. What about you guys, did you play as male or female?
Just a heads up, I will be gone on vacation from now until Sunday afternoon.
Apologies for the delay. College is once again being stupid. Will update as soon as I finish this stupid paper...
Not that it seems to matter much, as the game appears to be dead, but...
Posting to all my games :
As you should know by now, I'm going to Kuwait for two weeks and leaving today. This week has been very hectic between work, preparing for the trip, and having my work laptop bricked by our IT folks yesterday afternoon (and spending 6 hours getting data off the drive and resetting the OS).
I will try to get a post up on all games today before I go, but it will likely be this weekend before I can post, assuming I can do so from the hotel in Kuwait. I'll also be on Kuwait time, so likely I will only get a post or two up a day due to time differences.
I'll be back to US time in two weeks.
Hope you have a good trip. And college live can be a pain (for more ways then one), so we'll see when GM_SPECTRE gets back to us :)
I am very patient ^_^
Paper is finally done! Ugh. I'm so tired...
I'm in class right now, so I regrettably can't post, but as soon as we break for lunch, I'll put an update up.
Again, sorry for the delay. The game is not dead. I repeat, the game is not dead.
See you in a few hours,
GM_SPECTRE
300 x 2 Shock Troopers = 600 EXP
2400 x 1 Juggernaut = 2400 EXP
3000 EXP divided by 4 = 750 EXP for each of you.
@Mallene,
A semi-automatic weapon cannot do a full-auto (3 actions worth of attacks), only an automatic weapon can do that.
But it's not a problem in this case as your predator has SA 3, meaning 3 shots per action. So you have the right number of attacks, just a few with the wrong modifiers.
Ive had a family emergency pop up. I will be gone for about a week. Feel free to puppet my character
Waiting on Enira's action as it might change what I'm targeting in this turn.
@Enira, looking at the map, I do think all Geth are out of range for most tech/biotic powers (as they're at approximately 100 ft from most of us) and most powers cut off at 60 ft.
Sorry for not responding everyone, my last week :
Thursday, 2AM Kuwait time : Emergency in Calgary, we need you there Monday.
Thursday : 9 hours of work
Friday, 1AM Kuwait time : Plane delayed, wait 2 hours, take off
Friday, 2PM Central Time, US : Land
Friday, 3:30PM Central Time : Get home
Friday, 4PM : Collapse in bed
Saturday : Run around doing everything I thought I had 4 days off to do.
Sunday : Repeat running around, collapse, sick and coughing. Take nyquil
Monday : 2:30AM, get up and get ready for 5AM flight.
Monday : 4:15AM, realize I left laptop at house, no computer, call wife, arrange to have it overnighted.
Monday : 7AM, Get on connecting flight to Calgary, wait 90 minutes on tarmack
Monday : Noon Calgary time : Land Calgary
Tuesday : Noon, laptop arrives
Tuesday : 3:15PM : Post this message
I'll try to get something up tonight, but no promises. I'll be back in the states again Thursday Night, so if not tonight, Friday. Sorry again.
Appears this game died again. :(