Discussion thread for group Cinereous.
Thursday runs a hand across the battered shell of the sleep capsule and suppresses a shiver at the idea of voluntary unconsciousness...
Checking in!
Sirus visually inspects the ExtraSnooze SW47 Stasis Capsule. This thing really should be truly inspected instead of glanced over... But what the hay. Is not like I have that kind of time...
Cord looks at the sleeping pod unhappily. No chance for any fun while we are asleep. he laments with an almost shy glance over at Thursday.
Joram shivered as the cover slid across his sleep pod, locking him in. He could occasionally 'hear' the soft beeping and electronic chatter of the various machines around him, but so far it hadn't expanded into the barrage of signals he got once the AI's and expert systems that ran the ships became aware that he could not only 'hear', but *'understand'* them.
His last thought as he began to slowly drift off was 'I really hope none of these things decide to talk to me in my sleep!'
Hi all, thank you for checking in :)
I'll open the gameplay thread so you can dot it. For those newcomers, 'dotting' means making a post on a thread (can be anything but it's called 'dotting' because the common thing to do is post a '.'!), so that means the gameplay thread shows up in your campaign tab.
Had intended to post the opening passage tonight but time has gotten away from me and don't want to post something unfinished! So proper start tomorrow :)
Just so I'm clear. Is this section meant to be a place where we can have OOC discussions? I'd like to get to know my fellow players (Joram will get to know his fellow PC's in character), and it seems like this would be the place.
So, on that note, Hello to Choon, Skorn, Stormraven, and, of course, Fiendish.
I dont know much about any of you yet, but I'm looking forward to gaming with you. Stormraven, I must say, it's nice to find a fellow Heinlein fan on here. ;)
Also, If this isn't the right place for this, then I apologize profusely, and I'll delete this post. :)
ArkLytte: Deleted as requested :)
Looking forward to gaming with you all too!
Choon: :O Along with Asimov and Arthur C Clarke, Robert Heinlein was a bit of a trailblazer for Sci-Fi literature. Probably showing my age here but I recall reading a fair bit of his catalogue 'back in the day' when that's all the library had in the way of non-mainstream books.
Ha! Next you'll be telling me you've never read Frederick Pohl's 'Gateway'...
Anyone? Anyone?!
*tumbleweed rolls past*
OK so! The other group pointed out that it might be prudent to add some crunch to your fluff, and on reflection that's probably a better idea to do now rather than the 'let's find out during play!' idea I had at first. Still it's simplified chargen, pick a package to give you some base stats, pick some skills, pick some perks and you're done!
Any questions just let me know :)
CharGen
Pick a package:
BAB +4
HP 18
AC 16
Saves: +4 fort/+4 Ref/+2 Will
2 perks
Military weapon proficiency
4 skills:
+8
+6
+4
+4
BAB +2
HP 14
AC 16
Saves: +2 fort/+4 Ref/+4 Will
2 perks
Basic weapon proficiency
6 skills:
+8
+8
+6
+6
+4
+4
BAB +0
HP 10
AC 14
Saves: +4 fort/+2 Ref/+4 Will
4 perks
Basic weapon proficiency
4 skills
+8
+6
+6
+4
Climb/Zero-G
Craft (Demolitions)
Craft (Electronics)
Craft (Mechanical)
Craft (Weapon Systems)
Diplomacy
Knowledge (Computer systems)
Knowledge (Corporations)
Knowledge (Outer Colonies)
Knowledge (Robotics)
Knowledge (Science)
Knowledge (Solar System)
Medicine
Perception
Pilot
Security Systems
Sense Motive
Sleight of Hand
Stealth
Survival
Each perk can only be seleced once.
*Psychic (telepathy): You may take a full round action to communicate telepathically with anyone in your line of sight. You may make a perception check to see if you can sense any minds in the immediate area.
*Psychic (empathy): +2 to Sense Motive and Diplomacy. You can sense the primary emotions of those you are in close proximity to, making it very difficult to lie to you.
*Psychic (machine-empathy): +4 to one of Craft (Electronics), Craft (Mechanical), Knowledge (Computer systems), Knowledge (Robotics). Machines talk to you.
*Psychic (precognition): May not be surprised. Always act first in a combat round. Able to dodge attacks more easily (+2 to AC)
*Environmental adaptation: You have become accustomed to working in challenging environments. Pick either fire resistance 5 or cold resistance 5. You count as being under the effects of the Endure Elements spell for the respective condition, hot or cold.
*Experienced: Add another skill to your list at +4
*Specialised: Add an additional +4 to an existing skill
*Hardy: You do not fall unconscious at 0 hp or below, you are staggered instead of unconscious, and each time you take an action you lose an additional 1 hp. You still die if you reach -10 hp, just like everyone else.
*Tough: +2 fortitude save
*Agile: +2 reflex save
*Strong-minded: +2 will save
*Implant (armored sub-dermal plating): provides +1 AC and +2 HP
*Implant (aural enhancement): provides +10 bonus to perception for listening checks, plus tremorsense 30 ft if you spend a full round with your ear pressed against a surface
*Implant (visual enhancement): provides +5 bonus to perception for visual checks, plus low-light vision
*Implant (hidden blade): undetectable and unbreakable knife blade that extends from the wrist, you are never unarmed
*Last Ditch effort: Once per scene you can add an additional 1d6 to any check
*Defensive stance: Once per combat you can shift out of the way of an attack as a free action, gaining DR 5/- for one round
*Offensive stance: Once per combat you can focus your assault on the enemy and get an additional attack for one round
*Jack of all trades: Once per scene you can make a skill check at +2 for a skill you do not have
*Ice in your veins: Pick a skill. You can take 10 with that skill even when distracted or in combat.
Post your crunch here once you're done selecting and I'll put the first gameplay post up (it's written and just waiting in the wings!)
My crunch:
Technician
BAB +0
HP 10
AC 14
Saves: +4 fort/+2 Ref/+4 Will
4 perks
- Specialised: Add an additional +4 to an existing skill (Craft: Mechanical)
- *Experienced: Add another skill to your list at +4 (Climb/Zero G)
- *Implant (aural enhancement): provides +10 bonus to perception for listening checks, plus tremorsense 30 ft if you spend a full round with your ear pressed against a surface
- *Psychic (machine-empathy): +4 to one of Craft (Electronics), Craft (Mechanical), Knowledge (Computer systems), Knowledge (Robotics). Machines talk to you. (Undiscovered)
Basic weapon proficiency
5 skills
+8 Craft: Mechanical - 8+4+4= +16
+6 Craft: Electronics
+6 Know: Robotics
+4 Know: Computer Systems
+4 Climb/Zero G
Question:
How do we Bluff, if need be?
Specialist
BAB +2
HP 14
AC 18
Saves: +2 Fort / +4 Ref / +4 Will
Perks (2)
> Implant (Visual Enhancement): +5 PER & Low-Light Vision
> Psychic (Precognition): Never Surprised; Always act first; AC +2
Basic Weapon Proficiency: Martial Arts - is that OK?
Skills (6)
+13 Perception
+8 Sense Motive
+6 Stealth
+6 Security Systems
+4 Climb/Zero-G
+4 Knowledge (Corporations)
Stormraven, I must say, it's nice to find a fellow Heinlein fan on here. ;)
Well, if you are gonna steal a character wholesale (as I did)... do it from the best! And RAH had so many rich characters. :)
(What's a Heinlein...)
I'm guessing you are joking to some extent, Choon. But if you have never read Heinlein and you'd like to, give The Moon is a Harsh Mistress a try.
Probably showing my age here but I recall reading a fair bit of his catalogue 'back in the day' when that's all the library had in the way of non-mainstream books.
What is this "li'bary" you speak of? Is this some archaic, pre-internet device... like fire-hardened spears? :P
Glad to know I'm not the only 'old fogey' in the game!
Cool! Definitely try The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It is a good first book. Some of his other books are better once you are used to his style and the alternate history that permeates his books. I would avoid his last few books... they are very self-referential to his older works, i.e. less accessible to a new reader.
I just re-read Citizen of the Galaxy 3 weeks ago. A fun read and a good first Heinlein too. And Yes, I have read Gateway, though its been too long. Might have even been a teen then, certainly 30 years ago.
Will work on stats soon. Had a working lunch so am behind in my game stuff today.
Oh, and hello Arklytte. I too like to get to know my fellow gamers. I find that not everyone shares this propensity. Some seem to like the unanimity of the PBP system. If you (any of you really) want to chat about anything feel free to send me a PM.
I'm fine with chatting as well - publicly or privately. Internet anonymity is too often abused by asshats, IMO. :) I'm Justin, based in Brooklyn, NYC. So if anyone has any questions - ask away.
So this is what I have so far. Was not completely able to build my concept.
Package B - Specialist:
BAB +2
HP 14
AC 16+2=18
Saves: +2 fort/+4 Ref/+4 Will
2 perks
Psychic (empathy): +2 to Sense Motive and Diplomacy. You can sense the primary emotions of those you are in close proximity to, making it very difficult to lie to you.
Psychic (precognition): May not be surprised. Always act first in a combat round. Able to dodge attacks more easily (+2 to AC)
Basic weapon proficiency
6 skills:
+8 Craft (Weapon Systems) - +8
+8 Knowledge (Computer systems) -8
+6 Diplomacy - 6+2
+6 Pilot - 6
+4 Sense Motive - 4+2
+4 Sleight of Hand - 4
Looks like we had pretty similar ideas for our characters Choon. :) I'm not sure where to go with Joram now, because if I build him like I originally envisioned him, we'd basically have two nearly identical characters.
Fiendish, I'm going to play around a bit with some options for the character, but it might take me a bit - hopefully not more than a couple hours, but the muse has a one track mind sometimes, and right now she's stuck on loop. :p :D
Ok, I figured out what I want to do for Joram. Fortunately I left his intro vague enough that I can go pretty much any direction.
I'm going to keep Machine Empathy (since I've already included it in his backstory), but I'd also like to add Telepathy. Like Sirus' Machine Empathy, it's undiscovered. I'm going to change him to a scientist/computer software engineer type of guy, so software to Sirus hardware. What he's actually sensing with his powers is multiple wavelengths of complex EM radiation, all along the spectrum. At first it allowed him to pick up on simple, then more complex machines. At some point, he'll start being able to pick up thoughts from his fellow human's as well.
Does that work for you Fiendish? I'm working on the crunch now, expect it to be up soon.
Technician
BAB: +0
HP: 10
AC: 14
Saves: +4 fort/+2 Ref/+4 Will
4 perks
- Specialized: +4 Craft (Electronics)
- Implant (visual enhancement): Provides +5 bonus to perception for visual checks, plus low-light vision
- Psychic (Telepathy): You may take a full round action to communicate telepathically with anyone in your line of sight. You may make a perception check to see if you can sense any minds in the immediate area. (Undiscovered)
- Psychic (Machine-Empathy): +4 Knowledge (Computer systems). Machines talk to you.
Basic weapon proficiency
5 skills
Knowledge (Computer systems) +10 (+6, +4)
Knowledge (Science) +8
Craft (Electronics) +8 (+4, +4)
Craft (Weapon Systems) +10 (+6, +4)
Now, on with the chatting! :)
Choon! You have to read Heinlein!! He's one of the founding fathers of modern Sci Fi! Stormraven is right, TMIAHM is a great place to start. I also highly recommend Starship Troopers (which is NOTHING like that stupid movie) and Friday (from which our own Thursday is...erm...inspired) :D ST and F are both one shots, so they dont really tie into the Heinlein 'verse', but they do touch on many of his ongoing themes, and are just excellent in their own right.
Stormraven! No worries, I show my own age when I start geeking out about stuff like reading real, paper books, in one of those li-bary's...riding my bike there on a Saturday to check out books, no cell phones...no personal electronics at all, other than my walkman, playing outside...you know, all that old fart stuff. :D Friday, btw, is one of my absolute favorite books. I've owned three paperback copies in my life. The first two I read so often they literally broke - and I try to take good care of my books...I just read them so much)...now, fortunately, I have a Kindle copy, so my third paperback is safe. :) Also, hello my fellow New Yorker! I'm actually upstate, not in the City. Near Albany. On the internet, we're practically neighbors. :D
Heya Skorn. :) I always try to get to know people I game with. I mean, I'm hardly going to chat with everyone on the boards, but this is a much more intimate group, and since we're gaming together, I figure we should at least be able/willing to chat a bit. That's half of what makes roleplaying fun, the interaction. It's not quite as fun as sitting around a table tossing cheetos at one another while rolling dice, but it's still fun and should be interactive. That's my philosophy, anyway. :)
Hiya Fiendish! Thanks again for inviting me to my first game here. I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm already loving the vibe. Also glad to meet a fellow long time nerd and also a fellow Heinlein fan. I LOVE Gateway!! I've always loved Pohl's work. Really makes you think. Philip José Farmer was another one who liked to make you think. I really love the Dayworld books, as well as his Riverworld series. He had a real gift for world building, as well as really immersing you in a story.
Anyway, it's late (almost 4AM), and my brain is starting to leak out my ears, so I'll bid you all adieu. Cant wait to read the first IC post and really get going. :)
Thursday: Think of diplomacy and sense motive as the social attack/social defence skills, so diplomacy can cover bluff and any other subversive and or deceptive tasks you care to utilise it for ;)
MA is fine, just theme your attacks :) The basic v military proficiencies are simply there to help distinguish someone combat trained from someone not. Familiarity with fully-automatic and/or milspec firearms is what differentiates there.
Cord: Hrm, I know what you're getting at re: skills for firing ship weapons, I didn't want to get too specific, but perhaps knowledge: starship offensive systems, starship defensive systems, starship sensor systems might be in order. I'm not going to slow us down further by revising the skills now, let's just say knowledge (computer systems) covers firing ship weapons too :)
Arylytte: Sounds fine to me, like the idea of a hard-fi explanation of his latent abilities :)
And you're doubly welcome, having sparked a conversation covering nostalgia-inducing book blasts from the past ;)
Right, I think we're all locked in, so 1st gameplay post will be up shortly :O
Sorry if I inconvenienced you, Joram. I didn't mean to. Even if we did overlap though I feel that or characters are different enough and the crunch light enough that we could make do.
How you built him is great, however. Your right that Sirus is more of a gear head. :)
OK. So with that information let me revise Cord's skill set a little. Also I think I am going to change a perk to be a better pilot. So dropping Psychic (precognition) and picking up Specialized. Someone already has Psychic (precognition) anyway and its more special if fewer people have it.
6 skills:
+6 Pilot - 8+4
+8 Knowledge (Computer systems) - 8
+6 Diplomacy - 6+2
+6 Perception - 6
+4 Sense Motive - 4+2
+4 Sleight of Hand - 4
Any comments?
The Starship Troopers movie - ugh! You can imagine the production meeting. "Let's use the title, some of the character names, a couple events, and the bugs... that's enough."
So, for the Heinlein panel out there... let's jump to a graduate level question. Which book(s) would you recommend to someone who has read a fair chunk of Heinlein's body of work?
Cord, are you looking for feedback from the DM or the peanut gallery?
Everyone. +12 to pilot skill is great but there might not be anything to fly. Perception seemed like a good thing for a pilot to have as well.
Reading: Re-reading Ringworld at the moment. Larry Niven. Love him, but I am an engineer and work for NASA, so I like the science stuff. Integral Trees and Smoke Ring were great as well. Need to re-read them.
Greg Bear is a fine author for hard SIFI. Plus he wrote one of my all time favorites: The Infinity Concerto. If anyone has read it let me know what you thought.
I think your build looks good. But the math on this line in making me scratch my head:
+6 Pilot - 8+4 <-- Should that be '+8 Pilot'
Given what our scenario seems to be... I think Piloting may be a VERY useful skill at some point, so I'd suggest you keep it. My guess is that none of the small skill list are useless although I'm struggling to figure out how my Know (Corporations) is going to play a role unless we are walking into Weyland-Utani terrain here. :) Nevertheless, it fits my background so I'm keeping it.
I have read a little Greg Bear but I don't think Infinity Concerto was one of them. Sorry.
Yes. Changed that to an 8. Will update.
Sorry if I inconvenienced you, Joram. I didn't mean to. Even if we did overlap though I feel that or characters are different enough and the crunch light enough that we could make do.
How you built him is great, however. Your right that Sirus is more of a gear head. :)
No worries. It just required me to re-think him, and I think, this way, he came out a lot more well rounded than I had originally planned. :)
Basically, what I'm not going for, is that he's a scientist and inventor. He makes weapon systems for military spaceships, and the Computer/Electronics skills are complimentary to that. Now that he can talk to the machines, he's gonna be even better at his job.
Also, I find the irony that a person who's, basically, an uber nerd with pretty much zero social skills, is going to have telepathy as some point, frikken hilarious!
The Starship Troopers movie - ugh! You can imagine the production meeting. "Let's use the title, some of the character names, a couple events, and the bugs... that's enough."
So, for the Heinlein panel out there... let's jump to a graduate level question. Which book(s) would you recommend to someone who has read a fair chunk of Heinlein's body of work?
Couldn't agree more!!! I was so looking forward to watching that when it was announced, then was sooooooooo disappointed when it premiered. I almost got up and walked out of the theater...I just kept hoping that something, anything would, you know, actually be from the book! :p
Reading: Re-reading Ringworld at the moment. Larry Niven. Love him, but I am an engineer and work for NASA, so I like the science stuff. Integral Trees and Smoke Ring were great as well. Need to re-read them.
Greg Bear is a fine author for hard SIFI. Plus he wrote one of my all time favorites: The Infinity Concerto. If anyone has read it let me know what you thought.
Heh! The instant I saw engineer and NASA, the first thing I thought of was 'Hey, I bet he'd like Greg Bear', then, next paragraph. :) Haven't read that story, but I definitely will.
One you might like, though beware that it comes with a side of fairly conservative politics, is the Vorpal Blade quartet by John Ringo and Travis S Taylor. Ringo wrote the first book, Into The Looking Glass with help from Taylor, then the two of them co-authored the other three (though mostly Taylor wrote them and Ringo consulted). They're military sci-fi told with lots of hard science and engineering. Taylor has multiple PhD's in physics, math, optics, and other things, and is a hell of an author. If you do check them out, I'd love to hear your opinion (or anyone else's, should they be so inclined :D )
Fiendish, so happy I could spark a discussion. I am an AVID reader. I have so many books in my phone/kindle that it's ridiculous. I had to sell most of my collection when I moved in with my wife...it physically hurt. But now I have all of them, and so many more, back, and it's awesome. I mean, I dearly love the few real paper books that I still own, but I'll never regret having my Kindle for a moment. :D
Also Also, glad you liked the hard-fi ideas. I generally try to come up with some kind of explanation for a character's abilities. Whether they make sense from a real world perspective is irrelevant, so long as they have an internal, logical consistency to them, I'm happy. :)
Looking forward to the IC!!
The Gameplay thread is already in motion, Ark.
Whoops! The site I usually play on (Myth Weavers) lets me subscribe to threads and I get an alert when there's new activity. I have to get used to manually checking. :p
I'll head over now and get caught up. :)
Ya, I wish Paizo did that.
There are some icons (two oranges guys by the facebook logo) at the top-right of the window that allegedly let you subscribe to the thread. I've never gotten them to work, but you might have better luck.
Ya, the RSS(RSS?) links. I've only ever gotten them to work once, and never on a mobile device. I do 90% of my posting via mobile so they don't help me much.
I never seem to have good luck with RSS feeds/tools. Whether it's my phone or my PC. :p
No worries, now that I know I have to manually check, I should be able to remember easily enough, since it's the only game I'm in. :)
Arklytte: I feel your pain for other reasons... when we moved to NZ from the UK we came over with the clothes on our backs and a grand total of two suitcases, so I had to pick my top 5 books from a rather large library... it took me weeks to get it down to only 5!
And yes, I don't believe I'd survive these days without e copies on my tablet to read from :p
Hey all. Sorry for not posting yesterday. Fri-Sun are usually busy times for me IRL. But I'll try to get online tonight and post something. If nothing else, Joram will need to tell everyone what he found. :)
Fiendish, That sucks. I miss all my paper books so much. But I totally agree...tablets/e-readers are such a good thing. :)
Thanks Arklytte for posting :)
As the last gameplay update was 2 days ago by me, I was going to post tonight to ask if all is ok with everyone? If the game isn't what you thought it would be or if you have run in to any issues affecting play then please let me know, I can't fix things if I don't know what's broken!
Anyway, hope all is well with you all, looking forward to your posts :)
My pleasure. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page. When I'm GMing, I always appreciate communication from my players, so I try to return the favor when I'm a player.
Also, posted! :)
Also Also, so far it's going great IMO. I'm feeling the tension of the situation, and it's really atmospheric and fun so far. My only issue is that I wish I had more time to post. But that's more my work's fault than anything. My boss just doesn't seem to understand that I have important hobby stuff to be getting on with...I cant constantly be bothered by all this 'work' stuff. :p :D
Everything is ok from me. Life intervened upon me, but I'm posting now.
No worries all, glad to hear things are ok :)
Gameplay post shortly!
Ah, as an aside, thanks to some feedback and request for more information on the 'universe' of this game, I've added some notes to the campaign thread in case you wanted some more backstory on the backdrop of your adventure :)
Had an internet outage this weekend and just now getting back to normal. Catching up. Seems like we are overlapping in some cases. But I guess that makes sense, at least until we know and trust each other more.
Cool. Thanks for the info Fiendish. I'll check it out when I have a few spare moments (and am not on my phone :D ).
You're right Cord, but hopefully it will clear up once we get to know each other better, as you said. :)
I dont know how many of you follow the weather on a National or International level, but I am one of the 30 million people in the Northeastern US who is currently under a "Severe Blizzard Warning". Where I live, Winter Storm Stella is poised to dump between 12 and 24 inches of the white fluffy stuff, so there's every possibility that I may be sans internet for a bit tomorrow and potentially the next day. I will *try* to get online if I have connectivity, but dont look for me.
If it pans out that I do lose InterWebz, and you want to move things forward Fiendish, please feel free to NPC Joram as needed.
All that being said, I will *try* to get a post in tonight. I have a few other things to do and I have to head to bed early, because according to the Weather Channel I'm going to be having to dig my driveway out when I get up tomorrow. :p
I'm in the same boat with Arklytte. They are predicting 10"-20" of snow and blizzard conditions. The last time we got pelted, we didn't lose internet or power but you never know.
I am down in Alabama and its just cold her. About 36°F right now. But ironically I am headed to northern Indiana on Thursday so I may be driving into the weather IF it hits that far West.
I hope its not too bad where you guys are