Alright everybody, welcome to Discussion! I'm ready to get this whole shebang started ASAP. That said, there are just one or two things I want you all to do before we get started. As I've mentioned to some of you, I have a process for dealing with Knowledges that is a little different than how the book does it Basically, I allow you all to take what I call Specialties; areas of study that your character should reasonably be aware of, but might be too specific or out-there to require a Knowledge skill for.
You get three Specialties, and what these allow you to do is roll for Common Knowledge, even if that information isn't ACTUALLY Common Knowledge. So, while say Special Forces Tactics aren't common knowledge, if you took that specialty you could then roll Common Knowledge for that kind of information. Depending on how relevant your Specialty is in conjunction with your background, you might get a bonus or penalty to your roll. Kristophe, for example, would receive a bonus when rolling for Special Forces tactics for places in close proximity to his home country, but would take a penalty if rolling for somewhere like Brazil. Make sense? I'd prefer them to be a little more specific than knowledge skills, but not by much; if it makes sense your character is schooled in it, take it as a Specialty. If that means you'd like to remove some Knowledge skills and mess around with skills, go ahead. Just let me know what you decide. Once everybody has done that, we'll get this show on the road. I'll get Gameplay started so you all can post in and get acquainted, but we won't get into the meat of it until this is done. Sound good?
Reporting for duty.
While I understand the concept, is there a list of knowledge subjects? Seems like all of us would have some sort of Special Forces knowledge.
My first thoughts might be:
African Black Market
Covert Operations
African Politics
If it makes to sense more practical things like weapons or tactics, let me know.
No, those would be good. Weapons knowledge I will assume you all just know, and tactics represents knowledge of OTHER groups, not those you've served with. You don't have to roll to know things about your own history and service and such.
Checking in.
Let's see... I think that SWAT Tactics or maybe Police Tactics makes sense. I'll have to think about the other two for a bit.
Okay, I think I'll trade Covert Operations for African Guerrilla Tactics.
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The only concern I have is that by making them Common Knowledge my Major Hindrance would then affect my "knowledges" too, and Jacob shtick is that he doesn't care about the world anymore but he do knows his specialty really well.
So maybe if you allow it I would look a new Major Hindrance but keep the RP part of the former as simple backstory and personality.
Now that I explained it, I thought the following Specialties:
•Explosive Devices
•Middle East Common Knowl (Basic regional,cultural, geographical et al)
•Machinery (Repairing, building and knowledge of their workings)
If they are too broad or anything, please do tell. But those are the foci I would like to take, so at least we have a basis to work around ^^
Howdy, we kill da aliens now ja?
Specialties:
European Special Forces
European Geography
Helicopters
Hey, all!
Specialties:
-Middle Eastern Flora and Fauna (comes from hard, hard experience... she knows now what cacti have water, and what cacti make you high.)
-First Aid (I had kinda a dilemma while building Jackalyn. I didn't have enough points for Medicine, and it was a bit too broad. First Aid in this case is just patching someone up enough where they don't bleed out, not enough to heal a wound or anything.)
-Terror Tactics (Jackalyn was both on the receiving end of this and completely unsubstantiated rumors say that she also dispensed some of these as well.)
Is that fine?
The only concern I have is that by making them Common Knowledge my Major Hindrance would then affect my "knowledges" too, and Jacob shtick is that he doesn't care about the world anymore but he do knows his specialty really well.
So maybe if you allow it I would look a new Major Hindrance but keep the RP part of the former as simple backstory and personality.
Now that I explained it, I thought the following Specialties:
•Explosive Devices
•Middle East Common Knowl (Basic regional,cultural, geographical et al)
•Machinery (Repairing, building and knowledge of their workings)If they are too broad or anything, please do tell. But those are the foci I would like to take, so at least we have a basis to work around ^^
Considering that you joined the iRA, you might list things like British Counter-terrorism, British Arms Dealers, British Economic Institutions, British Politics, British Army, etc.
Jacob: I will allow you to keep that Hindrance with the caveat that it DOESN'T affect your Specialties. Making ACTUAL Common Knowledge checks take that penalty, but Specialties represent fields of study, and therefore you wouldn't take the penalty. Alternately, you can take a new hindrance; either option is fine with me. Those listed are fine with me, or any Borax suggested.
Jackalyn: Those look fine to me. Much like Jacob, I think those are specific enough that
Kristophe: Your specialties look fine to me as well.
This song was originally made for Mass Effect... but it will also fit this game, I believe.
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Jacob Knowledge skills have been moved to Streetwise and Stealth. Now he IS a real ex-guerrilla fighter/ex-soldier/freelance wanderer.
@Borax: Those seem like real good ones, just not for Jacob. You see, he either doesn't care or doesn't understands the world outside his job, the region and his area of expertise.
... Spoiler: It's the former. He stopped carong long time ago.
I was just making suggestions based on your backstory. Being a member of the IRA would undoubtedly involve a lot of education on some of the things I listed. The IRA is reported as having fought the British Army and bombing economic targets. Plus, you list him out as being smart, so I guess I'm differentiating between not understanding or caring as separate from not remembering, and as you suggest, he clearly is smart enough to understand.
In any event, as long as everyone's happy with their selections, I'm ready to get underway.
Same here.
Whoa! This got moving pretty quick last night into today. I'm finishing up the dossier and finalizing the character; looks like I'm definitely our resident heavy gunner, so if there are any changes at this point they'll probably be small.
I'll have to think about Specialties though.
Actually, could we wait until the weekend's finished to give Gavril and other peeps time to finish up?
Whoa! This got moving pretty quick last night into today. I'm finishing up the dossier and finalizing the character; looks like I'm definitely our resident heavy gunner, so if there are any changes at this point they'll probably be small.
Borax is going to go the assault/leadership route. I plan on carry a big gun and may pack a shotgun when the funds present themselves.
@GM - Are there updates to the weapons? the M27 seems like a nice alternative to the SAW and would be awesome if SW provided specs on that weapon in some sort of update. Though I imagine we'll hopefully be able to utilize alien tech in true XCOM fashion.
As far as I know there are not any updated weapons charts, however as the game progresses you will find both more sophisticated human technology, as well as harvesting alien tech in order to fight on a level playing field. The tech tree I use won't be the standard Ballistics--Laser--Plasma set up, but you will get a bunch of new weapons and other equipment as the game goes on.
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I was just making suggestions based on your backstory. Being a member of the IRA would undoubtedly involve a lot of education on some of the things I listed. The IRA is reported as having fought the British Army and bombing economic targets. Plus, you list him out as being smart, so I guess I'm differentiating between not understanding or caring as separate from not remembering, and as you suggest, he clearly is smart enough to understand.
In any event, as long as everyone's happy with their selections, I'm ready to get underway.
You are completely right, I assure you. Thing is, I pictured Jacob as having gone a bit... crazy, with her wife and child dying at all. He actually is trying to take some fistance from the world, and keeping himself busy eith what he does well. That said, and were Jacob more stable yours are perfect suggestions.
Alright, I think Gavril is finished up. The dossier may seem a little short or vague, so I can expand on it if you'd like, but I think it gives all the basic information needed to give a picture of the character. Also got my specialties in my Skill list, let me know if I need to change any of them.
With the exception of Rosa picking her last two Specialties, everyone appears to be done. I'll be getting Gamplay started tomorrow after I'm out of my classes, so I'll see you all then!
Is this game still a go?
Yeah, Borax. I think Jon is just waiting for you, Kristophe, and Gavril to dot in.
Yeah, Gameplay thread is up and ready. I'm waiting for everyone to dot in and ask any questions they might have before you all land in Basra. I just realized it wouldn't show the gameplay as active until you checked it; my bad. I'm in finals week, I think it slipped my mind to say the thread was in fact up.
Huh! I am not seeing the Gameplay tab as having been updated as I am able to in other games. I had no idea there were any posts there.
I just realized it wouldn't show the gameplay as active until you checked it
I did not know this and it is odd I have never come across this in the PFS games I've played.
EDIT:
Got load of work to do and I will try and catchup and post in a couple of hours. Apologies for not clicking on the gameplay thread.
Nah, I remember saying I was going to put it up, but I don't think I ever said it was up until today. It's not a huge deal, just ask any questions you guys have and then you'll land.
So is it safe to assume we'll all have a map of the city and some sort of GPS system so we know where we are in relation to the base of operations and any other landmarks?
Borax whispers to Kristophe,
"We're in a truck, not a chopper." xD
Hey, I'm starting a Rippers game you guys are invited to come check it out.
Hey all, expect an update for this likely tomorrow evening or so; it's finals week here and I'm swamped with work. I turn in my last final at 5 PM EST, so once I get that in I'll be back to my regular schedule.
Hey all! I'm just posting this into each of my active games to let you all know that starting this Thursday, I'm going to be going on a trip to France for my university. While we're spending the first few days in Paris and the last few in Bordeaux, the majority of the trip will be renovating a chateau in the south of the country, where the Internet will probably be spotty and I won't have much time to post. I'll do my best to keep up with games, and I imagine I should be able to get up a post every few days at least, but it will probably be less active than usual. Please feel free to take control of my character for the time being! I'll be back home come June, so it's just for a few weeks.
That sounds like a great experience.
[ooc] How is it that an antisocial angry and uncaring Irishman
He got voted off his reality TV show, so he had nothing better to do :)
lolz. I see what you did there
Since I don't know how often Gavril will be on, I'm giving him until tomorrow until I roll for him and post. I sent him a message to ask, just so I'm aware of how often he thinks he'll be able to get on, so I'll have a better idea once I hear back from him.
When I GM I use two methods:
1) I ask everyone to designate another person in the party to play their character if they don't respond within 24 hours. I let players designate the GM and no player has to accept the designation if it's not wanted.
2) I have a 24 hour rule and then I just bot the character.
I am in favor of either option.
I normally do the same, I'm more curious about how often he'll be able to post at all. That said, I'll be posting up some time tonight; I imagine he's enjoying Paris, so he hasn't had a ton of time to respond, which is fine.
While this is my first time playing SW, I am a big fan of maps when feasible.
SW tends to work fairly well without maps, in my experience. I've never used them when playing, and when we get into combat I try to describe the area very well so you know where you are in relation to things. That said, if we do a combat or two and people want to use maps, I'll whip up some crappy maps on Roll20 for us to use. Sound good?
I'm use to maps from PFS. Pathfinder combat is very tactical and position oriented almost like chess. My brief review of the rules tells me SW is very different when it comes to movement, more like AD&D in which maps were not important to combat. However, it's nice to be able to see who is where and fighting whom.
From an immersion perspective, maps of a city would probably be cool, but might cause more confusion, so I'm fine with whatever you think makes sense.
Personally, I prefer google docs, mostly because they are accessible from mobile devices AND my work filter doesn't block them as it does roll20.
Would actually be pretty cool if Kristophe said this IC. We could have some good roleplay off of it.
Truth be told, I've never used Google Maps as a DM or even a player when it comes to maps, so I'd be pretty lost on it. I imagine it's simple, I'm just much more used to using Roll20; that said, I don't have a job where I could access it at work anyway, so I don't feel that particular downside. I still prefer no map for SW as I feel the rules don't require it, but I may look into creating maps of cities and such when you're exploring them on a larger scale. If you guys end up wanting maps for combat, please do let me know and I'll figure something out, either on Roll20 or Google Docs.
I don't really care about maps or not.
On the note of Hindrances, Delusional actually really fits someone who believes in aliens, even if they're real. Because the Hindrance isn't necessarily for believing something that's not true. It's about believing something that no one else believes. For example, I had a mad scientist character once who believed that evil spirits manipulated people while they slept. Anyone who heard this thought he was nuts. But for the setting he was in, evil spirits did in fact manipulate people when they slept. He was right, entirely by accident.
Doubting Thomas (Minor)
Some people don’t believe in the supernatural until they’re halfway down some creature’s gullet. Doubting Thomases are skeptics who try their best to rationalize supernatural events. Even once a Doubting Thomas realizes the supernatural exists, he still tries to rationalize weird events, following red herrings or ignoring evidence.
I read Doubting Thomas as only supernatural, not extraterrestrial. I specifically chose it because it only talks about supernatural and not extraterrestrial. I personally do not believe in the supernatural, but I do believe that extra terrestrials are possible.
If you are going to include extraterrestrial with supernatural, then I will choose another, but I would appreciate it if we could treat it as written.
Doubting Thomas is supposed to mean that if you see something that's out of the ordinary, you try to rationalize it as something normal. The core book is mostly generic, but a lot of things in it lean more toward fantasy games. There's a lot more on magic, fantasy settings, and supernatural elements as opposed to sci-fi and aliens, so the Edges and Hindrances are more written to lean toward that kind of game. Other kinds of settings change things.
Of course, that's my opinion, not an official ruling.
I don't really care about maps or not.
On the note of Hindrances, Delusional actually really fits someone who believes in aliens, even if they're real. Because the Hindrance isn't necessarily for believing something that's not true. It's about believing something that no one else believes. For example, I had a mad scientist character once who believed that evil spirits manipulated people while they slept. Anyone who heard this thought he was nuts. But for the setting he was in, evil spirits did in fact manipulate people when they slept. He was right, entirely by accident.
There are actually lots of people who believe aliens have visited our planet. There's actually a UFO community that publishes a periodic newsletter. I guess I wouldn't classify belief in extraterrestrial as technically delusional.
Hmm... if that's the way you're looking at it, that's fine with me. Personally, I was going to lump them together because of the same reason Rosa listed. Because the Core Book is generic and often geared towards fantasy in some ways, "supernatural" is a vague term, but in this context I can see how you could reasonably view them as separate. However, I like your explanation and I can see how you came to the conclusion you did, so we'll roll with it. Also, it'll be interesting to see how Borax reacts to things like psionics when they show up, as I've mentioned before.
Delusional applies to things that are usually a fringe idea, even if a lot of people believe it. For instance, even though conspiracies abound about things like JFK or 9/11, people who believe those would still be given the Delusional Hindrance because most of the population views them as crackpots, even if in your game those happened to actually be true.
Long story short, stick with Doubting Thomas.
Doubting Thomas is supposed to mean that if you see something that's out of the ordinary, you try to rationalize it as something normal. The core book is mostly generic, but a lot of things in it lean more toward fantasy games. There's a lot more on magic, fantasy settings, and supernatural elements as opposed to sci-fi and aliens, so the Edges and Hindrances are more written to lean toward that kind of game. Other kinds of settings change things.
Of course, that's my opinion, not an official ruling.
Here's the definition of supernatural
Full Definition of supernatural
1
: of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe; especially : of or relating to God or a god, demigod, spirit, or devil
I would hope our GM will separate belief in gods, spirits or devils from belief in extra-terrestrials.
Hmm... if that's the way you're looking at it, that's fine with me. Personally, I was going to lump them together because of the same reason Rosa listed. Because the Core Book is generic and often geared towards fantasy in some ways, "supernatural" is a vague term, but in this context I can see how you could reasonably view them as separate. However, I like your explanation and I can see how you came to the conclusion you did, so we'll roll with it. Also, it'll be interesting to see how Borax reacts to things like psionics when they show up, as I've mentioned before.
Long story short, stick with Doubting Thomas.
Cool. I'd love to have Borax explain himself IC, so if someone wants to explore it IC, I'll be happy to give it a go.