Here’s a depiction of Enyo by a way better artist than me.
GENZOMAN’s work appeared in Double Dragon Neon and he is currently working on a superhero project.
Genzoman's awesome!
Do I call Istori on speaking a human language, or...?
Do I call Istori on speaking a human language, or...?
How annoyed would you as players be if Charles just tells (most of) the truth here?
Go for it!
(Nissa was mostly honest... other than the claim to being TAROT and not a civilian who works for Greer who is really TAROT, or so I think. But I think they figured that out anyway. The bluff was to make us sound more powerful than we really were just to get them to stop threatening arrest.
At this point Nissa wants to maintain their trust, so she will be completely honest with them going forward.)
How annoyed would you as players be if Charles just tells (most of) the truth here?
@Charles,
I’m gonna hold off on posting for a day in case you want to get that truth post in now.
you do you mate.
Edited after completing a grocery run.
Don’t know how everyone else feels, but Nissa’s got mixed feelings. She wants the assistance, but doesn’t want to blow the opportunity to be World 22.
Theo feels the same.
@GM,
Your description wasn’t confusing. My narrative was. Nissa meant she wasn’t sure how she’d find the Dawnflower, not that she couldn’t walk among the plants.
I posted that how-will-I-find-Her? before you edited in the note to roll a check, so apparently a damn good roll helped!
…or so I hope. I’m picturing a bored goddess at the end of the maze: conical party hat on, empty champagne glass in hand, sitting under a WELCOME, NISSA! banner thinking, why is she sleeping next to my statue? All this planning, I cancelled my pedicure. F#!$in’ mortals and their f&&@in’ attention spans.
How to do a telekinetic duel?
I was thinking it's could be an RP thing. Ultimately, she wants to get him mad enough to let his emotions explode, so he can learn to draw from the well of power to actually lift actual weights and fling things around like a rifle.
As was taught to her by Escalation, Telekinesis is about the balance between power (emotion) and control (logic). Emotion is what you use to shove around lots of matter, and control is what you use to pick a lock from 30' away.
Verve is actually teaching him the very first lesson Escalation taught her: that it's important to let out your power sometimes, or it will let itself out.
I was thinking it's could be an RP thing. Ultimately, she wants to get him mad enough to let his emotions explode, so he can learn to draw from the well of power to actually lift actual weights and fling things around like a rifle.
As was taught to her by Escalation, Telekinesis is about the balance between power (emotion) and control (logic). Emotion is what you use to shove around lots of matter, and control is what you use to pick a lock from 30' away.
Verve is actually teaching him the very first lesson Escalation taught her: that it's important to let out your power sometimes, or it will let itself out.
Got it. I figured you were trying to rile him. There is an instructor there whose emotions might explode instead. Should be interesting.
My meditation post is already written. Just want an answer on dawnflower size before I post, more for my own visualization. I think my post works whether a dawnflower is sunflower sized or extraordinarily large.
Ah, elf-sized statues. Maybe a bit taller than elves who are a bit taller than average humans.
Cool. Posted!
I picture her landing on an actual flower, but if the statue has open hands she can go there. Else, at the statue’s feet or in the center of a ring of flowers works too.
I think landing on a flower is a great way to worship the Dawnflower. The elves meditate often by holding a flower and studying its perfect patterning.
Nice! I’ll just keep her there until a GM post prompts me to move on.
Is this a hand mirror that fits in a little purse, or a big rectangular mirror? (I’m picturing something big because of the box.)
Is this a hand mirror that fits in a little purse, or a big rectangular mirror? (I’m picturing something big because of the box.)
The mirrors are a little larger than a hand mirror.
The box was so that the creators of the mirror set can't listen in. These mirrors connect to each other, but everyone seems to suspect that World 2 will be spying on any communication through them.
Oops... was gonna delete and re-post because of the GM post.
But Theo replied to Nissa by quoting, so all good. Gotta get my daughters settled, so it might be a while before I post. (Can’t wait for this virtual school year to be over! Everyone’s sleep schedule is a mess!)
I love how Theo and Verve are flirting with each other. It's cute.
Anybody for whom life commitments or other interests are making this a good point to depart can get accidentally left behind on World 1. Your character will live among the elves and humans and monsters of World 1 happily ever after.
For those who are making the trip, what super hero allies do you have? Who is on your side in this world?
The Vermilion Vixen (secret ID: Addison Lane) and Flex Luthor are the only superhero contacts mentioned by name in the backstory.
Yes to the fire-res drink!
So Here are my thoughts as the the question of what heroes I know:
Escalation (obviously), who is kinda like a psychic version of superman (he has telekinesis which gives him super strength, flight, and invulnerability, he can read minds long distances instead of super senses) and he is more or less invulnerable to mental domination or control (it's unclear whether he actually has those powers or not, but if he does he doesn't use them very often). As far as the world knows, he's a flying super strong tank that can bounce bullets off his chest and throw tanks; he works very hard to keep it that way.
A woman called Geist who doesn't have any super powers and is something of a batman corrollery.
and then a few other sidekicks that I was (very, very briefly) in super hero group with:
Warcraft: He's a power armor sidekick of someone like Iron Man.
Aurora: A male light controller who is also something of a brawler.
Longevity: an immortal teenager who knows magic that no one actually believes is immortal (although Verve did watch him get smashed by a falling cinderblock and he was perfectly fine after the block was removed). Longevity is Geist's sidekick.
All of these supers are European, however.
I'm thinking Charles is new enough to the community (he... kind of doesn't consider himself a superhero yet, really) that he wouldn't have any. Not unless some were working in the Columbus Zoo!
I should add that the Vermilion Vixen is connected to the Ladies’ League of Justice.
I actually had a hilarious cartoon dream of this league’s founder when in grad school. “Hanna the Barbarian” looked kinda like Tara from Herculoids, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, and the dream looked like a cross between a Hanna-Barbera cartoon and my own drawing style at the time. It even had a narrator (with a deep voice) who referred to the villain’s minions as “badly drawn men in unimaginative space suits.” The villain was the Dark Amazon Queen, who joined Hanna in the end. The dream ended with the narrator announcing: “In 1971, they founded the Ladies’ League of Justice.”
(It was the only time in my life I wrote down what I dreamed—every word!—and I made it into a 4-page comic that I showed to my friends.)
So I’ll add “Hanna-Barbaric” and “Daq” as second-hand contacts, and maybe come up with names for the two gnome girls from my backstory.
Since The Olympian is all about monsters, gods, and magic; his circle of superheros tends to run more Justice League Dark.
Joseph Wesker - 'supernatural detective' and powerful medium, solves murders by talking to the victims, and an expert in magical item lore. never without his trenchcoat and bowler hat.
I’m a Wonder Woman gal.
Just played the WW: Challenge of the Amazons board game that I linked earlier in the week. My three daughters, my wife and I all played. It’s age 10+, but our 7-year-old was able to figure out the game.
I never played one of these “self-GM’ing” co-op games before. It was fun!
co-op rpg in a box games are great!
Cooperative games are fun but I've never played a self-GMing game.
It’s surprisingly effective. The way they manage player health is as “Amazon Defense.” So the island’s defense drops for areas occupied by Ares’ Servants of War, and if any Corrupted Amazons are in the palace, it’s a heavy penalty.
Our first game was a 5-player game, and we got lucky in the way that Areas kept appearing either in a hero-occupied area or an area that can be reached from a single road, so we had him down to 1 HP while we still had ~10. (You start with 20.)
Without going into detail, we had good luck from the start! The game is part luck, more strategy than luck, I think. People who reviewed the game got their butts kicked their first time, but they were playing as a party of two. Anyway, I like it. My wife and my 12-year-old find it confusing. My 7- and 10-year-old kept moving the game pieces around and making them talk and repair the island while I was putting away the cards and such.
Busy weekend, should be able to post tomorrow.
_
I’m only estimating from my map app, which has me an hour from Boston—not north though—so the Salisbury/Hampton area is about the same distance, but considering the major highways, York/Ogunquit might be more accurate. (Unless you take into account that traffic sucks in Boston.)
_
P.S.~ It only takes about 10-20 minutes to drive from Massachusetts’ northern border to Maine’s southern border, when driving along the coast. That’s why I have locations in three different states that are all about an hour north of Boston.
It's in Maine between Brunswick and Bath outside of the fictional town of Okham. I was assuming some rapid advances in travel in the 200 years between then and now. It's just off of the very haunted highway 1. I've travelled a bit in that area and like it. It's an easier location to set stuff in then Quebec Canada.
Ah, a future where driving along the East coast doesn’t take forever. I like it! And I did have a feeling we’d end up in Maine. I was thinking/hoping Rte.1!
Do they still call us Mass-holes 200 years from now?
My uncle just got a place on Cape Cod (and a boat). So my frame of reference for a ship coming in is as recent as last summer. We were out all day, and as we were heading back the ride was getting low. Some idiot tried to race us by cutting corners and learned the hard way what the buoys are for!
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I've been on a couple of boat trips out that way with educational groups when I was dating an American history teacher. It's quite a beautiful part of the country.
Perhaps Nissa didn't mean to hit them with the blades, but what happens next should probably not be described.
"Let's never discuss this," says Enyo, wiping some grey matter from her hair.
Everyone on the smaller boat is either dead or in the water. Verve has moved the boat further away in the distance. One of them seems to be swimming for it. Another is swimming for a buoy.
Nissa feels bad, but I got a kick out of this!
I was going to say that "with that roll you can decide lethal or non-lethal" but where's the fun in that?
I was going to say that "with that roll you can decide lethal or non-lethal" but where's the fun in that?
I would have chosen non-lethal, but I’m glad I wasn’t given the choice.
I love playing a good character who had never killed before and inevitably will. The circumstances for taking a life and having to process that are best shaped by an in-game experience.
I never would have come up with a back-story kill that’s anywhere near as good as:
• thanking the Kents for raising a wholesome superhero
• fearing the fate of the world and her love interest are too important for her ideals
• finding out the hard way what lethal force actually looks like
And holy crap… a natural 20 vehicular attack resulting in four gory deaths! I always thought it would be a super nova. I definitely didn’t think it would be a propeller!
• L.C. Preston - alive, no gag, tied to chair with ropes partially undone
• Moore - alive, gagged, tied to chair
• Col. Greer - dead, tied to chair, toppled
• Tripod with laser rifle - toppled, fired once
• Tripod with camera - toppled, turned off
• Screen - turned off
The three chairs were set up at one end of the container with a screen, camera, and weapon facing them. Col. Greer's chair is tipped over. He has a laser burn on the side of his head. Dr. Moore is semi-conscious. L.C. Preston is about to scream with frustration and relief. The screen and camera are now off.
I actually added the OoC part after posting. It occurred to me that there’s a lot to unpack, and from Verve’s comment, I get the feeling no one peeked, or Verve’s player didn’t.
Also, I haven’t yet mentioned (outside of the spoiler-tagged posts) how Nissa got rid of the bombs. But I’m dying to know—did you anticipate that move? It popped in my head as soon as I read about the bombs. (My post is ~30 minutes after your post that reveals the bombs.) It was really like, “Oh s+%$! Oh—I got this!” Every move I made was with Nissa’s goal of not doing something that puts L.C. in more danger.
I did consider, while the editing window was up, that I could have removed the ropes just as easily. But then the bombs would still be there and be live, and I don’t know if they were on a timer, would go off from someone no longer weighing down the chair, or what. I am 99.999% sure that moving bombs sets the timer to zero.
That container was actually one of the most intense encounters I’ve experienced! What I love is that dice really didn’t matter much (the Acro checks were probably not needed.) It was four rounds of decision-making, three of which were scary as hell. (The naive side of me felt safe while untying the ropes… then *snap!*)
I wasn't sure what your options were with the bombs, but I figured between the four of you that someone would come up with something. At the very least, you'd have figured out a way to save one of them. Teleporting Boy would have been handy, but he stayed back at Boston Theoretical.
I still don't know what you're going to do with those bombs, but I can think of a few possibilities.
I'd tell you to hang on to them, but it depends on how long you want to be Navi, really =P
I wasn't sure what your options were with the bombs, but
Yeah… that’s why I played it that way. I didn’t see another save-everybody play. Nissa has no idea how bombs work (no Eng skill) and wasn’t about to gamble with L.C.’s life.
As for getting myself out of this mess, well… I do have Fire Resistance at Lv.5 if things get desperate, but I have a couple of ideas. It’s actually not Nissa’s top priority now. While I hate to keep her out of combat, I at can RP in this state. I’ll need a full rest before I go flying through more walls though.
I'm not sure we have *anyone* with Engineering skill, so traps and bombs and stuff are always going to be problems for us...
Not necessarily always.
In this system, when you level up your INT mod, you gain a number of skill points equal to your level. In other words, unless there’s someone in the party with 18 INT, we can all have a new maxed skill next level.
I don’t think anyone should feel obligated to get a specific skill, but just throwing out there, you can learn to be good with Engineering or Computers if it’s what you want for your character.
I’m going to level +2 STR, +2 DEX, +2 INT and +1 CHA. I’m putting ranks in Culture, (which so far has been helpful with just d20+1+d6).
Engineering could come in handy. Do you want to invite another player? I like the group we have but I'm not opposed to inviting an engineer to join the team, and there may be in-game opportunities for such a character to join.