I'm not sure about the Rote spell. Maybe something that allows me to do some more telepathic stuff?
And shall do that now.
Devin and Oscar
Sounds good. Any particular area of interest?
Nope. Just the basics. Just trying to justify a regular guy who got sucked into a mirror dimension and can now see dark reflections of supernatural beings in disguise knowing how to make a little fireball.
Ahmad and Devin
One night, as Ahmad and Devin were walking back from a bar, they were attacked by a purist sorceress who considered Devin an annoying dilettante unworthy of calling himself a magic user. Whilst they duelled, the sorceress repeatedly mocked Devin and pointed out flaws in his technique, which eventually caused the spell-slinger to go berserk. He overpowered the sorceress with a burst of energy that threw her against a tree and broke her arm. Instead of stopping, Devin started laughing and burning things around her, purposefully just missing fireballs left and right. He finally approached her, a last fireball burning on his hand as she begged for her life -- something that made Devin even angrier. As he was about to throw the fireball against her head point-blank, Ahmad jumped in and managed to talk Devin out of murdering the woman. He might or might not have also attempted to pour some water on Devin's fireball too, but speaking was more effective.
I'm not sure about the Rote spell. Maybe something that allows me to do some more telepathic stuff?
Not sure what you mean by "more" since I don't think you have any telepathtic stuff? If you need help figuring out what you want the effects to be, let me know. There are probably a number of different moves you could base it off of depending on how you wanted to use it.
Nope. Just the basics. Just trying to justify a regular guy who got sucked into a mirror dimension and can now see dark reflections of supernatural beings in disguise knowing how to make a little fireball.
How to make a little fireball for normal people: pour Fireball into a shot glass. Optionally, drop a match in (should probably work since it's a whiskey, right?).
He might or might not have also attempted to pour some water on Devin's fireball too, but speaking was more effective.
Ha! I love this detail.
***
I also now have a gameplay post up. I angled all of you towards one of two locations, but you're free to ignore that and go somewhere else if you so desire (or to go to the location that isn't the one I angled you towards).
That kind of fireball burns a lot better with a splash of 151 on top ;-)
Thankfully, Rani has no real idea about alcohol because neither do I. So she'd need to cast fireball with ghost chillis or the like.
If either of the two people who haven't posted yet would prefer to be in the car with Taryn instead of what I threw at you, that's a fine entry point as well.
Apologies for the delay. Work was hectic yesterday. Plus, I'm watching two small kids during social distancing while my wife is an essential worker, so sometimes things get even more hectic. I had read your first, spoilered post shortly after you made it, but I didn't have time right away to post. But I had already come up with what I generally wanted to write in the 48 hours since then, so I adapted it to the restaurant converging point and posted it.
That's fine. Real life gets busy sometimes. :-)
I will be away from the computer tomorrow and saturday. Should be able to post anyway, but if I go silent Ahmad will follow Rani and Alfie
Seems like nothing in gameplay requires a GM response currently since it looks like y'all are headed to regroup.
@Taryn: I think you can get away from the deputies no problem; the arriving folk don't really know what the situation is and Orwell's not about to give chase. You're free to meet up with people at the restaurant or to do something else entirely if you want.
@Rani: Have you decided on your rote spell yet? I'd like to have that decided relatively soon.
Also, in case anybody's wondering about Devin, I PMed him shortly after posting on Sunday but haven't heard anything back yet. I'll give him until the weekend to see if he shows up.
I think we'll go with the Finding/Sensing spell she mentioned earlier. If she has an item of a person she can sense them within a certain range, otherwise she pings everyone in that area.
Do I know they're at the diner?
I think we'll go with the Finding/Sensing spell she mentioned earlier. If she has an item of a person she can sense them within a certain range, otherwise she pings everyone in that area.
Ok, so it sounds like one requirement is an object of power (item that belonged to the person) which must be wielded. You need to pick one more from this list:
- Magic words and ritual gestures.- An expendable component such as sulfur, sage, or incense, which must be burned, blown, or scattered during the casting. (or you could make this the item belonging to the person, burn it in the process, and then also require an item of power, which would probably be your book)
- Runes or symbols written or engraved on a surface (which must be prepared).
- A spilling of blood, which inflicts 1-harm upon you or a willing participant.
Then seems like the results might be something like
10+: You know exactly where the target is
7-9: You get a general location
Miss: Someone in that location learns exactly where you are
Thoughts?
Do I know they're at the diner?
You probably do not know they're specifically at the restaurant, but if you decide to follow the smell of tasty food, you could very quickly discover that. It is around lunch time.
I think I prefer Magic Words and Gestures. Rani is not a subtle person.
Ok, so magic words and gestures and then the focus item that belonged to the person. Sounds good!
At this point, I think it's safe to say Devin isn't going to show up. It should be easy enough just to say he never showed up in town.
Also, let me know if you guys want me to set the scene for the sheriff's office. I'm perfectly happy to let you do free-form roleplay if you want, but I also don't want you to feel like I'm ignoring you or anything.
A quick note on how I've structured law enforcement in Sioux Falls that may or may not be true to real life:
- Deputies are the lowest ranking. They're the equivalent of uniformed police officers. They're the ones more likely to do things like patrolling, guarding, or handing out parking tickets.
- Lieutenants are the middle rank and are roughly the equivalent of police detectives. They're the ones likely to run investigations.
- Sherriff is at the top of the law enforcement for the entire town. There's just the one and as mentioned, he does more administrative/organizational work unless it's relatively high profile. Sherriff is also an elected office.
The overall department is probably on the order of 20-30 people with deputies making up 2/3 to 3/4 of them.
Rani was mildly relieved that the officer seemed to believe the child was safe. Or at least claimed the child was safe. It would be unreasonably stupid to lie, after all - if the child was missing it would look terrible for the police - but Rani tried to see if there was any sign she might know something more.
[dice=Read a Bad Situation]2d6 -
@Rani: Can you elaborate on what you were trying to do? I'm not seeing how Read a Bad Situation would be an appropriate move to make. If you're just trying to tell if she's lying, unfortunately, there is no Basic Move that will allow you to do that (and none of the questions for Read a Bad Situation really point towards letting you know if she's lying).
• What’s my best way in?
• What’s my best way out?
• Are there any dangers we haven’t noticed?
• What’s the biggest threat?
• What’s most vulnerable to me?
• What’s the best way to protect the victims?
[Read a Bad Situation] is for when a hunter goes into a situation they know is hostile — e.g. when they know the monster’s in this house somewhere. It can also be used in the middle of a dangerous situation, if the hunter needs some more tactical information.
For example, if Taryn had wanted to case the construction site before trying to sneak in, that would have been Read a Bad Situation.
Sorry I was unclear. My plan was to ask if she was hiding something if I rolled a 12+. If I rolled a lower number, I would have added a paragraph about not being able to read her, and gone 'Any Dangers' instead. Since I failed utterly I didn't bother writing the second section.
You don't get the 12+ result on moves unless you've picked to mark the move as Advanced as one of your playbook's Advanced Improvements. None of you have leveled up yet let alone leveled up enough to start picking from Advanced Improvements. I probably should have mentioned earlier that the "Advanced" section on the cheat sheets isn't something you automatically get, so sorry about that!
Even then, trying to figure out if she's lying still isn't really triggering the move. In order for it to be a bad situation, there needs to be a threat. The only current threat is the law enforcement officers, and they're only a threat if you're trying to unlawfully enter the crime scene area.
I would say if you really want the XP, you would need to change it to casing the place in preparation for sneaking in later (or helping someone sneak in), in which case I'll also come up with a consequence for your failure. Otherwise, I think it was an unnecessary roll, and you'll need to undo the XP.
Not a problem, dropped the XP. I'll be a little more cautious in the future.
Ok, sounds good! And I wouldn't worry too much about "being more cautious"; I expect there to be some hiccups, especially early on, in terms of disagreements about what would or would not trigger something. As long as we're talking through these things, I'm happy. :-)
I’m still struggling a bit with how much freedom we can take with the narrative, places and npcs. Is it ok to just create places like the coffeeshop or the empty playground? I’m also assuming that Provost is going along with it to avoid too much back and forth, but not sure if I should do that.
Feel free to let me know if/when I overstep boundaries (and apologies in advance!)
It's generally ok to create places and NPCs within reason. Admittedly, I may need to alter some details and we might have different ideas of what "within reason" means, but that's where being willing to talk things through comes into play. In this case, I told you your condition for your Manipulate was a private location, so it's reasonable to assume such a location existed and that Provost would be willing to follow you there. Otherwise, what was the point of me giving you that condition? I did say that I didn't think a coffee shop would qualify as "private" enough but it's not like you suggested something outlandish was nearby. Saying "there is no empty playground" would have only served to introduce more back and forth as you tried to find some other location that would qualify.
It's a balancing act that's probably a bit easier in a face-to-face game where there can be some quick back and forth. But so long as the players and GM keep open lines of communication, I think it will generally work out fine. Plus you're always free to ask in Discussion if you're not sure of something.
If you would like to sneak in, you should go ahead. You attempting to do so won't automatically bar Taryn from also trying and if you both succeed, you're in a position to more easily aid each other with anything you do in the construction site.
If you both end up rolling 6s/9s on your Act Under Pressure and Alfie wants to attempt to Help Out both of you, that will be two separate Help Out rolls though.
In general, I don't think people should necessarily feel a need to wait on others. There no real reason why you can't split up and do multiple things at once (splitting the party is nowhere near the bad idea it tends to be in PF/D&D).
You're right, of course, but I was worried about stealing her limelight, since sneaking in was her idea.
No worries on that front :-)
@Rani: It's up to you if you're trying to help Ahmad or if you are independently trying to manipulate the crowd.
He pieces together what information he has of the murder to try to find the murder site. A murdered girl, a werewolf, and policemen willingly trying to ignore the facts
It seems there may be some misunderstandings going on here that I'd like to clear up. Or at least, I want to make sure that it's clear 2/3 of these things are opinions/assumptions and the 3rd seems to be a misunderstanding (opinions/assumptions are fine; I just want to make sure you realize they're opinions/assumptions since there's at least one misunderstanding in there).
- "A murdered girl": If you're referring to Alice, you have no idea what happened to her. If you're referring to the murdered person at the construction site, you know nothing about that because Ahmad hasn't shared the details of what he found (but also, the murdered person is male).
- "A werewolf": This is an assumption
- "Policeman willingly trying to ignore the facts": This is an opinion
You can very easily find the site of the crime, but I'm unclear on how you're using that to try to tune in to anything. Can you elaborate? Specifically, you live in a world of monsters and minions. How are you determining the "correct" one to tune into?
He's mostly trying to rely on the policemen he just saw, since he knows exactly who they are, but he's also keeping the other leads he has in mind. If that's enough information (and not too much misinformation) to work with, he can locate the monster. If not, or if the policemen he saw don't have any real connection to the murder, then we have a problem.
He's mostly trying to rely on the policemen he just saw, since he knows exactly who they are, but he's also keeping the other leads he has in mind. If that's enough information (and not too much misinformation) to work with, he can locate the monster. If not, or if the policemen he saw don't have any real connection to the murder, then we have a problem.
Which policeman? Lt. Christina Provost who went off to talk with Ahmad briefly? Deputy Jessie Golding who is helping guard at front? The not-yet-named other deputy with Golding? All three of those you've seen recently/in the same spot. Or do you mean some other officer? And what exactly is he doing to go from the officer to try to find a monster? Is he attempting to tune into the officer themself? Is he following them around to see if they meet up with someone he thinks is sketchy? Doing something else? Just saying "I think this person is connected to something" isn't enough unless you give a narrative explanation for what constitutes a "connection". Like, if you thought they summoned a demon and made a contract, you could say there was a visible connection tying them together through the binding of that magic. Or if you believed they were themselves a werewolf and wanted to say there was a connection between them and their sire.
If "the policemen he just saw and spoke to" isn't specific enough, then there's not much else to do, since he just isn't aware of things like that right now. Would it be possible to get the luck point back to try again later?
So you're just looking at all police in the construction area? Because yes, that is going to be too vague in this situation. If you don't have anything more concrete than that I think it's best just to roll back that roll, which yes, means you get your Luck point back.
Oh, as more general note, I think I mentioned that you can use Luck to turn a fail into a 12. I may have forgotten to mention that the other use of Luck is to decrease a wound you just suffered to 0-harm.
The deputies on guard duty, apparently only interested in keeping people from climbing over the fence, didn't bother him on his careful trek around. It appeared that he had been correct in guessing that the smaller set of tracks had circled around the site from some distance before approaching from the east and then withdrawing without entering. He was also able to find where the larger set initially approached from: the northwest. Finally, he came to the western side of the site. Here he found the only set of tracks that seemed to come out of the area. Whomever they belonged to seemed to have climbed the fence from the inside, jumped down, and taken off west, in the direction of the forest. Upon finishing his circuit and finding no other signs of exit, the only conclusion he could come to for the smaller set of tracks was that whomever they belonged to was still in the construction area somewhere.
I want to make sure I understand: There are two sets of tracks being talked about, right? The larger and the smaller sets.
- The larger set approached from the northwest, and this is the same set that left the site by climbing the fence and heading off west into the forest.- The smaller set of tracks approached the site, circled around to the other side, and then left without going in. But your last sentence in what I quoted above is that the smaller set is somehow still in the area. So, outside of the police tape, but still nearby?
Larger set is correct.
The smaller set did two things:
- Circled the site, approached the fence but withdrew without seeming to enter/climb the fence. Then went off somewhere.
- Came into the area again, entered the site from the taped off entrance, and have not shown any sign of having left
Not sure if anybody has further stuff they wanted to do at the construction site (possibly meet up and share some info?), but have people started to think about where they might want to head/what they might want to do next?
Work has really ramped up for me the past couple of days. I should be able to post on Friday.
One of Alfie's goals is to interview the girl or anyone else who might have died because of the attack. Could I rely on Taryn's sense of smell (having smelled the blood) to lead me to the victim?
No worries, Oscar! We all get busy sometimes.
Speaking of, I'm doing GenCon Online next week, so I'm going to be too busy to post Thursday through Sunday.
As to following the victim, if you talked to Ahmad, he'd be able to tell you the victim's body was taken away for an autopsy. The most likely place for it to be is the law enforcement morgue, which is in the basement of the law enforcement office building. The body is also not necessarily where the spirit is though it makes sense to say that the two are linked in some fashion.
I also want to make a few things clear since there seems to be some confusion on it
- You have no evidence the little girl/Alice is dead.
- You have no evidence the little girl/Alice is in any way related to the "wild animal attack" at the construction site.
It's fine if your character wants to make assumptions related to this, but be aware that they are assumptions. You are absolutely free to speculate and hypothesize all you want, but you might be wrong. I just don't want you as players thinking that something is an established fact when it's not. If you believe I have said something establishing those things as fact, then if you point to what lead you to that conclusion, I can say more plainly what I was trying to get across to hopefully clear up any misunderstandings.
Just a reminder that starting tomorrow, I'm not going to have a chance to post until Monday. It would be good if you all decided what you're doing next and had that posted by Monday, so I have something to respond to. Remember that you don't all have to do the same thing, and if you're specifically waiting on someone to do/say something and it's been a day or two, you should make it clear that you're waiting on that. Also a reminder that if you're ever completely at a loss about how to proceed, you should post in Discussion saying so. Either I or one of the other players is bound to have some ideas we could toss at you.
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Hello all -- apologies for my silence. I sprained my wrist last week and was avoiding writing/using the computer, since it was a bit painful and I didn't want to make it worse. Things are much better now, though, and I'll have something up tomorrow.
Ouch, Ahmed. That sucks. Glad it's feeling better.
I may or may not be a touch slower the next couple of days - it's my daughters birthday today and my wife's tomorrow, so these days are traditionally a little busy.
“I know the sheriff and his ex-wife, though, so I guess we could just drop by. Mum might be there already.”
Quick correction: The sheriff is happily married. His daughter, Alice's mother, is divorced.
@GM: thanks for the correction. Sorry about that. Also, completely unrelated: did you actually nest spoilers on your latest post? Teach me your ways =)
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I did indeed nest spoilers! Though I cannot take credit for figuring it out since I think I found it while googling. Basically, the outer level needs a label while the inner one needs to not have a label, so something like
<spoiler=A label>Some text
<spoiler>No label</spoiler>
</spoiler>
But with square brackets instead of angled ones.
Unrelated, do y'all want me to make some kind of an NPC doc where you can add notes? I have my own personal set, but I can make a quick write up without the GM-specific details if you want.
Ah, that's nice. Shame it doesn't support labelling, but it can definitely come in handy.
Regarding NPC sheet: I'm fine either with it or without. I'm a bit busy at the moment and wouldn't be able to take the responsibility of keeping it up-to-date.
I'd prefer it. To be honest, I'm finding it difficult to remember my...uhh...the thingy people use to refer to me? That. I can barely remember that these days. Something I can look up would be super helpful.
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Had a bit of a rough day, so between that and being behind on work, I may not get a chance to update this until Friday. But I did throw together a quick NPC summary sheet. Feel free to edit it (and let me know if you can't access it or edit it, though I think I've set the permissions correctly).
Thank you. Permissions look good.
I can see it. Thanks for putting it together.
Yeah, Taryn was not remotely forthcoming in telling you her plan (feel free to chastise her IC later ;-) ). And you are correct that she's attempting to be sneaky rather than yelling. It just seemed like you were waiting to see if she got in trouble, and I was trying to point out that you might not be able to hear that from where you are.
Yes, your characters don't know that that's where Taryn is going. While avoiding meta-knowledge is good, I could still see the two of you justifying either trying to get to the morgue anyway or going to do something else by changing what assumptions your characters make. Maybe your characters think Taryn's ditched you, so now you need to get to the morgue yourselves. Or maybe you think Taryn's got it under control, and you want to go off and do something else. Basically, I'm trying to avoid both you and Alfie's player feeling like you have to sit around and wait for Taryn to pop up again before you can do anything else.
So I guess the question is, what do you the players want to pursue and what is stopping you from pursuing that course of action (other than Dep Thompson)? If you feel like your characters need to know what Taryn's doing to move out of a holding pattern, do you have ideas on how I might indicate that in character? Because all my ideas are more things that I'd do if Taryn fails a roll and there's nothing about disappearing into a duct system that screams "went to the morgue" to me. Alternatively, if one of you would have liked to have followed her when she dashed into the ducts, we can say that you did. Or both of you could have followed, but then the grate on this side isn't going to be put back in place.
Or if you both just really want to hang around, I can have something happen in the lobby for you to potentially interact with.