OK, I've got the following XP: 3 from rolls, 3 from meeting challenges with violence (Wally, the Lampblacks, and shooting the Skovs), and one from playing to Lolo's Skov heritage/obligation, where she bought what the rival Skovs were saying hook, line, and sinker (and would have been more circumspect were they not her people). So a total of 7.
I'm going to roll to remove stress. So I roll my worst attribute if I understand correctly, which is Resolve (1). So I roll 1d6?
Down to 5 stress. As for how Lolo indulges, she has the obligation vice, so she'll be spending time with her former workmates and their families, doing nice stuff for them. Long term, I'd like this turn into her becoming a union boss (a totally corrupt one, of course). @GM this seems like a long term project that we should discuss more? She'll start by organizing shipwrights that are still employed, and using that organization to place her old crewmates who have all been blacklisted back into work (the ones that lived anyways). Then she'll use her powerbase to recruit union members for "extra" work as needed for the Mites. This all seems pretty far down' the line though, so she may not need to make any rolls this time around. She's just beginning to toss around the idea.
@ Jonah, woah. Gotta think how Lolo's going to react to this bit of information :)
GM: For Jonah's second Downtime activity, he'll spend it studying and working to develop ways to keep her from going feral. I'm assuming this will be some kind of clock or maybe series of clocks and assets to acquire.
I'm thinking a first step could be through a bit of small time blackmail, Jonah is able to get a professor at Charterhall University to give him a pass to the university library. (The professor is currently in a 'relationship' with Jonah's friend Nyryx.) With library access, he can at least get a start digging into possible solutions to Naty's problem.
OOf, I'm sorry for not posting for most of this week!
@Lolo - you can only get 2 XP per "item", excpet for making desperate rolls which I've capped at 3. You're right on how removing stress works, roll your weakes attribute.
Nope, I was down to 3 stress by the time we were done. Almost went down to 1 there at the end, but didn't need to.
I'm not sure I cpmletely understand what you're saying, but if your roll is MORE than the amount of stress you were trying to remove, then you have overindulged. Since you rolled a 6, if you had LESS than 6 stress then this rule applies. I hope that's clear, let me know if not.
I'm going away for the weekend but will get us up and running again on MOnday.
"Okay, that's what I thought. With only 3 stress left, I'm not going to resist at this point. I'll just take the less effect from here on."
When we wrapped up, I was at 3 stress left out of 9 to start. Not 5. I nursed that 3 for quite some time and did not resist at one point because I could have gone below 0 very easily. So the 6 rolled brings me back up to full, not over.
@Lolo - you can only get 2 XP per "item", excpet for making desperate rolls which I've capped at 3. You're right on how removing stress works, roll your weakes attribute.
OK, 6 xp it is! I've still got to figure out how to spend it.
@Jonah - I'm really sorry, I misread what you were saying. When you were saying you've got 3 left, you meant you were at 6/9 stress but I read it the other way round, my bad. Sorry. As you were :)
In terms of what you want to do, I agree that it looks like a series of long-term projects. You get into the library jsut fine, but it's not easy to find books on what you want. So, you can decide: do you want to try and cover your tracks and make it hard for peopel to discover what you're researching, or is speed more important? If you approach yuor research in a roundabot way then you need to fill a 6-clock in order to find something useful. If you're more intersted in getting results, then it's probably just a 4-clokc but there's a much higher chance that you get discovered. Let me know which one you want to go for :)
@Lolo, if you want ideas on how to proceed then let me know.
@Casia and Fin - any idaes for what you want to do with your downtime?
No worries. :)
As for the research clock, I think I'll take the more careful route for now. I certainly want to avoid attention as much as possible, for as long as possible. So that would be a six-clock. I'm assuming a Study roll. Do I get a bonus 1d because Nyryx is helping me?
Sorry for being so slow with the posting lately. I've had to find a new job, which takes up time and energy from fun things :(
I'll post something on Monday and try to be more reliable than I have been up to this point. Apologies to my fellow players and special apologies to our GM.
I'm glad you are still with us:-) tbf I have found posting difficult the last 6-8 weeks, part of that is pain stuf but part is just GMing is tricky! I've taken a breather and will try to post more this week.
OK, so downtime activities. First up, indulge vice (luxury)
...you have GOT to be kidding me. Sigh. OK, that takes me down to 4 stress. Hopefully the next score is easier (lol).
For the future, I want to start a long-term project: find the b*tch who ruined my sister's life. All I have is a name (probably fake) and a vague description, so this is not going to be easy.
For now though, we probably raised a LOT of heat so I'm going to spend my second downtime action on reducing heat. Remind me how I do that?
FYI, still here, just walloped at work.
Good luck with the job hunt, Finraeth!
Thanks for checking in, Lolo.
@Fin - yes, that is a good point, we do need to finish that stuff.
So, everyoe got paid. You also get 5 Rep
QUESTION: do you give 1 coin to the Crows as tribute? Or are you pissing them off as well as the Lamps and the Sashes? I'm good eieither way.
Next we do HEAT. I'm going to do it a bit different from the RAW and you only get heat for stuff you did. Otherwise if I add bodies to the kill count that aren't anythign to do with you that is a bit much. That said, you definitely killed some people (2 Haet) and you unleashed a frikin ghost inside the Lampblack HQ and brought downt the wrath of the dimmer sisters (louud and chaoti, high expossure, 4 HEat) so that's 6 Heat. YOu already took 2 Heat from a flashback, so that's 8 Heat total. Any more heat and you take a Wanted level and things get more complicated.
To reduce heat, tell me what you do and roll an action roll. Reduce heat according to the result: 1-3: one, 4/5: two, 6: three, critical: five.
Next is entanglements
Usual suspects.
SOMEBODY needs to volunteer one of their contacts to be grabbed and questionsed by the Bluecoats. Let me know who makes the most sense fot that :)
Once we have some answers i will play it out in the game and we can move on.
Still here. :)
Cas never wants to see Desmona again, but if she finds out that Fin is trying to locate her, she'll - reluctantly - assist. She's actually terrified of seeing her again. Her heart still hasn't recovered and there's a big ol' mess of tangled feelings regarding the woman.
As far as her two downtime activities:
She'll indulge in her favorite vice to reduce stress and she'll seek out someone to heal her harm. However, it doesn't look like we have anyone in the group to deal with that, so can she find an NPC that would do the job?
If I'm reading everything correctly, that will reduce her stress by 2.
---
I'll volunteer Casia's friend, Frake (a locksmith) to be the patsy for the Bluecoats and hope he doesn't give up anything incriminating. :)
No worries. :)
As for the research clock, I think I'll take the more careful route for now. I certainly want to avoid attention as much as possible, for as long as possible. So that would be a six-clock. I'm assuming a Study roll. Do I get a bonus 1d because Nyryx is helping me?
I'm going to say yes it's a study roll but no to the extra dice. Nyryx likes you but with the best will in the world she's not a scholar. BUT - if you could get Finraeth to assit you, on the other hand? *That* mgiht be worth somthing.
Still here. :)
Great! :D
Cas never wants to see Desmona again, but if she finds out that Fin is trying to locate her, she'll - reluctantly - assist. She's actually terrified of seeing her again. Her heart still hasn't recovered and there's a big ol' mess of tangled feelings regarding the woman.
I'm torn between "Awwwww" and "heheheheheh" - I think that maens I'm a bad person but a good GM?
As far as her two downtime activities:
She'll indulge in her favorite vice to reduce stress and she'll seek out someone to heal her harm. However, it doesn't look like we have anyone in the group to deal with that, so can she find an NPC that would do the job?
You don't hve any harm to worry about - I decided to be nice (it won't last) and tell you that your Shaken will go with a decent night's sleep. So you have a downtime action still to use up :)
If I'm reading everything correctly, that will reduce her stress by 2.
Yes
---
I'll volunteer Casia's friend, Frake (a locksmith) to be the patsy for the Bluecoats and hope he doesn't give up anything incriminating. :)
well, well, well.
Cas never wants to see Desmona again, but if she finds out that Fin is trying to locate her, she'll - reluctantly - assist. She's actually terrified of seeing her again. Her heart still hasn't recovered and there's a big ol' mess of tangled feelings regarding the woman.I'm torn between "Awwwww" and "heheheheheh" - I think that maens I'm a bad person but a good GM?
Not sure, but I think that if they get their face-to-face ... to quote Jane Cobb; 'That'll be an interesting day.'
You don't hve any harm to worry about - I decided to be nice (it won't last) and tell you that your Shaken will go with a decent night's sleep. So you have a downtime action still to use up :)
Does that apply to her 'Harm: Frightened (2)' as well?
Yes, a night or two of sleeping and Caisia should be fine, as much as she ever is :)
QUESTION: do you give 1 coin to the Crows as tribute? Or are you pissing them off as well as the Lamps and the Sashes? I'm good eieither way.
I vote that we give the Crows 1 Coin - between the Lampblacks, the Red Sashes and the Bluecoats plus the Grinders of course, we have enough enemies already!
If anyone disagrees, let me know.
To reduce heat, tell me what you do and roll an action roll. Reduce heat according to the result: 1-3: one, 4/5: two, 6: three, critical: five.
OK, well my best action is skirmish but I don't see that as being terribly helpful for reducing heat - picking fights seems to be more likely to attract attention than anything else.
I'm going to use my Consort action - did you say there are some Bluecoats who drink at the local tavern? If I buy a round or two of drinks and generally schmooze them, that might make them a bit less suspicious of us (I hope!).
OK. -2 Heat, not bad. It might be a good idea for someone else to do a Reduce Heat action as well, though. We've accumulated quite a lot...
1 coin sounds fine to me. I can reduce heat. I don't have my book with me. Is the amount of heat reduced 1d6-3?
To reduce heat, tell me what you do and roll an action roll. Reduce heat according to the result: 1-3: one, 4/5: two, 6: three, critical: five.
I get not wantint to use skirmish btw but one of the examples in the rulebook is someone using Wreck, smashing windosws and stuff to keep people intimidated. It would be a bit ooc for Fin to do that, imho.
Ah, thanks GM. Lolo will use her contacts in the shipbuilding industry to get to relatives who are Bluecoats in some way that I haven't decided totally on yet. I'll get a post up in gameplay when I figure that part out.
For completeness so i can make sure I have everything everone is doing.
CASIA
3 stress
No harm
Downtima activities: reduce stress
@Casia - you still have 1 activity avialbel because you don't need to heal :)
FIN
4 Stress
Level 1 harm (splinted nose)
Downtime activities: reduce stress, reduce heat
JONAH
0 Stress
Level 1 harm (dazed)
Downtime activites: reduce stress, study long term project
@JOnha - I still need a Study roll from you for that clock
LOLO
3 stress
0 harm
Downtime activites: reduce stress, reduce heat
I will resolve that stuff and push us forward tomorrow. I hpe you all had a good weekedn :)
Oh yes. Sorry about that. I think for now, Jonah would give things a try on his own, but he may be back to ask for help next time.
Quick question, does helping someone on their downtime activity use up your own DT activity?
I think I'll spend 1 coin to bump that up to the next level. The RP will be hiring a willing student to help him better understand the library cataloging system and tutor him a bit on the more archaic library collections.
So final result would be two ticks on the clock.
In downtime you can do lots of things if no dice are needed - like, you can socialise, Fin can get his ghostbeane charm repaired, that sort of thing.
But if you need to make a dice roll for it - indulge vice, reduce heat, work on a project - then you get 2 actions. Helping someone else on their probject would mean rolling dice so it would use a DT action.
OK, good use of 1 Coin. With the 1 Coin given to the Crows that means the team has 8 coin left.
I *knew* Id' forgotten something - the faction turn. Various stuff goes on that you don't need to worry about, but some things do affect you:
The Crows are pleased you paid your tribute. They go from 0 to +1
The Lamps and Sashes are not pleased you acted against them and then bragged about it. They have a rep to maintain. But you did work for them and did it well so while their leaders may not love you, there's enough goodwill remaining to tide you over. For now. No change, you were at +1 and you stay at +1. For now.
The Grinders reallly dislike you now. They acted against you, you turned the tables on them, shot a couple of them dead and walked away free. They go from -1 to -2. Big trouble ahead.
The Bluecoats are still at -2. They strongly dislike you but you didn't to anythig especially to piss them off this time around. Try and keep it that way?
20 JANUARY, 847 I.E. (IMperieal Era)
The door to Frake's shop (the legit one he keeps as a sideline) flies open and Seargent Gurt walks in, flanked by two of his more trusted Bluecoats. Gurt pushes Frake to one side, up against a wall while his underlings secuer the place and push the few clients out of the building. Once the place is secure, Gurt gives a nod and a hooded figure steps in, throwing back her cloak once she is indoors to reveal the slitted eyes and horned brows of a Tycherosi. Her gazze locks wth the luckless locksmith.
"I'm Magistrate Elanda. I have a few questions I'm hoping you can answer." She nods at sergeant Gurt, who punches Frake in the gut several times, dropping the man to the floor wheezing in pain. Elanda continues as if nothing has happened. She pulls out a parchment, with pen and ink. "I'm going to write down what you say, but not exactly what we do, do you understand? Good. Because I understnad that the seargeant here has a trick that he does with a cheese grater. I hope you will be sensible about this, Mr Frake. Just over a month ago, one of our buildings was broken into and a Bluecoat was shot dead. Which is embarrasing enough, but the thieves took a file that we are interested in getting back." The Magistrate pauses for a moment, her slitted eyes staring at the locksmith without blinking for several moments to let him take everything in. "Now I'm going to aske you what you know about this, and please, Mr Frake, remember what I said about the cheese grater."
Frake has soeme good qualities. But he is not a brave soul. Clutching at his stomach where Gurt hit him, he looks up at the magistrate. "There's - there's a girl, a young woman I should say. Word is she - she might know somthing about it. I don't know her name, I don't, I don't! I swear I don't. But she goes by the name of Spit. I swear that's it, that's everything, oh gods please." He shuts his eyes, but nothing happens. When he opens them again, the shop is empty.
Niiice :)
I take it this is like a "cutscene" that you're showing us but we aren't actually there when it happens?
As far as experience goes, it looks like Cas mirrors her brother. 3XP from desperate rolls. 2XP from addressing challenges with stealth/evasion. 1XP from expressing beliefs/background. 1XP from her vice.
She'll dump 6 points into Prowess, gaining a dot in Skirmish. The remaining point will accumulate in Special Abilities.
I'm sorry for the long silenec, it's the runup to Xmas and I'm *swamped* - I'll get a post up tomorrow to get us moving again, regaredless of whether WW has posted or not.
I'm sorry to all for being RUBBISH the last few months, especial apologies to our GM. I'm still here and still around and will do my best to get back to a more regular posting schedule over the holidays.
In the meantime, merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all. I hope you all get to have a little down time and relaxation over the next few days. Cheers.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all!
Happy new year, hoep your 2022 has started better than mine (horible cold, been around too many people, but at leat it's not covid)! I'll move us on again later this week once i have sorted my workload out.
Happy New Year! Sorry to hear you've been sick, GM. Hope you're feeling better soon!
Thanks :) Better now
Quick question (if somewhat late in the day perhaps): what do we know about the Grinders without having to do any research? Is there some common knowledge?
I'd say that the info on the Grinders that you'd find in the BitD rulebook is not secret - but whehther *your* charcter would know it is up to you :)
OK, that makes sense. I think Finraeth's business is in knowing things, but in a more academic sense; he's not particularly streetwise (yet). I'd say this is someone else's specialist area, particularly given that the Grinders appear to be a Skovlandic gang.
So it looks like we need to first try and find Hutton's house. Survey seems like it would be useful for casing it once we find it. Hunt or maybe Consort (Jonah unfortunately has neither) to dig up where he's living? I could ask my prostitute friend, Nyryx if she has a line on the Grinders and where Hutton might sleep outside of whatever HQ they have. Would that be a Sway roll or still Consort?
Or are we skipping all of that and going straight to the Engagement Roll?
It's your call, whichevr soudnds more fun :) If you want it to be an investigation then we can roll a series of actions, maybe put the spotlight on Lolo for a bit if she wants it? Play up the former docker looking for info from old contacts while the rest of you back her up or chase your own paths for options. Or we can skip it and go to the engagement roll wich will tell us after the fact whether your info was worth waht you paid for it :)
BitD handles etither way, so it really is up to you. If you wnat to "lean in" to the investigating then it lets you do that. If you'd rather cut to teh action, it lets you do that too!
While I like the idea of an engagement roll, and then filling in any gaps using flashbacks as needed, that could end up being quite high in stress cost. My vote would be to run it as a more conventional investigation/gather information challenge.
With 5 stress to start, I'm for avoiding as much stress as is possible at this time :)
Would hunt be of use in talking to old docker friends? Or would that be consort?
Other things we could do:
* woo one of the Grinders try to get information on where Hutton lives
* kidnap one of the Grinders get information on where Hutton lives, release the Grinder after the job is done.
Sounds like we're going for the investigation route.
As a back up to Lolo's Consorting/Hunting, since the rest of us know what at least one of the Grinders looks like, we could fan out and Survey (I'm thinking Survey because Consort might draw more attention, but that's just me :) .) the docks to spot her and potentially get a bead on their HQ by following her. If we locate the HQ it seems possible to pick up Hutton and track him back home.
I like that in principle, but given the number of people in the docks we'd be trying to find a needle in a room full of needles. As an alternative, maybe a Consort roll to find out where the Grinders hang out in their spare time, and then a Hunt roll to follow one of them from there to the leader's house?
For finding the man's location, Casia can only offer Survey. She wouldn't have any hesitation in asking around and following various people as needed. Completely unaware that various ... unsavory types ... know her by her alias. :(
This is great, you're oding my job for me :D
I agree that fanning out trying to spot one person in the docks is a big ask, espcily if you don't want to draw too much attention. I'd allow a consort roll to discover where the Grinders go to drink - you could even make that roll from outside the docks - but I think you need some sort of action while you're hanging around waiting to follow the right person. Either something to stay hidden (Prowl?) or something taht persuades people you belong (Sway? Another consort roll? Some sort of attune based Jedi mind trick?).
Once teh right person has showed up, I agree it's probly a Hunt roll to follow them.
GM, would hunt be useful in talking with old docker friends? As in, Lolo is "hunting" them down again, many of her shipwright contacts having been blacklisted from business (at least the ones she worked with)?
Or should I go with consort?
I think action rolls are for things that are tricky. I think looking up ofld friends, unless they don't want to be found, is probly not even a roll. I mean it might take a few days but you'd eventualy find them and nothing too much would go wrong in the process. Trying to get something from them might need a roll.
In the interst of time I'm going to fast forward. It's 3 Feb and you've managed to locat one of your old friends. I'll let you set the secene and the conversation and then we'll decide what/if you need to roll anything beyond that.
If anyone else weants to do anything, go for it. Post where you are and what you're doing and we'll play it out form there.
So here's an idea for what Jonah might be doing while Lolo searches for her contacts. Could he spend time enchanting a deck of cards? The first layer would be to subtly divert the attention away from anyone using the deck. Not make them invisible or anything but make them...less interesting or beneath notice. That way the four of us could be hanging out in the tavern waiting for a contact and playing cards but not really draw as much attention.
The second effect would be since the cards in the deck are all linked together, there would be a bit of a sympathetic magic connection. So if we find a Grinder 'target' someone slips one of the cards into the persons pocket, coat, rucksack, whatever, and it allows Jonah to either aide a Hunt roll or pick up the person again if we lose them at some point. I suppose if we did it with multiple Grinders and took the time we could theoretically map out a bunch of their holdings and hideouts which might be useful if we ever wanted to take over their territory or have more trouble with them in the future. But that might be over the top for now. :)
GM, let me know if it's possible and I'll make an Attune roll.
If someone else can find where the Grinders drink, Casia will be happy to attempt to follow them. Prowl is one of her strengths.
So here's an idea for what Jonah might be doing while Lolo searches for her contacts. Could he spend time enchanting a deck of cards? The first layer would be to subtly divert the attention away from anyone using the deck. Not make them invisible or anything but make them...less interesting or beneath notice. That way the four of us could be hanging out in the tavern waiting for a contact and playing cards but not really draw as much attention.
The second effect would be since the cards in the deck are all linked together, there would be a bit of a sympathetic magic connection. So if we find a Grinder 'target' someone slips one of the cards into the persons pocket, coat, rucksack, whatever, and it allows Jonah to either aide a Hunt roll or pick up the person again if we lose them at some point. I suppose if we did it with multiple Grinders and took the time we could theoretically map out a bunch of their holdings and hideouts which might be useful if we ever wanted to take over their territory or have more trouble with them in the future. But that might be over the top for now. :)
GM, let me know if it's possible and I'll make an Attune roll.
I like it! Make the roll and we'll see what happens :)
Well drat...that's not the way I wanted to start this run.