Chief the Maestro D''s page

Hey all, I'm going to have to drop out of the game. I can't find time to give it much attention with my current schedule. Good luck!

I'm going to take the Skinner move Hypnotic.

I'd like to take definite and undeniable control of the shack, suffer little harm, and inflict terrible harm.

Mooshy, did you intentionally reduce the result of SBF because Super Mutants? Dust's 7 would normally give her 2 choices.

Chief drops the rifle, scoops up the shotgun without thinking, and charges into the command shack.

Seize By Force (hard): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (3, 6) + 1 = 10

Volcano: Your Weird and Cool were highlighted. You're going to want to skim the gameplay thread and see how many times you've rolled on each of those stats.

Vonya: I think we got 1 harm patched up each, but I don't know whether your harm already includes that. If you're super bored you could read back through the whole thread and add it up...

Tactical recommendations? Pretty please?

If you don't want to get up close and personal with the bad guys, the supporting battle moves are really strong and not as risky as the assault moves (which all include "exchange harm", which you generally want to avoid).

You've got Weird and Cool highlighted, so maybe Stand Overwatch to cover Dust (it only covers one ally at a time, and I'm covering Vonya).

Lay Down Fire could work well too since you're +1 Hard. If you're not worried about self-preservation, Seize By Force is always hilarious.

Keep An Eye Out is really useful if you aren't sure what to shoot at right away.

Normally, by the way, in tabletop play, you can just say what your character is doing in-universe and you and the MC can figure out what the move is from there, but in PbP it keeps things moving faster if you say what move you think you're making and make the roll -- if Mooshy disagrees with the move choice we can always walk it back.

Have you been tracking your XP by the way? You get one XP every time you roll with your highlighted stats, trade in 5 XP for an improvement.

Wait are you motioning for Vonya to take the command centre first? If not, he's gonna leap down onto that turret purely because it's a turret.

Get the turret, I think we've got the command center covered.

With the crosshairs nicely centered on the Super Mutant's temple, Chief's finger slowly tenses on the trigger. He feels oddly calm. "Dust, Vonya, make your move. Headset is all mine," he says softly.

On a hit, if anyone attacks or interferes with your ally (Vonya), you attack them and inflict harm as established. On a 10+, choose 1:
• ...And you inflict your harm before they can carry out their attack or interference.
• ...And you inflict terrible harm (+1harm).

I'm going to take the terrible harm option. If Headset or the other guy in the shack messes with Big V, I get a free hit with the rifle for 3-harm total.

Chief has the distinct feeling that Vonya's about to do something exciting. He drops to one knee, sets down his shotgun, and unslings his hunting rifle, drawing a bead on the Super Mutant with the headset in the command shack.

Stand Overwatch (cool), acting on answers from Read A Sitch: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (6, 5) + 1 = 12

What should I be on the lookout for?

Chief trots quietly to the doorway where the voices are coming from, leaning against the wall beside the doorframe, shotgun ready.

Seems charged enough to me...

Read a Sitch (sharp): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (5, 2) + 1 = 8

Less gracefully than Dust did, Chief also drops from the vent.

Pallor, unless you have a move that says otherwise, the Aid/Interfere move normally uses your Hx score with Francis rather than your Weird score. That said, it's a Weird situation so Mooshy may be OK with using Weird.

Before climbing up to the vent with the others, Chief gives Annie a hose and a bottle and instructions to put a molotov cocktail or two into the lobby once the crew is all in, and make a lot of enthusiastic noise at ground level.

It occurs to him briefly that asking someone to set a building on fire after he goes into it might be a bad idea, but what the he11.

He joins the others in the vent at about the time Vonya gets the grille off.

"Sounds good," agrees Chief. "I'll follow you up as soon as you give me the thumbs up. Power Army can go wild on the lobby in the meantime. I think we can spare a couple liters of guzzoline for the cause, Dust."

Chief eyes the ventilation shaft, then looks around the streets, taking stock of available resources. "Huh. Hey, Seth? Tell me if this is crazy, but... the rig's got a winch, and a couple hundred feet of cable. Is there any way you could rig up, I dunno, a rocket powered grappling hook out of your super sledge?"

She nods at Sergeant Lucky, a 14-year-old girl with an eyepatch and several missing teeth.

I LOL'd.

Chief staggers from the back-slap, grimacing. Well, so much for plan C-3f. He's embarrassed -- not used to misreading someone that badly. "Well... I'm sure they'll get by without, uh..."

Time for another improvement. I'm thinking about taking the Skinner's hypnotic move...

On a miss, ask 1 anyway, but be prepared for the worst.

How could I get Vonya to eventually adopt the Power Army as his tribe, with an eye towards him taking the get a gang improvement?

Chief barely shrugs. "No real family. I thought I had family once," he says, thinking of Rolfball. He shakes his head. "I try and look out for my crew at Wolf's as far as I can. Hey, y'know, you could adopt these little f##%ers. Have a whole clan of your own. Vonya Tribe."

I'm curious how Vonya might react to that suggestion.

Read A Person (+sharp): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 2) + 1 = 5

Chief takes this time to reload his shotty. He watches Dust and Annie thoughtfully as he does so. Dust obviously has the negotiations well in hand; Chief's banged up and rattled enough that he'll do no good trying to help.

He then turns to Vonya. Nodding at the children, he says quietly "They're good kids. Y'know, considering the circumstances. You have any family, Vonya? Brothers, sisters... kids of your own?"

Dust, you can hold the other two Hold you earned, but the longer the amount of time that takes place between when you earn your Hold and when you use it, the less helpful the insight is likely to be.

As written: "while you’re interacting with them, spend your hold to ask their player questions", italics mine. As long as you're chit-chatting with Annie you should be able to keep spending hold. If something major interrupts the interaction (probably has to be more dramatic than, say, Chief butting in with a quick question), the hold is lost.

Chief will look over the big rig and see if we're going to be able to drive back out the way we came in, or whether we'll have to work out another strategy.

I'm going to be posting a lot less as I've started a new job - I'll try and check the threads daily and pitch in where it makes sense.

Rolfball and I had been coming back from a run. We'd managed to find a not-previously-ransacked tech company office: vending machines full of snacks and wacky toys on half the desks. The candy would have made the deal by itself, but when we introduced General Annie to the magic of Nerf guns? mind BLOWN.

"Good to see you, Annie, sweetheart. Yeah, uh, everyone, meet General Annie and the Power Army! Annie, this is Miz Dust, and Seth, that big fella back in the thing is Vonya... and we might have some ghouls following us, not really sure what the situation is there, but the ghouls aren't with us, so feel free to, uh, you know..."

Awww, Vonya's a charmer!

Shaking his head as he comes out of his trance like a soap bubble popping, Chief chuckles, raises his hands, and slowly stands, a winning smile on his face.

"Hey, little lady! Don't I know you?"

As the roof tears away, Chief, ducking, finds himself crouching on the bench seat face to face with Seth at dashboard level, and starts cackling madly. I guess we don't have to worry about the ghoul that was on the roof, anyway.

The pain in his bitten arm, the ringing in his ears, and the full-body jolt of the rig smashing into the garage are taking their toll on his nerves. His vision starts to swim, concrete dust becoming cigar smoke, the shards of glass and metal blurring into poker chips scattered across the stained pleather table, screeching metal revealing itself as loud music.

Momma is seated at his right, Rolfball to his left, Seth straight ahead. Rolf swears, lays down his cards -- Jack high. Seth shakes his head, lays down a hand of s%!!, nothing better than a nine. Momma already folded. Chief looks at his own cards: a two of guns, a fish of spades, a tragedy of diamonds, a two of corpses, and a joker.

"Rolf, baby," says Chief, rearranging his cards idly. "Remember that time we were coming back to Walker's and got cut off by that raiding party? Had to hole up in an old garage on tenth? We hid in the trunk of the Great Beast and just made out for, like, two hours, 'cause we thought it might be the last time. Remember? How'd we get out of there, anyway? I can't remember. What was the deal with that place?"

Open Your Brain (+Sharp): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 6) + 1 = 9

That's a choose 2; I'll pick allow Dust to move or act freely and give Dust +1 choice to her battle move.

His side of the cab now clear of ghouls, Chief leans across to cover Dust.

Lay Down Fire (+Hard): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 4) + 1 = 7

MC chooses one:
• You lose your footing.
• You lose your grip on whatever you’re holding.
• You lose track of someone or something you’re attending to.
• You miss noticing something important.

2-harm, reduced to 1 by the armor; let's make a harm roll.

Harm: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (5, 2) + 1 = 8

Back on page 10, we had this from Paul (bolds are mine): "I'd like you to bring Old Bessie with you when you go. And because that war tractor is tough and armored, but slower than an arthritic tortoise, I'm giving you access to one of our three War Rigs to carry it with you into downtown." He holds up a keychain with a cartoonish red rocket dangling next to the key. "I've passed word along to the garages, and the gearheads are loading Ol' Bessie up on the trailer hitch as we speak. So who's driving?"

So my understanding is:

* There's one war rig
* There's Ol' Bessie, a war tractor, smaller and slower than the war rig
* The war rig is towing Bessie
* Vonya's in Bessie
* Dust and Chief are in the war rig
* Seth's in one or the other

Well, crap. We exchange harm, but I get to choose 1: I hold the cab decisively against the Ferals' advance.

Chief hisses in breath as he notices the reflection. A sniper duel is out of the question while the rig is bouncing around like this; the minigun would do nicely to suppress the sniper but Vonya's busy.

"Dust. Change of plan: left down Tenth. Sniper up ahead a few blocks. Don't slow down."

Hunting rifle's not going to be much use here. Chief's going to lean out his window and start popping Ferals with his shotgun, defending Dust and the cab.

Defend a position (Hard): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 2) + 1 = 5

3 questions. I'll take:

• Where's my best way past/through the Feral pack?
• What should I be on the lookout for?
• What's my enemy's true position?

Chief's first instinct is to drive straight through the pack at speed and see how many of them we can take out. But he's cautious.

Read a Sitch (Sharp): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (6, 6) + 1 = 13

"Miz Dust, if you don't mind, why don't you hang a right up here on 12th," advises Chief. "Take a little detour, just in case someone's ready for us down the way. Then left on 2nd Avenue, and hope for no land mines... Kidding! Kidding."

Yeah, it's the wrong way down 2nd. What, is someone gonna give us a ticket? If we don't have any better information, I think we serpentine between 2nd Ave South and North 1st Ave, starting with 8th street and working our way toward the river, looking for Crane logos. I want to stay off of Hennepin and 3rd South as much as possible.

"Man, I am getting nothing from my to-do list done today," mutters Chief as he clambers up into the passenger side of the war rig's cab.

Can I retroactively have picked up a rifle or something from one of the attackers we took out earlier? Something with a little more reach, ideally an assault rifle or SMG but even a hunting rifle would be great. In any case I'll keep the shotgun with me... sh-KLATCH in case of close encounters.

Chief figures it's not a good time to ask Paul about trivial issues like Been, so he's just going to swing by Doc's and see if he can get closed up quick with a bit of surgical glue and maybe something for the pain before he heads into what's likely to be another nasty scrap.

Chief is just enough of a gentleman to let that set-up go by with a twinkle in his eye instead of a crude joke.

Chief watches Dust watching Paul with a bit of a sly smirk.

"Better be someone young and quick at the wheel, I think. You ever drive a War Rig, Miz Dust?"

Clearly Chief's hotness is putting Dust off her game. I'd help, but even +2 wouldn't pass you.

Chief heads up to Paul's domain. He's still a little amped up from the fighting but trying to dial it back a bit. He feels super uncomfortable around Paul -- he knows just how easy it would be to lose his relatively privileged place in the hold, if he f*%@s something up -- so he doesn't cop attitude with Paul's guards, and he's respectful and friendly toward Crypter, Paul's social secretary and receptionist, when he gets to the office.

Seduce or manipulate -- for PCs: on a 10+, both. On a 7–9, choose 1:
• If they go along with you, they mark experience.
• If they refuse, erase one of their stat highlights for the remainder of the session.

So there's the deal. If Vonya comes along, he marks an XP. If not, he un-highlights Hard.

Chief shakes his head. "Vonya, really, it doesn't matter. We've got to go after the guy who sent these Muties after us anyway. If we can get Camo's girl out of there safely in the process, great, but that's not the mission."

Chief's eyes flick up and down Vonya's massive frame. He leans in a little closer and says quietly, "Tell you what, jingle is jingle, sure, but if you come along and help us out, when we get back, you can spend some quality time with Clarion. She'll take real good care of you, Von."

I'm going to hell.

Seduce or Manipulate: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (4, 6) + 2 = 12

"All right, good, you did good, Camo, real good. Now listen, Hugo's going to take you up to the café, and we're going to keep you safe. I'll be honest, that means locking you up, okay? We're going to keep you out of sight, so word doesn't get back to this guy that you're walking around free when you failed. If he doesn't know what happened to you he's more likely to keep Lisa alive in case she's useful later."

Chief beckons Hugo over, borrows his coat and throws it over Camo's head. "Take him back up to Wolf's, ugh, try and clean him up a little. You and Ula get him in the cage and keep him there."

"Hey, Camo, did this guy give you a name?"

(In one of the private booths in the back of Wolf's, there's a bed built on top of a low cage, where Ula sometimes keeps Bad Puppies. Camo's been a Very Bad Puppy.)

Chief has been standing off to the side, a little winded and sore from the fight, content to let the others deal with Camo. Now he moves in, eyes hard. Crouching next to the sobbing man, he reaches out, strokes Camo's hair almost gently, soothingly, then grips a handful of it and tilts the man's head back firmly.

"Camo. Honey. Listen to me. There's one way you live to see tomorrow, and it's also Lisa's best chance. Now, quiet down. Tell us everything you know about the man who sent you. Start at the beginning. Paint us a picture. Leave nothing out, and do not f**# with us, because we all kind of want to hurt you right now.

"Start. Talking."

I'm trying to manipulate him into being extremely cooperative, extremely honest, and as useful as possible.

Seduce or Manipulate (+hot): 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (6, 6) + 2 = 14

Hey all, I've been brutally sick the last few days, but I haven't disappeared completely. Assume Chief is scarpering off to Wolf's to patch himself up.

Ehhhhh, I guess I'll wait.