I've never seen any evidence in Star Wars that anybody in that galaxy actually needs a bathroom....
However, they do need kitchens. Where else would they make their blue milk?
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Boomer stands by quietly, looking intimidating in powered battle armor and with a rifle, letting Dr. Rix take the lead... but ready to play enforcer should the need arise.
Boomer also moves forward, but he does so in the open without stealth. (Position updated on map.) He calls to the pirates. "Come out of the buildings you are in and lay down, your hands on your heads. We will not hurt you, but we have to be sure that your surrender is genuine!"
GM: would it be possible to include the battlemap link with your posts, or in your Description line? That'll save us from having to search through this thread to find the link each time.
Oops, forgot about the 2xAcc rule! Fortunately, I'm nowhere near it. I am just including the +2 for targeting software and +2 for full auto, plus +1 for the additional round of shooting. The Acc of a laser rifle is 12. (Hmm... should I have a HUD Acc bonus? I had this idea that was already included, but maybe it wasn't. That'd be another +1.)
Boomer sends a second round aiming. In round 3, he takes a step forward and fires, full auto (10 shots), at one of the pirates threatening the civilians.
Rcl is 1, so that's an extra shot that hits for each point by which he beats the effective skill level.
Armor subtractor is -5. cDam is 3d6+6. Just in case all 10 shots hit, here's 10 damage rolls:
Hmm... just realizing I should have taken a deceptive shot to reduce the defense! Hopefully this will actually it. If it does hit, Boomer will call out in a loud voice (amplified by his suit if you think it reasonable that equipment would be there), "Put down your weapons and surrender now!" Hopefully CRATE will be able to translate it into the local language....
Well, and Aim :) High skill will offset some of the range penalty, and will also allow use of Deceptive Attack to reduce defenses.
Absurd which way? I think they're actually pretty reasonable. It's hard to hit things at range. They can be off set with Aim; with an Acc of 12 (for a laser rifle), that means that you can hit a range of 200yd at full skill after one second of aiming. If your skill is high enough (plus things like targeting software), you still stand a reasonable chance of hitting a target a kilometer away. (A longbow has Acc 3, which means that it's only out to 7 yards where you don't have any penalty if you aim. That's a little harsh, but, again, with a skill of 16, you still have a 3/4 chance of hitting out to 150yd, which is pretty good.)
"Crate, provide me with targets," Boomer says to the combat AI in his helmet. "Prioritize anybody threatening our allies or the humanoids huddling in the huts." Boomer will pick the first target that Crate provides, and Aim at the target.
Boomer remains silent, but has his AI Crate use the PESA sensor built into his helmet to scan the area, looking for any structures, potentially hidden weaponry or gun emplacements, as well as the distribution of people. Crate runs the appropriate skill software:
Boomer says, "I concur. Those of us most heavily armed should go forward first. We will call for them to speak peacefully with us, but we will return fire upon any who show aggression. We should avoid shooting anybody who doesn't actively aggress us, as they may themselves be prisoners of the pirates." Boomer will suit up, spending the time necessary to get into his battlesuit and do the full checkout. He'll also make sure all of his batteries are fully charged. (He would normally do that anyway during the ship trip.)
I don't know the soap check; what is that one? Anyway, I'm thinking we should get a 10-foot pole....
Boomer will take another agressive-looking step towards the ape-men opening fire with his suit-mounted laser rifle as he does so.
Boomer will take a five-foot step forward towards the ape-men and fire into them, not aiming. He will sweep across five targets (assuming there are five abreast), putting (effectively) two hits into each target. I have <i>not</i> included a range penalty below, so please assess that as necessary. I haven't included Acc, as I didn't aim, but I <i>have</i> included a +2 for the Targeting program. The Laser Rifle has Rcl 1, so success by 1 or more means two shots go into the same target.
He misses the second ape man as he sweeps his laser across the, but hits at least some of them.
Boomer will take his Aim maneuver at the leader in fancy armor.
As he sees his new allies being mowed down, Boomer jumps to action. "Crate, identify the leaders and key weaknesses!" His combat computer ally analyzes the battlefield in an attempt to see if there are key combatants that Boomer could take down in order to significantly weaken the ape-men. . Boomer, meanwhile, begins to take aim on the ape-man who shot down King Raoor.
Boomer, suited up, aims his laser rifle at one of the apemen, acquiring a target and then opening fire.
Yeah... to actually build my characters, I use software I wrote myself (something like a decade ago). It keeps track of point totals and such, but doesn't have the full database of skills and traits the way the official GURPS software does. It exports text files that look OK in a text browser or with code tags,but alas Paizo doesn't have code tags.
When it was clear that a potentially hostile situation was developing, Boomer ran to his battlesuit, quickly put it on, asked Crate to scan for threats and the hostile situation, and rushed through the full bootup procedure.
He then made his way outside, just in time to see the hostile aliens starting to kill their hosts.
OK, thanks, sounds good. Profiles are in for Boomer (with his AI ally below) and Olivia. Sadly, the paizo boards doesn't have a "pre" or "code" type formatting; these text files are formatted to look better with a monospace font and spaces not collapsed down to one space.
Hmm -- as written, Combat Reflexes doesn't really require you to be in battle:
What I'm proposing is that Derek would have been able to react pretty quickly. Surely all of this:
took more than a second. If we were outside by the time the shuttles were landing, given all of the alarm that was present, Derek would probably have started suiting up once he saw them landing. The rest of that would have taken at the very least several seconds. If you rule he doesn't get to start suiting up until the moment combat begins, then I will accept that, but given the narrative, and the fact that Combat Reflexes means generally not being caught surprised and flat-footed when things start to go south, I believe it makes sense that he would have had time to at the very least get started with suiting up.
GM-- sorry, I hadn't put my stats in the profile yet. I'll get that done today. Will you allow Derek to speed up the first six seconds of getting into the battlesuit with a succesfull Battlesuit roll? Alternatively, given that he's got Combat Reflexes, could he have been starting to suit up during the time when everybody was noticing ships and the offworld aliens were threatening everybody, and before combat actually began? Derek does carry a laser pistol and a sonic stunner pistol in addition to the laser rifle that he uses with the battlesuit. If combat's gonna get nasty, though, he'd probably take a few seconds to get into the suit.
Derek will get into his battlesuit. (GM: how long should this take? I'm guessing it would be set up for rapid donning and disembarking, but maybe I've just played too many video games.) "Crate, analyze the situation. Are there any hidden enemies?" Combat AI in battlesuit:
Derek will eat the food. He will speak with whoever is near him politely, but not try to start up extensive conversations. If the conversation turns towards anything vaguely strategic or military at all, he will be very guarded in his answers; he still doesn't feel comfortable enough with this species to reveal too much about his own species' capabilities or doctrine. His AI companion, Crate, will monitor his battlesuit. If anybody tries to tamper with it, Crate will buzz Derek's communicator, and Derek will quickly pull out his communicator and find out what's going on.
Derek gets out of his armor. "We were told that displaying our weapons was a sign of honor in your culture. I meant no disrespect."
Boomer will suit up fully in his battlesuit and go out in full battle readiness. If this is what they expect for respect, then hopefully they will react positively to it. (During the downtime, Boomer will drill himself on the cluster trade language, so that he can speak it in a broken manner if it should come to that.)
"Before you come back to our ship," Boomer says over comms, "Ask them for any information they have about these pirates, so that we may avoid them. In fact, if they have a database of known pirate ship signatures they could send to us, please ask them to do so."
Over comms, Boomer says, "Make sure to get intel on the unfriendly species. And, if we find ourselves in a ceremonial meeting with other members of this species, I should go along in my battlesuit. It will show them honor."
"I will also stay here," Boomer says, "But I am ready in case of a call for help."
Derek says to his shipmates, "A neutral meeting point would be better. But, failing that, ask them to send a very small delegation to our ship. I will be waiting below in my battlesuit."
Boomer says, "In any event, we can rest assured that we have purged our origin from our databases. It is imperative that all of us do not give up that information under torture." "When it comes time for the meeting, I will be suited up in my battlesuit, just in case things go wrong. I will not be present, but will be hanging back, so that my aggressive-looking presence does not hamper diplomatic efforts."
Boomer says, "I hope we don't regret this. If you don't mind, give me a few more minutes." Boomer uses his portable computer to connect with the AI mounted in his battlesuit. "Crate," he says, addressing the non-volitional AI. "Perform an analysis of the traffic patterns, coupled with the communications that we've intercepted. Is the traffic consistent with a civilian population at peace-- commerce and the like-- or is there evidence of insurgency, or military activity? Do they appear to be on an actively defensive footing?" The AI analysis the data on ship movements and communications that we have:
Boomer nods. "Yes, these are good thoughts. Hopefully it will turn out that none of it was necessary. But if it is... we will be grateful that we took these precautions."
"Are you crazy?" Boomer asks. "If we just assume they aren't hostile, and they are, we'd be left as sitting ducks. We need to collect as much intel as we can before we jump closer. Jump to the outside of the system and hide, and observe what we can to see if we can learn anything from space traffic, etc. For all we know, they have an interplanetary war ongoing, and we don't want to jump into the middle of that."
"We should be careful not to reveal ourselves to them before we know more," Boomer says. "Maybe they will be friendly, but maybe they will be hostile. Maybe they have not seen evidence of intelligent life other than themselves before, and will view us as attacking invaders. We're in their home system, and are just one small ship. We need to gather more intel before exposing ourself to danger."
Boomer nods thoughtfully. "Understood. I am glad that you do have an understanding as to the hierarchy in the event of an emergency or a problem. I will do my best to adapt to the operations otherwise."
Boomer looks at Terra with a staid look. After a pause, he says, "I see." After another pause. "To whom should I report?"
When Derek "Boomer" Ratcher walks into the (docking bay? where are we all right now?), there is no question that he's the military sergeant being assigned to the mission. First, there's the fact of his olive drab tank top and khaki pants with lots of pockets on it. Second, there's the buzz cut. Third, there's the chisled features, with a square clean-shaven jaw and piercing blue eyes. Fourth, there's the buzz cut. Most importantly, however, is what he says when he finds somebody who looks like they might have some idea what's going on. "Sergeant Derek Ratcher reporting for duty. Who's in command here?" At some point close to his arrival, his gear is delivered to be brought on board the ship. This primarily consists of a large heavy battlesuit. |