Cool, thanks.
Search Posts
Fixed her saving throws; Fort is now +4, but I added immunity to Poison as well as Disease (she can direct her body to fight it off instantly). Have 2 points left over at the moment. Don't feel like homing makes sense for the syringe, and progressive would make it cost 15 points (ep). While I have the points for it, I'm not sure I want to invest that much into what I feel would be an occasionally useful combat gimmick. You had been working on re-statting vehicles in Hero Lab. Your math and my math were differing (and I was doing it manually) so do you want to share the stats you were coming up with to be sure we're on the same page with what the vehicles should do?
More random Bionic Woman trivia: Jaime Sommers' field code name was Dopey (Oscar Goldman was "Snow White"). Anyway, yes, that works, and "the Saint" is based on Rosa's name. (Sinclair is a common short form for Saint Clair)
Yeah, different "the Saint." I don't really anticipate the nicknames get used much, but since y'all were coming up with one, I went for the low hanging fruit given her surname. It isn't something I wanted to put a lot of thought into. :)
BTW I edited my post above so if y'all are jumping in and reading right now I may have added something.
Okay, Rosa is largely done. I want to go back and put in descriptions of my advantages but the points are spent and the build is as I intended. As always, I spent way too much time writing a background. In what I hope is a help to SuperTumbler and the others and not harm, my evil relative nemesis I decided was part of a secret society of evil scientists, which I hope can be useful as a potential adversary and maybe even a shared source of nemeses for other party members, like Evindyl's character. Of course no expectations on whether it can or should be used and I can alter things as needed. SuperTumbler, left Aunt Lucretia's abilities and/or tech vague so you can fill in as you need (but if you want input let me know). I've got potentially a couple more EP I can spend on Gary and Mary. Suggestions on that or other things for her build are welcome. Oh, PS: All of the vehicles are size Huge, which per the game, examples include vehicles the size of an Armored Personnel Carrier, a Tank, or a Train Engine. I feel like these are all sufficiently large to accommodate the five of us (four party members plus driver) plus at least a few passengers. No one would want to live in them long term and they are not intended to be by themselves installations (HQs/bases/homes) but if we are temporarily without access to any other installation we can certainly shelter in them in the moment. #vanlife (But I can if necessary boost one or several to Gargantuan size, but this will necessitate alterations to speed, etc.) It would be nice if we do have an installation (including a giant plane) that they included a garage/hangar as one of the rooms.
Have a good trip!
Getting slammed at work too. Am going to slow down for a few days. Evindyl--to be clear on my last post, I was just trying to show what some things cost since people weren't sure how the points added up. I'm obviously into investing some points into something or I never would have asked to begin with but the last post wasn't intended to press the issue, just dig into the mechanics of it since it seemed like that was contributing to hesitancy to discuss it either way. As I mentioned I was thinking of something fairly small, relatively speaking, but if folks want to go big I'd love to hear what the others think.
Whether we get a plane and/or headquarters (called Installations in the rules) depends on how many equipment points you are willing to dip into the pot. (You get 5 equipment points for 1 character point). In my current build, I've only got about 3 points reserved for an HQ (or mega vehicle), with the intent of that being only a small contribution to a larger whole. If each of us contributed 2 or 3 equipment points, that would give us 9 to 12 points for an Installation. This would land us where I was originally thinking, which was something like the Abandoned Warehouse example listed in the rules. Its stats are Size: Medium Toughness: 8 Features: Communications, Computer, Concealed, Garage, Gym, Living Space, Power System, Security System • 10 points. If we wanted something like "the Bus" from Agents of SHIELD, which is a giant jet where people can both live and store other vehicles, that would be a considerably larger investment. A jumbo jet alone costs 18 ep. Adding comms and Installation-like features like living quarters, a garage/hangar, a laboratory, infirmary, etc plus basic defenses/weapons, and other relevant things would I think add up to around 30 ish points at least? Which would be an investment or so of 7-8 ep (2 character points) which isn't that bad but would still be an investment. As I've been rereading the rules, I also note that you can have vehicle arrays. The Action Ambulance costs 12 ep, so instead of using my 3 points into a shared HQ, I could also just add three vehicles worth 12 points or less that we could use instead of the Action Ambulance. Like a car with a couple extra defenses, a motorcycle with same, and a well-equipped yacht or speedboat. (A helicopter is 16 ep so not quite purchaseable, but almost, and I could try to fudge things around.)
I'm down with Discord for chatting. I can't say I'd be massively faster, but I'm cool with it.
I don't either, but I think what I want is a sidekick. I don't think I want her limited to what minions are limited to. She should of course be largely in the background but I am seeing her as, she is almost always nearby, and if the party is in a pinch, she can jump in and help with a firefight or get us out of a bind--and as such I'd like to be able to lend her a Hero Point expenditure if needed to do so, which I don't think you can do with a minion. (She can also watch Rosa's body when Rosa's in a trance or something.) I've statted her up real quick and gave her skill points in Vehicles and Mechanic (with a dash of pistols just in case). Whether the team wants a headquarters or not is an indication of what kind of team you want to be, I think, so the group should weigh in on that. Most definitely.
Well, if folks want to go that route and pitch in points, Gary could always become a transforming vehicle that is larger... medical truck on the road, but sprouts rotors to fly or wheels turn and inflate to become a boat. Or indeed we could have just a helicopter, but if we're in an 80s action show and have the ability to do it, I want a transformer. ;) Even if we travel it still also might not hurt to have a safehouse as well, someplace to run and hide if needed--maybe even something the foundation doesn't know about maybe an estate of Angus's or something...
Thanks Evindyl & SuperTumbler! One more question for y'all: as mentioned, I put points into an HQ/safehouse. This could be useful, even if we travel a bit. Buuuut if y'all don't think it's a good idea, I can shift the points elsewhere (probably drop some Equipment points altogether and/or beef up Gary the Ambulance). Sorry for prodding but can I get some definitive replies on yes/no HQ? Sounded like maybe/no from previous responses but would appreciate clearer guidance.
Evindyl, I am glad someone is happy to let me ramble on about the Bionic Woman. ;) I should note that I would expect we are doing a more idealized take on the genre and we could be more progressive than would actually happen in the 80s. Or we could just be ridiculous with subtext, like that time Jem and the Holograms and the Misfits joined forces to try to stop two of their members from datin- erm, singing with each other. But I might just edge away from the whole love interest thing for now, if that's okay. Okay, down to character stuff: I am working on finalizing Rosa. I've cleaned up some skill points and buffed up Treatment to be her niche skill. I've also added a handful of skill points into Expertise (Singing) for the requisite episode where a character is required to show off their lesser known entertainment skills while undercover. I have a dilemma: one is to buff up Inez a little more (at least a rank 5 sidekick so she has a few more points to play with). Another is to retweak my character and just have her BE the ambulance driver, although that might be hard if she also has to transcendentally meditate to contact the aliens or whatever. I think I am sticking with Inez, but also wanted to check with both the rest of the group about how you feel about having a sidekick, and the GM for helping keep track of this NPC (and should I stat up Inez or would you?). Second question: I have a tiny handful of points left. I've been thinking about maybe just dropping them into a variable power that would cover sort of a "psychic power of the week." Often these shows would have the hero occasionally be able to do a thing to solve a problem that they then never ever do again, or hardly ever do, like suddenly Wonder Woman is able to astral project to talk to the aliens so they decide not to blow up the Earth after all, and then she's back to leaping and tossing her lasso. If I went this route, I'd probably only have one rank (two at most and because Variable is so expensive I'd have to reconfigure some stuff to make that work) and it would be limited by Concentration (she has to meditate to use it) and probably some other factors. It would have to make sense for a psychic ability (elongation or super speed are probably a no, but temporary telepathy or intangibility ("astral projection") should be okay). I know Variable powers can be a massive headache so I definitely wanted to check with SuperTumbler before I dug into that route, however.
In which DQ mostly off-topic nerds about the Bionic Woman and Six Mill:
In fairness, Six Mill and BW are 70s action shows, not 80s, but I know they are still sources of inspiration here (and as I may possibly have every Bionic Woman episode nearly memorized, a key source I am drawing from). Fun thing about them is both characters had tons of old flames--and new ones--besides each other and no one ever blinked at that being a problem. Good thing we didn't have an internet for shippers to fight on back then. ;)
Fun fact for those unaware: the Bionic Woman was supposed to die and never be seen again after her two-episode appearance in Six Mill. She was indeed allowed to be an old flame who was Steve's One True Love who he was going to marry because they knew she'd die and he could go back to the love interest of the week afterward, with a little extra fridging angst to fuel his character. The whole plot was supposed to be a nod to the classic horror film, the Bride of Frankenstein, where the Monster demands Dr. Frankenstein create a mate for him, but the Bride rejects the Monster, runs away, and dies tragically. Jamie rejects her prosthetics instead of Steve and has a major brain hemorrhage. Moreover, they specifically cast Lindsay Wagner because she had contractual obligations to the studio she wanted to get out of, so being in the show for just two episodes would free her from her contract and they of course didn't have to worry about asking her back because the character would be dead, right? SO many audience members adored Jamie--whether simply because of Lindsay Wagner's performance or being desperate to see a female action hero (Jamie predated Lynda Carter's appearance as Wonder Woman by a year)--that millions of people wrote into the network complaining about her death. The network did the math and realized if that many people were upset enough to write letters, they'd have a show that would have decent ratings, and had to beg Lindsay Wagner to come back. Hence her miracle resurrection via cryogenesis. Which had the convenient side effect of giving her a very specific amnesia where she completely forgot about Steve specifically, so they couldn't get married, so both characters could still be free to have their own love interests in each show. Eventually Bionic Woman went over to another network so that lessened their ability to will they/won't they any further. And if something happens to one of our characters, I hope miracle cryogenesis and other ridiculous things are on the table. The interesting thing about the reunion shows 10-15 years later is because they could now finally get rid of the plot-convenient amnesia (which they did in the first reunion show) and eventually hook them up to give the series some closure. (Mind, I always thought Jamie could do better; I always thought Steve was ridiculously wooden.) On the other hand, one of the things I appreciated about the Bionic Woman is that in an era of very episodic television with little respect for continuity, the writers never forgot she'd had a traumatic brain injury and sometimes played up Jamie having some emotional difficulties and would even black out during some traumatic moments---and I equally admire that this was never played as a flaw, per se, just part of who she was. Indeed, there were several times people WOULD--as would be realistic--treat her like she was a child or "hysterical woman" and then she'd turn out to be right about whatever she was freaking out about and they'd have to apologize. (Like she was the first person to pick up on that women in the OSI had been replaced by fembots, and her bosses thought she was just being silly hysterical woman again. Gosh, I wonder why they didn't notice their female assistants had changed...)
On the broader subjects of old flames and love interests, they tended to have a serial nature. Love interest of the week sort of thing. Not sure how that might work as a Complication, though being a serial lover in and of itself could work that way. (That actually was brought up in one of the Bigfoot eps. Jamie had to work with one of Steve's other love interests. Fortunately Jamie's not the jealous type.) I often play queer characters (as I myself am queer). Though honestly I think Rosa might be more aro/ace, or rather I haven't really imagined her in romantic or sexual entanglements. Either way this wouldn't fly in an 80s show. She might be allowed to have chemistry with a disturbingly predatory female villain as long as nothing actually happened. Since it IS the 80s she could be one of those dedicated career girls we hear so much about. She might be a little bit older than your 80s hero (like, *gasp* 30s!). Maybe she more offers relationship advice to others.
Rosa's going to be the "I hate guns" sort and avoid direct combat. She is really not going to want to hurt people. But I'm thinking a lot of trips/disarms/repositioning around is okay. She's never going to carry a weapon but she has ability to use improvised weapons well (the idea being she refuses to carry a weapon but is resourceful enough to grab whatever's nearby if she must defend herself; she could also be using medical equipment to fight, like a syringe or scalpel). I *feel* like the best way to handle this is the various combat maneuver advantages but would it make more sense to do it another way?
Nah, I'm going with naming the ambulance Gary. ;) I've got a busy few days but will work on tweaking and finalizng build. BD love the idea but agree that for the genre and power level a legacy is the way to go over immortality.
Btw I did dot into the gameplay thread, I just deleted the post (the "dot" still remains and adds the thread to my campaigns tab.
What I recall you saying is that he needs to use substances for it to work ... or it doesn't work.Yes. that is what I want to do, but I don't know how to work it in. Let me back up a minute. This is my question for you: (1) Do you want the limitation to be largely NARRATIVE? I.e., the primary point is people need to talk him into things and/or the story is going to play a large role in dictating when his power will and won't work? (2) Or do you want the limitation to always and consistently apply at a MECHANICAL level, so that you are always tracking how much alcohol your character has, how much he consumes, and what his state of inebriation is, how long it lasts, which includes how it affects his body mechanically beyond his power set (such as taking penalties due to being drunk)? If 1, it should be a Complication. If 2, it should be a power modifier. (I'd probably use the Activation and Quirk modifiers as baselines.) For the record, typically powers requiring a source to function are complications, not modifiers, but it is still up to you.
Nate's niche will be chemistry. Borrowing directly from DC (and with the nudge from DQ which was super helpful) "Catalyst" will basically be this group's Hourman. The Catalyst Compound Nate developed gives him heightened physical attributes, durability, and hopefully extraordinary leaping (the degree of which we can chat about).Just had this thought, and do with it what you will. It might be interesting if Nate has the Catalyst to boost him and make him physically amazing. It lasts for an hour or whatever, and then he is fatigued or exhausted. If he takes it again too soon, he goes full Ferrigno Incredible Hulk and becomes a "monster." Something Nate and the other heroes could aim, but maybe not completely control. There's a Bionic Woman plot where she has an evil double (who got plastic surgery to look like her of course) and the terrorists the doppelganger works for know the Bionic Woman is super-strong, but don't know how. They discover a chemical compound called adrenalizine that mimics the effects of adrenaline on the body, making the user temporarily euphoric and super-strong, and make the doppelganger take it. But it causes kidney and liver damage so she slowly starts to go nuts. (And as ridiculous as the plot sounds it was some great drama! Lindsay Wagner won the Emmy because of her performance in this.) So there could be a dosing issue or something if you needed some complications or drama. That would fit in well genre wise. Of course no bad side effects also works!
FWIW, were I you, I'd instead make the "needs to be drunk" situation a Source type Complication, not a power modifier. After all, you said yourself, it becomes a plot point where people have to talk him into it, which to me sounds more like a narrative driver of the power, not a mathematical limitation. This also means that you can earn Hero Points when the complication triggers, and/or spend hero points to temporarily overcome the complication in a moment it matters. Suggested wording: Source: Inebriation. Angus can only consciously activate his Spirit Sight power when he has consumed at least one serving of alcohol. Yes, you could frame that as a Phobia complication instead as well, but if the mechanic is supposed to be reliably just drunkenness that's the way I'd go. If you do make it a Phobia I'd allow for different solutions to be able to talk him into using his power.
...Rosa looks good to me. I like that she has some solid action/adventure skills like Athletics. Thanks. Seemed both genre appropriate and I'd assume she'd get some training from the foundation. Lots of running obstacle courses, etc. I didn't run the numbers, but make sure that you are using the 4 skill points per power point variant. Yep! It's actually why I still have points to use up because for once I could fully fill out my skills the way I wanted them to be. :) I think the meditation power has the possibility of branching off into some cool power stunts. That's the hope. Seems also genre appropriate that she'd have a certain low level power but circumstances/plot convenience would allow it to suddenly shift or grow or be used in a different way. Question: I'd added the Trance advantage since I think it's appropriate with the general concept. I'd also like her regeneration ability to work in a Trance state (which otherwise works only as a COncentration ability)--would I add that as a flat extra bonus to the power? She looks pretty playable. Thank you! I need to do some tweaks obviously and fill some things out. She is going to be only so useful in combat (very much a support character) so I'm hoping other PCs will fill that in as needed. To the rest of you: I reserved three Equipment Points (and could invest more) into a base of operations for the team. Would any of you also be interested in having a base/HQ/safehouse? Need to decide whether to put those points elsewhere or, indeed, put more into them.
Hello! Do you mean what roles are we filling in the group? BD, ST, and I were chatting about concepts prior to the formation of this thread. Overall gist is we come from various walks of life and hired by the Foundation as freelance agents, as I think you know. I think there's room for a wide variety of characters here. At the moment, I'm working on a character who is a meditating psychic medic. She's got some healing and party face stuff primarily, with some other light skill stuff. She also has a vehicle (an ambulance) with sidekick driver for us to travel in. Black Dow is working on a pyrokinetic firefighter. Robert Henry, sounds like he's going for occult/smarts. We don't have much yet in the way of tankiness, gadgets/tech, hand-to-hand, or infiltration. There's also a wide array of approaches to powers that might suit.
I have nothing further useful fleshed out for my character but I have a Hero Forge picture, because, you know, priorities (note the actual fashion reflected is more mid/later 80s, not 1980 per the name of the file, but can only do so much with the pieces available in the tool).
I know this makes me a terrible person, but I have nonetheless never seen the Terminator. It wasn't the kind of movie my parents would let me watch as a kid and I never got around to viewing it as an adult. Per Ernie's post, exploration sounds good to me.
Oh, one more thing, if we do decide to recruit another player, if they have either a hook into a group fighting the Big Bad you have in mind or promise of connections to clearing our names, that could be a useful way of helping us find a way forward.
As for direction: I think the biggest hurdle I am facing is from my perspective, we are dealing with too many unknowns. I am going to do one of my verbose word salads in an attempt to try to initiate a brainstorm to help us find a way forward. Here's what I've got: we were thrown into a situation where MIBs started shooting at us for truly no reason (my recollection is everyone was cooperating and they started shooting anyway, and killed a police officer who was supposed to be helping them in the process). And then they were chasing us. We know the guy they were after, Garrett, was trying to protect his chimp friend from genetics experiments. But apart from helping Garret--which Rosa was commandeered into doing by the police and Ernie and Angelyna were bystanders--we know very little about this chimp (who also tried to kill Angelyna), and furthermore they took the dead chimp, so they have what they want. Presumably they can also trace Garret to the hospital where he was heli-vacced, and while they might have trouble locating him due to relevant patient privacy laws, they seem to have plot immunity to real world laws, so that will probably be no problem for them. (Rosa, however, could not follow up on Garrett, as he is now in another facility's care.) The only reason I can think of why the MIBs are chasing the party is they want to kill all witnesses. There is no possible way they could have--or the MIBs could think they could have--any information or materials of value. They're just vindictive, mindless m@$++*%+&%+#s who want them dead. So the one imperative to the party right now is survive. I don't think it's what you want as a GM, but the genetics experiments thing feels like a dead end as far as direction. As far as any of them knows--and Rosa might even know the most from talking to Garrett--Garrett was a dumbass eco-activist who got his chimp friend killed in trying to very badly save him from experimentation. Companies, genetics companies especially, are going to experiment on animals. They are also going to want to be proprietary and secretive about their research. This is nothing new or shocking. Ethical treatment of animals is an issue, but I don't think it's any of our PCs' cause to the extent we would take tremendous risks for it. Whatever is going on, is beyond their ken, interest, or ability to do anything about. If we had received concrete information from Garret like, "They are building genetically enhanced super soldiers who are going to attack Las Vegas tomorrow," (but somehow seem plausible) then we might feel behooved to warn someone. But we've no solid threads like that to tug on. If somehow we've picked up genetically enhanced chimpanzee alien-and/or-zombie plague from the chimp (Angelyna had full contact with the chimp, and Rosa treated her injuries), then it becomes a quest for finding a cure (and Rosa would be annoyingly obsessive about following public health protocols in avoiding contaminating other people, which would just be annoying for everyone, myself included). Also I don't think this campaign was going the body horror route, and I hope it isn't, because if it is, I am hard noping out. Sorry, but am really uncomfortable with those kind of stories. So it's back to: the world's most vindictive, yet thoughtless, security team for a science researcher and/or possibly group of Feds wants to find and kill us because we witnessed something we barely understand. Said group has countless staff, the ability to fully control national telecommunications, and very high tech vehicles and other gear. We have an actress, a nurse, a scoundrel, and a pussycat. Our useful gear--not counting Sandra Solo's cool truck--I believe comprises Ernie's shotgun, Rosa's first aid kit, and her biography of a 19th century suffragist/abolitionist, and a few other odds and ends. So with what I know and what I have the only direction is: run, hide, stay hidden. Don't turn on our phones because if they can commandeer the national push notification system, they can probably trace us. And if they stay unfound for several days, then go our separate ways and go home. If more than that needs to happen, then I think we need to have some kind of plot intervention. I can see this happening in two ways:
(2) Another NPC--maybe a rebel MIB?--who knows what is going on and recruits us to the anti genetics experiment cause in a way that can be compelling for all three of us. They need to be not coy about this. None of this "just trust me and do the plot" BS; real info that makes us invested in the NPC and the situation. There is no plot trope I hate more than the character who refuses to give information because the writers can't otherwise figure out how to sustain dramatic tension. Our characters' lives are ostensibly over (until they fully Receive the Call) and all-powerful big bads want them dead; that's tension enough. The other thing I can think of that may be relevant to the above two is any plot seed that would give us hope to clear our names. I don't see how to do that but I think it would motivate all three of us (even if the adventure doesn't allow it, it's a direction to pursue to uncover more things).
I have leveled Rosa! She gets 6+Con hp (7), an additional point of focus, a Wise hero ability that lets her not be prone after diving for cover, and a choice of 2 minor or 1 major feat. I chose two minor feats that should be fairly obvious: Advanced Skill Training to give her expertise in Medicine, and Battlefield Medic, which gives her more power and flexibility to do medic things. Reviewing things I have no idea why my perception is 13 but don't remember how it's calculated. Is it just a static stat that is 10 + Wis? Then that is correct.
Rosa climbs out, taking her duffel bag with her and grateful she thought to bring it with her earlier. She looks around, taking in her environs. An ex-girlfriend was into video gaming. It reminded her of something when she used to watch her play Fallout. Then she catches sight of the sunset and just stops to breathe a moment. Creation is huge and wondrous. And she is so small. And yet she and all with her are part of it. The moment of peace in her mind is just that, a moment. The hypervigilant part of her brain is all too happy to quickly remind her that S*&% HAS GONE DOWN TODAY. She's part of a group, all by simply being concerned bystanders, now on the radar of a seemingly all-powerful group possibly connected with the Feds. She has no idea what is to come or even if she can return to her life. Focus. Step by step. Triage--most vital to least vital. Do what you can instead of fret over what you can't. "Sandra, has your phone been on? Is it getting signal now?"
Rosa has known in her progressive religious left civilly disobedient life people who smuggle immigrants and refugees. She knows what she is looking at. She doesn't say a damn word but gives the PA a grateful look and gets in.
Rosa nods. Truck sounds like a good idea for her. As they leave, she extra-walks alongside Ernest.
I think Rosa is already realizing that. And honestly I'm willing to handwave it given it's an obvious conceit to make the game work. Can't speak for the others.
Most of the other players in my other games are engaged players (and in one of them our GMs (now on the second) are struggling to manage the time. If it's okay with you, I could post a general invite to the players in my games, or recommend players I think are particularly participatory and team playery to you via PM if you wanted to issue an invite. Another option, GM, for moving us on is if we seem a bit stuck here (bearing in mind we had gone in an unexpected direction), and this was intended to be "the pilot"/just a way to bring the party together, is you could just bring the scene to a close and restart us in a new scene, perhaps a day or week or month or whatever later and just throw us into the group configuration you wanted us to end up in by the completion of this prologue. You could just say "you hide in the movie set and the MIBs move on, but decide to find a place to lay low until you figure out what is happening" or "the PA's map shows a nearby disused hot springs resort you could escape to and move on from there" and cut scene and start us elsewhere. I wouldn't even mind: "It's been a month and the MIBs have relentlessly chased you; you're all listed as criminals and wanted and so have had to live by your wits. You're currently in X and here is what is happening..."
Rosa nods at Just Angelyna and thinks a moment. "Is there a location manager here? Something like that? Someone who'd be prepared to deal with desert conditions and knows what's in the area? Supply tent with a map maybe?"
Ernie thanks for bringing this up. SuperTumbler, in fairness to you we started with a few more PCs/players who disappeared, including a cop, who could have helped us navigate through this in a different direction. We ended up in a place with fewer tools than we started out with so it's hard to adjust from that. Just Angelyna has a point about maybe seeing if we can recruit one more player--maybe someone on the more fightery side of things, with a dash of rebel. One of the "problems" is you have successfully established the MIBs as well-equipped badasses who can destroy communications and are willing to kill us, without consequence, for looking at them funny--and we are also surrounded by NPCs who can suffer at the hands of these folks without us being able to do anything significant about it. I think indeed you have created the likelihood of running away as probably the most obvious option, but based on your drawing of the movie shoot location, there is only one way out of the canyon, and that's the road the MIBs are blocking (and while we've sabotaged one SUV I recall there being several). We can't leave on foot or using small-range vehicles because we're in a desert and have no supplies, so we'll die. I think that's why "stay put" seemed the obvious option to Ernie (and me at least in part, until I realized they'd probably be looking for Angelyna), especially since the movie set keeps us close to equipment and other people we can use and/or hide amid. My original idea at the start of the game is that we'd end up all living out of the stolen RV clinic (with its NPCs dead or dropped off) so we could have a mobile HQ, but I don't know if that's plausible given the direction we're taking, especially as there is nowhere a giant RV can flee to particularly easily. I'm willing to dispense with it, and we have other PCs' cars we could use (Ernie's car is here but he can't currently get to it; maybe a DA even went off to fetch Just Angelyna's shiny car and that is now conveniently on the other side of the MIBs' roadblock?), but that still requires getting out of there and my sense of the situation is we are completely boxed in by impenetrable bad guys who can outgun and outmaneuver us at every turn. My suggestion would be is
2) If we can or should stay put, we just contend with either lying low, or make it clearer there might be a way to contend with the MIBs (because right now my sense of them is that if we do anything with them, we're absolutely f$%%ed and it's game over. That my character is a technical pacifist doesn't help). Having a reminder of how many cars, how many MIBs, etc. are present would be helpful. And meanwhile we can chat about possibly recruiting another PC.
This is always an extremely busy time of year, glad you checked in!
"Just Angelyna isn't an unknown face," Rosa reminds Ernie. "One of them could have reported her presence at the cliff and looked for the nearest film shoot." She looks at Angelyna. "Which is perhaps all the more reason we need to get you out of here."
"Yeah, but they were going to pursue the other guys, and won't be pleased when they can't. So let's not be nearby."
Quietly, Rosa asks Angelyna if this would be a good time for a tour of the stunt driving area.
Rosa has no capability to read lips, but tries to get a sense of the MIBs' intent--where are they looking, are they about to attack, are they giving up, etc.
Going to be offline or slow from Friday through about 12/28 (not to mention work is in a crunch right before I take time off). Happy holidays to all; even if you do not celebrate I hope the growing light after solstice gives you hope.
Out of her element, Rosa just tries to play second man to Angelyna, moving in the direction she leans.
Following Angelyna out and toward the crowd, Rosa prepares in her mind that she is trying to avoid Mrs. Henderson, that woman from her rounds in school who followed her around the hospital ward for hours asking for more antacids. She looks preoccupied and energy drawn--certainly if the MIBs moving toward them act in a way that a nearby crowd would look, she looks--but like she's got problems of her own and doesn't have time for yours.
Rosa shuts off her phone since it's useless anyway, and assumes no one can track you via GPS if it's off. She speaks quietly to the others. To Ernie showing them his pistol, she says, "Do what you feel you need to, but if you shoot your balls off, I am not giving you first aid." She probably will though. She peers out the door. "Wouldn't it be less suspicious if we just mill around with the other actors? Let's not waste all this spirit gum and Sir Ka's genius."
Rosa gestures to Angelyna. "I'll follow your lead."
It is safe to say, Rosa, who spends half her life on an RV clinic (and another portion handing out antibiotics and birth control pills out of the back of her Toyota), and who has dealt with being in environmental protection suits and face masks and masks, is not claustrophobic. It itches though in a way face masks don't and she keeps having to stop herself from scratching off the fake ooze streaming down from her eye. She is nonetheless grateful to Sir Ka. "Okay, where do we shuffle off to?"
"Are they going to hurt the others here if they don't find us? Are they even looking for us? Christ." She shakes her head, and takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly, trying to center. She looks at Just Angelyna and asks, half joking, "How quick can your makeup department make us into aliens and/or zombies?"
Hope your recovery is speedy!!
She fumbles with the walkie a bit before replying. "What, really? Why? Never mind." She's looking around to see what she can see, catching the view of the dust from up ahead. "Is that multiple vehicles? Jesus. Okay. We need to hide. Have you told Angelyna?" The wheels in her brain are turning as she is speaking aloud. "Tell Angelyna. I'm changing clothes." She will take in any other information from Ernie, but will contact Holly on the walkie. "You need to move, it looks like more men in black are coming. I don't think they're coming to apologize for their misbehavior. Can you pull up and park by the actors' trailers? We can't hide the OutPatient logo, but it least it won't look as obvious sitting next to other RVs." She is digging into her duffel bag as she speaks to change out of her scrubs into her jeans and t-shirt. She's a nurse, she's not body shy, and what she recall of theater folks from her college days, they are not going to clutch pearls over a woman changing an outfit in plan sight. "You're probably being crazy, overreacting." But she was scared. Terry was medevaced away. None of them KNEW anything to be a problem. So why a fleet of MIB cars coming towards them? She hates to dispense with the PPE but if she wants to look like a civvie she at least needs to get rid of the face shield and the gloves. Given the alert and the pandemic not long ago, it's plausible someone would have a face mask with them, so she leaves that on. She lets her hair down out of its pony tail. Tries not to look like a nurse, like she's been here the whole time. She goes looking for Just Angelyna and sees what they can do next.
As Rosa purportedly gets no reports of major illness in the next 20 minutes, so she goes back to her she talks to her co-workers. "I don't know what the hell is going on. The alert seems bogus. I can only surmise that whatever Mr. Garrett triggered when he kidnapped that ape is part of some stuff, whatever it is, someone else doesn't want to get out. To the point: we may be the victims of both Garrett's stupidity and some other organization's stupidity greed--a powerful organization, government or otherwise, that has enough power to block data signals and sending push notifications." She looks around. "None of you can honestly say that you saw anything other than a delirious man talking about his love for a bonobo after dropping his van off a cliff. You were in here during the original rescue op and," she pauses to emphasize, "you. saw. nothing." She rubs her hands together, licks her lips. "Folks, I'm scared. And I'm most scared because, just because we were at the wrong place and the wrong time, a sheriff asked us to help with a car accident and it turned into this clusterf**# that is beyond my imagining. And my agreeing to be commandeered, on all of your, behalf, has landed us, has landed you, in a situation that... I fear could get all of you killed. While they didn't see you, if they pressure OutPatient to find out who was in this vehicle, they could harass you or endanger your family." She looks at Holly. "Your husband and kids." Mariana. "Your wife." Jorge. "Your sisters and your uncle." She fixes her eyes on each of them. "I hope nothing happens next, and we all get to go home. But if something happens, I want you to keep your loved ones in mind. Your families. If you have a chance to leave. Go. Run. Be safe. No brave, stupid s!+%. Get home to your people, keep them safe. Unlike you, I've got no family who'll miss me, much. So don't worry about me. And there may come a point when we are safest separated." She straightens. "So is that clear? This is your boss speaking. From this point forward, if the men in black come back or before, if you don't want to risk it... as soon as you see an opening, get out of here. Don't worry about me. Be careful. Stay safe." She grabs her coat and duffel bag out of the staff storage unit in the upper cupboards of the clinic, and goes to leave to wait outside for whatever comes next.
|