This hasn't at all gotten the attention it needs, and I've lost touch with my character, so I'm going to back out. Sorry it didn't work out, Mog.
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I think Nora is still interested in returning. Information is the important thing to me, as well. :)
Alrighty, enjoy! The pacing's been a bit rough, yeah. I think the main thing honestly is that we have too many people to begin with, which leaves too much to track, too much down time, too much danger to make it 'fair' without just adding in random danger midway... Iunno.
You fiend!
A moment of physical respite, replaced with a moment of fear mixed with curiosity, along with Orland's command leaves Serra struggling against the Mud men, pulling bodily against them in an attempt to slam them into one another. She was less interested in being free and more interested in thinning the herd.
Serra manages to squirm and wriggle enough to keep them from doing too much damage initially, but eventually they overpower and begin to dig their claws into her skin...
Something worth noting: The mudmen are very likely what is known as 'Mooks' in the game system. Mooks form Mobs together to act in concert. They basically exist to use the 'help' action on one another, allowing one of them more of a chance to succeed. One of the important rules that may not be readily apparent is that mobs count as a single creature with multiple hit points in many ways. If you shoot a Mob of enemies, for example, or fight against a mob of enemies, the damage you deal with your attack is automatically splash damage if it's enough to take one out. So, let's pretend that each mud man has 1 hp. That means that for every positive shift (+1 after you subtract whatever they roll for their attempt at defending) you get on your attack roll with say, shoot, you'd take out a mud man. So if Nora gets up close and personal and rolls a 6, she'd take out six mud men, assuming the fiction supported it (I.E. them all being in the same zone as her). They might have more stress to take, though, on a hit-by-hit basis, depending on how the DM built them. Maybe it takes two shifts to take one out. Regardless, it's important to note that attacking 'the horde of zombies' doesn't take your whole turn to kill one zombie. Your whole turn can easily be running to a nearby zone for safety and then unloading your full gun into the horde and then reloading while quipping with a one-liner. :)
If you need the priest to be distracted at all, you've got a good opportunity to use that limited time boost, folks. :) Or, you know, anything else you could use it for. Maybe Amaziah wants to keep him talking, or something. :)
Actually, scratch that 'I won't use a fate point to succeed with style'. I'll totally do that. Cause I can see a lot of ways getting him to talk could come in handy.
Well... if she couldn't get close enough to see what was going on, and he already knew she was there, she might as well just ask. Villains liked to talk. And innocent people liked to tell you why they were innocent. So either way, it was win-win. She only had to get him to start talking. Well... there were these... things... holding her. But she wasn't sure of her ability to fight them off on her own by any means. And they weren't hurting her just yet. Then came the flash of the fireball that was the pyre, sending the gush of wind flying overhead. "Father, would you mind explaining just what in the nine hells you're doing down here?"
It's also only happened like twice in the years I've been using them. Which is honestly really good. That's excluding any times they've forewarned us. :)
It's also worth noting: You should try to ply your skills to your advantage. Like, Mog suggested I use a fight roll to defend. But I could easily argue a speed roll. So if I had a better speed, I could use that. One of the things I really like about Fate is that people do things in different ways. As I said before, it's okayi to lose. But it's also important to note that you can generally finagle things towards a win as long as you can explain why you think something should work that way. Like, take a door that's locked. You could argue to pick it with gamble, but you could also easily argue tools/craft. Or you could maybe leverage something else if it fits your character. Like Physique/Brawn: Just let the door stay locked, that doesn't mean you can't open it! You should always try to leverage the fiction to your character's advantage. Be MacGyver. If we think it shouldn't work that way, we'll let you know. :) Just remember, MacGyver probably had a stunt to use tools for anything as long as he had a fate point to spend. :)
Serra had to know more of what was going on. Staying in the tunnel was good and safe and all, but... something wrong was going on here. And it was completely none of her business. So she had to know more. She slunk out of the darkness as quietly as she could, eyes on the pair lit by the fire and hunkered down. Serra wasn't really built for being sneaky though, only nosy. Most people had always been at least somewhat forgiving of her nature; small towns always had gossips and know-it-alls, but this was probably a bit... different.
Serra sniffs at the air, now that they're down below - it's exaggerated, though she doesn't seem to notice. Is the smell a good smell or a bad one?
Serra might as well appease her curiosity by fidgeting around with a hole or two while she's there, I think. Better to know what's in store for them... she'll be careful but she does want to see what's going on with the extra holes... taking her sweet time getting down in the process.
Serra would have visibly winced if they could see any more of her than a silhouette. She avoids mentioning that they were supposed to be being quiet - not calling out to one another, but... there was nothing to do there, now. Oh well. People were going to find out, anyway. They always did. So... she sets off to descending. "Probably a rope." she says in a hushed whisper that only just barely masks the sound coming from near Orland's leg, and even then for only a moment. She figured she could probably figure out the handholds... but didn't want to risk it. And they'd probably be easier to see on the way up, anyhow! Plus... there was light below, now. She was considerably less confident than the other two men as she made her descent, her body straining slightly under the pressure of muscles she hadn't used for quite so long.
The table is actually very cool. Unrelated to those (except by Tangent), I was thinking of Aspects and such. It may have been intended, or this could even be mildly insulting, but there are two songs that come to mind for me with Amaziah: "I've got Friends on the Other Side', which is a killer aspect all on its own (alternate name: A Man, Possessed, if you want to play up the Cheval), and The House of the Rising Sun. Which might be why I like the Morningstar so much as a name. Very evocative and bakes the sin straight into the crust. :) As for the Aspect that I got from Hueys, I wasn't really feeling it very strongly, so now I'm leaning more towards 'Headstrong, Head First'. It seems like a really good aspect and interacts well with being active rather than passive. Plus, it's compel fodder. Which I'm always gonna be wanting more Fate Points. On a wider tangent: I was talking to a friend about the game and something came up that I wanted to bring up here. Aspects are incredibly important. And I'm sure everyone has gotten that. They tell who your character is! But there's more to that. It tells what you want to play and what you want to see. If you find yourself getting compelled to do things that seem like a horrible idea often that you don't want any part of, it may be ideal to adjust your character or even replace it. It's better to not stick with something you hate and hope it gets better, in my experience (though, I rarely pull that off, clean). So if you wind up with something you don't find fun, bring it up. On a non-tangent: Losing is okay. Fate points shouldn't be spent to simply not fail. They should be saved to succeed when you really care about it. To shrug off a compel when it would take something you want more, away. Like the freedom of movement involved with 'not having a broken leg'. But we're expected to fail at things, even occasionally the things we're really good at. So just try to keep that in mind!
Yeah, in a face to face game, you'd use cards. That might be something worth keeping on a separate document that's easy to peruse. :) Another thing that could be done is listing it in one of your headers when you have a free invoke on something.
Each skill has multiple uses. The game is broken up into multiple 'ways' to use a skill. While the game outright says 'This skill can't be used for attacks', I think it's safer to say it should 'rarely be used for attacks', directly. I.E. With contacts you could, in theory, call in the cavalary, or rustle up a posse to ostensibly do just that. But if you didn't do so beforehand, you may be left spending a fate point to adjust the scene. But before I get ahead of myself: I've used two types of rolls so far: A discovery, where I ask the DM what his intent is on something that's interesting, and a create advantage, where I suggest a use for a piece of the scene (which can be just about anything, generally). When you create an advantage, you create something that can be used later. For good or ill. So something like a 'narrow corridor' could be used to brace against the ceiling as the monsters passed below you. But at the same time, when you're running from a ghost, the narrow corridor can be used to compel you to run in single file (which is only a good compel if there's a reason not to). You can go 'this makes sense to me, how about I can easily climb the well because I can reach both sides.' and spend a fate point to get a +2. Or you can go 'The monster can't really dodge in the confined space of the well, so it should be an easy shot.' and spend a fate point to get a +2... so on and so forth. Anyone can use the advantage once it's there. Typically it's a good idea to set yourself up for success before doing something, unless the GM gives you a time limit - or you suspect there might be one. When you create the advantage, you get to do it for free without spending the fate point. What's more, I can freely give away that +2 to anyone that I want. I'm not certain I can do it after the roll, but I think I can. And if you want it, you can have it :) It might turn out badly for me (or someone else) later, but I will always be happy to share Serra's discoveries. Unless I actively state I'm hiding them. :)
Also, I worry about hogging too much of the spotlight. How often should I roll/be willing to roll? Cause I just realized the incense smoke is probably a good time to check if it's magicks!
It is nigh unreadable on my phone, atm. :(
"Maybe... maybe it's wide enough to just brace down? Wouldn't be able to use your hands for much of anything, but..."
"I think someone in decent shape could get down pretty easily. There's something that helps lower folks down... somewhere. Could look for that, but it probably went down with them. Something with pulleys, maybe. Folks like me would need to be a bit more careful getting down, though." she continues in the same hushed tones, eyes sparkling with excitement as she looks to each. "I know they say ladies first, but both of you look a bit more fit for climbing than me. What do you think, boys? Just be careful you don't break anything on the way down."
There were likely some old tallow candles inside the church, though where to get something to light them would probably fall to the men. And beyond that, given the level of care the Father took of this place, he'd likely notice if one of the candles were to be used or go amiss. So she shifted her weight and slipped down to the floor to peer over the edge instead of looking down from so far above, as if getting a little closer to the darkness would let her peer any further. "Willmore." she says in a hushed tone. As far as people discovering her being a busybody mid busybodying, she supposed two of the more well-meaning drifters wouldn't be all that upsetting. She'd brought Orland in case something went horrifically wrong. Huey also seemed more than willing to shoot first and ask questions later... which might be good. To be fair... she was used to being found. She wasn't as much of a sneak as she'd like to be. She was at a loss though, for how to explain the majority of this. There had to be a way down. Maybe using the little crevices that held things as hand and footholds. But that would probably risk breaking something. So she peered over the edge, catching the small wafts of the smoke, looking for whatever mechanism the man (or, according to Orland: Men) would use to reach the bottom - and seal the top.
There had been notes in some of the lorebooks on Lazarus. They were small snippets all throughout different books, seemingly with no rhyme nor reason. Just like most of her father's notes, they were more questions than answers. Her father's notes tended to be the right questions at least, though. Some of the notes cast a lot of doubts about who exactly Lazarus really was, but one in particular had noted that Lazarus often seemed to not be around only shortly after entering the church. That, combined with the local townsfolk muttering about much the same, didn't so much tell her there was a passage... but did tell her that the priest had a way out that wasn't readily visible. So it wasn't a surprise to find the hidden space. The little wear marks had almost made it too easy. The question was, how deep could they go without letting Lazarus... or really, any of the town... know about this little space. Or at least keep them from knowing she knows. The former or latter might change, but for now, she was neck deep in none-of-her-business. Which was always the most fun place to be.
Huey's story:
"Right, and as if you'll get the Captain to actually come down here - and from that little plot of land I buried him in, I might add, to do that. Stop being such a bully. And you-" she says, turning to Huey, "Never pull a gun on a man unless you're willing to use it. Because you don't know whether he's willing to use his or not. The town is looking for a Sheriff, though. Could probably use someone who stands up to bullies. Preferably someone who'll get the facts first, though." she says with a wry grin that could be either scathing or welcoming in equal parts, depending on Huey's own state of mind. "Or at least, some of the town is." she says rolling her eyes at the jeers from the crowd at her suggestion that the town needed a lawman.
There was something that Serra didn't like about Amaziah... but it was hard to put her finger on. He was the defacto-friendly of a southern gentleman to a tee. He'd wound up deep in the seediest part of the town, though... maybe that was part of it. She'd made it a point to avoid the Morningstar and its denizens for the majority of her life. They just weren't her kind of people... But she'd wound up spending more time there, since her father had gone missing. She'd made it a bigger point to keep an eye on the drifters, or in this case, the new man in town. And drifters came to the Morningstar, as probably the only real entertainment that didn't require a gun, for miles. But it wasn't at the Morningstar that she'd found him. She'd found the stranger hovering around the outer reaches of the local sheriff - or what passed for one. She'd very quickly learned that he wasn't worth her time and wouldn't be of any help. He was more the problem than the solution. But she had noticed him hovering, and the man doing something incredibly stupid... and one of her friends getting hurt as a response. Really hurt. The sort most people wouldn't recover from - and she'd know. She was the Undertaker's Daughter. So... there was really nothing she could do, besides be there for Belle. So many horrors visited on her in one day. She'd finally managed to get her to sleep in her own bed, and took the opportunity to skip out of the house, and head to where the Drifters always wound up. The Morningstar. As she slid into the seat across from him, and pushed a tumbler of gin in his direction, she wasn't smiling, but was wearing a full suit. "Hi. We haven't met. The name's Serra Willmore, and I'm the local Undertaker."
Another option for Orland might be something like Makes the Hard Decisions, based on what happens in it, especially if we go for the revised version. Serra probably is going to get the Aspect Blood Begets Blood from her ties to Amaziah's story, as she ultimately opts not to seek out the violent solution to her friend being hurt. :)
Nora is definitely still here. So don't dive into adding to my story just yet. I've been waiting to see if Amaziah minds me not-necessarily being 'on his side' in his story before writing. Also, do folks mind if Serra and Nora are in a relationship?
I'm not sure, really! But you do need an aspect from it! So I was just making a suggestion in case you didn't have any ideas, having read over it. Does that sound like an aspect he should have, or does it not? Do you think you'd enjoy playing a character with that aspect?
I got really excited at work today while thinking about Amaziah, as a result of reading your intro (which I need to respond to). First: I feel like my character would likely be antagonistic towards yours as a result of your story, if she knew what was going on. I don't want to just jump straight into the 'I don't like you.' thing, though. Second: I was thinking of an aspect or Stunt name as a result of your Morningstar (which is a great name!): The House Always Wins Not sure what it'd do, but it just seemed thematically appropriate. @Orland: Don't forget that you should gain an aspect from our interlinked story. It should have helped to show who your character is. If you need a suggestion, I noticed a lot of inappropriately timed humor, which to me is a great aspect in and of itself. You could either invoke it to take the tension out of a situation, or it could be compelled to say something funny that you shouldn't have (most likely self-compelled).
No, I'm completely fine with what he did. He came to me via PM; generally it's bad to 'control' a character, but there's nothing out of the ordinary going on there at all (except where I'll bring it up)! In fact, the anger sort of plays off of how her bargain works. And she's likely a bit upset with the guy anyway. :) So, the idea I have is that (like we talked about) this probably goes down after she follows one of the leads up, and winds up coming up empty handed and is on her way home... but happened to have an idea of whatever the thing was. The wording probably isn't fully canon, but I like her ignorantly asking which country he was from in the worst way. :) How do you feel about her being unable to bring herself to kill it and Orland having to take her gun to finish it instead of her? As for the necklace, I'm thinking it's more a 'broken shackle' her father made for her beast than a 'monster finder'. :3
@Mostly Hallowed Ground: Yup!
Re: Stories: It's more you add your character into the story. Like 'Hey, you know, my character is actually pretty religious; born in a Scottish family, the only thing he cares more about than god is his drink. He'd totally be in the Church and maybe overhear a bit of that.' Or 'My character would totally be around for one of those conversations where some Jackanape opted to comment on her chosen profession. I shut that up, real quick.' So on and so forth. The idea is to do a couple of things: Add to my story, introduce your character to mine, and more importantly, add to your own story and character. No character survives unchanged in the first few chances you have to play them, and this helps you get a good bead on who they are, and show us what kinds of thigns you want to see in the story, and show us what a story about your character would be like. From here on, it's very collaborative. There will be steps made towards our 'personal arcs' just like any television show with good character development, even as we follow along the main arcs. So... what's your story? How does it begin? How do our two 'major players' in the story meet up? Also, I'm very open to slight changes to the story in order to better fit your characters in. Heck, it'll be a better story with a bit of group-think!
There, I've updated mine a bit to make it easier to slide into. The Family Business isn't Dead covers Serra's awakening after a night in which she'd blacked out to discover her father to be a hunter of monsters and gone. She does her best to find things out, but eventually settles on approaching the town priest, Lazarus, the last black name in the ledger, and the name that appeared most often therein. She decides to follow in her father's footsteps, quite literally, in order to try to find out who he was, and make sure that he work he did wasn't in vain, and didn't end in tragedy. Perhaps your name appears in the ledger, black or red?
There are many ways to find yourself touching in Serra's story, for good or ill. It's perhaps not as open or thorough as I'd like, but I feel it was long enough. :) Serra's stories provide the following setting pieces: Priest Lazarus A Savior of Men and his Church The Last Bastion in a Godless Land
Serra wakes up after a wild night she can't remember, to find the dead man, her father's horse, and her father all gone. As she investigates her wrecked house, she finds a hidden stairwell in her father's closet, which leads into his office of sorts. Tools, books on lore, and likely much more exists down in the family's basement. Inside, she finds a ledger with her name in both red and black ink, and the rest of her line smudged... along with the broken pendant she'd worn for as long as she could remember. During the following week, her father doesn't return. She moves into town to question people... but no one knows where he's gone. She digs through the archives of the basement, reading her father's notes moreso than what was printed within the books, and discovers a man with more questions than answers. But perhaps more importantly, she discovers that her father hunted people. Not just people, but monsters. There were no clues as to where he would have gone or why. No clues as to why a monster would have come to her home and dragged him off and left her. There was only the ledger. Names, places, dates, and ink. Finally, she resolves to use it as a clue. A blank space - red ink with a date and nearby town. A black name, with the same date and a nearby town. That same name repeated, often, red and black. After repairing her necklace, gathering some of her father's tools and one of his guns, and putting on one of his suits - a surprisingly good fit, she heads into the city to find the man her father had helped, find out who he'd hurt, and seek out answers as to just what might have followed him home that night. And while she was there, she'd make sure her father's job kept getting done. Everyone laughed. She'd expected that. She'd expected some level of respect from them as well, though. That she was there to make sure good work got done should have mattered more than her youth, inexperience, and gender. But it didn't. One man wouldn't laugh, though. The town priest Lazarus. The last man written in her father's ledger in black. Her father had done something for him, and she was going to find out what it was. Lazarus didn't laugh. He quoted a whole lot of gospel at Serra, but he definitely didn't laugh. Her father hadn't been by, which was unusual. Not a holy man, but always punctual. The ledger was his confessional, apparently. Only God could judge him, but the devil was keeping a ledger. The man that had died bloody, the stranger... had been her father's victim. As had many before him. Lots of time, drifters would come into town, monsters of one sort or another. Not all of which, supernatural. Her father was the one who'd taken care of that sort of thing. And now, with him gone, there wasn't much stopping evil from moving into the town, controlling it, besieging it from all sides. He didn't know where her father had gone, but he knew it'd go to hell without him. Lazarus would help her, just as he'd helped her father, try to keep that blackness from settling into her soul if she followed his same path. But most folks wouldn't see her as her father, so she had a long way to go. And there were still more names, red and black, to seek out for answers.
Spoiler:
The night before had been cloudless; the moon full. And Serra had what she could only assume was the worst hangover of her life. She pushed herself up from the ground outside her bedroom window, dusting herself off as she climbed to her knees. Very hungover, as she couldn't remember most of the night before, or even remember drinking. She hadn't been sick; and she didn't do much drinking to begin with, which was another oddity, but that didn't make the sunlight hurt her eyes any less, or cause the dirt and grit not to sting where she flicked it off of her skin.
She winced for a moment, looking around. Her father's horse wasn't tethered to anything... and the new grave he'd dug the day before hadn't been filled in. Serra's yard doubled as the town cemetery. Half-hallowed by the burial of half the folks who lived around here. Half-unhallowed by the number that had died bloody. Her father had a habit of bringing in the latter to make sure they got a decent burial. Her mind flashed back to the previous day. Her father had brought a man in from out of town who'd been gunned down, brought him in for burial since he didn't have any family nearby, was planning to sit up in a wake for him that night. There was a flicker of pain that set the throught process back a few paces. She climbed to her feet and headed for the front door. Right past her mother and sister's gravestones. Expensive and meticulously crafted by her father. He didn't do a lot of that sort of thing, stonework, but he'd done it for them. She paused looking at the two, frowning. She'd been young when they'd died. She moved on to the front door. Open. It shouldn't be open. She sat silently for a moment, listening, and didn't hear anything. She moved for the door. The place was a complete mess. Like some outlaws or vagabonds had had the run of the place. But... who? Her father was well-respected... She found herself following the trail of destruction. Tables overturned in the hall, rail of the stairway busted, long, jagged marks in the walls and on one of the doors. Her heart sped up. Maybe not a vagabond. Some sort of beast? She would certainly hear a beast. Her hand went to her neck, to clutch the pendant... that wasn't there. A nervous gesture she'd had for as long as she could remember. In its place, she picked up a shattered chair leg and hunkered low to the ground, continuing to move. Her boots crunched in the broken glass of a lantern. She followed along to her father's room. A room she'd rarely entered. She paused for a moment on the threshhold, brain a livewire of possibilities, before she swung her body into the room, ready to swing the chair leg. Empty... but for the destroyed bed, and the closet door hanging off of its hinges. A dull light flickering in the darkness that led to the space beneath the stairs. She headed inside, rapidly noticing that the light flickered from too low, too close to the floor. There was a stairwell. To a space beneath her house. A room she'd never known of. Curiosity winning over caution, Serra moved forward quickly, crossing the intervening space, heading down the stairwell into the hidden chamber connected to her father's room. The darkness crept in around her, but the still-lit lantern did little to disguise the glinting of various tools along the walls. Tools she'd never seen and had no idea how to use, or even what many of them were for. More curious were the books around the room. Dozens of them. But one in particular stood out on the work surface, opened, with a silver chain acting as a bookmark. Her pendant lay next to the snapped chain of her necklace across the book. Red and black ink filled the book, names. Dozens of them. She flipped the page back, and back, and back... dozens of pages of names. She flipped further. Her eyes stopped right in the middle of the page. Her name. Serra in red ink. An inkblot. Willmore in black. Her hands clutched the chain, the pendant managing to stay dangling from it as she pushed away from the table, moving for the stairs, her head swimming, her head pounding, but her heartbeat slowing as the cool metal pressed into her hand. She came to a rest at the stairs, sinking to the floor, trying to piece together what she'd found. A ledger, a secret room, her father missing, her broken pendant... Fast Forward. TL;DR Spoiler:
Serra wakes up after a wild night she can't remember, to find the dead man, her father's horse, and her father all gone. As she investigates her wrecked house, she finds a hidden stairwell in her father's closet, which leads into his office of sorts. Tools, books on lore, and likely much more exists down in the family's basement. Inside, she finds a ledger with her name in both red and black ink, and the rest of her line smudged... along with the broken pendant she'd worn for as long as she could remember.
I -really- like the idea of the train wrecking. Because it fits in -so well- with also tying Nora into his story. She knew better than to trust that train... I'll also have something similar to Orland in that vein; I wrote quite a lot and didn't like it a whole lot overall, but it covers quite a bit of ground in the way of backstory. I'll leave that in a spoiler and then do something more after - though if you like the idea of appearing in the story in a broader way in the 'intro' section... feel free!
It may be tonight or tomorrow before I get anything substantial up. Yesterday's work day went to crap, and I have to work again today... and probably tomorrow. We'll see, sorry for the delay on my part.
Personally, my vote goes for Serenity or Absolution, with Perdition in third. White Chapel bumps up a bit higher with the note of the Jack the Ripper stuff that would have been utterly lost on me.
Other than the first person to post in a thread, you can make a post in the gameplay thread, and then delete it, in order to get your 'dot', without retaining the rest of the content. :)
I prefer the idea of fixing the 'starting town' as it were, and that being a main priority early. Setting right some clear wrong, with well-defined locations to start, then spreading outwards from there in a more natural way, or being drawn there by story. As for Serra, I've been leaning towards werewolf more than anything else, Monsterwise. In particular, White-wolf style werewolves. If you're familiar, the Uktena tribe seems to be a really solid fit for her.
I've been looking at the book a bit more, and I'm thinking that our Bargain stunts are effectively 'superpower' extras. Does that seem accurate? If so, is it also accurate to say they might be 2-refresh stunts? If so, that makes it a lot easier to balance things. Like... Gun: +2 to attack with Shoot (or maybe, force a consequence on a successful shoot); can use shoot to create advantages in relation to fire.
Does that make sense, overall?
I'd definitely make it both towards and away. The skills overlap a lot. You could also buy another stunt, then, for just chasing and add another +2. Maybe pursuit of justice. It may not fit who he's supposed to be, but it'll come in handy when he's not being compelled by his aspects to do something stupid. :)
In Fate 'Death' is usually something agreed upon amongst the players; the dice don't ever dictate that sort of thing, only the fiction can. The dice will dictate that you're 'taken out', but what that means depends on the scene and circumstances. Like, 'Taken Out' could be knocked out and dragged off, or it can be pushed too far at a party and drive home alone and sullen without accomplishing what you wanted, or it can be the hulk piloting a jet plane to somewhere off in the distance. I put the stipulation of it being 'once per scene' into her stunt, so it doesn't become either A: A get out of jail free card, or B: A GM compel machine. There are actually a lot of knobs to be adjusted in there! If it comes up too often, it can be moved to once per session, if it's negatively impacting too many scenes someone can say something and I'll try to keep the monster a bit more 'down', so on and so forth. The main thing I'm worried about is that things that aren't very fun get weeded out early! If Serra keeps making a mess of things and you find it unenjoyable, or someone keeps starting fires, etc, Fate, beyond any other game, needs people to step up and say something. Since it's so rules-light, you can't just go 'well, the rules say he can, so it's okay', because it can't be played that way! :) @Mog: What are your thoughts on simply me asking you to take control of Serra rather than doing a normal compel, when I wish to keep a consequence from sticking? It should help to limit back-and-forth a little, and it seems fitting given the particular compel 'Let the beast out for a bit.'
Re: Can I take a compel: Actually I think that's more ideal, as you won't be able to presume I'm taking a consequence until I've decided to tick off that box, unless something bad is happening. :P While at work yesterday I thought of something as well: I like compels, and I sort of like complicating scenes, but I hadn't really considered what the other players might want: Do they want a character who can't really be blamed for their actions running about with them, usually doing a lot of good, but occasionally doing something awful? Do the players like the dramatic sense of dealing with a character who blacks out and does something monstery when someone (or something) tries to hurt them? Do the players dislike that I'd be turning my own wounds into things that can adjust entire scenes at the DM's whim, essentially moving my consequences into team consequences instead of individual at times?
We could alternately drop the FP cost if I deny it, and it fills in your side of it! I'd definitely prefer that the compels not be to directly inflict harm on allies, though! The logic behind it is that I -really- like compels, and this puts her into a prime place to be compelled pretty often. It solves the problem of her being a noncombatant who will frequently appear in combat situations (keeps her from being Taken Out as easily). Finally, it might set up for an interesting situation if Serra's 'Taken Out', in which neither party gets to decide what happens to Serra. :P It's neat to think that Serra's inner monster (which she doesn't even know she has) will drag itself out of the depths to protect itself (herself), and then get shoved back down by a combination of the 'broken shackles' built by her father and her own will. There could even be quite a few ways to grow that outwards, upwards, and downwards. I really like the overall flavor it brings. :) As for Lucky Bastard, I really like the fact that it's his good luck, and Nora's bad luck setting up entire scenes.
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