Terra42's page

Who said anything about giving the Leeunids any keys or passwords (besides, they don't even speak English (or whatever))? But the best gear the ship has available is *much* better than what they would have had, what's the harm in providing them the best protection possible?

Terra runs forward another 5 yards and hunkers down in front of a large rock.

Terra moves 5 yards to the nearest cover that's closer to the pirates and hunkers down.

Terra finds some low cover and ducks behind it, saying "I'm useless this far away from them! I have to be within 10 yards! Any ideas?"

Terra pokes her head just enough above the wall so she can see her previous target :

Boxing, TN=16: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 4) = 8

which does

Damage=STR=TK=20: 3d6 + 2 ⇒ (2, 4, 6) + 2 = 14 HP

And her ape-man crumples to the ground.

Terra also runs for cover behind the wall, but pokes her head up enough to look at one of the ape-men, and focuses her mental energy on him :

Boxing, TN=16: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 6, 3) = 10

which does

Damage=STR=TK=20: 3d6 + 2 ⇒ (5, 1, 4) + 2 = 12

Terra slaps a Healing patch on herself :

Healing: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Bringing her up to 7 HP.

She hopes Rix heard her call for help, and will get here soon.

Terra focuses her mental energy on an opponent :

Boxing, TN=16: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 4) = 7

which does

Damage=STR=TK=20: 3d6 + 2 ⇒ (5, 6, 1) + 2 = 14 HP

The target defends as if attacked by an invisible opponent - "if the defender is aware he is being attacked, he may Dodge at -4. If he is completely unaware of his attacker, he gets no defense at all!" (I would assume that this would apply to at least this first attack).

Terra wears her prettiest dress, but with a sonic stun pistol on her hip.

The translator goes both ways, yes.

Terra, not knowing really what to do, especially with all those guns pointed at her, steps forward and bows, and says "My name is Terra, and I'm...uh...what is your name?" and steps back.

Terra pipes up, saying "I'll go too - because I *am* a weapon!" and she winks devilishly.

"Since we know *someone* down there speaks the hyperwave language, let's hail them using that language, with both hyperwave and regular radio - someone ought to be able to respond, don't you think?"

"I say we find a system where the hyperwave communications aren't encrypted, so we can understand what they're saying, and listen in for a while. I hope I didn't study their language for two months for nothing!"

Repeated disclaimer : whenever Terra offers a suggestion, it is *never* me-as-GM suggesting what to do, it's what I think she as a character would say.

Terra (a skinny 16 year-old girl) walks up to the marine, salutes him, and says in as deep a voice as she can manage "Sargent Ratcher! Permission to board the Styx granted! I'm sorry, sir, but there's no one in command here, it's total chaos!" and at that point she breaks out into a smile and a giggle and ends the salute.

When she finally notices Olivia, Terra will say "Hi, I'm Terra! I guess you're Jean's replacement? As far as I can tell, our current job here is to learn this new ship inside and out. There's training sessions every day, and books to read every night. Hope you like learning new stuff!"

Technically, it was "0 points" for Spacer (Easy, IQ = 1 point, so I figured 0 points would be IQ-1).

Terra spends her time trying to learn the alien language by speaking into the translator, listening to what comes out, and trying to noodle out sentence structure, etc.

Since she's only learning to speak it (half cost), she'll spend an extra banked character point to be able to speak it with an accent.

Trying to stay small and unobservable during the limo ride, Terra's eyes are wide thruout the walk thru the mansion, and once she's in the President's office, asks for a soft drink (everyone's request is filled, the President evidently keeps a well-stocked "bar").

Visibly shaken by the President's offer, she manages to stammer out "Yes, indeed, Madame President - I too would be greatly honored by the opportunity".

"Wouldn't sneaking in to Earth and then announcing our presence indicate that we are...well...sneaky, and maybe have something to hide? If we believe the reward is real, I say go in as ourselves."

DISCLAIMER : anything Terra says is *never* the GM speaking, telling you what to do. I play her as I think she would act, under the circumstances.

(Speaking as Terra) Seeing as we put in *all* our various amounts of money into the group pool, I'd have no problem with individuals taking some back out to pay for personal expenses.

(Speaking as DM) Rix - if I recall correctly, only Jean bet 3000 credits in general, and 500 to the spectator sitting next to him, so he's the only one who won any cash. If anyone can point me to a post where they made a bet, please do so.

From Dec 8 : "Regarding money, we all pooled our left over money and had about $283,000. Then we spent $172,000 on upgrades to the Turing, leaving us with about $111,000 in our "group account" right now."

Terra's eyes go wide and what Rix hears back is "You said something about someone called...Shaki being the mother of the universe!"

"No, I haven't. Did one of them end up being the king's champion?"

Terra walks in to the med bay just as Astra comes to, and apologizes again for having to hurt him. She explains that she mistakenly thought she was fighting for the lives of her and her crewmates.

"Well, now that you're up and about, how about the three of us see what this pirate base has to offer in the way of entertainment?"

So, in addition to the 8 ship's-skills points, everyone apply your 5 general points (if you haven't already). Everyone please post where you put them, just out of curiosity...

Since Rix won't be making a new PC, I think we're ready to continue in Gameplay!

ALL - how about 8 points per PC, to be put towards ship-board skills? It would be good to have an overlap in skills (and to give Jean a break :). I don't like the idea of the entire ship's operations depending on just 2 PC's. If everyone will please post what their new skills are, I'll sort them out, maybe suggesting a change here or there.
Rix, your new PC also gets these 8 points above and beyond the starting requirements.

April - that's great, but you can only do one thing at a time, right? I mean, if you're piloting the ship you can't also "man" the guns?

And, I could have *sworn* Bringer gave us some XP at one point, but I've searched both Gameplay and Discussion for "XP" and "points", and found nothing...(time passes)...ok, I found where he gave us 1 CP for good rollplaying. Anyone else?

Thanks, all, for the ideas and feedback! At this point, I'm thinking of a mostly Babylon 5-tech-level solar system, but with robots. Since no PC is currently using them, I'd like to de-emphasize the presence of cybernetics and nanobots in GURPS' TL 10 (not that they don't exist, they're just not commonplace).

In terms of basic plots, I like a combination of fnord's #1 and #4. Visiting new worlds, one at a time, making friends and/or taking artifacts. :) The group doesn't have the skills to be a special-forces op team.

Rix, is that enough of a "kinds of plots" description for you to make up a new PC at this point (if you want to stick with scientists, an archaeologist with some personal-weapons and ship-board skills, sort of Indiana Jones meets Han Solo, could come in very handy), or do you need more info? If so, please ask me some specific questions.

In terms of skills, AFAIK we still don't have Armory(2) and Gunner covered.

ALL - is anyone *not* OK with picking up right from where we left off in the game, and allowing a few initial heavy-handed plot changes (and retconning the existence of FTL ship drives) to get us on our new course?

P.S. - there's a great, 5 minute video on whether or not the Firefly "universe" (solar system) could really exist HERE.

There are many required skills needed to keep the ship in operation (repairs and maintenance) :
Hull - Armory(Vehicle Armor)
Control room (bridge) - Electronics repair (Computers), Computer Programming, and Electrician
Cargo Holds, Fuel Tanks, Hangar Bay, and Structural Repairs after a combat - Mechanic(Low-Performance Spacecraft)
Habitat - Mechanic(Life Support)
Jet engines - Mechanic(Aerospace OR Jet Engines)
Fusion power plant - Mechanic(Fusion)
Fusion engines - Mechanic(Fusion Engine)
Rail gun - Armory(Heavy Weapons)

And just to fly the thing (note : the ship's "Handling" is at -4!!!) :
Interplanetary flight - Piloting(Low-Performance Spacecraft)
Atmospheric flight - Piloting(Aerospace)

And someone needs to take the Gunner(Cannon) skill to use the Rail Gun!

Now, Jean had replied that he had most of the Mechanic skills covered, and Electronics repair, but that leaves Armory(2), Computer Programming, Electrician, Piloting(2), and Gunner. Since the Turing now has two weapons, at least two PC's should take Gunner.

Aster - you raised some good points. I'm pretty sure that Rix meant the Star Trek/Star Wars as the role of the spaceships in the game. And, yes, Firefly would qualify as the "Star Trek" kind of role.

But (by RAW), a fully TL 10 civilization doesn't have FTL communications, antimatter power generation, force screens, or technically even FTL travel (which is generically "superscience" at any TL), which places it firmly below both Star Trek and Star Wars techwise. But it *does* have artificial gravity (go figure)!

Regarding realism, "space opera" to me means the Lensman universe of E.E. Doc Smith, where the good guys are boy-scout, teeth-twinkling *good*, and the bad guys are heartless, ruthless, sell-their-grandmother *evil*. But, if OTOH, "hard sci-fi" means following the GURPS rules exactly, I'm against that. I can already tell there's going to be some TL inconsistencies in this "TL 10" universe in order to make it work. I'd like some wiggle-room to hand-wave the science if it's going to get in the way of the story. So, somewhere between space opera and hard sci-fi?

Regarding psionics, Terra is built off the core rules, and Dr. Rix is built using the psionic skills rules. I have no problem with that.

I'd suggest capping Hard to Kill at 1 or 2.

I would be open to PC's selecting "ship roles", and providing an *extra* number of skill points for them to be competent in their required skill rolls. I posted a list of required skills during PC generation, I'll see if I can find it again...

Thoughts about keeping Dr. Rix :

While April's medical capabilities are quite impressive, they are only available *within the ship*. As far as I can tell, none of her mobile robots have any healing skills or equipment.

So, there needs to be access to in-the-field healing. Dr. Rix, with an appropriate medkit (bandage spray, biomonitor, disposable test kit, first aid kit, diagnostic smart bandage, pocket medic, medscanner, and a variety of drugs), could handle most off-ship emergencies.

OTOH, if someone can carry a 20-lb Suitcase Doc ($10,000), we could probably do without Dr. Rix altogether, if her player doesn't want to run 2 PC's.

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

ALL - just spit-balling big-picture ideas here, from least to most storyline changes :

1. Stay completely within the "world" that Bringer made. Problem is, you'd be confined to the solar system, not much room to "explore strange new worlds", just visit existing colonies.

2. Get you thru the jumpgate. Problem is, I'm assuming there's only one other jumpgate "out there", which gets you to *one* other solar system, and the Turing doesn't have FTL capability. Not to mention the problems with actually *getting* you thru the jumpgate, given your current status with Earthgov.

3. Completely re-work the Turing with FTL, and start the game over with y'all heading out thru the jumpgate (or just heading out of the solar system on your own power).

I think I can work with #2, if y'all don't mind a *little* bit of initial railroading and heavy-handed plot changes to get you on your way. Or are you ok with #3?

Preferences, comments, ideas, suggestions?

I can do "Star Trek" more than "Star Wars". Does anyone else object to that?

However, I can't promise a continual supply of fighting and wounding for Rix to patch up. I'll have to look up how well carry-able supplies can heal PC's.
(April - I know you have a "med-bay", but can any of your mobile forms perform in-the-field healing?)

Perhaps you could keep Rix as a "secondary", background PC, and create a new PC? Right now, the Turing doesn't have a pilot, for one thing...

I'll have to get back to you on what kinds of encounters and long-range arcs there might be.

Rix, just out of curiosity - what kind of plot would you be most interested in?

ALL - I *might* be interested in GM'ing a continuation of this game, if everyone else is interested. Please post your interest (or lack thereof, just so I know you saw this) below.

According to RAW, it takes one minute to heal 1 HP, then another 10 minutes (at our TL) to restore d6+1 (at our TL) with First Aid, which includes the first HP.

But, Dr. Rix could have announced (or confirmed) that Aster's leg was broken as soon as she made her Diagnosis roll.

Putting her hands up, shoulder-high, palms forward (whether to indicate "surrender" or "stop" is unclear), Terra says "Hey there, Admiral sir, waitaminute - whether or not Aster chose not to fight, *I* made him incapable of fighting - just ask the doc over there! I hurt his leg so badly that he wasn't even able to *stand up*! That's a takedown in my book, any day, fair and square...

...and wait a minute, you just mentioned 'yielding a fight', which just reminded me - isn't one of the rules of the Gentleman's Code 'Yielding in combat is defeat'? So technically, when Aster refused to fight for whatever reason, I won automatically. I wish I had realized that during the fight, I could have saved him a lot of pain she thinks ruefully to herself. "You wouldn't want to get a reputation as a leader who breaks his own rules, now would you? Your fight is with Aster, sir, not with me!"

If the Admiral takes even a step in her direction, she will back up her full Move and mentally blast *his* leg.

P.S. Bringer - I meant to mention this in yesterday's post, but - I know lots of words, but I actually had to look up "eliding" (at first I thought it was a typo for "yielding"). Color me impressed. :)

As Aster slumps over prone to the ground, Terra looks around the arena and shouts "I claim victory for the crew of the Turing!".

Then she starts looking *at* the crowd until she spots Dr. Rix, and yells to her "Dr. Rix, Aster needs medical attention, now!".

Then she runs over to Aster, sits down beside him, puts his head in her lap and says "Oh, Aster, I'm *so* very sorry I had to hurt you, but we were fighting for our lives. I'm sure Dr. Rix will get you patched up real quick".

In reviewing the Gameplay text, it was not at all clear to me that the combat was over the terms of the agreement. The Admiral announced that there would be a combat right after April threatened his life, and so I thought we were in *deep* doo-doo. He never specifically said *what* the results of the combat were to be, so I assumed the worst (especially after one of the pirates warned us "Oh, and if you kill anyone, whilst being recognized as guests, you will be treated with utmost disdain."). I thought the *threat* of death was just as bad, and so I thought we were fighting for our lives. It's reasonable that Terra would think so too. And neither I nor Terra are familiar enough with pirate culture to know they aren't murderers (indeed, in the stories told of them on Earth, they are all probably cut-throats).

Again, as the pirate's champion, and whether or not Aster chose to fight, I perceived him as "the enemy" against whom I *must* win the combat in order for us to survive (or so I thought). And, I did it non-lethally (what with his being an ex-teammate and all).

In light of all that, the only Disadvantage I see as being questionable is Pacifism/Self Defense, and I think my misunderstanding of the consequences of the fight is enough to justify that.

But now that *I* understand what the combat was about, how do you want to handle things? Rewind to where Aster refuses to fight, keep things as-is in the light of Terra's misunderstanding, or what?

P.S. - in reviewing Gameplay, I ran across this item in the Pirate's Code of Honor : 6)Yielding combat is defeat. So technically Aster's refusal to fight is an automatic win for us, altho Terra may not have been brought up to speed on all the elements of the Code, and Aster's masters may object...

Well, I would argue that they're situational : even if Aster refuses to fight, *I'm* fighting against the pirates for the survival of my crewmates (so, "self-defense"). As the pirate's champion, Aster is neither innocent nor helpless (at least, not helpless *not* by his own choice) even if he is refusing to fight. So I'm perceiving him as "the enemy", even if he's not attacking me, and I *must* beat him.

And, by choosing to only Cripple him, I'm guaranteeing that I *can't* kill him, since HP damage past 1/2 HT is lost (blast GURPS' lack of a non-lethal damage mechanic! - or I would have used that)...

Is all that ok?

Stunned again for a moment by Aster's actions, Terra briefly considers quitting too, but doesn't know what the ramifications of that would be for her and her crewmates. So she whispers to herself "Sorry, Aster..." and attacks again :

Boxing, TN=16, +2 to target leg: 3d6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 3, 1) + 2 = 7

Damage=STR=TK=20: 3d6 + 2 ⇒ (2, 3, 5) + 2 = 12

-Since he's not trying to evade at all, I would argue that he can't attempt to Dodge the blow. And without a Shield or Cloak skill (and a readied shield or cloak), he can't attempt to Block.
-And whether it's cumulative or single-blow, 6 HP is more than half his total HP, so his leg is Crippled. Since any excess damage is lost, he's *not* at 0 HP.
-He should roll for Knockdown and Stunning : roll 3d6 vs. HT - failure means you fall prone (ok, slump over) and are Stunned (can't act), failure by 5 or more means you're unconscious.

Her ears already red from the sexual comments ("Really?" she thinks to herself, "against a *child*?!?") Terra stops in shock to see her old crewmate, but recovers quickly and shouts (to the crowd as much as to Aster) "Let's get this started, then!" and launches a telekinetic attack :

Boxing, TN=16 +2 to target leg: 3d6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 6, 4) + 2 = 13

which does

Damage=STR=TK=20: 3d6 + 2 ⇒ (1, 5, 2) + 2 = 10 HP

Notes : Aster defends as if attacked by an invisible opponent - "if the defender is aware he is being attacked, he may Dodge at -4. If he is completely unaware of his attacker, he gets no defense at all!" (I would assume that this would apply to at least this first attack, and perhaps *all* of them (since I can change the direction of each attack)?
-And, I'm assuming Aster is wearing his nanoweave bodysuit, which would have a DR of 6 against a TK attack.
-Also, damage equal to 1/2 his total HP or more cripples the limb, but excess damage beyond that is lost. If crippled, he must roll for Knockdown and Stunning, and he cannot walk! Until Healed, he has the Lame (Missing Legs) disadvantage.
-So, if I'm reading this right, he's taken 4 HP to his leg, which is not enough to cripple it.
-Bringer, I need to know how big this arena is, as it will be my intention to run away from Aster.

Regarding money, we all pooled our left over money and had about $283,000. Then we spent $172,000 on upgrades to the Turing, leaving us with about $111,000 in our "group account" right now.

We've invested heavily into the Turing, I think she's worth keeping...

Trying to maintain a semblance of calmness, and failing slightly, Terra says "Yes, I'll be just fine, thank you."

Thing is, the Falcon is a *lot* smaller than the Turing - for instance, it only has 4 cabins. It can also hold only 1/10 the mass. There goes our ATV...

I was thinking more like the Falcon would be *his* ship (debt and all), and we'd keep the Turing. Two ships could be better than one...

But, just to cover all the bases - Bringer, what could we sell the Turing (and ATV) for? Or is it now impossible to sell, given that EarthGov has described it (albeit a bit vaguely) in a "wanted" broadcast?

Bringer, my spoilers tag in your last post won't click open - can you please re-post it? Thanks!

Well, seeing as *both* our first and second choices have dropped out...

A small, slender, 14-year-old looking girl steps forward and says "I guess I am..."

I'm here, I'm here! I'm enjoying this immensely, and would like to continue.

When did Jack drop out? I haven't seen anything posted by him to that effect. Or did you mean Blackjack?

I think *with* his gauntlets, Jack's the better choice.

Bringer, is Brooke's claim that bringing TK to a pirate fight would be against the rules valid? Does she know that for sure, or is she just speculating?

Also, keep in mind that Terra's punch's STR is her TK, which is 20! Granted her Dodge is crap, but I was hoping to keep it a long-distance fight.

And, wouldn't Jack's gauntlets be considered "tech" by the pirates (even if they're powered by chi)? He'd lose a lot of his fighting ability without them...

If TK and gauntlets aren't allowed by Da Rules, I'd say Brooke has the best overall fighting potential. If Jack can use his gauntlets, I'd say he'd be the best bet.

...actually, now that I think about it some more, I'd say Jack has a better chance in hand-to-hand than Brooke, even without his gauntlets.

Bringer, what kind of fight is this? Hand-to-hand, or hand-held weapons, or ranged weapons? I'd assume Brooke would know...

"I can telekinetically punch from a distance pretty well, and pretty hard...and that's not 'tech'."

"April! No! Now is *not* the time to threaten our host!"

Taking a moment to concentrate, she telekinetically (STR 20) plucks April's dragonfly from off the Admiral's neck, and mentally brings it over to hover in front of her face, facing her, and shakes a finger at it.

"Bad AI! Bad! Now behave!"

Turning to the Admiral, she smiles her cutest 16-year-old smile and says "Sorry, Admiral, she's got glitches in her program, don't you know..."