do you plan to know each other already?
do you plan to know each other already?Should we? Wouldn't that be easier?
We can be in San Fracisco too, anywhere is good for me.
The planned first scene is intended to introduce you to one another, but it's not a big deal either way. If you see handy ways to bring yourselves together, go ahead and do it. If not, it's not an issue.
I wouldn't mind meeting each other in game.
L.A. would fit for Benny, Ima and Tocal, not sure about Trent.I was going to make him a Berkley guy anyways. =P
I was envisioning Ima being from S.F. (and, formerly, from Silicon Valley, before the "divorce"); however, it's easy enough to conjecture circumstances that would have landed her just about anywhere since then.
L.A. would fit for Benny, Ima and Tocal, not sure about Trent.I was going to make him a Berkley guy anyways. =PI was envisioning Ima being from S.F. (and, formerly, from Silicon Valley, before the "divorce"); however, it's easy enough to conjecture circumstances that would have landed her just about anywhere since then.
See I am also a far traveling sort of soul. Then again dad is Hermes so it would figure.
Looks like L.A. or S.F. with 2 votes for the S.F./Berkley area.
Hey, what's this? It appears to be a game thread!
I saw a trailer for an upcoming movie, Percy Jackson: The Lightning Stealer, that appears to be written around the Scion concept.
So I tend to believe that soak in Scion as written is problematic in the extreme. It's ludicrously easy to get to the point where no reasonable opponent can actually damage you; while I don't have a problem with divine characters being bulletproof, I really think they ought to have to at least be demigods before that happens.
So rather than use the Scion soak mechanic - i.e., soak reduces rolled successes on damage dice - we're going to use the Exalted system instead. After the damage pool is calculated (weapon damage + rolled successes), the pool is reduced by the relevant soak total. The remaining dice are then rolled, with damage being inflicted on a per-success basis as normal. Soak cannot reduce a character's damage pool below their Legend score, and in cases where a character has automatic damage successes (as with Epic Strength on melee damage rolls), soak reduces the auto-successes first.
Note that extras do not have Legend, and their attacks may thus be reduced to zero. "Heroic" mortals, however, are sufficiently tied to Fate that, in addition to being able to stunt, counting 10s as two successes and having a full complement of Health Levels, they also have Legend scores of 1; they will always roll at least 1 die for damage on a successful attack.
If you have any questions, let me know. :D
More deadly is ok with me.
Might have to read the Percy Jackson books now
More deadly is ok with me.
This isn't about making combat "more deadly," it's about making combat "a circumstance in which someone might actually get hurt." Given that, without Epic Strength adding to damage rolls, you typically have to have a damage pool greater than two and a half times the total soak of your opponent to have a better than 50/50 chance of actually inflicting a single Health Level's worth of damage under Scion rules, I have some serious issues with how the game handles it by default.
Might have to read the Percy Jackson books now
They are definitely worth reading.
A few comments on the issues that T&M raised over in the play thread.
First, and least importantly, I freely admit that starting the fight in "boxed text" could theoretically leave you guys trapped having to stand up while the action is moving; it was narrative license, but as Scions, it's something you guys can play with too. I obviously have no plans to insist that you unbuckle and stand up in combat ticks; that's not exciting gameplay, and that's sort of the point of the action scene. I would encourage you guys to stunt as well, since it forgives quite a lot of sins and makes the game a lot more thrilling.
Second, I can't figure out what Speed Knacks are either, but there is some circumstantial evidence that they are reflexive by default. Assume that's the case unless there is a clear reason to think otherwise.
Third, Subliminal Warning is definitely a tricky power, but I would remind you that the mechanics just mean that you yourself won't ever get ambushed - I don't think it promises that you will be able to interfere with someone else getting ambushed in your proximity (which is basically what happened with the poor sky marshal). It's a fuzzy line, I admit, but I am aware that you guys have it, and I was careful in this context not to directly impact any of the PCs with the opponents' actions during the "boxed text" reveal...
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A few comments on the issues that T&M raised over in the play thread.
This is all good by me. As I said in my lengthy spoiler, the exercise was valuable for me in order to understand how the Scion combat works as much as anything. Recreating the box text in the form of ticks and actions would have been tedium that I wouldn't expect you to subject players to, but it definitely helped me get a feel for how things work.
To be crystal clear, my intent was not to imply that you were at all being unfair. Also, I'll never ask that you sacrifice creative license nor anyone's fun for the sake of accurately turning the crank on the rules driving a concurrent discrete time event simulator. I try very hard to leave that sort of thing behind at the office.
Anyway, I think this is going stunningly well so far, and I'm really starting to both enjoy and understand the game. I hope everyone else is having fun with it as well.
One more thing I should remind you all of - if you take the Move action, it's reflexive, so you can do it every tick, even while you're waiting for your action's Speed to resolve. So it's important to stay in touch with the game, since movement can change the tactical situation dramatically sometimes.
Oh, I didn't catch that. That does make quite a difference.
Wow. Being stabbed in the back by Fate isn't bad? ;-) It's enough to make a toon's head spin.
heh. I meant overall... ;)
Okay, I want to deal real fast with the idiotic way Scion writes about successes, so we can get it cleared up. The key is to realize that Scion loves to talk about "threshold," and that this is a very stupid thing to do.
"Threshold" is the number of successes you get beyond the number you need to get "a success." This is because difficulties in Scion are determined by a minimum number of successes you need, but successes beyond that make you do better. A typical roll is difficulty 1, meaning that it takes 1 success to succeed at the roll. A difficulty 4 roll requires 4 successes to accomplish, and so on. In both cases, if you roll 5 successes, then you have done better than required - but a lot moreso in the case of the difficulty 1 roll than the difficulty 4 roll. That's where threshold comes in. In the first case, you got a threshold of 4, while in the second, you only got a threshold of 1.
As far as that goes, it's fine. I typically would say, "okay, you succeeded and got an extra success," but that's not a major quibble. The trouble, however, appears when we get into combat - specifically, when we get into dealing with DVs.
The thing is, DVs don't act exactly like difficulties, because instead of having to equal them, you actually have to exceed them. If you roll three successes against someone with a DV of 3, you've missed. But let's say you've rolled 6 successes instead. The way Scion writes about successes, you have to calculate the result as follows: 6 successes minus 3 DV = 3 successes = "success" with a threshold of 2. Which means, when they say that damage is calculated as "Strength + weapon damage + threshold + 1," what they mean is "Strength + weapon damage + the number of successes beyond the defender's DV," but they won't say that for some silly reason. So when you're calculating the raw (pre-soak) damage, you're always just taking the base damage (Str + weapon for most things, just weapon for guns) and adding the number of successes you got beyond the defender's DV. That's all.
Is it possible for you to list during combat the enemies current DV and soak so we have an easier time figuring out our attack rolls? That way we will know when it would be the best time to spend willpower or legend points.
Normally - as in, if we were at a gaming table - I wouldn't, simply because that's too much metagame info that I don't generally believe you should have. I would rather you ran the risk of learning the hard way that this opponent needs some Legend expenditure, or spending Willpower even when it wasn't at all necessary.
However, I think I'm going to have to, because otherwise the pacing in the PbP gets too complicated (player: declare attack, GM: award stunt dice, player: rolls attack, GM: determines number of extra successes and reports on soak, player: rolls damage). So yes, I'll start posting that info. But I might also start taking advantage of that same information myself for the PCs, if it seems to be in fashion...
Benny:
The other thing I noticed is that Benny doesn't have any Virtues. The Virtue descriptions are on pgs 118-122 of Scion: Hero; the Amatsukami practice the Virtues of Duty, Endurance, Intellect and Valor. You begin with 1 dot in each Virtue, and have 5 points to spend on increasing them (though you can't go over 4 in a Virtue without bonus points).
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Ooops. I will fix the virtues. I didn't put them in the profile for some reason. (need to find my char sheet or I'll just make them again. I think I remember them.) :)
Ah, I didn't understand about the relic and purview thing... I thought I only needed a relic for domains not from my father.
Is a character able to overcome that disadvantage when he gets more XP? (like demigod or god?)
I'll fix the points for those. (won't be until next week though... totally booked this weekend.)(unless I get some free time somewhere...) ;)
Ooops. I will fix the virtues. I didn't put them in the profile for some reason. (need to find my char sheet or I'll just make them again. I think I remember them.) :)
Ah, I didn't understand about the relic and purview thing... I thought I only needed a relic for domains not from my father.
Is a character able to overcome that disadvantage when he gets more XP? (like demigod or god?)
I'll fix the points for those. (won't be until next week though... totally booked this weekend.)(unless I get some free time somewhere...) ;)
Demigods and higher do not need relics to access Purviews, though they suffer a Legend penalty of -1 for determining the effects of any Boon they use without an associated Relic. And, of course, you can sometimes acquire Relics in the course of play, either as gifts or trophies from slain titanspawn.
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The Aim action is a Speed 3, DV -1 action that can be interrupted; it gives you +1 die on your next attack for every tick you spend aiming, however, up to a max of +3 dice for the whole 3 ticks. If you find yourself with a substantial Speed advantage over an opponent, it's a good way to make use of those extra ticks to get a real measurable combat advantage over them.
What happens if more than one creature goes on the same tic?
None of the consequences of any action that occurs on that tick are felt until the tick is over, and then everything resolves more or less simultaneously. Moreover, since everyone's DVs refresh at the beginning of the tick, all sides have their max defenses available, as DV penalties from actions also don't hit until the end of the tick.
Hey, Xabulba, given your post in the Exalted thread, I wanted to make sure everything was cool with Trent still in this game.
I'm back from the holidays, after a final 32 hour ordeal trapped in airport limbo, and will thus be back to a "daily post" routine.
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Good to hear! I hope that means we can get you set up and into the Pathfinder game soon as well! :DI'm back from the holidays, after a final 32 hour ordeal trapped in airport limbo, and will thus be back to a "daily post" routine.
Yes, I will get that finished later today after getting my first Mandarin assignment out of the way. :-)
Ok, I'm updated and should be fixed.
Virtues added too.
Let me know if I messed up something.