4th time's the charm!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 1):

Back in the saddle today, so updates will resume per normal. Thanks all!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 2):

OOC #4 is so overrated.  Everyone knows that OOC #2 was better, OOC #3 was derivative at best this franchise has been going downhill fast.

Hey.

In reply to Muse (msg # 4):

Do you have a problem with accurate exposition? :P

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 5):



Fixed.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 16:32, Mon 19 June 2017.

In reply to Muse (msg # 6):

Pretty sure this is the point where we seal ourselves in the Core and come up with a new plan. Gotta be at least 50 guards bearing down on us.

In reply to Muse (msg # 7):

No this is the point where we have no control over anything and 50 guys are gonna murder us.

Unrelated, I have found Billy's theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOgnA3CnARk

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 8):

Spot on.

What's Billy got up his laser sleeve?

In reply to Muse (msg # 9):

Mostly lasers.

Just a quick math check Watcher: the faustian soldier charged two areas to deal 50(endurance) + 4(for distance) damage = 54-10 for body armor -30 for shield=14 damage.  am i wrong or did you forget my body armor?

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 11):

Also Muse, you don't need to spend karma to maintain a hold.  You don't even need to roll.  Its incumbent upon him to escape at this point.

And yeah thats pretty much Billy.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:52, Tue 20 June 2017.

Ah thank you. Good thing my burnt offering to the dice gods was accepted.

I calculated based on the white shield I thought you had at the time. Can add back 10 hp if you had a green shield up at the time.

@Muse, once you've got a hold or a partial hold that stays until you release it or they break free. It still consumes your turn to maintain the hold, though.

Ah, that'd do it.  64 was green though.  Yay not being under half HP in one hit.

Why did we bring Timon again?

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 16):

He's done more damage this fight than you have.

But I agree he's generally useless.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 17):

Yeah, well he's also responsible for more damage to Muse than I am.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 18):

Fiernas: are you volunteering to wait behind with the Amgine until we can get somebody back to you?  There's a reason why I made her backtrack (if I stayed 100% true to character you would actually have to fight her to get her to give up this opportunity).  You should stay with the party, theres not much for us on Amg... yet.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Until Billy gets there.

---

Also how much supplies do we have in relation to our trip duration?  Do we need to go hunting?  Why do I feel like I'm in Oregon trail and Penny is about to die of dysentery?  If we have to chose whether or not to ford a river I'm leaving.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 19):

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 20):

You aren't in immediate danger of starvation, but you're also not sitting on a comfortable reserve either. Maybe a couple weeks of supplies remain for your current crew.

Fiernas just wants to find a planet(s) to explore and a bullshit quasi official sounding title to throw at people who might inhibit his ability to freely explore it. At least that's my read on the situation.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 21):

Fair enough but seems that would land him in a similar position to how the party almost acquired a new tank.

Though he is still in reserve if we need him.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 22):

I don't think you're on the same page. Fiernas does not see any need to hurry home right now, as the Amg are dispatching help and there's little good Persephone can do that they can't.

The rest of the crew may or may not be anxious to get home. You'll have to ask.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 23):

Roy may be forcing our hand if he says 'here is your ride home.  Take it or leave it'

Also Roy just gave Nightmare every reason to stay behind damn you.  All that information is exactly what she wants.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 24):

Rebecca and Billy are on such different wavelengths.  everything roy says makes me trust them less.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 25):

I never said I trusted him.  I just said that he has everything that I want.

team kamikaze is waiting on Xander?

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 27):

Yeah

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 28):

Alrighty, Team Space Trek can't proceed until Rebecca and Fiernas agree on a course of action.

Team Kamikaze is still waiting for their friendly neighborhood hacker to act.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 29):

I'm going to wait on Fiernas.  I'll take my conversation with Gestalt to private shortly though.  There are new truths he is not realizing.

Gestalt doesn't know it, but with the obliteration of the near earth hub and revelation of the AoS mission statement, Billy's reasons to imprison Gestalt have mostly been reduced to his being a stupid tool.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:58, Thu 22 June 2017.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 31):

I know thats what I'm trying to impress upon him.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 32):

Xander, I believe you have to choose between hacking OR shooting. You're only able to take both actions in the same turn once the AI has been disabled or suppressed.

Staying out in this end of space right now would be just plain silly.

I'll stick with shooting for now

If somebody could re-secure that gun though, that would be awesome

That's what I tried to tell you back on Ceres!

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 37):

So long as we have food to scan/Fiernas every ring on the way home... then yes.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 38):

Does your plan involve Fiernas not sleeping?

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 39):

sleep is for the weak.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 40):

You said last time that it takes days for us to get back.  How many jumps are we looking at over that course of time.  15 jumps in 8 days is very different from 80.

I would plan on allowing him to sleep precisely 7.25 hours as this is scientifically proven to be the optimal amount of sleep for a standard human.  It appears that I need only sleep 2.2 hours over the same period of time, if I spend the entire day concentrating on a task.  That being said I plan to not work at that frothing pitch but will certainly be operating on a much slimmer margin than others.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 41):

It's a few dozen jumps this time, but fewer than 80. Couple days is likely, though the gates are not evenly spaced. Sometimes there is a long stretch between jumps, and sometimes not. But there is never a "sleep-sized" stretch, if that makes any sense.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 42):

It does.  How much would time would it add relative to the supplies we have?

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 43):

Depends. Do you plan on orbiting the next jump ring until Fiernas wakes up, should you encounter one while he's asleep? Or do you intend to wake him in such a scenario?
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:46, Fri 23 June 2017.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 43):

Depends. Do you plan on orbiting the next jump ring until Fiernas wakes up, should you encounter one while he's asleep? Or do you intend to wake him in such a scenario?

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 44):

Essentially yes.  I would of course plan it to the most efficient way where he would sleep during the longest of the stretches.  Of course if he is willing to be woken up then we can do it.  Also depends on where in Solspace does this drop us off?  If we get to Solspace then have to slog it 15 days to get a refill it changes my calculus.

TL/DR So long as the supplies holds out until we make it to Earth time is not of the essence for me, safety is.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 45):

You'll be dumped out at one of two gates leading to Sol. Both of them are weeks out from Earth.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 46):

both of them involve passing through at least one system with above average levels of radiation too, right?

Fiernas is used to taking efficient catnaps.  It shouldn't be a problem.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 48):

and how much food do we have?

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 49):

Some.

You got a partial restock from Ceres before you headed back to the Near-Earth Hub. The ship's full capacity is about 40 days or so of travel with a full hold and a full crew. You probably have a few weeks of supplies on board.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 50):

Yeah suggesting we leave the sentient ship behind is a great way to bump the homocidal AI quotient. Also, nifty new char descript on Kayla.

In reply to Muse (msg # 51):

Thanks. Her lore is in the character description box where you'd normally talk about height and weight and whatnot. It is a living document. Enjoy :)

But... we took Dynamis with us when we left this ship.  He's clearly not tied permanently to the Persephone.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 53):

He identifies as a spaceship, he just dresses like a wristband to avoid social faux pas.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 53):

That was just an extension of him.  Think of it like using Siri while wearing a headset, its just an interface, but Siri actually 'lives' on your phone.

Also we have no money and nothing anyone would want, unless you are a much better negotiator than I give you credit for then I don't know how you would plan to convince someone to voluntarily take a significant downgrade to their ship.

@Billy... your horrible.

Hey guys, sorry for the length of time between updates. Typing is hard for me right now due to some major issues with shoulder strain. Fortunately the doctor thinks that it's nothing permanent, that I probably just pulled a muscle carrying this team.

;-p


Seriously though, work has been nuts. I'll try to pick up the pace.

But also seriously, I've got 8 HP left and you all need to stop flubbing your rolls. Kthx.

In reply to Xander (msg # 56):

Oh, pish. While Abraxas may only have 8hp left, XANDER is still at full health.

Granted, he's basically a typically squishy human meatbag at that point. But still!

I wasn't planning on negotiating, I was planning on borrowing without asking.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 58):

Wait wait wait wait wait Xander

Did you just take your giant robot and leave me and Durst in a 5 v 2???? I can sustain exactly one more hit before my actual body is jeopardized.

Ugh we are gonna wipe -- JUST like in my vision. And Billy was all like "No DUH of course we're gonna fail if we don't do it the Smart Way" and so we did it the Smart Way and the Smart Way turned out to be the Dumb Way. But who could've predicted that? We'd need someone who could see the future. Balls!

I'm going to turtle behind approximately 100 armor. Y'all figure out what you want to do with the rest of your lives.

#teengirlsquad #ihatelosing #acting

In reply to Muse (msg # 59):

Everything was going fine until this code black shit started, the smart way did not involve a code black, I was under informed.

We need someone who can see details of the future.

We have a perfectly good Billy here to throw into the meat grinder, but he's more interested in interior decorating and spaceship renovation and opening up sight lines in the ship.

In reply to Muse (msg # 59):

You should really just start preparing for your doom.

Because it's coming.

Gonna be SOME doom.

In reply to Xander (msg # 61):

I'm more interested in not wiping, which is why I just advised the best way to not be facing dozens more guys who do have weapons: run away.  I could have instead shot 1 (one) of the enemy soldiers, and gotten mauled by his jagged sword just as easily as the rest of you, but that seemed less productive than trying to field a distraction.  We had a plan to take out four guys, and it worked.  Now we have all of the guys coming, and no plan, so the plan has become run away.  If you disagree with this plan, please propose one that has a chance of working, because there is no version of our current team that can fight all the guys.

In reply to Xander (msg # 61):

So wait wait -- the thought that all the guards on a completely surveilled capital ship would pour into one of its most vulnerable organs once our assault on it was discovered (since we stopped jamming comms and cams) didn't occur to anyone else? Our covert infiltration registered as a MISSILE STRIKE for Pete's Sake. We never had the element of surprise -- we just borrowed it for a hot minute when Xander hacked the planet and then lost it because cyber warfare isn't what it used to be...

In reply to Muse (msg # 64):

I'm cool to run away. Or throw myself into the core and make this a true kamikaze mission. Y'all want that? I mean I'm totally down. Rise from the ashes and shit.

In reply to Muse (msg # 64):

It occurred to me, I just took Xander's word as resident tech expert that his timed locks would hold them back.  I don't think this necessarily needs to go full kamikaze, either durst can slag the core (which I'm expecting to not make a huge boom itself, it's not the power core) or Xander can take it over while you turtle.  the question is whether Xander can hack faster than the entire crew can flood the AI core and murder you.

I wasn't expecting that four unarmed mooks would be giving us this much trouble. I'm completely at a loss as to how we haven't managed to drop a single one. We need to start focusing them down.

The swarms of guys won't be an issue if I can regain complete control of the ship: we can delete the old AI and run, and then I'll have control wherever I go. It's just that hacking remotely is slower and less efficient than plugging in directly to the core, and I can't plug into the core while the guards are still alive.

Slagging the core isn't really going to do much for us. We might cripple the ship, but we're still going to be stuck on a ship full of over-equipped zealots trying to kill us, except that we won't have any way to access ship functions.

If it comes to slagging the core, it means we've lost, and our mission goes from trying to stop Faust to trying to somehow escape this ship alive with our tails tucked between our legs. And I have absolutely no idea how we think we're going to escape the general area even if we get off the ship without getting shot all to hell.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:01, Tue 27 June 2017.

The issue is whether they get there before you can do that.  This is a real concern at this point.


I dunno about all that, I think slagging the AI and leaving Faust a half-functioning ship is a fine start to guerilla tactics our way to the bridge, but maybe that's just me.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 68):

I don't know what we can do on the bridge with this little health.

In reply to Muse (msg # 69):

We can point a laser at Faust's face.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 70):

Ah, smart. He'll be completely alone.

In reply to Muse (msg # 71):

might have just been best to go let the supervillian monologue then start shooting people...

Also @Fiernas, Nightmare won't go along with that at all.  1) its immoral, 2) it jeopardizes what we have done with the Amgines, 3) we have no idea how to pilot an alien craft.

And before Aaron jumps in I will maintain with my dying breath that the things I have 'Stolen' were all confiscated as a member of law enforcement.

This is straight up GTA.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 72):

Updates might be a little slow today, gents. Work's picking up plus traveling in the afternoon/evening. Should be back to normalish by tomorrow.

If we can't handle 4 unarmed mooks here, why on Earth do you think we'll have better luck storming the bridge?

In reply to Xander (msg # 74):

I think this is the part of the story arc where we turn tail, lick wounds, and address our severe inability to function as a team.

Because I feel more confident in my ability to talk Faust do death than a bunch of unarmed mooks who just follow orders and don't even know what's going on.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 76):

How does Billy's bluff power work?

Yeah, are we really expecting Faust to do anything but shoot us on sight? We just blew a hole in the side of his ship and started murdering his dudes.

Also, was your plan to actually talk to him? I, for one, set on this course to do some murderkilling.

In reply to Xander (msg # 78):

I see the following as (y)our breakdowns in the situation

1- We didn't have a goal, were we killing our way through the ship or were we going to execute Faust.  We went about it as if we were cutting a bloody swath.  If you wanted Faust, they were taking you there and could have dealt with him like Olson.

2- We hacked too early.  We should have saved it for a more advantageous situation, either outside of the core or when we were with Faust.

3- We didn't account properly for the nerfing of hacking and lead our raid with a hacking-based technique.

4- You are engaged in your second fight in a matter of minutes and haven't had any time to recuperate your HP after sustaining heavy damage in the first fight.

So far, better than I ever expected it to.


Faust did initially have his guards escorting us somewhere because he wanted to show us something, so before we went hog-wild he was at least approaching reasonable, yeah.  I have precedent on my side if I can try to convince him my team has no respect for my authority and went off the rails on their own initiative, so I give my self at least greater than zero odds to start a dialogue, yeah.

to the second point, Billy's not super into the murderkilling. I got on this ride for answers more than vengeance, but no need to tell that to the members of the team out for blood. So far everyone's on board with getting to Faust, lets not worry anyone about what's to be done once we get there.  The toll of Faust's actions didn't really hit home for Billy nearly as much as Xander or Muse, apparently.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 19:08, Wed 28 June 2017.

I'm actually interested. It seems like a strength we can't effectively leverage because we (your teammates) don't know how it works well enough to count on it. You know when you're going to bluff, but we don't, and there at times when it seems Billy waits for things to get superbad before whipping it out.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:27, Wed 28 June 2017.

it mostly works by me telling people lies, and they believe me.  Sometimes I tell half-truths, and they believe me more.


it mostly comes down to how believable I can make my story sound, and whether anything else is more likely to work.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 82):

Hey, fair enough.

I mean, the downside is that it has the potential to relegate what should be climactic confrontations to us standing by while Billy makes yet another shade of gray compromise.

In reply to Xander (msg # 84):

But the last the adventure with Olsen et al went so swimmingly!

In reply to Xander (msg # 84):

Hey if you want to get back to the current climactic confrontation, I'm sure Watcher can shave off those last few HP for you.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 86):

Dude. BORN ready.

I've never had an unnamed mook kill a PC before. I hope Sarge whiffs so it can be Guard A-D :)

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 87):

I will rez Muse and dismember every guard you send at me until my karma runs dry. You won't be able to invent mooks fast enough.

I think this is factually untrue...

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 89):

Look, it could be worse. If Timon was still up, he could shoot, miss, and kill Muse. Comedy gold!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 90):

If we are looking at Named Mook (Timon) vs. unnamed mook... its no wonder these guys kicked the shit out of the AoS.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 91):

It's cool. I'm sure Faust only uses his BEST troops for general security details, and that the dudes he trusts with his actual life aren't insanely OP.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 92):

What's Faust's capital ship doing now? It's done with the shelling, yeah?

In reply to Muse (msg # 93):

something rattled it before we got into the AI core, but I don't think we have any way to know what's outside the ship right now.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 94):

Can Muse maintain the chokehold while blocking?  You would have to either deal damage or stop throttling that guy.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 95):



:D

Edit: I could block and choke simultaneously, but Big Guard takes up both fighting actions.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:27, Thu 29 June 2017.

In reply to Muse (msg # 96):

The throttle-ee escaped last round I think.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 97):

Yeah but disposition said I was still grappling so I wanted to make doubly sure Muse wasn't still being touchy-feely with Guard C.

In reply to Muse (msg # 98):

It's gonna be really interesting to reconcile both parties' timelines after all this shakes out. In the time it's taken us to get our asses kicked by 8-12 guards, Team Space Trek has brokered an intergalactic relationship.

Here's hoping that relationship pans out.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 100):

Team Space Trek is also like a month forward in time compared to Team Kamikaze. Shakeouts galore to come!

It will be much easier to handle this once Team Kamikaze is dead... :P

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 101):

Strap in. You've got about a month of Muse not admitting defeat.

In reply to Muse (msg # 102):

Team Kamikazee could end up prisoner as well... Have fun watching Nightmare go super saiyan to get you back.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 103):

Death before dishonor.

In reply to Muse (msg # 104):

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 105):

I'm not sure I follow the "let's toss Fiernas outside" bit that's going on right now. There is nothing he can do strapped to the exterior hull in an EVA suit that he can't do from the cockpit.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 106):

I was thinking of checking behind us to see if Fiernas can see anything from the 'static' that is following us.  We could always flip the ship 180 degrees so he can look at it if his ability is unencumbered by proximity.  I just don't know his abilities.

We could also fake some kind of malfunction and try to sucker them in, but I prefer to do that as a last resort as that could foment a battle.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 107):

How wide is the hole created by Billy's pirouette and Durst's blast?

In reply to Muse (msg # 108):

Billy's hole was slightly wider than Billy-sized. Abraxas made it mech-sized, then Durst extended the nearest edge of that hole to the the doorway to the Central Core.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 109):

How many feet in diameter / length?

About how big are the areas in question if durst collapsed two of them in one blast?

Not too big for someone to jump across, which is puzzling me. I need a more definitive answer on what kind of cover/separation we have from Guards E & F and anyone else who comes from that direction. Also, are we still in rifle range if we're in the core? My intent was to have Durst create an explosion to keep the guards out of range.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 19:56, Fri 30 June 2017.

In reply to Muse (msg # 112):

Billy's hole, enlarged by the mech, on one end and Durst's hole on the other hand caused a "bridge" of otherwise unbroken floor to fall down like a rope bridge with both posts snapped on either side. That's why there's a gap. There is also a jagged perimeter of flooring left on either side, particularly in zones CC-1 and CC-2. Weapons that could reach the Central Core from CC-2 can still reach
 from there despite the hole part of the way across. Likewise it is still possible to cross from CC-2 to CC-1. It just isn't possible to reach from CC-1 to CC without taking a bit of a jump.

The reason it's not "impossible" to jump across is because pretty much everyone involved in this fight is ridiculously strong, which means they can jump further than you might think.

If you need more specifics let me know.

No kidding. Durst doesn't have that kind of spread, or perhaps he does but was unwilling to risk the kind of collateral damage he or others might have taken if he'd used it. He took a chunk outta the floor that disconnected CC from the hallway. Combined with other damage to the flooring in CC-2, that caused there to be a rather long gap about 1.5 areas long (CC-1 and half of CC-2). Guards armed with guns that could reach from 2 areas out can still reach at 1.5.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 114):

I mean, I didn't say DON'T drop rubble on Billy and Xander. Was also really hoping he would expand the hole w/o leaving a ledge for an easy leap to closer range.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:52, Fri 30 June 2017.

In reply to Muse (msg # 115):

You may need to give more explicit directions moving forward.

Alternatively, you could recognize that this was a pretty (dare I say) bang-up job for a demolitions job at the spur-of-the-moment.

Firing off a blast guaranteed to wipe out all possible ledges would have risked damaging your allies and/or dumping all of you somewhere else. Not to mention nobody but Xander knows exactly where you are relative to the outside of the hull.

Plus, it's possible Durst can't cast outside of his current area, which limits what he was able to do in 1 turn of action significantly.

I'm not intentionally having NPCs sandbag you, is the point. There are factors :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:18, Fri 30 June 2017.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 116):

Out of town til Thursday. Updates will be slow til then. Have a wonderful 4th all!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 117):

I would actually like to know what Holt says as it appears that his talent has some non-combat applications.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 118):

I'm back! I seem to have a lot of loose threads to collect and prod forward, so hang tight. I'll get to 'em today! If I haven't gotten to your specific issue by EOD, poke me b/c that means it got unintentionally overlooked :)

You killed Durst, you bastards!  Timon gets taken out three times and is still alive, but the guy with cool powers is killed in one round.  Life isn't fair.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 120):

Well, I'm in the process of getting murderdeathkilled. What are you below-deck types up to?

In reply to Muse (msg # 121):

leaving.

...really?

In reply to Xander (msg # 123):

only kinda mostly.

In reply to Xander (msg # 123):

Here's the state of Team Kamikaze right now:

Durst - KIA
Timon - KIA
Muse - Barely alive, besieged
Xander - Just dandy, hacking belowdecks, helpless
Abraxas - About a sneeze from destruction, belowdecks
Billy - Moderate health, belowdecks, in motion

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 125):

Our boys with the knives are doing 50 per hit, no armor pen?

In reply to Muse (msg # 126):

You have no way of knowing the stats of the knives or whether or not they penetrate armor. I will say that like all melee weapons their damage is tied to the strength of the wielder, and we've already established these people to be superhumanly strong.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:17, Thu 06 July 2017.

sure sucks for team space trek that no one ever figured out how to detect the presence or location of cloaked ships.  sure would be helpful to identify your mysterious tail.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 128):

Xander isn't to blame for the delay on Team Kamikaze, btw. We're debating an updated hacking resolution system and this is a good time to roll it out. Stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, feel free to continue the banter -- I can FEEL the love... :P

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 129):

If I knew how much armor Durst had on I could surmise damage from that stat. And I think I'd have an idea of Durst's armor...

In reply to Muse (msg # 130):

I'm fairly sure he didn't have any, he was in a basic bitch EVA.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 131):

Welp, guess I'm gonna have to show Watcher how OP my block is when I feed it Massive Amounts of Karma.

In reply to Muse (msg # 132):

I'm looking forward to demonstrating why Battalion was the strongest of you. It rhymes with combined attacks.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 133):

I wasn't here for it, but I did see the one time where it was more productive for him to just assume a statistical distribution than actually roll for all his shots, so, yeah.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 134):

Mother.

In my limited experience, combined attacks don't really change much.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 136):

it gets better in the 20+ range.

Dynamis is officially too high on the homicidal deathbot scale.

How does it get better with extremely large numbers of combined attackers?  I thought the damage and chance to hit capped pretty quickly on the FASERIP chart.

Each successful "combined" attack increases the damage dealt by the primary damage dealer by +1CS. It does eventually cap, but let's say I have 50 people. I could have 49 assist 1 guy in getting a capped shot, but that would be stupid. Instead I'd have 5 groups of 9 people each assisting a shooter, for a total of 5 shots at +9CS damage each.

That's how it gets gross quickly.

Gotcha.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 141):

Battalion did that literally once and I think that he only had 4 guys at the time....

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 142):

there was one on your venus adventure where he had stockpiled like 20 guys.  I remember reading his discussion with watcher on the benefits of not actually bothering with the dice roller.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 143):

I remember that fight, I was all geared up to send out like 10 sets of illusions... and then... I think they each just mowed down the entire group of invaders individually, I don't think they combined the attacks attacks.  I think the only combined attack I remember is against the J-9 unit.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 144):

oh, that might be the case

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 145):

Point is, Battalion's power would have been ruled OP if he hadn't coupled it with such a crippling series of personality flaws/disorders that I trusted the player to faithfully execute.

I was not disappointed.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 146):

Were those flaws/disorders spec'd out in any meaningful way on his character sheet?

In reply to Muse (msg # 147):

I think he had to roll a check every time he tried to help the rest of the party, and if he failed, he decided not to instead.

This is close to accurate.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 149):

we would act in the interest of coke and whores though, I got him off his ass with that once.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 150)

So who else has misanthropy as a gameplay mechanic?

In reply to Muse (msg # 151):

It was a negative quirk called Lazybones or similar.

Other quirks may or may not exist. There's a reason you can't see each other's sheets :)

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 152):

That's some really advanced character building. Where do y'all come up with this stuff? This is my first time rolling a character and he's a bit one-notey.

Unrelated: just caved and downloaded Baldur's Gate for my first-ever playthrough. Anyone else tried it?
This message was last edited by the player at 19:42, Sun 09 July 2017.

In reply to Muse (msg # 153):

I usually only have one or two notes to start with, it's playing the character and actually getting into their headspace that adds depth.  I usually read through whatever setting details are available and let something grab my attention, then run with it.  For Billy I read the setting details and actually got hooked by the line about "Knowledge isn't worth anything" and ran with it.  I had to come up with a character who could get through life without any specific or significant talents, yet had unlimited and direct access to all the world's knowledge.  Rich kid was the easiest way to get both, and the rest of the character kinda spiraled out of how that might play out as a person, and what seemed like a cool idea.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 154):

Interesting and really thoughtful. Billy's a real butthead to play alongside, but he's consistent. I think the challenge we're running here is that we've in part rolled characters that don't want to cooperate -- or we've not really run up against a unifying common enemy/cause.

I rolled Muse thinking combat would a greater feature of play. Now thinking I need to give him something that allows him to be effective outside of fisticuffs.

If he's not ripped to shreds by four super soldiers first, that is.

In reply to Muse (msg # 155):

Focusing on combat isn't a bad idea, but it's important as a player to be able to work outside of your comfort zone, and having a pretty specific idea about what your limits are within the game mechanics.  Billy's powers make him really, really good at surviving and killing throwaway nobodies. Basic arms can't, or can only barely hurt him, and he can 1-shot even an impressive physical specimen undefended, but he will crumble before a group of people if they are able to deal even a minimum of damage to him, and he will die going toe-to-toe with a real threat (i kinda lucksacked my win in the Danger room, I'd give Bobby at least 60/40 odds over Billy in a straight fight).  I know this, and try to avoid those things without a backup plan.  That said, it's rarely the correct idea to just run headfirst into a slugfest unless you are pretty nigh invulnerable, and even if you are, if anyone finds or makes chinks in your armor it's important to reassess the scope of what you're into.  When we confronted Gestalt and Timon, I thought we had two guys that were basically nothing threat-wise, and two robots that were a bit of a problem.  Then the whole room got maced and I was getting beat up even though the best of my defenses so I had to mentally upgrade the robots to a Very Big Problem^TM, which I hadn't expected.

I think that's the other issue I'm having with the team, both I and Billy are very willing to just drop the plan and turn on a dime if it doesn't give expected results, or new information/threats pop up, and being more big-picture with the plans makes that easier.  I've gotten some flak for not filling in the rest of the party when, in fact, I am making everything up on the spot.  My plan for this mission was get on the ship, find Faust, shoot him in the dick.  There was no plan for how to deal with the first group of soldiers that found us so I fell back on subterfuge, as befitting a secret agent (as far as Billy is concerned he has been the main character of a spy movie since Faust put him in charge).  Similarly, there was a plan to get rid of four soldiers' guns and clear the way into the AI core, there was no plan for dealing with everything getting worse once we breached the core (in fact, the plan was that Xander would immediately make everything better using hacker magic).  I'm also super willing to split the party, which any experienced player will tell you is a terrible idea and if I'm honest, that's generally true.  I just live on the edge.

this is part of the problem, though it's not that we don't want to cooperate so much as we aren't all on the same page.  Billy came on this mission intent on shooting Faust and getting to the bottom of things.  Somewhere along the way Muse and Xander seem to have decided that beating the crap out of everyone in our way was a necessary part of this, which Billy still hasn't really gotten on board with.  In addition to my own mental juking above, I feel like there's less in-character communication re: motivations and goals than there should be.  Xander said we needed to get into the AI core. Billy never questioned why, taking Xander's word as resident tech expert.  Xander actually needed to get into the AI core and stay there for a few seconds unmolested outside of his mech, which leaves Billy very dismayed and confused as to why Xander has joined him in his hidey hole rather than finishing plan "hack the AI and make everything better again."

For what it's worth, Muse, from what I've seen so far this campaign is hugely combat-oriented.  I think your spec job on your character is pretty right-on.

And yes, Baldur's Gate is awesome.  I recently started playing through BG2, actually.  Strange coincidence.

So far so good, though I feel got myself stuck between tank/fighter -- I'm gonna push Muse to one of those two extremes ASAP. Our team has a some pretty solid damage-dealers, esp. when we've got Xander and Nightmare together. Debuffs seem to be pretty potent in this game, so I may invest more in that direction.

How does Fiernas do w/ dishing out pain?



Aha. There's the necessary tidbit. Billy does have this "the camera is on me" air about him.

Realistically I've probably only got one more round of combat in me before I'm toast and Watcher has the guards unceremoniously aerate Muse's helpless body. And there's a shit-ton more guards coming.

Should we just blow the core already? Can we set Abraxas to self-destruct and have Billy buy Xander a new Abraxas?

We're all the main character in our own story.

Agreed. But some of us more than others.

In reply to Muse (msg # 160):

Cheers to that!

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 161):

Also how I got my character

I started with a gameplay idea... I wanted to be an unconventional tank... so I decided that I was going to be the 'you can't hit me' tank.  Though really in fact I have ended up being far more of a striker and crowd control than a tank.

The skin came from me watching a commercial for the ring, and decided that I wanted to make the little girl from a horror movie.

I was also inspired by Bing Bong from Inside out with the idea of an imaginary friend who may be real... hence Percy.

I tried playing a scientist once before and I found it to be terrible (I'm a scientist IRL and you should have seen some of the OOC stem cell/Splicer/Viral gene editing messages I had going back and forth with the Watcher on Eros).  So I tried it again with much greater success.  Also I always had a problem with my characters not really caring about the main plotline (much like Battalion) so I linked her in through the obvious hook of Saturn.

So add all of those elements together and you get a severely traumatized little girl who created her imaginary friend to protect her from the big nasties of the universe and fights with fear.

So far as personal interests she is starting to become less robotic as she discovers she has her own voice and is developing a sense of 'family' for the first time in her life.  I wanted her to grow as the story went on, you can see when her picture changed and she took the name Nightmare she became very different.

Also since she is used to an academic environment she is acting literally exactly by "the book" that she had to read.  She will follow that protocol exactly... just as you expect a scientist would.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 162):

I don't want to answer for Xander here, but I don't think he's going to be happy with any plan that involves slagging Abraxas.

I, on the other hand, would relish it... :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:31, Mon 10 July 2017.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 163):

Oh yeah. Sorry. I'd hate for Xander's character to get slagged. That would suck. Then he'd have to reroll or something. Oh, wait, you mean Abraxas is just a replaceable piece of equipment? Hm.

In reply to Muse (msg # 164):

Also if you guys think Billy is bad you should ask the Watcher about the Titus experience...

None of you are familiar with mechs, really, but you'd all know the basics (in the same way that you all know about drones and tanks and submarines IRL).



So. Given the rarity of the tech and the sentimental attachment Xander is likely to have to his -- and his is advanced even by Mech standards -- I suspect he won't want you to blow it up.

But it WOULD make an potent boom... :)

His damage is mostly from gunslinging, plus he's got the added utility of the dogs to grapple and such.  The three of them together have some combined attack bonuses.  All-in-all, though, he's pretty underpowered when it comes to combat.  I specced him originally to be more of a support/non-combat role.

Oh?

In reply to Muse (msg # 168):

Titus is played by Nightmare's player in another game.  He shares the fast-talking pretty boy/entertainer aspects with Billy, but all Titus's connections and money are faked or stolen, and he is verging on actively disdainful of the non-supers in the setting.  also his plotting and secret keeping has already gotten one party member killed.

Hey guys, sorry for the delay in updates here. As he mentioned, The Watcher and I have been going back and forth trying to figure out how to best balance hacking on the fly so that it's useful but not OP.

The reason Xander/I said we need to get to the core is because OOC I was informed that this is the only way to permanently affect a takeover of the ship systems. Since then, that goal has been refined slightly.

It turns out that I don't necessarily need to be out of my mech and plugged into the core directly to slag the existing AI and slave it to Sophia, it's just that plugging in directly makes my rolls better.

What actually needs to happen is that Xander needs to defeat the AI again, and then while it's regenerating, remove/destroy/delete the physical server space that hosts the AI. He can then rewrite the system to recognize Sophia as ultimate system authority, which allows us to retain control of the ship system remotely on the run (at least until IT spends a LOT of time reversing the damage).

Abraxas fled down following Billy because he's at 8 hp and technically doesn't need to physically occupy the core until he's won the hacking battle.

As a side note, I wouldn't have done the initial hacking onslaught at the beginning of the raid if I had known the full scope of how The Watcher was handling hacking, but again, we're making all this up as we go so mistakes will be made.

Right now, we're obviously in a shit position becaue Abraxas is almost broke and can't contribute to the fight while Xander is hacking. I think I have an idea, but I need to run it by Watcher first.

Lastly, Xander will under no circumstances willingly self-destruct Abraxas. It's an irreplacable piece of technology, and (as far as he knows), the most advanced mech currently in existence. You can treat that as IC knowledge, as he would have said as much at some point if it wasn't sufficiently clear in our come-to-Jesus team meetings.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 169):

To be fair that party member (which ironically is Billy's character) was an idiot.  Also nothing verging about it, he is actively disdainful.

If you can't herd idiots you don't deserve to play secret mastermind!

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 172):

Which is why Brennan is closer to his goals than anyone else seems to be. :)

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 173):

On topic, yeah, hacking got WTFHAXX0RED.

We're almost ready to deploy an improved system that's fun and effective without being bonkers.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 174):

Can he hack the planet in one round? Cuz otherwise we've having kabobs. We're the kabobs. We're going to die. All of us.

In reply to Muse (msg # 175):

You're suh a pessimist, I'm sure we'll just be maimed and imprisoned, at worst.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 176):

And we're really gonna let Penny re-arm that missile?

Remember that time Muse read her mind word-for-word and warned her about sabotaging the ship or radioing for help?

Brig that strumpet.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 22:07, Mon 10 July 2017.

In reply to Muse (msg # 177):

You aren't there, you're getting drunk!



And if the above means nothing to you, PLEASE watch this ASAP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMLTDz71Icw

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 178):

Who says I did?

Actually, today and the next month or so are going to be absolutely bonkers... We have to Rebid our contract so I'm going to be a bit spacey for a while.

TBH: I don't remember Muse's prophecy exactly, but neither Billy nor Muse trusted her and in this case she's not letting that go so easily.

I now just have some flavor to write what I was going to do anyway.

And in the unemptied trash, The Many Faces of Flux.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 180):

Shit!  I knew i was forgetting someone!

Now Stolen.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:18, Tue 11 July 2017.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 181):

Now with 75% more Kayla.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 182):

If the madman refers to Viceroy, he's upset.

If the madman refers to Strigoi, he's ambivalent.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 183):

I'm pretty sure it's neither.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 184):

Hooray, irrelevance!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 185):

Think we're just about done patching up Hacking, incidentally, so Team Battle Pause will be unpaused soon, I hope.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 186):

....Holy crap I just realized the easy way to do this....

God I'm stupid.

The easy way to do what?

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 187):

Did you just remember the cast page exists?

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 189):

Shut your stupid face Billy!

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 190):

It's not easy being the smart head.

What's up with the database?

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 192):

@Billy - Your still the poopy head to me.

@Fiernas - So looking back you will see that Nightmare is always on her tablet during meetings tapping away quietly when not speaking.  She is taking copious notes the entire time. Much as Billy is a dude playing at secret agent, Nightmare is a scientist thrust into an unfamiliar world. She is attempting to make sense of this world and determine what decisions to make and how to make them...

TL/DR She is keeping a scorecard for each of you in a very literal way.

IRL: I don't actually have anything to back it up, this is an idea that has been in the back of my head and I just wanted it out there because I thought it was cute.  However, the idea of evaluating everyones performance and responding to them as such is central to her character.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 193):

And according to Nightmare's attitudes, The insane rantings of a madman has an unexpected high score.

Billy pounds furiously on the edges of the weird time dilation he finds himself in with the rest of the party's return.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 195):

Yup. I have a plan for rectifying that but I can't really do anything in Team Battle Pause while Xander's schedule's so slammed.

Oh yes, this looks much more surmountable.

Yeah, I'm still waiting for him to post 'psych!' and update the stats with something Xander is actually capable of defeating.

In reply to Xander (msg # 198):

So, two points.

1) Whether you can defeat Goethe or not isn't really a concern of mine. It's the capital flagship of an alien-backed spymaster with a disgusting amount of computing power. I want it to be possible, sure, but not at all easy.

2) It was perhaps unclear that the "countermeasure" health pools are their "turn back on" states. That is, you only have to smack a countermeasure once (or more if the countermeasure says to) to turn it off, and then it has to "heal" up to its health pool to switch back on. High values are actually a good thing for the hacker, because it'll take longer for countermeasure to reboot.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:41, Wed 12 July 2017.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 199):

That second one is super important.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:43, Wed 12 July 2017.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 200):

Billy is correct, The insane rantings of a madman section was unsuspectedly high and therefore attitude was changed, file name did not.

Indeed. I've rewritten the rules significantly to make stuff that apparently only existed in a hangouts chat more clear.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 202):

Xander right now...

I hear all you need to do to hack is type fast in a command line environment.

Good thing I've been brushing up on my Mavis Beacon

In reply to Xander (msg # 204):

Where would Muse retreat to?

In reply to Muse (msg # 205):

Your options involve leaping over the chasm into CC-2, or down into the hole where Abraxas is, or punching your way through a wall and hoping for the best.

None of these allow you to block at the same time, of course.

I am referring to the last in-character post by muse.

Yeah, blocking is important. Running away, I have 20 armor. Staying put, that's 140 armor. With the rifles in play, it'd just take one hit to put me out w/o my powerful block. And those goons w knives could easily charge after me.

In reply to Muse (msg # 208):

You had a lot more options while Durst wasn't bleeding out.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 209):

Again, was hoping Durst would act intelligently and create a buffer zone large enough that the encroaching guards w/ rifles would remain out of range. All he did was waste his turn and get killed. I should've told him to just blow up the AI core.

In reply to Muse (msg # 210):

He told you his range when you arrived. He had to be strapped to the nose cone to blast you into the ship. He did the best he could.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 211):

Muse suggested he blow the floor or create rubble -- and either way, his given objective was to stop the guards with rifles. Durst knew the range of the rifles along with the limitations of his own abilities and with that knowledge, could be assured the course of action he took would not satisfy the stated objective. Durst could've said "I don't think either of those will stop 'em Muse, let me try [x]" -- which is what a PC would've done. We're acting like I was 100% in control of the NPC and I inaccurately deployed his power, when in this game I've seen NPCs exercise their own (better) judgment and countermand/disagree plenty of times. In that way, Durst could have done better.

More of a philosophical discussion than an actual complaint at this point.

In reply to Muse (msg # 212):

Many of my NPCs are very smart. Durst wasn't one of them :(

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 213):

Never underestimate the power of leadership!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 214):

So last night Marion and I were on Youtube looking through the thumbnails and she goes:

OOOHHH There!  There!  Its mister purley glowey dude with the thing....

She taps her chest rapidly.

Turns out it was a video of the best Mortal Kombat characters and this was the image in the thumbnail.

So now Muse = Goro

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 215):

Testing "Galactic Basic" language for future use...

That looks like an SNES cheat code had a baby with the Russian alphabet.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 217):

And yet, I can read it just fine... :)

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 218):

*opens up Watcher's Wonderings*

*adds note*

Smug asshole.

*save file*

In Soviet Russia we have no consonant, only vowel.



The extra sets of armpits come in real handy.

In reply to Muse (msg # 220):

Yeah. He can cool himself REMARKABLY quickly.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 221):

For the curious, I've almost got the star chart in a state where I can share it. So...you have that to look forward to.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 222):

Also, Billy, I owe you an apology. The jump rings are only cloaked in the Sol sector (and ostensibly in other sectors given similar treatment) as a special 'test' to see when the sector's inhabitants might be ready to join the rest of the galaxy, as mentioned previously by...Viceroy, I believe.

So you were correct. The jump rings Persephone encountered throughout its voyage were not cloaked.

I mostly brought up the point because of all the claims that the alien ship doesn't know this is the final destination.  Invisible jump ring seems a big cue if they haven't seen any others like that on their trip.

Certainly not related to anything going on in-game, but I'm really getting a "Hitler but without the charisma" vibe from Faust.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 225):

How're you getting vibes from Faust?

In reply to Muse (msg # 226):

Just y'know...stuff.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 227):

Updates will be slow today and tomorrow, sorry. Traveling.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 228):

OK so just to be clear....

1) Gestalt was absolutely against shooting them about five minutes ago and now is on board with it?

2) Days ago we left the gate, we then went into stealth, did a loop, went back through the gate.  We then traveled in stealth to the next gate.  We then jumped through a stealthed gate into our sector... and they showed up about 5 minutes later?

So Kayla's assertion about breaking stealth is irrelevant because apparently they can see us just fine.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 229):

Gestalt hasn't said to necessarily shoot them. But you've got aliens where aliens shouldn't be, and they are jamming you. If you wanna just sit there and watch them, that's on you

You can use your best judgement about if you think they can see you or not

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 230):

does my assessment of our stealth capabilities hold water?

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 231):

You have no way to confirm or deny your theory.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 232):

My facts are correct though?

They have, somehow, followed our stealthed ship through several rings the last of which is also stealthed.  Emerging minutes after we exited the ring.  Jamming all outgoing signals.  Additionally unresponsive to hailing (would Kayla's hail have been jammed by this signal?).

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 233):

That conjecture is all consistent with your observations yes :)

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 234):

Good thing Muse didn't do anything drastic....

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 235):

Why is the AI core made of explodium?! Who designed a fucking supercomputer to be combustible?

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 236):

Msue... once again we are running parallel characters.  Its interesting the completely unintentional yin and yang that Nightmare and Muse provide.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 237):

Do we have escape pods?

Muse: probably not gonna be doing much running after that explosion.



ACME Corp.

In reply to Muse (msg # 239):

This is Muse's curtain call, so there's a touch of cutscene at work here. He's worked it out with me beforehand.

I'm traveling so responding on my phone is slow-going.

Essentially Muse was able to leverage his future sight to figure out how to deal critical damage to the system by essentially stabbing it with with a crystalline dark force grenade-type thing. I will update with ramifications shortly.

GOETHE yet lives, incidentally. Be not afraid. Muse? That's less of a sure bet.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 240):

I'm still playing. New char with a teensy bit of Muse's legacy preserved. It's a continuation.

In reply to Muse (msg # 241):

That thing about Parallel Characters again... but who is going to teach Nightmare meditation and wing chun?

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 242):

I could if you give me a couple hours warning.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 243):

The idea of this scene amuses me....

No stoppit your doing it fucking wrong.  Close your eyes and clear your goddamned mind.  What are you doing now?  Your bad at this.  Stop being bad at meditating.  Try harder.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 244):

Y'know what, let's do the part where I hit you first, maybe you'll be calmer afterward.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 245):

I don't remember that being part of the lessons....

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 246):

Muse taught you a shaolin style mixed w Krav Maga. Emphasis on taking less damage from blows and hitting hard enough to kill with your bare hands. He didn't know wing chun.

In reply to Muse (msg # 247):

Percy was in the room in them.  Why didn't I know about this?

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 248):

That's right, you did have eyes on the situation. It escalated quickly, but sure I can write in the play-by-play.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 249):

Would I have opportunity to intervene?

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 250):

No. Your full attention was focused on the alien ship and how to infiltrate it and what was jammed and if Dynamis could come with you, etc etc.

The scout didn't project anything that would seem to require intervention. Holt had it "under control" until the very end.

The only difference your presence would have made is you'd have had to swim back to the ship after being vented with them.

Why is Watcher killing off all the cool NPCs?  First durst, now Holt.  Just because they don't have an entry on the cast page doesn't mean they're not people.

Also, I had just started to regain some faith in Xander's judgement before you exploded my ship.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 253):

If the crew wants to retrieve Holt (or Penny) and see how "confirmed" the casualty actually is, that's definitely an option.

The ship is only somewhat exploded. Big difference!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 254):

Tell that to my insurance!

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 255):

Can i catch the alien ship with my boosters?

And yes I would like a play by play.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 256):

It has already been included in the previous post.

Your suit's personal boosters cannot catch a spaceship, no. Unless the ship stops completely and you thus catch up.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 257):

Disturbing thing I learned today: when testing the effects of vacuum on living things, dogs were exposed and said to have "swollen up like goatskin bags". But if the exposure was kept to 30 seconds, they tended to live afterward -- though it took a good 15 minutes of recovery at normal conditions to get them to wake up and hobble around. Same test at longer than 30 seconds, they usually died. Chimps could last longer, but still usually died if exposed for 2 minutes. Note: This was "near-vacuum", so it's not quite the same thing as space but it's close.

Science is terrifying and fascinating.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:31, Wed 19 July 2017.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 258):

^^^QFT

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 258):

i forget if it was youtube or something else but i remember a thing that said if you get spaced it was unlikely you would freeze immediately, owing to the lack of anything to conduct heat away from your body.

O I think Watcher may have misinterpreted my last turn, and I dunno if it's better or worse for the narrative.  I intended to cut a hole going up through the ceiling of the room I'm in, large enough for Abraxis to pass through.  Are the footfalls I heard from the area that would immediately expose, or the roof above that?

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 261):

You intended to cut back into the hallway you just left, essentially?

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 262):

I just wanted to go up, but had I heard weapons fire I probably would have reconsidered, or at least been more discreet than a giant mech sized hole.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:38, Wed 19 July 2017.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 263):

Ok. So let's say you hollowed out some space for Abraxas but stopped short of punching through the ceiling when you heard the firefight, which does sound like it's directly above you.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 264):

Are we unjammed now that the ship has left us in its wake?

also FYI

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 265):

Actually, fun story, you're NOT unjammed. So that remains an exciting puzzle to sort out.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 266):

So just an FYI, I don't remember if I mentioned this or not.  The RFP for my contract just came out, so I'm currently rewriting our Rebid until Aug 15.  I'll be posting but not at my quite prodigious rate as before... which does give us a chance to let team kamikazee catch up... or die.

You'll be able to tell the days I have writers block for the proposal.

Also I'm in a room all day today scribbling notes on a wall like a crazy person.  By the time I'm done it will look like something out of Memento.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 267):

As an FYI, I'll be out of town for a wedding this weekend, starting on Friday, so updates may be a little slow. Thanks for your patience!

I, on the other hand, am finally back in town and able to post.

What's up with Nightmare yelling "incoming" right as we blow up?  How did she know what was happening?

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 270):

Superpowers.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 271):

Rebecca had summoned Percy and had him following/spying on Penny. Otherwise she wouldn't have seen it.

Ah ha.  I know she mentioned it OOC but I never saw a reference to it in-game.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 273):

Still outta town will resume on Monday.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 274):

I deploy Percy as needed and in secret. He is pretty stealthy. I also mentioned that you saw him floating by in the wreckage.

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 275):

Back! Little I can do in the fighting scenes til Billy replies to Xander, however. No rush! Just an update :)

Also hope to have the star map done by tomorrow. It's not elaborate but it needed to be correct and I think it is now. Stay tuned!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 276):

Sorry, was waiting for initiative as my answer changes if he gets jumped by straggling soldiers and Abraxas breaks.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 277):

I mean, I'm definitely gonna use the soldiers on you, yes.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 278):

Do you have to?  I mean, I hear there's a firefight down the hall.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 279):

Sarge wants a rematch.

So...Xander, have you taken an actual action yet? I don't want to skip your turn, but I don't know if Billy's answers have helped you decide yet.

Talking remains a free action for at least a couple more posts if needed.

Not yet, I'm trying to get a better idea of where Billy wants us to end up. He seems to have a better idea of what's going on than I do.

In reply to Xander (msg # 281):

My initial plan was to cut a hole in the ceiling, have you flyby to grab me and both of us go up and out, but the conflict above has complicated that.  MY next best option ionvolves me jumping on abraxis and you flying us through the soldiers, up and over the big gaping hole in front of the AI core.  this option involves a lot of oportunity for abraxas to get beat on by armored soldiers, so it is sub-par.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 282):

Sorry for delays. Was blocked from RPOL at work but I figured out a workaround. Commence! :)

Take THAT, bourgeois overlords!

I feel like my "cut apart all solid surfaces" strategy shouldn't be as effective as it routinely is.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 285):

Yeah but the apology was a nice touch.

In reply to Muse (msg # 286):

Your laser is plenty capable of carving through Solese building materials.

This may not remain true when/if you leave the sector, or encounter structural components manufactured elsewhere... :)

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 287):

Edited my last post to comply with what actually happened. Reading comprehension ftw...

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 288):

Guys I'm out of town until Monday, sparse updates will even moreso until I get back!

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 289):

And that, gentlemen, in case you were wondering...is how the cookie crumbles.

That's what Xander gets for making Ender's Game references in-character.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 290):

Who makes a sophisticated military battle mech out of cookie?  it's just asking for trouble.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 292):

Unrelated but necessary communication:


This message was last edited by the GM at 20:42, Thu 27 July 2017.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 293):

I'm too lazy to find a panel of nightwing sitting off to one side with a word bubble I could edit "Firefox" into, but I wanted you to know I thought about it.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 294):

BRB, doing something completely unrelated to creating a cadre of characters named Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Explorer.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 295):

Opera should be the token girl member.  They can be like the worst rendition of the power rangers.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 296):

The Power Browsers!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 297):

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.

In reply to Muse (msg # 298):

Let me know if you have any questions about your karma gains/losses, or if I've missed something in the chapter start-up text. Thanks!

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 299):

you forgot Gestalt.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 300):

Sure did! Fixed.

Shit!  That's the end of the chapter???   I didn't get a chance to use any of my karma!  Ok, note to self, burn through that shit fast.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 302):

it's cumulative.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 303):

Whatever you don't use you can bank, never fear!

Oh.  That's nice to have then.

On the subject I don't think I was defeated this chapter.  I got hit with a charge and KO'd for a round because of falling down, but I don't think I've been defeated since the robot battle on gestalt's ship.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 306):

Picky picky. I'll do an audit when I'm back at a computer. Maybe you'll get a few more points!

EDIT: Ok, Billy didn't go down this chapter, but Muse did, so it all evens out. I've updated accordingly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:30, Fri 28 July 2017.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 307):

fair enough.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 308):

Durst owes his death to his own weakness. Guy folded like a limp biscuit.

In reply to Muse (msg # 309):

Heroes should protect the weak, though. Yadda yadda great power, something something responsibility.

Last chapter I said I wanted to sweep the hull

Last chapter I said I wanted to sweep the hull

Also timón folded up like a wet biscuit

My 90s nu metal puns are WASTED on you people

In reply to Muse (msg # 313):

Ahhhh.  I think I made that joke as well. But don't remember if I put it in game or not. I thought wet biscuit was some weird aphorism I had never heard before....
This message was last edited by the player at 21:27, Fri 28 July 2017.

You're thinking of soggy biscuits and I really wouldn't do that if I were you.

In reply to Muse (msg # 315):

....shudder

Kinda waiting for an update by Xander before Billy responds to the upper deck noise.

In reply to Billy Laser Fist (msg # 317):

Did Dynamis broadcast this outside as well?

In reply to Nightmare (msg # 318):

The order to turn was only sent to the inside.

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 319):

Let's get a Piloting roll from Fiernas to see how well those lessons paid off (Roll on the Agility column, with neither a bonus nor a penalty). I applaud wanting to keep things gentle, and will take that into account despite a failed result should one occur.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:25, Mon 31 July 2017.

Is Dynamis somehow split in two at the moment?  One half inside, the other outside?

Also: Do I not get the +1CS bonus for having a piloting talent now?
This message was last edited by the player at 01:27, Tue 01 Aug 2017.

In reply to Fiernas Holm (msg # 321):

He's split in half, yes.

You get the +1 if you actually spent karma on the talent. I wasn't sure you locked it in yet.

Yeah, I did.  I'm not sure where to note the spent karma.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:33, Tue 01 Aug 2017.