If I'm not mistaken, Hector moved to shield Monica and got shot three times for his efforts.

Meanwhile, I've wrapped up character creation minus inventory (Imagine trying to suit up an on-duty military officer at a US Army base.)

Is it a little clearer now? The holes are on Hector's back as he is now facing Monica rather than the ZL...

Dramatic ;) :P

Think we can get started tonight ZM?  I just need some good basic details like time, weather, on-duty/off-duty, etc.  If you we start early Friday, I'm probably on-duty working on something.  If it's mid day, probably just getting off so in between duty details, grabbing stuff from the barracks house and preparing for another week on the houseboat.  If it's late evening, I'd probably be on the houseboat already.  That'll give you an idea of where to start me.  If you wanna jump forward in the timeline to make meeting up with the others happen sooner, I could have the CH47D out on a maneuver and be coming back sometime Saturday.

His best friend is a Chief Warrant Officer, the CH47D's chief flight engineer, feel free to take liberties with character creation.

I was hoping to get a little info beforehand from a reliable source before posting your last day at Fort Monroe, but it seems I shall have to proceed without.

Incidentally, I am updating the house rules for Rank to reflect both a note from John and a re-evaluation of the benefits provided by the Quality. Under these rules, Geoff and Hector both have Rank 0 (police), so they should pick two free Specialties.

The edits to the Quality reflect the fact that there's nobody left around to accept the character's orders or order them around.

Military Rank
Variable Social Quality or Drawback

The character belongs to the armed forces.
High rank has privileges: soldiers or sailors obey
the character’s orders. On the other hand, low-
ranking soldiers are at a disadvantage. They get
ordered around, and disobeying is not a good
option. The value of Military Ranks ranges from
–1 to +9, and costs 1 point per level (positive or
negative). Keep in mind that high Rank also
entails numerous duties that may restrict the
character’s actions even more than very low
Rank. The rank names in the table below are
taken from the U.S. Army system; other services
and other nations have different names for
equivalent ranks.

Military Rank Table


The following house rules apply to Rank:

- The cost of the Quality applies to the character's social modifier in most situations. Occasionally, when confronted with people who fear or mistrust authority (due to personal belief or contingent circumstances) the full Rank value will be applied as a penalty.

- Each level of Rank grants one free military Specialty, related to the character's specific background.

Choosing a specific make and model for the Guns, Driving, or Piloting skill will grant the usual +2 bonus for all Tasks involving that gun or means of transportation, including those that use different Skills.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:39, Mon 02 May 2011.

What changed in this version of Rank from the last one chief?

The social modifier: it occasionally becomes negative, when confronted by people who hate (or are in a situation where it makes sense for them not to trust) the authorities. So, Rank 4 is normally +2, but occasionally it can become -4. I also clarified that the Specialty bonus, once chosen for the main Skill, applies to different Skills as well.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:48, Mon 02 May 2011.

Gotcha.  I already had that built into my character a week or two ago :)  Situational modifiers are something I'm keen on.

OK, I am opening a public vote on an issue, since there is the potential to create a new house rule.

By the book, all Guns types default to the highest Guns Skill -2, but so far I have only ever let characters with an actual level in the specific Type buy Specialties that apply to it, and then the Specialty would apply to the base Skill level, not the default one. The rationale is that you can't very well acquire such a deep knowledge of a specific gun if you don't really know anything about that kind of weapon, and are mostly winging it from your knowledge of other guns.

As a result, characters with, for instance, a Rifle skill of 5 and a Handgun Skill of 1, who acquired a specific handgun specialty, would find themselves with a 3 in their specialized gun... And a 3 in all other guns as well.

This is counterbalanced by the fact that XP improvements for low-level Skills are much cheaper: increasing the base Skill to 3 costs 2 + 3 XP, so the Specialty is quickly raised to level 5.

Now the vote I am placing on the floor is: should we keep the current system, or should apply a "one Skill to rule 'em all" approach, whereby the highest Guns Skill is chosen as a basis, and paid in full, and further Guns Skills are bought paying only the difference? In the latter case, Specialties could be bought for any guns, even those who use the default value.

If a majority vote decides in favor of the new house rule, all players will be requested to choose how to redistribute redundant Skill points. This may take a while.

Please cast your vote in a PM or PL.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:49, Mon 02 May 2011.

That's the thing about Guns, they can only be so different, and you have to go decades and literally a world apart to find really perplexing differences.  The Default applies because of that, just the same as how Guns have categories instead of being trained by a singular model in the first place.  If I pick up an M1 Garand and familiarize myself with it, then chances are that I can operate 90%+ of any other similar rifles.  Guns really don't get that much different, it's not their design that you train for, there's simply a sequence of actions taken to take a gun from unloaded and safetied to loaded, chambered, unsafetied, aimed, and fired.  All guns follow the same sequence, to an extent, and once you know the sequence, you can basically operate any similar weapon.

Those guns that you actually get your hands on and fully familiarize with even the intricacies and train with, those're the ones you can Specialize in, and that advanced experience applies ontop of all general experience.  Plus you run into wierd idiosyncrasies when you try and remove a default bonus to a skill just to try and plunk a specialty into it; it's numerically a waste of points at any levels over 2-3.

My rule is though, that only paid levels qualify for your "highest gun level" when determining Defaults; you can't use your specialty level.  It wouldn't make sense, and it would be abusive in terms of game mechanics.

As I inclined, if you have a default in a skill (And it's above the level of 0), then it's assumed by all, including the system, that you "have knowledge of it".   For example, spend one day at a gun range and you'll learn about all the guns around you, not just the one you brought, it's part of the culture and the process.

Anyhow, there's my 2 cents, my professional opinion as an amateur marksman & firearms enthusiast.  There is the possibility, of course, of opposing views that would come from those with no firearms experience.  It's easy to look at a completely foreign skillset and think it's harder than it is.  Take Mechanics for example, most people who don't work on their cars find it unapproachable and complicated; meanwhile some of the dumbest people in the world are successful mechanics.

Lemme know if you need any further input/feedback etc etc, I'm gonna go grocery shopping shortly but I'll be back.  My night is open to get started here finally :)  Thanks for being patient and helping me through my first full AFMBE character's creation, a complicated character none-the-less.

Yay, I has food!  Will I be starting tonight Mr. ZM?  If so, I will continuously check here for updates, etc etc.

Alas, your friendly ZM is in GMT+1, so your night is my sleeping-o'clock.

Yep, I remembered that earlier :P  It's 3:04 AM right now, what're the times you would typically be posting regularly?

It's now 10:01 for me.

I usually tend to post occasionally from work, if I have a post ready in my head, otherwise from home in the evenings (after 1800) or mornings (before 0900).

Gotcha, so early in my day is when you're most active.

Added the house-ruled Rank Quality to the introductory thread. I am waiting on anyone in IC to add something within 24 hours, otherwise I will post again.

Apologies to the players on The Straight And Narrow Path, but John's introduction is going to slow it down a little. I need to know exactly how screwed up the fort is going to be when you get there...
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:12, Tue 03 May 2011.

Not a problem, I'll wait, it's not like I burn up the boards with multiple posts anyway...

Nice first post!

I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the Chief's reaction when he brings out the juice to his naked Captain. When did the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy come in to use in the US Army?

Really enjoyed your post and looking forward to interacting with you.

Ha :P Sweat pants and T shirt right now if there was time and consciousness before passing out for the night, if not, jeans and a t shirt probably.

With urine all over them then? Nice touch.

Pulling them down and whipping it out is one of the details that's prudently excluded.  There is such a thing as too much detail, and as you can tell, I like detail, so I'd know :P And thanks for the compliment.

Fair enough, since you'd included the fact that you weren't using any hands to urinate I'd assumed that you would have mentioned the act of undressing too, still, you live and learn.

The no hands component was required to describe the cigarette lighting scene. :)

I've updated my intro post with some restructuring and some attention to details that've been reexpressed.  Feel free to reread it all if any of you are so inclined.

I like that a lot, it's fun to read now. Good post.

Must've spent maybe 10 minutes writing that post, and an hour or two finetuning it for organizational purposes of intro'ing background characters that may or may not make it to the party.   I always feel it's poor manners to make characters that're lone entities in the world unless that's their story.  Now I can only hope I made it in time for the ZM to still be awake :P  It's 11PM over there if I'm not mistaken.