11:11, it was... Alas it was also a pretty intense day, and today is shaping up to another, so I can make no promises regarding my availability.

We seem to have a very creative new player, so I am going to add an NPC by the name of... NPC... Who will then be assigned to John.

You will be able to find all his creations in there - or at least the descriptions. On the flip side, he will be expected to handle those characters as needed (using the NPC label as the source of the post) unless the story demands the intervention of your friendly ZM :)

Geoff, however, is the one who wins the distinction of being the first player to take up on my offer and create an entirely new character with the Norm template (those who have no clue what I am talking about may get some use out of re-reading the introductory thread...).

Please welcome, Anupama Sivapathasundaram (Pam for short, 'cause I won't believe you if you tell me that you can get her name right on the first try). Pam will start with NPC billing, as I will occasionally take her over to further my devious plan of world domina... I mean, to further the plot. She might, in the future, be reassigned to full-player status, if the situation warrants it.

Hi, hopefully the thread should be quite interesting with two such different characters in it!

I should be able to handle the NPCs for the most part, specifically the ones in the flight crew, their purpose is set and they're mostly for function in the storyline rather than plot.  Grace is an outside plot entity at your disposal that you can further refine with a background of your choosing.  Abe is of course the best friend, and while he is on the flight crew, his skill are redundant to John's because he used to have the same MOS (Military Occupational Specialty).  His purpose is to give you, the ZM, an up close and personal lane to bring plot hooks in and out of.  Would it be too much to add the NPCs individually?  Otherwise I'll have to do some weird avatar linkage in every post whenever they're ready to post so that they're easily recognizable.  Or at the least, we can name the NPC group Flight Crew.  Just tryin' to keep things tidy, and keep that "4th wall" up ;)

I can build up basic character sheets for the NPCs as well so they warrant, further still, their own separation.  I'll build them all on Norms probably if possible just so they don't overshadow any PCs.

Anunpama, alrighty then, what's this new character about?

Adding each NPC individually is a problem because then we start having loads and loads of characters in the game, which turns into loads of characters in all the menus (private lines/messages, the Cast page, the dice roller boxes, the Character Details box...). It doesn't seem to be worth it, for now, but I will create unique entries for characters who survive at least two sessions.

Renaming NPC to something more sensible is, in fact, quite sensible. I am tempted to call them, collectively, Flight Group Juliet Tango Hotel, but for the moment I shall limit myself to the shorter Flight Group Juliet (not even sure the longer name would be accepted by the game, actually).

The avatar wizardry to get the right image in the right place at the right time is admittedly annoying - you have to keep track of each image and change it before posting, and if I edit your posts for whatever reason I will have to make sure not to mess it up, and you don't get the separate bio lines with each character's quick info (life points, speed, endurance, essence, ammo), so if you want it you also have to edit that each time... For the moment though, I think it's best to keep them, as a single character.

Honestly, I don't think think all three of them will survive the boat trip.

There is an upside to having three NPCs wrapped into a single character: their message counter goes up three times as fast. As NPCs receive XP at the same rate as normal characters, combining the messages of three NPCs into one counter means they get to grow significantly faster than your average NPC.

What's your stance on Abe & Grace, do you want the reins I've given you for their creative control or should I soldier on independently for now?

As long as they are billed as NPCs, I will take control of them as appropriate. If you want them to be secondary characters, then I will make them into full-fledged characters with their own sheets and profiles, but then you will be expected to play them yourself... They would, however, probably get better chances of survival.

Right, and I wouldn't mind having them be full fledged characters, it's just that I left Abe and Gracie open to your control so you had creative control and influence on important parts of John's life.  Tara & Jake are utilitarian characters that save us narrative labor by doing the tedious things that are sometimes better passed over, shorthanded, etc.  My post consumed about an hour or two of gametime, so if the crew are coming, they'd be arriving now.  Grace obviously has further to drive than the others, but she also has the potential for a more emotional response to the invitation and thus might prioritize it and have set out sooner to reach the boat.  Of course, she also doesn't have to pack as much because she wasn't requested to bring anything (She could though, at your discretion), and she knows John will take care of her.

Abe tried but could not get through to Grace. If John checked to make sure that he wasn't just bull-sheeting him (i.e., throwing sheets of high-quality bull at him), he found that the call does not go through for some reason.

Abe will try every 10 to 15 minutes until the others arrive.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:31, Thu 05 May 2011.

If you want to fire off that tidbit in character, John will head to the landline on the docks, which I already had planned but wasn't prudent yet until proven necessary.

Also, two hours of game time bring us at about the right time for the next segment of the apocalypse... All characters who are outside will start notice a faint, but rapidly increasing, smell of boiled cabbage.

We be'z out to sea, weee!  Well, out into the Chesapeake Bay at least, thus far.  If the waves are rough, they head left into the bay, if the ocean's calm, they head right, past US 13, over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

If Anupama was in the area and an intro would've been missed that would've had corresponding interactions, an edit can be done as appropriate.

Yes, I was sort of expecting Pam to show up before you left, and then there will be a very short downpour that will leave everyone soaked to the bone. The smell of boiled cabbage will keep increasing, and somehow you will keep noticing it.

Perhaps it would be best to comment out part of the post (make it a private line to GM) to be reused later on.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:46, Thu 05 May 2011.

K, well the boat does have canopies or roofs over all the spaces, and as you saw, I put out ponchos, so my people are good to go.  *Takes a glance* Luckily my post structure makes it really easy to give Anupama an entry point.  I'll make an appendage to the last paragraph.

Check it out, this is my literal actual entirely real view from my boat in this game as it sits in Row F at the Southern Comfort Point Marina.  This view is facing west I believe.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl...p;photoid=po-7540685

I was working on the NPC post, so I didn't see Pam's post... I'll have to adapt it to include her presence.

To clarify: the sky opens right after Pam's line about it being a lovely morning. Blame either her or Jake for taunting fate :P

Roller is stopping me from rolling d6s because the Unisystem doesn't use them.

Manually change the system to (blank), then you can roll whatever you please :)

We'll find out about your bike if it's clear out there.  What's actually on it?

In general it's tricked up with some solar panels on the saddle bags, a hub dynamo, some NiMH batteries and the saddlebags themselves which contain one of the character's major Schticks. Without it, Pam becomes a less effective character, not hugely as she has backups to the saddlebags, but as they are larger she'd have access to bigger stuff through her bag of tricks advantage.

Ahh, hehehe, well you don't have to worry so much.  You're currently sitting on a boat with two characters who have about a combined 30 point skill spread in electrical and mechanical engineering based skills in addition to a large stash of related gear and tools.  With that access, your advantage will still be functional.  And you may have noticed, Abe is McGuyver :P  Anyhow, if the world's going to hell, fetching the bike isn't going to be a priority, but it'll still be there safe and sound in the grass against the embankment.

No, Abe is Jack O'Neill, so you are out of luck :P

The solar bike is fine, it just needs someone to bring it on board.

As I said, the rain lasted for all of 30 seconds, so as soon as Pam is dry she can be on her merry way.

Well, not really: all characters in CBWCBR should roll a Simple Willpower Test - which means it's time to stat out at least one Attribute for the three NPC.

Those who fail the Simple Willpower Test will attempt to kill, rape, or otherwise use violence against the nearest person.

All of which will make Pam effectively useless when it comes to doing anything...

Still, that's part of the challenge of playing a teenager in an adult world so it's all good.

What's the target of a Simple Check?

Pam has, I believe, shoe laces and a piece of gum, so she's like one belt buckle short of building a nuclear reactor or something...

Target for Tests is 9 unless otherwise specified.

Great, thanks.