Sorry, no time for an IC post, will be away until the 4th.

Back from Rio! Where they stole my glasses, so I am now typing in Braille :P

I have been flying for the past two days, so I will be posting IC as soon as my arms get some rest :P

Everyone else had a good 2009 so far? :)

Everyone else had a good 2009 so far? :)
</quote>

  Eh, not really. It snowed 14 inches, the likes of which only happens here once every 5 years or so. And this city appears to have a policy, "If it happens only every few years we should allocate no funds to combating it what-so-ever, and completely shut down everything government related." So basically the entire city was "closed due to weather", until very recently. Roads were an unsalted nightmare of solid ice, sidewalks were only occasionally solid beneath your feet as every few yards your foot suddenly sank into a pool of slush, getting a bus was a joke, grocery stores were raided to the last egg, etc, etc, etc. I could just imagine people from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alaska and so on totally laughing their heads off at us...

Well, my trip away was great - except that some nasty person raided the dormatory where I was staying and stole my PSP.  Major achievement (which should give you an indication of how socially inept I am), I asked two girls to dance with me - the first two I have EVER asked to dance.

Today's good news is: my mom found some old sunglasses which had sight lenses, so I can actually see again, though I look like a MIB.

At least, tomorrow, when I leave for Belgium again, I won't need to go through another session of figuring out what the confused mass of colors that is supposed to be the airport monitor is saying about my flight.

And someone stole my teeny tiny usb stick that I had been using as a memory expansion for my lapdog... Yet they left the lapdog itself.

Bizarre.

Well, I just hope I hadn't put any potentially dangerous files in it, this one doesn't have filesystem encryption...

At any rate, the good news for you is: now that I can see what I'm writing, you should get a decent post soon.

Everyone, I am going to need a PER + Notice roll. As "reason for the roll" you can put PER + Notice
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:49, Thu 15 Jan 2009.

Well I failed

Done, and fairly comfortably so.

For reasons unknown, it looks like I always get sick on weekends...

Posting ASAP, please stay tuned.

And the post is up... Just out of curiosity, Nephi: is the rapier an antique or a modern replica? And, in the latter case, carbon or stainless steel?
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:29, Mon 19 Jan 2009.

Hmmm.  I was thinking Nephi is descended from a rather long line of fencers, with the family blade being passed down from father to son, or grandfather to grandson if no son proved worthy.  While he hasn't been training as much as he should have been, he's still the most skilled of the family.  As for why he brought it with him today, he just felt it was needed.

Good?

Very. BTW, none of the NPC's is going to act before the PC's do something, unless tomorrow goes by with no answers, in which case it will be the zombies who will do something. Do please feel free to take another turn of action before then.

OK, I cleaned up a little mess I had made with your character sheets, so now you should see the latest, most updated information.

Please let me know if I missed something else still.

Those of you who have unspent CP's are required to spend them before the end of the session, I'll give you a more precise deadline after you meet Eddie. Incidentally, this will be the last session to pay CP's: starting with the next one, you'll have to raise your skills the hard way.

As a compensation, CP's-for-partial-XP's will become DP's-for-partial-XP's, with the same rules.

The advantages of DP's have been restated in the XP thread, so you can consult them whenever you feel you need a refresher.

And now I have a question: as you have noticed, with the introduction of DP's and the free distribution of CP's, I am giving a slightly more cinematic, "heroic" tone to the game.

How high a level of "action/fantasy movie" feel would you feel comfortable with?

1) All the way to "Big Explosions + Superpowers + Miracles & Magic!"
    PC's and NPC's will eventually have access to a large arsenal, either technological or metaphysical. The final goal is to save the world, possibly defeating a Great Old One in the process.
2) Up to "Minions of the Ancients vs. Chosen of the Lord"
    The metaphysical level will increase somewhat, including some real adversaries (not just mindless zombies) and more metaphysics for both sides. The final goal is to help rebuild society.
3) "Heroes and Miracle Workers" (the current level)
    Same power levels, no Holy Fire or equivalents. All adversaries are zombies, and the only goal is survival.

Since I threw them in the mix without giving you an example or anything, I am going to show you how Drama Points are used.

Monica is going to spend a Drama Point on Plot Twist to pull a nice stunt out of her... Bag.

Then Jane is going to use one for Heroic Feat to pull a stunt of her own.

Now, with Heroic Feat you have three options for your roll:

- Roll the die, with Rules of One and Ten.
- Roll the die, no Rules of One and Ten.
- Take 5

The second options gives you a roll total between 11 and 20, whereas the last option gives you a fixed 15 (remember that Heroic Feat gives you a +10 bonus).

Regarding the action movie feeling, I'm happy with whatever.  If the game survives for long enough, I would like to contribute to saving the world and all.  Plus, any game I've been GM for has always involved a fast advancement curve with over-the-top bonuses thrown in.
In the short-term though, the game has covered a period of about what, 30 minutes?  Realistically, we'll probably just be concerned with surviving, rather then figuring out where the zombies come from and stopping them.

I think these latest NPC exploits with Drama Points should demonstrate how the game can be shifted to an entirely different power level at any time, and with much ease...

That is why I wanted to know which level you prefer... :)

I'd like to see it still on a relatively realistic level, some cinematics are fun though.

Well I believe I've made your notice roll, mister insistent :p

ROTFLOL... Well, those of you who have passed the roll can use the knowledge starting from the next round, the others will have to wait the following one.

The zombies Weak Spot is the spine.

Targeting it specifically has a -4 penalty from behind and -5 from the front.

A point-blank/short range volley of buckshots to the back does not require to be aimed specifically (in fact, it cannot be aimed precisely, as the pellets spread) and causes half its base damage to the zombies' Weak Spot.

Therefore, any buckshot hit to a zombie's back, at point-blank or short range, that totals 30 or more points of damage, will automatically rid you of the critter.

Just as a reminder, point-blank for shotguns is 10 yards or less, it has a bonus of +2 to the strike Task (buckshots +1, point-blank +1) and a D8x7 damage; short range is 10 to 30 yards and has a +1 bonus to the strike Task and a damage of D8x6.
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:23, Wed 28 Jan 2009.

Kind of figured the Weak Spot would be the spine.  Everywhere else hadn't worked, so it was the only place left to try.

*Edit* if the Per+Notice roll we did last week was for spotting the Weak Spot, then Nephi did pass.  I sent the results to you as a PM.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:19, Wed 28 Jan 2009.

Could have been None, too :)

Monica is Aiming, which means she will act after the others (Hector and Geoff), this Turn. In return she gets to add her Success Levels in her PER + Handguns to her DEX + Handguns Task to actually shoot...

Please check the last two posts in the IC thread: I had to edit a few things since Nephi's post arrived as I was writing Eddie's one.

Recap: five zombies left, three are attacking Eddie, two are going to stand up at the end of this round.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:43, Wed 28 Jan 2009.

Well... I guess the power of Drama Points hasn't escaped to anybody by now.

A short recap: there are mundane means of killing the zombies, and there are mystical means of killing the zombies. I think that should satisfy everyone.

Since the playing group seems to have become fairly stable, we should decide on a city. I can't find any evidence that that had been settled, so... Time to pick a scenery.

Now, Hector, as the only USian in the group, gets to offer a few city he knows; we add a few of our own and vote on the final one.

Depending on who proposed the city, I'll be defaulting to them for a number of info (keeping in mind that the game is set almost ten years in the past); if that happens to be a city I proposed, I'll wiki some stuff and invent the rest as usual :P

I think we had said the East Coast would be the general area, so... Please, do offer advice :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:55, Thu 29 Jan 2009.

  Afraid the only city on the East Coast I've spent time enough in to get the "feel" of the place would be Washington D.C., which is very different from the rest of the country.
 Being a non-state, federal district, the city itself has very little influence in the workings of our federal government, while paradoxically being forced to be the host of said government. On top of that congress likes to use the place to experiment with various social, federal, programs and measuring the success of which before proposing said ideas for the rest of the country. So there are odd times with things like the medi-care actually being socialized, but the roads aren't.
 It's also the blackest city in the union, with a good 70% of the locals being African-American, which would make the rest of you guys the minority not my guy.
  So it's basically the land of ignored, pissed off, black people tired of the government messing with them without actually giving them a say in said government; which just might be a fun place to put a zombie attack in :)

Truthfully, I've never been out of New Zealand, so all I know about America comes from the media.  Anywhere is fine with me.