Time to clear some browser tabs.

A compendium of aviator call signs, most (but not all) from the F-16 community:
http://www.f-16.net/callsigns.html

NASA has created a new department to coordinate planetary defense efforts:
http://www.mirrordaily.com/nas...etary-defense/26680/

Hopefully your first UFO recovery experience will be a bit smoother than this:
https://forums.spacebattles.co...page-8#post-13067084

And this explains the frustration and complexity of the PC games so well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Xcom/..._pits_are_essential/

For the Australia mission, everyone receives 7 regular XP plus the following skill-specific XP:



I will award additional skill-specific XP from the interlude thread when we begin Chapter Three.  If you want to see how that comes out, you can hold onto this XP award until then.

As a reminder, here's how XP works:



Those of you who earned Initiative advances have been notified in PM and your sheets adjusted accordingly.

Finally, some of you may have additional new skills on your sheets due to [REDACTED]...

Some further items on the subject of psi as I re-think this...

Psychic capabilities of certain alien species, and subsequently in select human personnel, have been part of X-COM canon since the original PC game.  Grey Cell's encounter with this during the Australia mission was largely free-form - I didn't really have any mechanics behind it.  Through random rolls, Hannah and Cooper were the two PCs who suffered the strongest effect.  I did a quick skim of the IC thread and didn't catch any textev of anyone else having a lot of direct psi interaction, though I think Seb and Michael might have caught glimpses of it out the corners of their minds.

Going forward, I'd like to have some sort of consensus as to how y'all want to proceed.  My current thinking is to loosely model the basics on the implementations in Dark Conspiracy (another GDW RPG which shares an engine with Twilight: 2000 and has PC-accessible psychic powers).  Under this, there is a chance of each PC having points in a seventh attribute, Psi, which governs your voodoo.  All psionic skills would fall under Psi.

For each player, please indicate your preference for your character's future psychic potential:

1. Opt out - no Psi for you.

2. Opt in - your character starts with a Psi attribute of 1d4.

3. Leave it to the dice - your character starts with a Psi attribute of 1d10-5 (minimum 0).

Starting Psi values may increase during play as a result of Science! or other story events.

Are you planning a system similar to the biomechanics Meld(?) present in the expansion Enemy Within?  If memory serves, the characters in the game could have either psi or the enhancements of things like regeneration.  I'd be happy to keep my science options open.  If you're not planning that, I'll just leave it to a toss of the die.

I'm playing through another Enemy Within campaign right now to kill time before XCOM 2 releases on 2/5.  :)  Meld actually lets you apply genetic/biomechanical modifications or full-body cybernetic conversion - and, yeah, it's mutually exclusive with psi.

I hadn't considered introducing Meld in this game but it is an interesting thought.  If there's interest in seeing those paths, whether as story elements or as PC development options, I'll certainly consider that...

Opt in for Cooper
Dice for Karolina

I'll go with the dice for Seb.

I suspect that we already know that answer to this one.  Given her near possession, it only makes sense that Hannah has been 'opened up'.  Opt-in for Double Down, obviously.

Besides, it is just one more reason that she can't go back to flying with regular-o army.  When they find out that she hears voices in her head ... she'll be grounded immediately. ;)  Thanks a lot, Group Captain Mewes...

I'm interested in exploring the option.  Maybe not full-conversion borg, but enhancements could be interesting.  Might also be fun to play with all the ways that the characters aren't quite human anymore.

That being said, if it's going to be too much work or effort, I'm fine skipping it.  There's plenty of high-tech available without genetic enhancement.

Oh, no, I think I can make it happen. It may take a few more missions to get the story to that point but I have some ideas...

I am both scared and intrigued.

A couple of missions? I can't wait for 2018 :)

Hey, if we keep this game going that long, I'll call it a win. :)

I'll probably regret this but I'll opt-in for Psi with Andrey. I've always imagined that a psychic spy would be extra fierce.

Also - I was working on my Aftermath post tonight but I can't get into the right headspace. I'm going to reattack tomorrow and see if I can get it sorted.

Also - Seb, incoming PM regarding said post. Just wanna make sure we're going the same way :)

I'm thinking no psi for James.

-

Psi rolls have been rolled.

I think everyone who opted in is a veteran XCOM commander and has a sense of this, but just to say it:t psi in this setting is unsubtle and invasive. So while it will complement your team's soft investigative skills (and, eventually, your combat skills), it won't replace them.

What are the chances of DARPA or some such supplying Grey Cell with some special anti-E.T. ammo in common calibers? Maybe something like 5.56mm HE? I mean, if we're going to be fightin' more aliens, our employers ought to be giving us the proper tools...

Just sayin'.

-

How Clancyesque do you want me to get with this answer?  :)

This makes a great madlib that can probably be applied to 90% of all employers.

+1 to that. Since the start if the year I can't recall how many times I have used the phrase 'not fit for purpose' to describe one of my shiny new work toys. My boss's boss - who does not have to use said tool - thinks it is the best thing since sliced bread and the challenges that caused me to remark that I was using a better system in 1993 are quote teething issues unquote.

We're about to get the first major snowstorm of the year.  National Weather Service has us right on the demarcation line between 8-12" and 12-15+" (possible 24" according to the last conference call we had with them).  I have the EOC night shift, 1900-0700, so I will not be around and functional for the next couple of days.

... Wondering if I-75 is in Teg's AO....
This message was last edited by the player at 14:08, Sat 23 Jan 2016.

I sit at the junction of I-64 and I-75.

Total accumulation was only nine inches here, so the overnight EOC shift got rolled back to a skeleton crew.  They waved me off 45 minutes before I was supposed to go in, after I spent all day trying to reset my sleep cycle for nights.  Grr.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:41, Sat 23 Jan 2016.

I'll leave the aftermath thread open through the weekend and assign skill-specific XP from it on Sunday or Monday night.

@Spartan, to more fully answer your question - I wasn't aware the clusterfuck in Rockcastle County had made international news until we were doing an internal AAR meeting yesterday.  That's about 40-50 miles south of me, outside my agency's jurisdiction but within the footprint of the multi-county area that's my overall program's AO.  That particular stretch of 75 on the Rockcastle-Laurel County border is sort of like Kentucky's Bermuda Triangle, or maybe our Dyatlov Pass.  It sees a statistically improbable number of fatal accidents, vehicle fires, and HAZMAT incidents, and the highway isn't really that bad.

Shutting down this thread now, as we're engaged with Chapter Three.