Happy Holidays, everyone!  Best wishes from my family to yours, this holiday time.  I hope that you are all doing well and I look forward to RPing with you in the new year and beyond.

And it looks like Cooper's prediction/wish came true... At the very least, Hannah and Cooper will be hospitalized, if not in body bags.  Sorry I didn't get an IC response up today.  Looks like it will have to be this weekend (Sunday, most likely).

One small factor in your favor is that you act before the opposing team.  All the PCs have higher Initiative values than the humans and the sectoid already has a couple of .30 caliber holes in it...

I have guests coming in tonight for end-of-year festivities.  If I can't get the turn up tonight before they arrive, it'll probably be the evening of the 3rd.  Enjoy your respective shenanigans!

Well, that's a thing.

And... true to form, Hannah can't hit the broad side of a barn...

  14:49, Today: Tegyrius, on behalf of Hannah Omdahl, rolled 18 using 1d20.  Small Arms (Pistol).
  15:10, Today: Tegyrius, on behalf of Hannah Omdahl, rolled 15 using 1d20.  Small Arms (Pistol).

I'll try to get something up IC tonight or tomorrow, if I can (even though I have no idea what to do here, and I know that Teg won't be able to respond until the 3rd, likely).

Oh, and Happy New Year's, everyone!

If y'all want, you can have a brief radio discussion before acting...

I say take out the dwarf and hope that it's controlling the guy holding the knife to Coop's throat. That's easy for me to say, though.

James has 2 rounds left in the Weatherby and should be able to take at least one aimed shot at peewee E.T. this turn.

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I'm kinda stuck on this one.

If we act we could lose Hannah and Coop although with our remaining firepower we should be able to finish off the hostiles.

However...if we acquiesce to their demands they could still pull a double cross and either kidnap or kill Hannah and Coop.

Given current policies are "no negotiation" (and generally have been for some time) and Seb's background I'd be inclined to think that he'd be in favour of trying to take them out.

However going meta, Spartan and dcoda are the ones with their pc's on the line so probably best if they have the final say?

Unfortunately the Marlin is empty so Seb can't contribute much directly - my options for this turn are a single quick shot or reload and fire next turn.

I'd be up for someone taking a shot at the guy who holding the knife on Cooper, if Hannah is ok with the risk of being shot by a plasma weapon.  If my HT goes down, Cooper will try to roll and grab the AKMS and light up the dwarf.

If we can have the short radio conversation, we might try the talk at them while we take aim and then shoot simultaneously play.  That does expose us to another mind control attempt though.

In any case, I plan on having Michael start his run to the tractor trailer, but whatever happens with Coop will be long over before he gets there.

Hey, folks.  How we doin' here?

I'm here. I think no one's posted IC yet because no one wants to be responsible for Cooper's death. At least, that's why I haven't posted yet.

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I'm here too. I realise it's a bit meta but I've been holding off in anticipation of a radio convo.

Okay, I am going to try this, I guess.

Nobody threatens my peeps (especially the good looking Australian SEAL equivalent guy)!  I actually suspect that Cooper can handle himself - though, he has been shot twice; so, there is that.

I'll try to get an IC post up later tonight... (probably 8 hours or so from now... sorry, I can't do it earlier).

Personally I thought the whole 'pants on fire' thing was an elaborate ploy by Coop to get Hannah to render first aid whilst taking his trousers off...

Long day at work followed by a run that was more draining than it should have been.  Turn post will go up tomorrow night.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:12, Tue 05 Jan 2016.

Sorry I've been so awful - holidays and mom's been in and out of the hospital these past 3 weeks. Mom's doing better and there's no holidays for months yet so... hopefully back to my less-awful self.

Hey, team.  As we wind down the second operation, I have a few things I'd like you to contemplate regarding this campaign's future.

1.  Do we want to keep going?  There was some discussion after the end of the Libya mission of just shutting down and walking away because it ended so well.  I decided to press on because I had more stories to tell in this world, but I don't feel like my writing or pacing on the Australia operation has been nearly as good as it was in Libya.  If the consensus is that you guys want to call it here, or put it on hiatus for a predetermined length of time, I will not be hurt.  Srsly.

If we do want to keep going...

2.  Are we getting what we want out of this?  My plan for the third operation is (hopefully) a little bit more investigation and intrigue, and should yield some more solid answers about the aliens' presence on Earth.  Of course, no plot survives contact with the players.  ;)  What avenues does everyone want to pursue?  More classic turn-based XCOM tactical combat?  More espionage?  More character-building (I am very happy with the way the PCs' personalities are continuing to evolve in response to the curtains they pull back)?

3.  Do we want to stay with the Twilight: 2000 v2.2 game engine or switch to something that better supports an investigative/espionage style of play?  Between missions is the opportune time to do this.  Apoapsis and I have discussed the viability of using Night's Black Agents for this game, or a game like it, and I also could see a switch to Unisystem (Conspiracy X, for one, brushes up very close to this game's style) or the New World of Darkness' Storytelling engine.  But if everyone is comfortable with what we're currently using, I can certainly keep running in T2k - it's a system that I can manipulate to do most of what I want.

(ETA) 4.  Technical item.  Do you prefer me to put ammo expenditures, wounds, and other combat crunch as (orange parenthetical inline text) or as

orange summary text in the foot of the turn post?

Discuss amongst ourselves...
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:39, Fri 08 Jan 2016.

I am continuing to enjoy myself here. I'm all for the game continuing into the next chapter, if the GM is continuing to enjoy his duties.

I trust that whatever direction the GM decides to take the campaign, it'll be good.

I really don't want to buy/learn a new system. If the rest of you are cool with a conversion, I won't try to stand in your way, though.

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The GM is still very much having fun here, with the exception of having run that godawful interminable long-range combat scene.  :P

I'm having fun here, for sure!

While I'm open to changing systems, I don't really see the need to.  If we have to break the rules to do something, I'm good narrative overriding rule set.  You've been setting a great story tone so far, so like Rae, I trust your vision.  I've got some ideas for an interlude scene or two that I'll run past you and start putting together.

So yeah, I'm happy to keep going forward.  I'd be disappointed if we shelved it.

In reply to Tegyrius (msg # 358):

1. I'm up for continuing.  I'm still pressed for time, but I'll do my best.

2. I think more espionage and intrigue would be good for the next episode.  Which ties into #3 for me...

3. I would be interested in either bolting on better rules for espionage type activities to TW2K, or having a secondary system that handles them as an overlay to TW2K.  Sadly, being Lawful Unimaginative, I often find myself constraining my IC actions to what I think the game system can handle.  I'd love to stat out Lina in another system and define aspects that 2.2 doesn't capture very well.  For example, just looking through Conspiracy X which I downloaded 3 minutes ago , something like Pulling Strings as a special quality is something I imagine Kowalska's good at, which could probably be handled by Persuasion in 2.2, but I don't tend to think of it that way.  If you give people the option of stating out their PCs in a couple of systems, but using TW2.2 as the core mechanic, then people don't have to pickup a new ruleset and learn it if they don't want to.

4. Whatever is easier for you when drafting.  Personally I want to get better about defining inventory before engagements, which that plays into.

I'm definitely up for continuing as well.   

I'm good with espionage / intrigue / a bit of character building. Favourite part of any game for me usually revolves around the interactions between the characters.

I don't have an issue with looking at other systems per se, however my challenge would be that if I don't fully understand the system it may affect what I feel I can do with my character - either by not doing things that he can or by attempting to do things that he really shouldn't whereas I am comfortable with the T2K system so am more than happy to stay with that.


On point 4 I have no preference, so happy to go with whatever works best for you.

I shall also touch base with you separately on the subject of interludes...

A valid point.  I've already added the Damage Control, Physics, and UFOlogy skills to plug what I saw as gaps in the system that might affect us.  WRT the Pulling Strings you mentioned (one of the things about ConX that has always held my affection), my first thought is a CHA-based Network skill to replace enumerated contacts.  This would represent the aggregate of the character's Rolodex, and a successful roll would reach out to someone who can affect the situation on the PC's behalf with information, influence, or equipment.  It needs refinement but it's the best I can do with something nesting in my sinuses this morning...

I think this deserves further consideration and will hold off on XP allocations until we decide if we're adding any more new skills or other functions.

(I also need to mechanically normalize psi effects at some point...)
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:09, Sat 09 Jan 2016.

In reply to Tegyrius (msg # 358):

1 - Despite my intermittenness I am enjoying this a great deal. I've only got a limited experience with play-by-post but I still say this is hands-down the best I've ever participated in. Great group of folks with an exciting and layered story.

2 - Espionage is definitely my bag and exactly what I had in mind when I pitched Andrey to you. Between running my "Vampire Spy Thriller" and reading tons of LeCarre, I had a strong spy itch that I wanted to scratch as a player.

3 - I am almost definitely in the minority here but I am totally willing to switch systems. I never played Twilight:2000 when it was new and never owned the books. I'm more familiar with T:2k13 but I've never actually played that system either. I think NBA would be a terrific fit for this style of game though it loses some of the granularity in combat (this hasn't hurt the games I've been in but your mileage may vary).

4 - Whichever feels natural to you though I like having the system stuff divorced from the flavor stuff - it's generally pretty easy to parse what happened and when I'm reading the fiction I'm able to immerse better with the system stuff being at the end.