Sigh.  I guess I'll take the 4 damage rather than spend another fate point right now.
You've mentioned this once or twice and it seems that you're going to some great lengths to try to avoid taking stress.  I feel the need to be absolutely clear about this.


Stress is what happens before you take damage.  It's the excuse that says you rolled aside at just the last moment, or that the arrow hit your lucky medallion instead of piercing your chest...   Injuries are represented by Consequences/Conditions.

So, really, you aren't even close to being injured yet.  None of you are.  And I really don't expect this desperate attack to actually have much impact.

Please look over page 160 for a better look at what Stress is.  As soon as the scene ends, your stress tracks magically reset to zero.  Consequences remain, though.


--
How about, as he stumbled while trying to swing his sword behind him, he twisted an ankle and fell to the floor, right here in the middle of the stone spikes spell?  So Movement Reduced for the rest of the scene and On the Ground for one round?  Is that too much for a Moderate Consequence?
I'm looking for a short, sweet, simple Aspect to peg it on.  Not two Aspects.  One.  He's only taken One Moderate Consequence.  Daggers took two consequences, not Hollis.

This Consequence is a direct result of Etzagith hitting him--twice--with a blackjack.  So, the tripping bit... doesn't feel right for me.

I'm gong to assign Cracked Ribs instead.


In a completely unrelated note, what are the 'friendly fire' issues on AoE spells in this magic system?
It's an area-of-effect.  there isn't that fine-grained control.  I imagine with a stunt it might be so... this is not the case here.  Casters' allies will have to make their defense rolls too.   Except Daggers.  He conceded.  He's out of the fight.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:16, Fri 10 July 2020.

Excellent!

Describe the Action: Gaining a premonition of what is to come, and leaping out of the way.

Roll the Dice: 18:27, Today: Cara rolled -1 using 4 Fudge dice ((-1, -1, 0, 1)).

Current total -1

Determine Approach: Base Athletics (+1), but Cara will spend 1 point of Boon Mana to Evoke a divination, granting her a +2, and bringing her total to +2

Choose an Action: Defense, so Cara takes 4 Stress.

Heh, yeah none of us even took more than a bruise and some nicks from this fight, nothing a good dusting off won't cure.

Hah.  Just rolled for Hollis.  Typically, he rolled poorly.  Filled up his stress-track.

He's decided that things have really gone poorly, and h has now also conceded the fight.

The only active opposition is the Caster...

Mind you, there's a group of unknown people in Zones 4 & 5 of whom we know nothing about.  Etzagith believes the Princes may be among them...

@Etzagith
Please also roll to Defend against Hollis Blades(+2) attack.  You might, actually fill up your stress-track.



@Cara

Whoops... Terminology is confusing me.  By "Evoke a divination", you're commanding elemental forces (earth/air/water/fire/"force"/ magnetisim, gravity, etc) to grant a divination?  How does that work?  I don't see the link between elemental forces and divination.  Evocation is line-of-sight and manipulation of raw-power.

I do see the link between evocation and athletics.  So boosting your jump with a point of of mana?  Sure thing!

If you recall long, long ago, rather than just the base elements, I used the list from the Fate Core High Magic SRD

https://fate-srd.com/odds-ends/high-fantasy-magic

Air - Control, and animate air
Death - Control necrotic energy and animate the dead
Earth - Control and animate stone and dirt
Energy - Control arcane energy, and animate objects
Fire - Control, create, and animate fire
Illusion - Control what is seen
Life - Control life force and begin healing process
Mind - Read minds and place thoughts in them
Nature - Control, create, and animate plants
Sight - Discern truth from deception and look in on a target
Teleport - Teleport yourself and/or others
Transform - Change the shape of yourself, others, or objects
Water - Control, create, and animate water and ice

Each time I take a Lesser Boon, I roll 1d13 and pick the type of Evocation that the person I'm taking a Boon from.

From Arcanaist Yassur, I rolled a 10 and took Sight Magic.

So, using Divination effects with Evocation's speed, to use Dresden Files terminology.

@Nathan and @Arui
So... It is my intention to have the Caster try to flee in the next combat-exchange...

With Etzagith kinda wrapped up with Hollis right now, and The Caster being higher up the initiative ladder than Cara, it means that Nathan and Arui are the ones in a position to stop him.

I'm willing to offer a fate-point to each of you to let him go.  Call it blocked by the stone spikes, or whatever you wish...

For Arui, I suggest that Because you are not familiar with the Strange Customs in this region, you simply don't want to proceed and cause more problems...

For Nathan, I suggest that Thee Mere measurement Effect comes into play, and letting the caster go right now, may allow the discovery of whatever's going on in zone4 & zone-5.  He might be able to twist it to his advantage later...

They're both kinda weak compels, but there you go.

This would bring combat to a close.

If you wish to refuse the compel, you may spend a fate-point to do so.

Point taken on stress vs. damage.


21:49, Today: Etzagith rolled 1 using 4 Fudge dice.  Defense with Blades (+1)

@Cara
Then the mental gymnastics are getting to me again.

I am willing to roll with it right now, because, as I indicated, I can see it as a straight boost to athletics (force push, for instance).  Even as an Arcanist, Ellis Yassur has that ability.  He may specialize, but he is not limited to one specific type of magic only.

When I wrote up the little flashback, I was trying to leverage your borrowed Aspect for future plot directions.

Ultimately, this action doesn't matter in this scene.   Combat is pretty much done with.    But it matters because it sets a precedent...

We will need to discuss the elemental list further in your character thread.  because there's so many items on that list that I have problems with.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:14, Fri 10 July 2020.

Works for me!

Did the Caster just kill Daggers?

Either way, doesn't look like the Caster is out of the fight.

Describe the Action:  Cara is going to try and intimidate the Mage into surrendering, so

Roll the Dice:  08:59, Today: Cara rolled -2 using 4 Fudge dice ((0, -1, 0, -1)).

Determine Approach:  Provoke, which brings my piddling -2 up to a total of +2

Choose an Action:  Create an Advantage, lets say Shaken

I wrote my last post, finishing with

11:39, Today: Etzagith rolled 0 using 4 Fudge dice.  Deceive (+4) Imitating Hollis.
Result of 4, to create an advantage Lets his guard down

However, after writing it, I'm thinking that rather than create an advantage, this should be considered an attack on the social stress track?  It's the same skill being rolled, just a question of how to apply it.

Actually, that seems more correct to me, so I'm going to change it.  But let me know if this is the wrong direction and I'll gladly change it back (or you could).

Five points of Stress from the spikes, which seems sufficient to focus on the heirs rather than the Evoker

20:04, Today: Nathan rolled 0 using 4 Fudge dice.  Athletics (+1) - Stone Spikes. - 0

Did the Caster just kill Daggers?

No.  I took the narrative angle that since daggers had conceded the fight, he's immune.    But I think perhaps Caster thinks Cara killed him.  I'm sure he'll be relieved should he discover that daggers is actually alive...

All right then.


@ARUI
roll: 16:47, Today: Arui rolled -1 using 4 Fudge dice.  shoot +4.
bonuses: Faster, Stronger, Tougher +1 (-1 to Vow of Guardianship)
Action: attack the caster with shoot(+4)
-1 Fate point to refuse the compel

The Caster successfully defended (Athletics(+4) + 4dF(+1)) with Defend(+5)

So, right now you've done Shoot(+4) vs Dodge:Athletics(+5).

I'm not planning to boost his defense roll in any way.

You may invoke On the Lookout for +2 to the attack roll for free (you created that aspect earlier)  This would make it Shoot(+6) vs Defend(+5) which would give Caster 1-shift of stress.

You could also probably spend a fate-point to leverage existing Scene-Aspects for +2 each.  I think you've got 2 fate-points left. The following scene aspects seem like they might be suitable to be used to hinder Caster's movement out of the zone...

• Cramped Quarters - might hinder Casters movements
• Wine & Leviathan's Blood might cause him to slip on the way out
• The Ground Trembles might also cause him to stumble...

Caster has a 7-shift Physical Stress track and has only taken 1 stress prior to this...  So, you need to do 7-shifts of damage to actually hurt him.  The reality is... you're probably not going to hurt him, let alone bring him down.

Sorry.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:39, Fri 10 July 2020.

As Arui has refused the compel in the previous combat-exchange, we're still in combat.

Arui & Cara, you are welcome to chase the Caster into Zone-5.

Etzagith, you may also do so if you feel that it makes narrative sense.


I'd like a declaration here on what your character is intending to do.

You may:

1. pursue Caster int the depths of the warehouse (really, I'd prefer not.  I'd prefer to wrap up this combat, but if you want to pursue him... so be it, it's your story, after all).
   
2. See to the group of people that cried out in the background (Etzagith believes they're the Princes, Cara called them "the children", neither of which has been yet verified).
   
3. Reurn to the front room (there's been no word from Migram, Yvon, Brollox and Manaolama, after all)
   
4. Take some other action

Mostly, I'm just trying to figure out how to frame the next combat-sequence or determine if it's necessary to do so.

What was the compel?

Message 51, this thread.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:48, Sat 11 July 2020.

Awww... the player in me wants to chase down the Mage so I can force a concession of Indebted onto him.

But Cara will move to the group in the background, as she doesn't know who Nathan and Arui are, and wants to find the twins.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:23, Sat 11 July 2020.

I feel pretty strongly that you will meet him again...

He's probably gonna be pretty upset once he discovers that Daggers didn't actually die...

So, since you guys have Daggers... anyone wanna give him a name?

Acton Hale

Daggers is now "Acton Hale"

This is the first time I've separated combat, like this, into three separate threads... one for mostly IC, one for mostly OOC and the other for pertinent info access.

Did it work?  Was it helpful?  Or did it just cause more confusion?

I'm also toying with a different approach in the future...

I feel that people higher up in the initiative ranking should be able to see what those lower in the initiative ranking are planning, the better to react to them, and allowing you to potentially block their actions.

For the moment, I've assigned you all to Private-groups based on your notice ranks  You should be able to read This means I should be able to set up an initiative ranking like this:
Combat-Exchange 5 Build Progress:

• +6 Etzagith (Stunted) - Says "Hi"
• +4 Arui - Says "Hello too"
• +4 Some Guy -
• +3 Nathan - Gets angry
• +3 Caster -
• +2 Cara - Looks on broodingly
• +1 Some Other Guy -

Did it work?  Does it make sense?  Or is it another level of unnecessary confusion?
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:10, Sun 12 July 2020.

I thought it worked OK.  I had times when I was looking for details like environmental aspects and I knew just where to look.

I think you make have the initiative group backwards.  As the highest, I would have to act before anyone else, so I would think that I don't get to see what they are planning before I have to commit to something, so I would assume that I would only see my own; you currently have me seeing all of them.  I hadn't really thought about this last turn, but since Cara happened to post before me, I reacted to what she did (just to nod agreement).  But in reality I would have left the room long before she did it.  OTOH, if I don't delay my action, everyone else would see my action before they have to do their own.

Okay, I see what you're thinking, but I think you've actually got it backwards.

As the one highest in initiative, you have the most control and impact on the scene.  If Some Other Guy (Initiative-1) is close up and intending to punch you (Initative-6), you should see it coming.  It wouldn't work the other-way around, because he's lower on the initiative scale.  Because you can see what they intend to do, you could actually set up blocks or take action to make his attack pointless.

Keep in mind that any conbat-exchange is a real-short span of time.  Mutants and masterminds defines it as 6 seconds for their combat-rounds.  Cyberpunk 2020 says it's 3.2 seconds for theirs.  We're narrative, so it's not specifically defined.  But it's still in that range.  3-5 seconds.  And if there's a lot of people involved or a lot going on, your attention just can't be everywhere.

Still, this is a fiddle-ly bit, and I'm not sold on this idea either...  might try it out next time we go into combat, see how it shakes out.

I guess I see your point, but with us rolling on initiative (I assume once per combat, not every round), you'd have to change the groups for each combat.  Plus we would all have to remember to post in the group, only, or it has no benefit.  Since you do post a clean summary after each round, we don't have the next problem I was going to point out, which is that everyone would want to be able to see all the previous round's actions.

Bottom line is that I just don't see it as being worth the trouble both for us and for you.

---

Questions about the IC thread:

1. Caster turned and ran into the rear of the warehouse.  Is that into the same room Etz just went into, or the other one at the rear.  (The map is gone again, or I would refer to zone numbers.  And maybe I'm forgetting about the arrangement and which direction is 'back.')

2. You start one note with "Pushing deeper into the warehouse, the light came from the side-door... it's boards had been carfully removed by someone, and though there wa a magical circle aglow around it, it streamed with light, a glaring contrast to the darkness within." but it isn't clear to me who is doing the pushing deeper and seeing all this.

3. Is "to load onto the Blackthorn" something that Etz knows what it means?  I know that I don't, but it could be that I missed something earlier.  If it is supposed to be mysterious to the PCs, that's fine, I just wanted to be sure I didn't miss something.