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Old 10-21-2017, 09:41 PM   #201
tshiggins
 
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

(...continued)

The green warrior spirits moved out to the left and right, apparently by will, without seeming to actually walk. The mages moved down the tunnel and, after a bit, saw it open up into a large round chamber with an exit tunnel on the other side. In the center of the “spindle” of space in the astral mists, a glowing wheel of gold and green energy swirled, looking for all the world like one of the sun-wheel symbols Henrietta had seen carved as a petroglyph in the caves and canyon near the portal.

Hovering above the center of the slowly spinning maelstrom hovered the rape spirit, green tresses flaring out from its head and sparkling with energy. Beyond her, two glowing skulls flanked either side of the outgoing tube, and with a start Henrietta identified them as evil spirits called Kanontsistonties by the Iroquois, and mentioned in other American Indian legends.

The rape spirit spotted the group immediately – five mages with nearly two dozen decanic knots of spell energy sparkling around them, flanked by two powerful warrior spirits – and screamed in defiance at Sunmi. However, behind her, the two kanontsistonties whirled about and fled into the mists as the group advanced toward the center of the maelstrom. For his part, A.J. charged at the rape spirit, triggered his first ice-dagger, and slashed at it.

Realizing it was badly outnumbered, the rape spirit soared upwards and, to the consternation of the group, disappeared into the mists. Realizing that it would likely target Sunmi in preference to any other, A.J. shouted at the two cat-warriors to protect her, as the rest of the group tried to flush out the enemy.

Sunmi shifted left and began to skirt the edge of the mist wall, while Beatrice went low and A.J. went high. Henrietta and Jimmy actually plunged into the mists and tried to move upwards to see if they could intercept the rape spirit, but found themselves stymied by the limited visibility. The cat spirits retreated from their initial move toward the decanic wheel, and stuck close to Sunmi.

A.J. reached the top of sphere of empty space, the wheel turning slowly below him, and realized his ice-dagger spell only had about two seconds before it expired. He poked his head briefly in the mists, realized the futility, and began to move quickly along the inside of the mist wall toward Sunmi as Beatrice began to move up toward him to close ranks.

Two seconds later, he’d covered about two thirds of the distance and, with nothing to lose, visualized the path from the top of the sphere down to where Sunmi currently hovered, and threw the dagger into the mists just above her head. Expecting nothing, he was delighted to hear a scream of pain and rage from the rape spirit that he’d managed to impale (A crit is a crit!).

Henrietta brandished her staff and, followed closely by Jimmy, charged into the mists in pursuit of the rape spirit. However, she quickly realized she’d lost it and retreated back out in a hurry, although Jimmy went further in before he returned to clear space.

Since he’d guessed correctly that the rape spirit would most likely make Sunmi its primary target, A.J. moved to cover her, as well. Henrietta moved back to cover the way they’d come in, while Beatrice remained on high cover and Jimmy retreated back out of the mists.

Sunmi started to move back the way the group had come in, but didn’t get very far before the rape spirit suddenly popped up out of the mists at the bottom of the sphere, hemorrhaging ectoplasm, and drove hard for the energy wheel as the cat-warriors and A.J. charged to intercept.

Since the rape spirit had appeared so suddenly, it managed to reach the energy maelstrom before the trio could stop it, and two spear-tipped tentacles lashed out. However, the cat-warriors dodged them, A.J. got in a slash with his second ice-dagger, and then the cat-warriors dog-piled the rape spirit as the rest of the party moved in for the kill.

The cat-warriors focused on holding the tentacled horror still, as ice daggers flashed blue in the fists of each of them except Henrietta, who wound up her staff and charged. The group converged from three different directions – up, down and from the tunnel where they’d entered. A.J. and Jimmy reached the spirit first, A.J. triggered his second ice dagger and slashed as he moved by, followed by Jimmy, only to see the wounds close up as the rape spirit absorbed decanic energies into itself.

The rape spirit continued to try to break free of the grasp of the cat warriors until Sunmi arrived and began to slash at it. By then, the wounds were coming in faster than the rape spirit could heal them, and, in desperation, it stopped stabbing at the cat warriors and managed to wrap Sunmi in a tentacle.

Sunmi immediately felt the assault begin on her mind, and she began to catch glimpses of the rape spirits intentions. It meant to try to overwhelm her by force of will, and leverage itself into her body, where it would be protected and have time to heal.

Furiously, Sunmi tried to throw it out of her mind, and managed to succeed for an instant when Henrietta came up behind it and clocked it with her staff. The Korean-American girl lashed out just before he ice-dagger blinked out, cut out a ragged chunk of the figure, and the badly wounded rape spirit shredded apart.

The group had a few moments to calm down and recover themselves, before they woke up in their bodies to see a rather disheveled Jeb looking down at them.

Jeb greeted them with a dry, “Well, that was fun,” and explained that the two kanontsistonties had manifested, and immediately charged the wards around the comatose bodies, apparently with the intention of trying to seize a couple of them. The spirits had proven tough, strong and fast, and it had taken some effort to inflict enough damage to drive them back into Yetzirah.

The group reported that they’d managed to destroy the rape spirit, and that the portal between the two world now lay clear for those who wished to pass from one to the other.

With that, the session ended. Man, it was a long one.

##

Funny Quotes

Beatrice (to Henrietta, discussing a return to the astral plane, given Sunmi’s string of bad spell rolls): We’re a good match, we’re both cautious.
Henritta: I’m chickenshit. There’s a difference.

Sunmi: Oh, wait! I’m over here, by myself! I’m going to the zoo! <pause> This is probably really bad….

Beatrice: Benign. That’s the word you’re looking for. We don’t care how weird it is, as long as it’s benign.

Sunmi (charges out of her sacred space, a bit wild-eyed): I was trying to cast a spell, and I messed up, and now there’s a voice talking to me! Where am I?!

Beatrice (arguing on behalf of having the vampires round up a couple of white supremacist bikers as involuntary hosts for possessing spirits): They’re bad guys!
Sunmi (appalled): That doesn’t matter!
Henrietta: Yes, it does!
Beatrice: Yes, it does!
Sunmi: Get young ones, then. High quality bodies.
Jimmy: No, old ones! The old ones aren’t going to change, but the young ones might.

A.J.: We’re taking two white supremacists and dropping them in the middle of Five Points.
Beatrice: Unconscious!

##
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Last edited by tshiggins; 11-13-2017 at 10:18 PM. Reason: Got some corrections from Anten
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Old 10-22-2017, 01:27 AM   #202
TGLS
 
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins 07-29-2016 View Post
Sunmi let out a squeak of dismay, and asked the girl who she was and where she came from. The girl replied that she was a spirit who had been drawn to Sunmi by the presence of magic, combined with Sunmi’s deep inner needs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins 10-21-2017 View Post
The group reported that they’d managed to destroy the rape spirit, and that the portal between the two world now lay clear for those who wished to pass from one to the other.
Certainly know how to draw out a critical failure.
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Old 10-22-2017, 11:24 AM   #203
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

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Originally Posted by TGLS View Post
Certainly know how to draw out a critical failure.
That's pretty funny. :)

As G&AInc. notes, there's a reason we play a game with dice. It throws curve balls out, and forces everyone to improvise.

The hentai rape spirit couldn't have happened without a couple of bad rolls and some really bad decisions. The party probably could have rendered it harmless, or driven it off, pretty quickly, if Rebecca hadn't been so flustered that she avoided confronting the issue, head-on, and had Sunmi decide to lie about it to everyone else.

Sunmi's decision to try to get it away from her, rather than deal with it, turned it from a minor and embarrassing annoyance into a hazardous, ongoing problem. I took some of the suggestions about spirits, mostly from G: Spirits, and ran with them.

Here's the write-up. I normally wouldn't do this for a one-off creature produced by a crit-fail, but it was such a problem for such a long time that I felt it was required for the final battle.

Rape Spirit

ST 14
DX 12
IQ 12
HT 14

Dam: Thr 1d (+2, 2d), Sw 2d (+3, 3d-1); HP 14; Will: 15 [15]; Per 12; FP: 14; Spd: 7 [10]; Move: 7.

Advantages
Attractive Appearance, Androgynous +3 [12]
Extra Attack (Tentacles, x2) [50]
Extra Arms (8, Extra-Flexible; Extra-Long +3 Sw) [200]
Flexiblility (Double-Jointed) [15]
Flight [40]
High Manual Dexterity (+2) [10]
Possession (Spiritual -20%, Contact -30%) [50]
Shapeshifting (Green-haired school-girl, Green-haired school-boy) [30]
Smooth Operator +2 [30]
Spirit Meta-Trait [261]
Striker x2, Impaling [16]
Striking Strength +2 [10]

Disadvantages
Bad Temper [-10]
Bloodlust [-10]
Bully [-10]
Callous [-5]
Impulsiveness [-10]
Lecherousness [-15]
Vulnerability (Salt, Iron; very common; x4 each) [-160]

Skills
Acrobatics 14
Acting 14
Body Language 13
Body Sense 13
Breath Control 13
Carousing 16
Dancing 16
Detect Lies 14
Dropping 12
Erotic Art 20 (includes +5 for Double-Jointed)
Fast Talk 14
Interrogation 12
Intimidation 15
Judo 15
Karate 15
Makeup 13
Pickpocket 14
Sex Appeal 16
Shadowing 13
Stealth 14
Streetwise 14


It's probably not the best write-up, and the real game mechanics people will probably have a lot to criticize, but it worked well enough for my purposes. It can handle itself reasonably well in a one-on-one fight, or if it gets the drop on someone, but it is not, and was never meant to be, a combat monster. Conceptually, it was supposed to stalk and/or seduce, and not wind up in hand-to-hand combat.

The dog-pile also demonstrates what I consider a strength of GURPS -- no matter how tough, a single creature that faces a group of prepared opponents is in serious trouble. The group (mostly led by A.J., for this) really thought their approach through carefully, stacked the deck as much as possible, and only then did they go after the rape spirit on its home turf. Really, the fight was over before it ever got started, because they'd prepared so meticulously.

I had all three of the spirits make morale checks, with the rape spirit's mitigated by her desire to take Sunmi. The two kanontsistonties (man, the American Indians have some great horror stories...) rolled really low, and decided to try for what they hoped would be soft targets, but the rape spirit's 16 meant she was gonna fight -- although she didn't have to be stupid about it. She was going to do the hit-and-run thing from the mists, but then A.J. got his crit, and that was that. It's the second time Anten rolled a crit that took a fight off the rails, in this campaign.

A few notes:
-The ST, DX and HT stats allowed me to determine base damage and skill costs for the astral form on the astral plane. Those would change if it actually possessed someone.
-The vulnerability to iron and salt is a campaign feature -- all spirits have it. The only way to mitigate it is to possess a physical body.

Also, my version of Yetzirah actually works a little differently than some others, and it took me awhile to think it through. I knew I didn't like the notion of "free-fall" floating, as that seemed very much a product of gravity, and there is none in the Astral Plane. Moreover, I had to think about the impact of the lack of physical body.

Generally, combat skills aren't just based on DX for material beings that travel in the Astral Plane. Their minds can't quite let go of the concept of physical limitations, but at the same time they have fewer physical constraints. So combat skills are based on the average of DX and Will, there, for visitors. For astral denizens, those stats will always be the same.

Movement, however, is based solely on Will. In most cases (and the reason it doesn't work like that, in the astral projection of Denver, is something they'll have to discover), one moves to where one wishes, simply by wanting to go there. So, both Move and Dodge (the latter of which is really instinctual) are higher. That makes it harder to hit dodging creatures in Astral combat, which makes it really important to tie targets down so they can't dodge, as well. Alternatively, the use of missile spells works pretty well, for those that have them.

Astral creatures will always have good grappling, or spells or abilities that can stun or immobilize, or some combination of those options. Those that engage in less subtle predation than the rape spirit will be truly scary, when it comes to that.
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"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.

Last edited by tshiggins; 10-22-2017 at 12:09 PM.
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Old 10-22-2017, 11:30 AM   #204
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
Beatrice (arguing on behalf of having the vampires round up a couple of white supremacist bikers as involuntary hosts for possessing spirits): They’re bad guys!
Sunmi (appalled): That doesn’t matter!
Henrietta: Yes, it does!
Beatrice: Yes, it does!
Sunmi: Get young ones, then. High quality bodies.
Jimmy: No, old ones! The old ones aren’t going to change, but the young ones might.

A.J.: We’re taking two white supremacists and dropping them in the middle of Five Points.
Beatrice: Unconscious!
There some real villainy going on in this group... talk about conflicting moral points.
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Old 10-22-2017, 11:53 AM   #205
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There some real villainy going on in this group... talk about conflicting moral points.
That's actually one of the more fascinating aspects of the campaign, especially given my initial instructions. From the Denver GURPS Group Forum:

"Characters should be socially well-adjusted enough to work reasonably well as part of a team, and should have no problems with the altruistic behavior of others. Most should be good folks, themselves.

"Sociopaths, wanna-be villains, and misanthropic ass-hats would not fit in well with SAR volunteers (and I don’t want them as PCs in the campaign, anyway).

"Also, keep in mind that the campaign will begin in modern America or modern Australia – and that means 15-point disadvantages are a big deal and may act as magnets for serious problems.

"For instance, a male character with the 15-point disadvantage, 'Lecherousness,' will almost certainly have been fired from at least two jobs for sexual harassment, regularly gets in bar-fights with the boyfriends of attractive drinkers, and may suffer from a negative reputation.

"A female with the same disadvantage will have been divorced at least once, likely has been fired for sexual harassment, is actively disliked by nearly every woman she meets because she’s often the 'other woman' for a married man, and frequently wakes up next to some jerk she barely knows.

"Choose disadvantages carefully, because I will enforce them! Pick only those you want to play!"

Generally speaking, the characters started out as reasonably decent people. How they've chosen to deal with the combination of power and hazards has led them to a really interesting place, ethically speaking. One reason I threw in the challenge to JoCat's will was that I really wanted to see what they'd do. :)

That said, NAZIs make for great mooks, and white supremacists who sell methamphetamine can be seen as the modern-day equivalents. The group certainly thinks of them, that way.
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Last edited by tshiggins; 10-22-2017 at 12:02 PM.
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Old 10-22-2017, 02:06 PM   #206
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That's actually one of the more fascinating aspects of the campaign, especially given my initial instructions.
I'm just surprised you don't have at least one hardline moralist among the group. I'm just guessing that line hasn't come up.

It's also kinda surprising that murder and slavery are basically 'okay' in the groups eyes (as long as they're the ones doing it). Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging. Just noticing is all.
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Old 10-23-2017, 10:49 AM   #207
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A lot of action and interesting events since I last commented. The party looks to have finally finished off one of their major problems (the rape spirit), and may be on the way to working out two of their other problems. It looks from my pov that the problems with the other lodge is at least in a state of truce, but I think that there may be more problems with them down the road. But at least the party has some breathing room there. Now I do have a nasty feeling that the vamps are going to be a large problem and probably sooner than later, but again the party has possibly gained itself some breathing room.

There has been a lot of information learned, and hopefully the party will learn even more so they will not make as many mistakes or at least not the same mistakes ;-). Of course new mistakes are bound to happen.

I do really like the way that you have kept time flowing, in some cases with a good amount of time passing between the main events. Also the "news" items that you've written up are something I've really enjoyed, great job there. I am going to be interested in seeing more about the qlippoths.

Keep up the good job.
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Old 10-23-2017, 10:52 PM   #208
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Originally Posted by SionEwig View Post
A lot of action and interesting events since I last commented. The party looks to have finally finished off one of their major problems (the rape spirit), and may be on the way to working out two of their other problems. It looks from my pov that the problems with the other lodge is at least in a state of truce, but I think that there may be more problems with them down the road. But at least the party has some breathing room there. Now I do have a nasty feeling that the vamps are going to be a large problem and probably sooner than later, but again the party has possibly gained itself some breathing room.
I'd agree with your assessment about "breathing room," especially since they decided to opt out of messing with the lawsuit around JoCat's will. The question now is, where do they go next? Shangi-La, to try to get Sunmi free of the deal with Erzulie Dahomey, or do they jump into the Paris of the year 1710, in a world where the Angevin Empire remains strong?

Quote:
Originally Posted by SionEwig View Post

(SNIP)

I do really like the way that you have kept time flowing, in some cases with a good amount of time passing between the main events. Also the "news" items that you've written up are something I've really enjoyed, great job there. I am going to be interested in seeing more about the qlippoths.

Keep up the good job.
The monthly openings of the portals helps keep time clipping along, although I will point out that while the campaign has lasted about two years, only about 10 months have passed, in the setting. That's not too bad, though.

As for the newspaper stories, they allow me to dust off some old skills and re-visit a profession I truly love. It also allows me to play around with some forms of journalistic writing that seem rather odd to us, these days.

I first started to play around with the idea in the abortive G: Castle Falkenstein campaign, where I wrote articles that used language (and spelling!) similar to what appeared in the London Times, circa 1870. For the Santa Fe newspapers, I adopted a writing style similar to what I read in English-language newspapers of the turn of the 20th Century, and then threw in as much Spanish vocabulary as I could, without obscuring the information.

As for the most recent article, I like to think of it as a shout-out to one of the finest periodicals published, today. The High Country News provides competent and reliable news about issues of particular interest to Westerners, in a way that more general interest news sources simply lack the expertise to cover.

https://hcn.org/

Back when I worked as a reporter, I read it every chance I got.

Also, I appreciate your encouragement. The fun we're having in the group means I'll keep the campaign going until it ends, organically (or everybody gets so busy the group disintegrates, which can happen).

However, the fact that so many people enjoy the write-ups helps motivate me to continue with them. I know I always enjoyed reading well-done campaign logs, but if it was just me, I might skimp on them. The feedback I get from you guys definitely keeps me going.
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"Some days, I just don't know what to think." -Daryl Dixon.
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Old 10-23-2017, 11:18 PM   #209
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I used to read High Country News a lot when I was out in the area. Great publication.

Something that came to mind, you might want to take a look at and read the mystery (sort of) series by Tony Hillerman. They are set in the Four Corners area and will give you a good idea of law enforcement and the very odd set of different agencies there, especially the numerous reservation forces. Plus they are very entertaining. Strongly recommended.
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Old 10-24-2017, 12:56 PM   #210
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Default Re: Campaign: Facets

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(SNIP)

Something that came to mind, you might want to take a look at and read the mystery (sort of) series by Tony Hillerman.

(SNIP)
I've read a fair amount of Hillerman. My friend, Dave (who guested as Jimmy, in the July session) loves his work. Those stories definitely influenced my decision to select Moab as the starting point for the campaign. :)
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