Re: Corco's Villa
 

Right....All the more reason I don't like that appearance and feats of strength and size modifier stack .... while feats of bloodthirstiness and strength do not.


I thought the influence roll was an either/or thing: you either replace the reaction roll OR you make an attempt to intimidate them into doing something specific.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

There are two uses for the skill, the default use is "You are scary and intimidating in what you do!" which is not a contest, btu the results of which are fuzzy and completely up to the GM.

An Influence roll IS contested by Will, and if successful replaces a random reaction with a "good" reaction and if unsuccessful is a "bad" reaction.

It was regular skill use, since their feelings about Vassarious personally are pretty irrelevant. That was the intent when I rolled it anyway.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I'm figuring out the next mission. Everything is ending/starting all at once (including my Tuesday game) This is something like the fourth successful mission?

I'm looking at choosing from a few different missions... none of which are actually complete. Space Opera (Psiwars), Fantasy where you are interacting with DF Elements (you should be able to short-circuit a lot of it though), Doing something on Halcyone's homeworld, or visiting a monster hunters world.



Huh. Weird. I still feel like the will and fearlessness of the target should matter.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Halcyone relates her adventures in a bar, "First came the priests who made a puppet out of the Emperor Maximus, next keeping the Stone-Melters on ice in Ogol, then we had to guard a Japanese Emperor from some demons, after that cut down Aram the Ever-Dead on Bel-3, and then..."
Well, these all look neat. The mission framework makes it hard to slowly lay out the scenario like Dreams can, I guess. I think it would be kinda funny to get a local guide in the DF world who's baffled as we cut through all the problems.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Yep!Oh, whatever shall Vassarious "wear"?The end result is completely up to GM Fiat, and the successful use of intimidation does not necessarily induce intimidation the subject, it just conveys successfully that they have a certain level of capability and a willingness to use it without looking like an ass in the process. So a fearless person would not be afraid, but they might just like your style.

There is likely more detail in Social Engineering if you are so inclined to look.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I dunno, my reading is that it's an influence skill, and Fearlessness is a penalty ("Subtract the subject’s Fearlessness (p. 55) from your roll."), but at the same time Intimidation doesn't necessarily mean the subject caves either...

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Do I normally give out points at the end of Villa missions?

Re: Corco's Villa
 

At the end of the Maximus scenario, we got 5. At the end to Tuguk, we got 3. I don't think we got anything for the imperial defence mission.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Ok, I think I owe you another 8 points then.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

My notes indicate we received three point awards thus far. 5 points, 3 points and 5 points.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Strange, my logs agree with you, but I can't find the post mentioning it.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Ok, so 3 additional points, for a total of 16.



****************************


Note, this place uses standard magic. I'm looking at how V is going to interface with that. I'm thinking V needs a spell book to cast a given spell: those can be found in town.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Vassarious has the Ritual magic and Thaumaturgical / occult knowledge from OCCULT!, but neither of us gave them magery... I suppose we could put it into a template.

Vassarious will have to meet one of those lost in dreams and discover how their cosmic spark to command almost anything supernatural combines with their knowledge of OCCULT!

"We can do Anything..."

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Yeah, I was assuming he'd find a way to pick up magery.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Adding racial Magery is really only useful if there is also racial magic.

I was thinking of an advantage combining a single point modular ability for Charm perks to bypass spell prerequisites only, and a second 1 point modular ability to duplicate any spell he witnesses or receives minimal training in... But that was for Peter's wish list.

Vassarious know all they possibly could about magical processes and rituals from an academic standpoint, but they are a better Sage than Wizard...

( I so want Vassarious to meet Peter (or Julian) to duplicate them. lol)

I'll do a catch up post on the IC tonight.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I need V's languages mapped.


As magic as advantages that can be bought as a template, you mean?

Lost in dreams characters probably have a higher theoretical ceiling than Corco's villa's heroes... not that we're going to find out.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Just curiosity, but how many points short would a DF adventurer need to add in to match the chargen requirements set out at the beginning of the thread?

Re: Corco's Villa
 

On the surface, 200 points, given that you have 300 points and then the power sets are 150.

With the rules on ST, you probably get about [100] to [200] free points that way, raising the difference to [300] to [400].



Your base TL is 8, so that's another [25]. Your wealth is also based on TL8 or so, x20 above DF, which is another [30].



And then you have access to building wildcards and exotic advantages DF doesn't.



so [350] to [450]?

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I'm fighting the urge to go all out and make a random DF class and race generator.


actually, I'm making one, I'm just fighting the urge to go all out on it.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

There's always one for DnD you can paraphrase in a pinch...

Oh darn, it clears the "F" word, even in a URL... sad

https://whothe...ismydndcharacter.com/

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I made it! wasn't too hard, and its specifically for DF. That way you get stuff like Dark One Holy Warriors. No motivations included though.



Do remember the F-Bomb remains offensive to a fair number of people.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I first tried hiding it in the embedded link so it wouldn't be seen, but it killed it there too... So I repasted the URL so you could figure it out if you haven't checked it out.

I certainly meant no offence, I find that site most amusing.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I know. :)

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I was going to say the usual, the Wingless undercover version of the Genesis form:

(Might switch it up tho... Do the Elder things related creatures need more fine tuning on the detect supernatural? )


ST 20
DR 5 (Tough Skin, -40%) [15]
High Pain Threshold [10]
Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30]
Dark Vision [25]
Regeneration, Regular [25]
Detect Evil Supernatural Beings [10]
Shuriken / Bladed hands / Long Knife [48]

But I'm reconsidering and thinking of shifting it to be based on...
The dudes who taught him his Kung Fu...

Assume the usual under the hood while looking a bit like tall fey-ish warrior until I do an update and a template adjustment.

Can I spend some of my budget on a mage sword ahead of time, or other quick and dirty enchantments?

Re: Corco's Villa
 

thanks!

It lines up fairly well with DF existing category of "Truly Evil", which is nice. This does not include all elder things, but it does include a lot of them. Its worth pointing out that DF cares about creature types, and Genesis form will count as a divine servitor... and of course V's native form is Dragon.



Cool!


Yes --- though keep it at or under 60% of your total ($3,000) and fairly straitforward please.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I thought I saw a question about rules of engagement here.



This is DF land, so blending in isn't really required. Multiple worlds are already in play because this is a skerry. The guidelines here are to blend in enough that they don't go looking for other worlds beyond their own Skerry.


So mentions of Corco should be vague and indirect, and Halcyone probably shouldn't describe the city and tech base she comes from in great detail, and so on. But using your tech and describing it as "clever work" should be fine.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I did post that in IC, but I went back and reviewed the beginning for the thread and found I was mis-remembering.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

No, she's Vutu... though that would have been a fun twist.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I'm pretty sure I warned you to bring good weapons to use against a swarm?

Re: Corco's Villa
 

That's true. I think we both (or at least I) kinda glossed over that. I don't have my books with me right now, but I'm fairly sure what Halcyone has (i.e. Vibroblades and rifles) isn't going to cut it against a flying swam. I don't recall specifically said about the drone swarms she had, but I was going with the impression those were mostly recon drones, not attacking drones.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I think we were more explicit about the swarms she had on a previous mission. Maybe the ice world?


EDIT: I've found that on the ice world you suggested that one of the swarms be stingers. On the submarine you expected a lot more combat and brought 100 swarms, 75 of which were devourerors. (you brought 500 lbs of gear that time). Your ability to carry gear this time is more limited.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

IDHMBWM... but that does not sound cheap!

Re: Corco's Villa
 

No, that's $600,000. I was a little shocked when when I saw the price tag on devourer and the number that were brought.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Is Halcyone wealthy? My budget for a magic sword 1K which was not enough to get one. :P

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I thought I gave you 2k... I suppose you were supposing that Halcyone might want to buy one.

Your larger point about gear for this game is correct: Halcyone does not have wealth. Now I need to sort things out. A few thoughts to start with.

• $600,000 worth of devourer swarms is incorrect. I either should have said no or mad a caveat that they were only for that mission, which was higher stakes than other missions because it involved a blatant cross-world invasion and you were allowed to operate openly
• I always have and will continue to privilege "home world" equipment, in terms of access. For V this has been Monster Hunters gear. For Halcyone this is a cyberpunkish TL10. Of course, we haven't really gone into details about what Vassarious's actual homeworld.
• You have a patron who kind of sort of provides gear. The Villa certainly provides mission specific equipment and expenses.
• I'm personally very scared of DF's tendency to allow any sort of enchantment as long as its mind-boggling expensive. I typically lean on equipment weight as a secondary limiting factor and DF can play havoc with that at higher wealth levels.
• Halcyone's character concept results is more gear-centric, but Vassarious does have favorite equipment (mostly concealed armor so far).
• I have a bias towards saying "Yes" to things that add capability but "No" to things that just make numbers bigger.

I'm continuing to think about making a more consistent and concrete way to handle gear access.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I looked back, and it was 60% of a 3K budget, so $1,800. I'm not looking at the books right now, but a +1 sword to hit is like 5K IIRC, so the cost was prohibitive. I thought there was more stuff that could be done quick and dirty for a low cost when I originally asked, but I had misremembered.


I also now realize a magic sword would be pretty useless anyway, as Vassarious only has skill with their naturally manifested weapons.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

That's fine. I typically just want the swarms for recon and such. The recent mention is more a reflection that Halcyone has little ability to damage anything with IA Diffuse.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

swarms probably aren't even a good counter to other swarms: swarms tend to be tough and reliable but have low damage output.


I actually think Halcyone has fantastic tools for dealing with swarms, but we'll see.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Even if diffuse, bullets cause a point of damage a round I believe... and it doesn't take much damage to disperse a swarm usually IIRC.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

More money and gear thoughts:

I'm trying to provide an amount of money relative to mission cost, which is mostly based on expected travel, who you expect to rub shoulders with, and what the local standard of living is.

• Local standard of living is weird in DF-land, because it has this weird double tier where everyone lives at one level and then fantastically expensive stuff is all over the place
• I'm going to try to be generous with requisitions before you come to the world, and stick to the budget after that
• You can negotiate with the villa to increase the budget or issued gear for specific reasons.
• You can generally access old gear. 75 devourer swarms not included.
• Money probably needs to be returned... though I'm split on that, because that could cause last minute shopping before you leave the world. Unless that's a reward of sorts.
• I should probably look at world wealth, and the wealth of the people you'll be dealing with to give you a budget for expenses. Probably based on one month. So a months pay for two people at the same wealth level you'll be dealing with.

you already have two NPCs doing that?

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Yeah, but they're like well outside of ambush range. If a fight starts, it'd be, I dunno, five seconds before they arrive? I'm more thinking, like, I stay behind ready to start shooting if things get violent.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Matrix, are you good to do the talking then?

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Matrix, I still need a distance the "conversation" was held at. Then the combat starts.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I will be slow or absent in posting until next Wednesday (that is, the 24th). See you then, and have fun!

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Is it possible for a new character to join, presumably after this mission's finished? I'm guessing so, since you said so in the Looking for Players thread and the mission that was going on when you said that is still going on.

Possibly, ideas include a fairly pulp-science-fiction robot ('can pass for human' taken into account) or a fairly DX-monkey knight (who is a fairy), I don't know if you or the other players have any preferences.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Yep, as I said before, it's possible for another character to join.

I don't especially have a preference between those two, though I suspect the team will Acquire more unique capabilities using the space Opera robot, but I could be wrong. Both are good.

On the power set, I need a better idea of what the knight can do. A big chunk of your power comes from the power set, and the ability to turn that into things like DX is fairly limited. Remember the GM builds the power set

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I’m not sure about any of the following.

Can the robot be a gadgeteer on top of robot stuff? If so, let’s go with that. (The knight’s capabilities were ‘I’ll think that out in more detail if I actually use him’, both of these were just initial scribbly ideas).

If so, how exactly should that work? Gadgeteer advantage or just normal engineering skills and Artificer talent? And how should the engineering skills work - use wildcard skills to simplify things or go the ‘conventional’ route of just buying up a few Engineering and Mechanic skills sky-high and defaulting the others to them. I see Halcyone has Memetics as a wildcard skill and uses it a lot. (I’m thinking a robot that was originally designed as a repair droid and is therefore good at this, without having crazily high IQ otherwise).

I have no specific ideas about the details, this idea basically just turned up because I was thinking about how you might improvise a power supply if stranded somewhere low-tech without batteries and it occurred to me that this is always fun, also, to borrow from Schlock Mercenary, a bit of force multiplication doesn’t go amiss.

Speaking of which, can I have a small flying drone or two? If so, should they be bought as gear or as cheap Allies? I’m guessing this is all right considering the amount of Massively OP that Halcyone and Vassarious have sometimes been bringing to the table (I’ve been reading bits of the thread and enjoying it).

‘Space opera’ was the expression that was eluding me, thank you :-D

Does Starting Wealth depend on the PCs’ TL (probably not, that would give the high-TL PCs an unfair advantage), or is there a fixed value and if so what is it, or do we not have any starting gear and requisition things from Corco as needed?

I was thinking of around TL9 and something like the TL9 Android template from Ultra-Tech, keeping it simple. Here’s where I annoy you, though, I haven’t actually got Ultra-Tech, I’ve seen it but I only remember bits and pieces, so I don’t know a lot of the details. But the Ultra-Tech templates in GCS seemed like a quick way to get a reasonable stat-block of an android. The TL9 Android template from Ultra-Tech is 106 points, but in this case it would probably be cheaper since about half of that is ST and DR which you said were discounted.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Yeah, that's a great "power set".


Gadgeteer is part of the "Power Set". You can either take a bunch of engineering skills or a single wildcard skill, but I'd favor the wild-card: its how the existing PC's are built. Also, the Inventor! Wild Card skill from MH does basically everything you want.


Yeah, little flying drones are fine.


We're mostly on a requisition basis at this point. If you have a particuarly heavy wealth concept I may put that in the power set.


You don't have the big gear book? hmmm.



The Robot Body is part of your "Power Set", which I'll build. If you want to stay TL9, that's fine, though I was expecting TL10^ or higher. But lets build the character first and worry about the robot body second (We'll probably just be using the Android from Ultra Tech Regardless, minus the Attribute bonuses)

What sorts of gadgets were you hoping to build specifically?



What posting rate are you planning to keep up?

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I’m not sure about any of the following.

Possibly, I said TL9 mainly because TL9’s technology is a bit more recognizable and it’s difficult to gadgeteering with things that you as the player have no idea what the heck they even are, but that’s subject to change if I look at the TL10 stuff and it seems more manageable. Given that there’s no particular overall TL, and we don’t seem to be bothering with the TL familiarity rules, I suppose what number you put on the TL the characters come from is pretty well just fluff anyway, right?

The TL9 version’s power consumption would be a difficulty if they’re away from base for any length of time, for one thing, so we might have to go for one of the higher-level models’ Reduced Consumption at any rate.

Inventor! sounds like just the thing. What skills are listed for it? That way I know which to add separately. You guessed it, I haven’t got Monster Hunters either. Does Artificer Talent add to it like it would to normal skills? I see nothing in Basic Set that says that talents don’t apply to Wildcard skills, just checking.

Technically all the attributes would be ‘racial template’ but can I take them out of the 300 points anyway, at least up to the usual ‘normal human PC’ cap? Seems only fair. And what about Artificer Talent and Single-Minded?

I don’t know. I’m having difficulty working out what to put. I haven’t actually played a gadgeteer before.

Here’s what I’ve got so far. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fYq...ew?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/16t0...ew?usp=sharing Any thoughts, about any of it, not just the gadgeteer stuff? (Android template included just as a placeholder so I knew what attribute bonuses I'd got, but those may change if we re-do that).

Re: Corco's Villa
 

The TL number does matter in a bunch of situations.



I'm expecting the Gadgeteering to look more like star trek or star gate. Gurps has a lot of options for different gadgets: for folks with the book I require the sort of setting to be described rather than just setting a tech level. You don't get the full breadth of all combinations of the TL, because those settings don't really exist in fiction. So what can you tell me about the tech of the home world?


Do you have FTL?
Do you have Force Fields?
Do you have Nanotech?
Do you have Holograms?
Do you have Stunner Beams?
Medical scanners?
3D printers?
Force swords?
The Internet?
Psionics?
Artificial gravity?


Talents don't apply to wildcard skills: most wildcard skills cost more than a talent.



Inventor! "can replace any skill roll required for inventing or gadgeteering". It also covers all engineering and bio-engineering skills, and mathematics.


Those go in the 300.

Ok, we'll work with you on that. I find gadgeteers are great at traps and custom drones.


ST is part of the racial template and thus the power set. It doesn't need to be part of the 300.

Any particular reason you have mind block? You'll have digital mind, which means you're less worried about mind control and more worried about hacks.

High TL is part of the power set, so 0 in that context.



high IQ is probably more useful than artificer here. you also don't HAVE to match the DX 3 from the template. Though I'll admit both Halcyone and Vassarious can bring both DX and IQ to the table.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

It seems like, I really hate thinking about ‘backgrounds’ and this stupid idea that people are ‘shaped by their background’, and I was playing a non-human largely so I didn’t have to worry about trying to make him act like a normal human who has had normal human experiences, but it seems to have made things worse - I could switch to the knight if you like, or I’d consider chucking it and having a go at ‘Lost in Dreams’ instead, only if you’ll allow another amnesiac character since it seems like you can’t possibly expect me to act ‘consistently’ with my character’s background if I don’t know what it is.

Possibly, I was going for not high IQ largely so that I have an excuse not to have to sound clever if posting while tired :-D It seems like, that can be skipped if none of you expect me to have him act like he has a high IQ even if that’s what it says on his character sheet, this doesn’t seem to be a very roleplaying-intensive game.

Possibly, Mind Block is there just because it amuses me to give a psi-related skill to an android and there seems no reason why it has to be that psi doesn’t apply to androids, but if that’s against setting metaphysics somehow then by all means, anyway that’s a minor thing.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I mean, its not about "Background", its about what gear you have access to! What does the robot have access to? Gadgeteers are all about their gear.

Simplest way to resolve is to pick one or two science fiction franchises as a reference. "If its in Mass effect or Schlock Mercenary", or something like that. (Yes, I'm aware of just how OP schlock mercenary can be. I was just giving an example).

Playing a high IQ character doesn't require you to play as though you have high IQ, at all. "Idiot Genius" is a valid concept, and even a fun one. It might even be a classic robot trait, now that I think of it.


An amnesiac Lost in Dreams or doing the knight would also work.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I'm not sure about any of the following.

That sounds a lot more promising. I see. Thanks! I'm never sure, unless I ask, how prissy any particular GM is about 'role-playing the personalities of characters' - I've been in some groups that were very prissy about it, which made me nervous because there's not a lot of point them wanting a lot of details about a character's personality in advance because I never know what I'll be able to play properly until I try. I'm getting a bit confused, though - does his gear come from Corco or from his home setting? But then, if he's building stuff, his TL will determine what he knows how to build, should he be able to get the parts at least, so I suppose it makes sense. Also, I seem to remember you saying something about approving requests for gear depending on the character's home setting (it was in the context of some kind of swarm that Halcyone had when the fight with the fish things started), but I didn't entirely understand it.

I won't do that to you :-D I'm tempted to just say 'Technology is anything that exists in Star Trek', but that would be awkward for a gadgeteer since the logic of what technology exists in Star Trek is basically just 'Because we say so' - 'reconfigure Seven's nanoprobes and fire them out of the main deflector dish', as I once heard somebody put it. And the only things I have at the back of my mind as examples are a couple of short pulp stories and Red Dwarf which is even more so.

Would saying 'Star Trek' do anyway, or is that too vague? There are some patterns to what exists :-D TNG/DS9 era, if it matters. If so, what TL do you count that as? I know this is something that gets argued about a lot on this forum :-D

Are attributes power set or not?

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Only ST is part of the power set. The rest are not.



"Star Trek" is just fine. Star Trek does actually have a fairly robust set of guidelines about what its technology can do.

I'd probably call star trek classic TL11^. Though most of their stuff is just plain ^. But you don't have access to all of TL11^, just a lot of it, as determined by star trek. TNG era is a good refinement.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Please forgive me for sticking my nose in this thread and doing shameless self-promotion. But....

I wrote a tongue-in-cheek article about the Star Trek franchise that got some insightful comments on Star Trek technology from readers. Maybe that could help.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Lets go with this interpretation.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Looking at my notes... (this is a dungeon I wrote a year ago). This doesn't seem to be from the DF books, just a feature I noticed reading the fell-tower writeup. I didn't think it would effect PCs.

We can either use the Pentagram rules (one attempt per day, quick contest vs. 20) or the MH Ward rules (quick contest vs 20 with -1 per repeated attempt).


But I realized that means it a quick contest rather than a strait roll against 20 (which should give more variance and thus a better chance for you to succeed) and... the ward crit failed. V is through.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I was reading through old stuff and found this. Its kind of wild that Peter hasn't seen Psi yet, but Julian has.

Of course, Peter has just seen so much more, just not psi.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I don't think it's intentional, but the quote placement makes me think Peter's cutting Leon off here.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

You two are living far below your privileges. You have a lot more power and capability than you are showing Haley and Arlon.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

And I just remembered I took a drone hive with me!

Re: Corco's Villa
 

AIs writing passable summaries of RP threads to convert into links later for SEO spam... What a time to be alive.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

Its 38.9 C... should have given it in that form from the start. Its not THAT hot.

Re: Corco's Villa
 

I mean, I was thinking of the hot coals and the pillar of fire room (presumably both are hotter).

Re: Corco's Villa
 

And Vassarious is never heard from again...