DreadStormers [IC]

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

Day is re-considering this plan. If Hua sets off a big commotion, Day may be called upon to help deal with it in some way, and it would be suspicious if he was without his tools. "Okay, how about this? Late in my shift, I'm going to 'break' one of my tools, and have to go to Stores to requisition a new one. I'll use my powers to also get a full replacement kit, and leave it at this meeting place."

Is there any place a kit could be hidden in their meeting place?

Yes, the ship is lousy with hydrogen brick containers, emergency supply stores, and all sorts of nooks and crannies to hide things in.

Day has lots to do now. At lunch, he will use Suggestion to cause one of the cook's replenishing a warming drawer with food to spill it on the floor, and use the distraction for his now-familiar Filch/Holdout routine. Does the use of a psi-power count as a complimentary skill (GURPS Action 2, p. 5) giving a bonus for the other skills used?

[58] 20-09-14 11:38:30 CEST

Suggestion to cook to spill food on floor

3d6 <= 16
5 + 4 + 5 = 14 ... success

[59] 20-09-14 11:41:15 CEST

Filch to remove contaminated food from table

3d6 <= 13
6 + 5 + 6 = 17 ... failure

[60] 20-09-14 11:41:54 CEST

Use Luck to re-roll Filch twice

3d6 <= 13
1: 2 + 5 + 2 = 9 ... success
2: 6 + 2 + 2 = 10 ... success

[61] 20-09-14 11:42:59 CEST

Holdout to smuggle out contaminated food

3d6 <= 14
1 + 2 + 4 = 7 ... success

I'm going to move the food routine to a once every three-days thing for Daymar (we've demonstrated how it works). Every three day period the rolls will receive a -1 penalty.

Following lunch, Day should now have all of his powers back. He asks Pothi, "Have I ever told you about this old Belter woman I met who taught me how to read palms? After shift I can show you."

Ok, I got to see this... especially in a setting with actual reading of the future.

Later in the shift, Day will intentionally break one of the flimsier tools in his kit, and tell Pothi, "I've got to run up to stores to requisition a new tool, this one broke. Be right back!"

"wait up, I've got to come with you... Aw, you broke one of those?" Pothi will need to acompany you to requisitions anyway.

[GnomesofZurich]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Yes, the ship is lousy with hydrogen brick containers, emergency supply stores, and all sorts of nooks and crannies to hide things in.

Great!

Originally Posted by ericthered

I'm going to move the food routine to a once every three-days thing for Daymar (we've demonstrated how it works). Every three day period the rolls will receive a -1 penalty.

Is that a cumulative -1? Anyway, I'm hoping I'll soon be able to avoid it entirely, because with Mental Surgery 5 it becomes feasible to quickly give someone a variety of useful Delusions (Daymar is above suspicion; the flour is contaminated, throw it out; salt works as well as psi-suppressants, etc.).

Originally Posted by ericthered

Ok, I got to see this... especially in a setting with actual reading of the future.

Day isn't necessarily saying he can really tell the future, but that this is something fun to try out...and an excellent excuse for making skin-to-skin contact to enable Mental Surgery!

Originally Posted by ericthered

"wait up, I've got to come with you... Aw, you broke one of those?" Pothi will need to acompany you to requisitions anyway.

Okay, so Day needs to figure out how to make Pothi not suspicious of him. Since Pothi already thinks Day is a bit of a klutz, on the way to requisitions he will "trip" over something, and fall to the ground. "Can you give me a hand up?" When Pothi, hopefully agrees to help him up, he'll use Mental Surgery 5 to give him Delusion (Daymar is above suspicion), which I think would fall into the [-5] level, and Incurious (12) [-5]. Since my base skill is 18, this still gives him an effective skill of 16.

[64] 20-09-14 23:45:46 CEST

Mental Surgery to give Pothi Delusion (Daymar is above suspicion) [-5] and Incurious (12) [-5].

3d6 <= 16
5 + 1 + 6 = 12 ... success

Edit: I figured I probably should roll Acting for the trip/fall

[65] 20-09-14 23:47:55 CEST

Acting to "sell" his trip as genuine

3d6 <= 14
1 + 6 + 4 = 11 ... success

[ericthered]

Before we get too far ahead, lets finish this meeting between the two Dreadstormers. Do they have plans to meet up again, and do they have any other requests to make of each other?




-------------------------------------------

As a note, Pothi also needs to cover his own back, so you may want to tweak those traits.

[GnomesofZurich]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Before we get too far ahead, lets finish this meeting between the two Dreadstormers. Do they have plans to meet up again, and do they have any other requests to make of each other?

Day doesn't have any requests of Hua, although he'll certainly benefit if he manages to take out the flour supplies. Perhaps we should set up another meeting in 3 days, or a week?

-------------------------------------------

Originally Posted by ericthered

As a note, Pothi also needs to cover his own back, so you may want to tweak those traits.

Do you have any recommendations? Absent-Mindedness? Edit: Gullibility (12) [-10] might fit the bill.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

Perhaps we should set up another meeting in 3 days, or a week?

Yeah, let's meet three days after the flour's burnt. Gives some time to let the heat die down (no pun intended).

--

Well I suppose I should start hanging around Floor 19, as opposed to showing up just before the fires break out.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

Is that a cumulative -1? Anyway, I'm hoping I'll soon be able to avoid it entirely, because with Mental Surgery 5 it becomes feasible to quickly give someone a variety of useful Delusions (Daymar is above suspicion; the flour is contaminated, throw it out; salt works as well as psi-suppressants, etc.).

Yes, its cumulative. You need a long-term solution ... like some of your above suggestions.

Day isn't necessarily saying he can really tell the future, but that this is something fun to try out...and an excellent excuse for making skin-to-skin contact to enable Mental Surgery!

Got it.

Okay, so Day needs to figure out how to make Pothi not suspicious of him. Since Pothi already thinks Day is a bit of a klutz, on the way to requisitions he will "trip" over something, and fall to the ground. "Can you give me a hand up?" When Pothi, hopefully agrees to help him up, he'll use Mental Surgery 5 to give him Delusion (Daymar is above suspicion), which I think would fall into the [-5] level, and Incurious (12) [-5]. Since my base skill is 18, this still gives him an effective skill of 16.

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

Do you have any recommendations? Absent-Mindedness? Edit: Gullibility (12) [-10] might fit the bill.

The initial Delusion is enough to keep him from suspecting Daymar: You need to overcome his reluctance to expose himself to discipline. If he is found abandoned without a buddy, he is in as much trouble as you are. The change needs to be something that makes Pothi willing to potentially sneak off by himself.

A quirk level delusion of "As long as I'm at my job they won't discipline me" might work. As might "You're only in trouble if you get caught", "The buddy system is not a big deal", compulsive risk-taking, Loner, or even sense of duty (Jakorbi). Though that last one could be risky if you don't trust Pothi's ability to keep a secret.

Note: the penalty to mind surgery is cumulative: if you go back and make more edits to Pothi's mind I'll be looking at the total number of edits. Otherwise you can give him -100 in mental traits fairly easily just by coming back again and again. But the existing budget for traits that you have is pretty high as it is.

Originally Posted by TGLS

Well I suppose I should start hanging around Floor 19, as opposed to showing up just before the fires break out.

What will you be doing on floor 19? any specific actions?

Hua quickly drops back down a hatch back into the viewing area on deck 6. Botha hadn't noticed her leave, but instead is staring at the lights playing out in hyperspace -- largely caused by the reality bubble at this point. A few other spacers have shown up as well, including a couple who seem to have romance on their minds.

I have confidence Daymar will get you the electrical kit. Picking it up will simply be a matter of discretely getting it without Botha noticing when passing through deck 5 naturally. Could you roll for that, and what will Hua do after that?

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

What will you be doing on floor 19? any specific actions?

Well, unless the elevators are really fast, I probably want to be nearby the food. I recall deck 19 was mentioned as a "lounge" area or something, and while I could start hanging out there shortly before I start setting fires, that might be suspicious. So I should establish that I hang out there in advance.

Originally Posted by ericthered

I have confidence Daymar will get you the electrical kit. Picking it up will simply be a matter of discretely getting it without Botha noticing when passing through deck 5 naturally. Could you roll for that, and what will Hua do after that?

Well, if I need to make up an excuse to stop nearby while rolling through deck 19, then I'll fiddle with the forklift to force a stop nearby. If I I stop nearby, I'll just quietly slip off and take the kit.

[66] 20-09-18 16:05:10 CEST

Fiddle with the Forklift (Mechanic)

3d6 <= 13
6 + 5 + 4 = 15 ... failure

Well, that didn't work. If it's not nearby, I guess I need a Stealth roll to sneak off and get it.

Sneaking away to get the kit
[68] 20-09-18 16:06:43 CEST

3d6 <= 16
2 + 6 + 6 = 14 ... success

[69] 20-09-18 16:07:43 CEST

Take the kit while no one's looking (filch)

[70] 20-09-18 16:08:16 CEST

And keep Botha from noticing I'm carrying it.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Well, unless the elevators are really fast, I probably want to be nearby the food. I recall deck 19 was mentioned as a "lounge" area or something, and while I could start hanging out there shortly before I start setting fires, that might be suspicious. So I should establish that I hang out there in advance.

Yes, its a lounge. I suppose what I meant was what sort of things will Hua do down on deck while lounging? Also, how long will Hua wait to burn the flour supply? The meeting happened on the first Tuesday...

Well, that didn't work. If it's not nearby, I guess I need a Stealth roll to sneak off and get it.

Hua is able to peel off down a different hall when moving loads of bricks. She gets to the hiding location and grabs the kit. Botha is quite cross when you catch up with her.

"What happened? Where did you go?"

[GnomesofZurich]

Originally Posted by ericthered

The initial Delusion is enough to keep him from suspecting Daymar: You need to overcome his reluctance to expose himself to discipline. If he is found abandoned without a buddy, he is in as much trouble as you are. The change needs to be something that makes Pothi willing to potentially sneak off by himself.

A quirk level delusion of "As long as I'm at my job they won't discipline me" might work. As might "You're only in trouble if you get caught", "The buddy system is not a big deal", compulsive risk-taking, Loner, or even sense of duty (Jakorbi). Though that last one could be risky if you don't trust Pothi's ability to keep a secret.

Note: the penalty to mind surgery is cumulative: if you go back and make more edits to Pothi's mind I'll be looking at the total number of edits. Otherwise you can give him -100 in mental traits fairly easily just by coming back again and again. But the existing budget for traits that you have is pretty high as it is.

Okay, then Day will use the Delusion [-5], the full gamut of quirks you suggest ("As long as I'm at my job they won't discipline me", "You're only in trouble if you get caught" and "The buddy system is not a big deal"), and round it out with Sense of Duty (Daymar) [-2]. It shouldn't alter Pothi's behaviours too much, but means he won't question Day's motives too much.

Assuming that all works out, after visiting the stores and requisitioning his broken tool and the entire replacement kit he'll tell Pothi, "[Supervisor name] asked me to get this and drop it off, I'll meet you at the work site. I'll only be a few minutes!"

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich

Okay, then Day will use the Delusion [-5], the full gamut of quirks you suggest ("As long as I'm at my job they won't discipline me", "You're only in trouble if you get caught" and "The buddy system is not a big deal"), and round it out with Sense of Duty (Daymar) [-2]. It shouldn't alter Pothi's behaviours too much, but means he won't question Day's motives too much.

Assuming that all works out, after visiting the stores and requisitioning his broken tool and the entire replacement kit he'll tell Pothi, "[Supervisor name] asked me to get this and drop it off, I'll meet you at the work site. I'll only be a few minutes!"

[71] 20-09-19 22:19:34 CEST - jonastheredd@gmail.com
Pothi rolling to resist mind surgery...
3d6
4 + 5 + 6 = 15

Pothi's resistance to these tweaks is quite low. Maybe he's weaked willed, or maybe he always hated the regulations in the first place. Or maybe he's having a low-resistance day.

Pothi: "Sergant Zorvoro (the shift manager) asks too much. Just because we're always walking around the ship and they're not doesn't make us errand boys. Don't wear yourself out!"

The quartermaster has a tougher mind than Korchathaw "Pothi" Pothazeezor (rolled a 10), but Daymar is on his game, and picks up the electrical kit and hides it without incident, his confident salute getting him past anyone who sees him in the hall.