ooc The Young Woman and the Sea [OOC]

[Blarghy]

Hehe, I do like that second idea.  So sure, I'll allow it--however, it won't happen so quickly that it prevents the Trip attempt, so that would go ahead while Casey makes the phone call.  Still, that seems like enough to qualify as a Complication, which is all I wanted anyway, before you started making Diplomacy checks.  So, you're good to roll and post!

 

The police are currently Hostile, and will stop attacking at Indifferent (a roll of 11 or higher, I think, given that the police are close enough to see MG and let her use her Attractive feat).  If you want to keep trying in subsequent rounds and manage to get them up to Helpful, then I'll let you command the police like Minions, even.

[Heritage]

Okay, so the Diplomacy check is for the phone call?

[Blarghy]

Yes.

[Heritage]

Okay, here goes nothing!

 

1d20+10=12

 

...honestly, I don't even know why I bother sometimes.

[Heritage]

Can I take 10 via Skill Mastery instead? I'm just so sick and tired of these garbage rolls. Or does the Complication give me an HP I can use for a reroll?

[Blarghy]

You do have one Hero Point available, but I hate to see you waste it on this, especially so early in the scene.  Instead, can I suggest that you explain the bad roll by having MG start getting frustrated at this situation too?  I imagine she has good cause for it by now.  You rightfully pointed out earlier that calling the officer's personal cell would probably freak him out, so maybe MG fails to be persuasive because, in a rare moment of anger, she scares the guy instead.  I'd let you try to Demoralize him with a free Intimidate check, even.

 

In upcoming rounds, you can indeed use Skill Mastery to keep trying for Diplomacy.  It'll just take you two rounds, even with the Attractive feat, I think, to bring the police up to Indifferent.  Since Communicate is a free action, I'll let Casey start attacking or taking other Standard actions too, once she's found the right radio wave for the cell phone (somehow). 

 

How's that sound?

[Heritage]

Ah, you're right; besides, I can still do the cool thing, it just doesn't work as well as it could have, which makes sense.

 

I'll have a post up tonight.

[Blarghy]

She's just so nice and reasonable.  I wish the dice favored you better; the scene will make more sense once you just win over the police with Skill Mastery.  Given how often MG works with the police, I wonder if you could eventually take on a Benefit to reflect the goodwill she should be building up.  I feel like word should get around and most Freedom City cops should start remembering her. 

 

But in any case, she doesn't stop them from trying to bump Leviathan to the sidewalk.  He's moving all-out, so he loses his Dodge bonus (dropping down to +2), but he's got 3 ranks of Speed, so he gets a +6 bonus, for a total of +8, which is actually better than what he can usually expect.  Police cruisers are Huge, giving the driver a -2 to Attack.  I'd rather use his Drive skill in this case, but the sample NPC in the core rulebook has the same modifier for that as for a regular Attack, so it doesn't matter.  Either way, he's down to a measly +1, and will probably miss.

 

Attack: 1d20+1 13  Yup, as I expected.  Not such a bad roll that I want to have him risk veering into another vehicle or anything, though.  In any case, his partner in the passenger seat fires with his pistol too.

 

Attack: 1d20+3 18  Ahh, now that one hits!

 

Toughness: 1d20+17 37  ...I mean, for all the good it does.  Shame to waste a 20 on what's basically a background Minion. 

 

In any case, it's back to you.  Give me another Notice check (or just take Skill Mastery), then decide if you want to roll for Diplomacy again (with Skill Mastery, MG can move them from Hostile to Unfriendly in one round, and then up to Indifferent in the round after that, at which point they'll stop attacking), and finally, choose your Standard Action for the round.  I'll let you use her freezing breath if you like, but it's a full-round action, so you'll have to Surge with either your sole Hero Point, or take on Fatigue. 

 

If you choose to just use Skill Mastery for your Notice check, then that'll move you up one rage increment for your heat-vision (reducing your Attack penalty to -2).  If you risk rolling, and hit DC30, then you can either move close enough to blast them with no penalty at all, or suggest some other benefit, if you have any in mind.

 

Name                    HPs    Initiative    Damage     Status Conditions

Miracle Girl            1      24            Bruise 3   Staggered

Leviathan               2      8             None       None

Police                  N/A    7             None       None

Temporal Displacement   N/A    7             None       None

Copy Error Prime        N/A    7             Bruise 2   Unarmed

Copy Error 1            N/A    7             Bruise 1   None

Copy Error 2            N/A    7             Bruise 1   None

 

Edit: actually, the driver should only take a -1 penalty, since he's going after a Large target.  Still doesn't keep him from missing, though.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Blarghy

[Heritage]

Sorry to be so late on this! Recent events have led me to put my trust in Skill Mastery for now. So I can have her talk to the cops, and what's my final adjusted 'to hit' penalty? Sorry for all the hand-holding on the rules stuff; most days I'm exhausted by school, and can barely focus my eyes, much less do simple gamer math

Edited March 1, 2017 by Heritage

[Heritage]

Okay, gonna soldier on and post here; sorry to keep you in limbo for so long. Casey is going to tdy and target one of the rear tires of the SUV. I believe I'm at +12 with her current penalty?

 

1d20+12=17

 

Still rolling crap, though maybe that hits. Damage 6 means DC Toughness save of 21, I think? Not sure why I didn't put that in my stat block.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Heritage

[Blarghy]

+12, yes.  That's actually kind of confusing on your sheet, since you've got those 3 ranks of Accurate as part of the Power array, and a separate Attack Specialization feat.  I almost missed that and counted your bonus as lower than it really was. 

 

In any case, a full-sized car has a Defense of 18, but I want to try out the vehicular combat rules, so I'll probably check that attack against Copy Error's Drive roll.  I may factor in an additional Size penalty for you aiming at a smaller part of the car (I don't think M&M has rules for called shots, but correct me if I"m wrong), balanced by a lower Toughness bonus if you do hit, since tires are hardly as sturdy as the rest of a vehicle. 

 

I'll think this over and make the villains' rolls after you do your IC post. 

[Heritage]

On 3/3/2017 at 3:13 AM, Blarghy said:

+12, yes.  That's actually kind of confusing on your sheet, since you've got those 3 ranks of Accurate as part of the Power array, and a separate Attack Specialization feat.  I almost missed that and counted your bonus as lower than it really was. 

 

That's because I was desperate to add Precise to her Heatvision, because it is so frequently used in any Superman family story for all sorts of things, like spot welding, cooking eggs, shaving, etc; splitting off that one rank of Attack Specialization was the only way I could figure out to do it without raising her Enhanced Strength, which i don't want to do yet. Whenever I do, I will probably clean that bit of awkwardness up.

 

EDIT: Also using SM for the Diplo check, if I can do that this round, too.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Heritage

[Heritage]

Just so you know, I'm trying for something I bit different with Casey's heatvision, in terms of how it looks; instead of the the traditional red or CW blue laser, I see it more like an intense burst of solar radiation, visible as a bright light glowing in her eyes, and then the white-hot point of impact on whatever it hits.

 

Basically she's like a magnifying glass targeting an unfortunate ant

Edited March 5, 2017 by Heritage

[Blarghy]

Neat!  It's always nice to put your own spin on an old favorite.

 

Alright, so a full-sized car is Huge, but I figure that a tire should be Small, yet with a Toughness of +0.  So that gives Copy Error a +1 bonus instead of a penalty to her Drive roll when she tries to evade the attack.

 

Drive: 1d20+13 14  Hah!  So you actually do hit!

 

Toughness: 1d20+0 5  And the tire is very much destroyed!

 

So immediately, the vehicle's Speed ranks will drop from...5 down to 2, I guess.  Leviathan and MG can now easily outrun it without needing to cut corners, but I think that in light of that Natural 1 a minute ago, I'll have Copy Error make another Drive check to not outright crash.  Seems like a Challenging maneuver, so DC20. 

 

Drive: 1d20+12 14 

 

Looks like the SUV is going down hard.  Before I write up the IC post to describe exactly how, do you have a preference as to where the scene goes?  Do you want to wrap it up--none of the villains are especially durable, so a car crash may easily take the remaining fight out of them, especially with more and more police swarming the area, soon-to-be friendly to the heroes too--?  Or would you like them to resist and spark off another few rounds of combat?  Maybe the vehicle goes so out of control that it endangers innocent bystanders, so MG has to help rescue them somehow, for another Hero Point? 

 

We're basically at the conclusion (barring some possible post-fight conversation), but I want it to be a satisfying victory, after all the headaches Casey suffered through to reach this point.

[Heritage]

I think Casey is a bit drained, so a big fight might be a bit much for her; on the other hand, having the SUV plow into a tree that Mr. Know-It-All didn't see coming, leading to a face full of airbags for our foes, seems like it would be very satisfying!

Edited March 9, 2017 by Heritage

[Blarghy]

Posted.  Combat is officially over!  I'll bring up the police after your reply, although by this point, they're no longer hostile.  Miracle Girl will probably get a few sheepish apologies soon.

 

Congratulations!  This wasn't how I thought that the battle would go, but they rarely do, and hopefully this wasn't too bad, all in all. 

[Heritage]

Medicine check on the lady, because that's the kind of hero Casey is: 1d20+5=17

[Blarghy]

The best kind, since she actually has a first aid kit; otherwise, the penalty for not using tools would drop that roll down a fair bit.  As is, a 17 hits every listed Medicine DC except for major surgery.  I haven't really nailed down what injuries Copy Error took from the crash, but it's safe to say that MG has her stable yet contained now, and about as comfortable as she's likely to be, given the circumstances. 

 

(I also figure that MG's various vision modes should perhaps count as tools in and of themselves, at least for diagnosis, but it's a moot point.)

[Heritage]

Medicine check on 'Owen': 1d20+5=9

 

Clearly she can barely be bothered to examine this 'jerk'

[Blarghy]

Alright, looks like we're wrapping it up.  Do you have anything in particular that you want MG to do after this conversation soon ends?  If she puts off her nap and decides to go talk to Tristan first, then unless she takes her time, she might actually beat Leviathan back to the OCEAN HQ, even while being Staggered.  I imagine their conversation would include a lot of awkward evasions on his part; he's a poor liar, so she'd probably leave with more questions than answers. 

 

As I mentioned in my original PMs to set up this game, this is actually the prequel to another adventure; I'll be leading into that with my final post(s).  You're welcome to take part in the next thread if you like!  Miracle Girl would have fair reason to get involved, if she sees the news reports that are soon to come. 

[Heritage]

I figured two things:

 

1. Her dad, a military man through and through as well as an AEGIS agent, stressed to her the importance making a good, accurate field report when the facts were still in your head. Luckily this interview is taking place right after the events, so everything is still fresh!

 

2. She could hang the cops out to dry, but she won't; it was basically a 'jurisdictional misunderstanding', and no one got hurt, and she might have to work with these cops again someday, so just let it go.

 

EDIT: Just cross-posted with you!

Edited March 22, 2017 by Heritage

[Heritage]

She would probably like to go seek out Tristan now, which as you said should be hilarious. And yes, she would definitely be up for a follow up thread, as would I!

Edited March 22, 2017 by Heritage

[Blarghy]

Cool on all counts. 

 

For your previous post, she definitely has some good influences.  I always liked the ethics of the Super-family more than their actual power, so it's neat to see that in play.  Eventually I hope to shift Leviathan in that direction, but that's a ways off; some things will need to happen first.  And for now, his underlying selfishness, conflicted with the desire to be better, are fun to play through. 

[Heritage]

I made her a Girl Scout on purpose, partly because that's kind of the classic nickname for Superman, but also because I think it suggests a core of moral fiber and selfless service. Casey might not be perfect, but she has a set of guidelines that she follows.

 

That being said, on two occasions she's been convinced to go undercover to commit a crime for the right reason! Sadly both threads have petered out before we got to the actual B&E part, but I like the idea of her struggling between her training and thinking outside of the box to do the right thing. To me, Miracle Girl is my attempt to play a Lawful Good character, not a 'Lawful Stupid' one

[Blarghy]

I remember one of those games; it was fun to read, and I was sad to see it die off so soon.  These things happen, I suppose.

 

But we're almost done with ours, which is awesome!  I love it when a thread actually concludes.  This site is a rare place where it happens fairly often.  I've played in a number of places around the internet, and usually, the norm is for people to just lose interest and wander off after a few pages.