Blarghy Posted May 31, 2017 Author Posted May 31, 2017 I prefer not to nudge people on how to play their characters, unless it's just essential for the story. It's up to you. I think more of Terrifica's Complications may become relevant near the end of the game, but I'm just tossing out possible opportunities. If she is cruel to someone, and they are then in a position to inconvenience her or just deny assistance, then that's certainly worth a Hero Point; since I don't believe she has any ranks of Luck, you might want to build up a few as a good safety net. Of course, it doesn't have to be done in this fashion; like I mentioned earlier in the game, you can also get HPs for doing clever, cool, or especially entertaining things, so don't feel like your only option is to earn Terrifica some new enemies. In any case, you'd have to be pretty brave to deliberately tick off Agent Thornton, since she's probably going to be your primary NPC ally in this adventure. And I hadn't planned for this, but since Terrifica is at the Delacroix family offices, maybe I can arrange for her to meet one or both of Tristan's older brothers, if you're interested. I have a feeling she'll dislike them almost immediately. Terrifica just won't be able to, y'know, deduce their Labyrinth involvement or general shadiness by the way they adjust their ties or something.
Blarghy Posted June 20, 2017 Author Posted June 20, 2017 Alright, I'll need some rolls from the Blackstone crowd. I assume AA is going for Diplomacy, yeah? So long as Sea Devil is offering fairly reasonable things in exchange, I don't think we'll need to bother with playing out a second negotiation with the prison guards (or a judge, or DA, or whoever would set up a deal in the real world). Please do feel free to work together here; you can use Aid Another actions, or roll separate checks, or use separate skills entirely if you want to try different approaches, and as you've discussed already, psionics are certainly an option. (As a bit of a spoiler, the extent to which you get Page to cooperate will determine what kind of ending she gets in the epilogue. I figure that Sea Devil and Singularity are perhaps the best people to convince her to leave behind her old ways, so this could actually work out pretty well for her, if you come up with a compelling argument and can back it up with the dice.) For our other group, think about where you want to go next. I won't say that you've found every clue at the labs, or the police impound if Terrifica still wants to go there, but I think you've got a fair bit to go on, if you're ready to move forward. Aside from rejoining your partners (Miracle Girl is fast enough to make the trip without a significant delay, but Terrifica might not be, unless she's going to ride in her protege's arms), you might also consider working with Thornton to see what AEGIS can find. Maybe even think about what assistance the agency could offer you, once you have a destination. There was some talk earlier in the thread about setting up a trap; AEGIS could likely help with that, depending on what you want. You might want to see what you can get out of the Blackstone prisoners before you decide on your exact tactics, but I recommend starting to think about it. Finally, since we've established that you're dealing with a powerful speedster (something that was already obvious for anyone who read the last game, so it's not exactly a surprise), I want to mention, just as a side note, that speedsters are really hard to use in a game with normal characters. I'm going to do my best to keep the timeline sort of realistic, but I'm more interested in making the plot work than mathematical realism. Once you get into combat with Julia (or just around her) and we have to conform to combat rounds and the same number of actions per turn, this will cease to make any sense at all, but there's just no help for it. I guess what I'm asking is that we all just agree to not think too hard about the details.
Avenger Assembled Posted June 21, 2017 Posted June 21, 2017 Re: speedsters. Just assume that they're easily bored, dumb, or on drugs - all of those have been true for my speedster characters at one time or another! Re: the diplomacy check. Currently Aquaria is at +10 before her edits go through, so I'll use that. 23 Not terrible, but Aid Another bonuses would certainly benefit that!
Blarghy Posted June 26, 2017 Author Posted June 26, 2017 Indeed. You're just an Aid Another bonus away from meeting the DC25 mark to take somebody from Unfriendly to Friendly, which should get you some information, I would say. And a third roll of merely DC15 would bump the prisoner up to Helpful, which should get you a lot more.
Avenger Assembled Posted June 27, 2017 Posted June 27, 2017 (Singularity did not succeed on her Aid action, so let's assume Jessie didn't react in time. It's all on you, Tiff!)
Tiffany Korta Posted June 27, 2017 Posted June 27, 2017 In that case Miss Grue's Diplomacy Aid: 1d20+10 23 ! Mutual aid obviously!
Blarghy Posted June 27, 2017 Author Posted June 27, 2017 If either of you rolled just a little bit higher, then together you'd get her up to Helpful, but Orokos laughs at the plans of us mere mortals. Still, your new informant is now Friendly, and that's definitely enough to move the plot forward! If you guys can give me some IC posts reflecting your rolls, then I'll write an update (and I hope to have another background scene for you within the next day anyway).
Avenger Assembled Posted June 28, 2017 Posted June 28, 2017 All right, well, I'll let Tiff go, then I'll go!
Blarghy Posted June 28, 2017 Author Posted June 28, 2017 Sounds good to me. Be sure not to miss her post; it's above my latest update. Tiff, Miss Grue isn't actually using any of her psionics from a game mechanics standpoint, right? You're just giving flavor to your Diplomacy check? I wanted to make sure.
Avenger Assembled Posted July 1, 2017 Posted July 1, 2017 Okay, I think we're looking for a GM post in the prison before we start asking questions.
Blarghy Posted July 2, 2017 Author Posted July 2, 2017 Mkay. I think you may've missed the last one I made (easy for it to get hidden in the clutter), so I've reposted that and added on a bit in response to Tiff's post.
Blarghy Posted July 10, 2017 Author Posted July 10, 2017 (edited) Since Copy Error is at Friendly instead of Helpful, I don't think she'll go for the full change of heart, unfortunately. But that just means that I'll be able to use her again in a future game, and if she's convinced to turn around then, it'll be all the more poignant! And on a broader note, it looks like you have enough information to move toward the big finale. I don't want to rush you guys, of course; if you can think of other questions to ask, or want to investigate further at the FCI (or anywhere else), or interrogate the second prisoner, then do feel free! But I don't want things to bog down, so unless anybody's just really interested in getting more background information at this juncture, rather than tying up loose ends later on, then perhaps we should regroup and push ahead. Just trying to keep the momentum going, you know? Edited July 10, 2017 by Blarghy
EternalPhoenix Posted July 10, 2017 Posted July 10, 2017 Yeah, let me move things along on my end. June was a rough month for me, posting wise. I was sick for a bit. No AC as summer kicked into gear. What I call (sometimes) the ol' bipolar switcheroo. But let me stop and get you another post.
Tiffany Korta Posted July 11, 2017 Posted July 11, 2017 Miss Grue will be subtly monitoring the prisoner to see if she's telling the truth, just surface thoughts she won't be going any deeper. Her power check is Mind Reading: 1d20+12 19, I believe it's against her Will save.
Blarghy Posted July 14, 2017 Author Posted July 14, 2017 Will: 1d20+9 16 Miss Grue can tell that this woman is indeed telling the truth, mostly because she has little to gain by lying, except perhaps some street cred for messing with the heroes. She definitely hasn't had a change of heart; it's merely good business to cooperate at this point in time. For the other group, Terrifica might want to keep in mind that she's on the opposite side of the city from Blackstone (and of course it's also out to sea, although she could take the same ferry that the others used). I'm willing to be fairly generous with travel times, but unless your partners plan to stick around for a while longer, she's unlikely to get to the prison before they leave it. Heritage, is Miracle Girl going along with Terrifica's plan and searing the records room? If so, I'd like a Search check, unless you prefer to use Skill Mastery. Hell, given her high Quickness ranks, I guess you could just take 20.
Heritage Posted July 26, 2017 Posted July 26, 2017 EP, just for my clarification, exactly who, what and when does Terrifica want Casey to look into discretely? I'm not sure if I should have her share what she's found yet.
Heritage Posted July 27, 2017 Posted July 27, 2017 Okay, I think i figured it all out; the Post Its would be placed in rings around the prints with neat little arrows drawn on them in felt tip marker; there would also be little trails of Post Its with arrows to lead any investigators to the site of the prints.
Avenger Assembled Posted July 28, 2017 Posted July 28, 2017 Okay, I think we're ready to talk to Owen - if there's nothing useful to be gained from him, though, we can probably just skip through it and get to the next step.
Blarghy Posted July 28, 2017 Author Posted July 28, 2017 I can give you more information (assuming successful social rolls on your part) from the other prisoner if you're interested, but as you pointed out, you can also definitely just move forward; you have enough to find the hostages already, and you know, more or less, who you're dealing with. If you still want to talk to Owen, then I'll try to make it worth your time (as well as just entertaining), but I totally understand if people are getting bored with all the chit-chat. So, if anybody's interested in a second negotiation (and with Miracle Girl's help, I'll let her and Terrifica arrive basically instantaneously so they can participate), then I'll happily run it, or we can get to the climax. It's entirely up to you guys.
Tiffany Korta Posted August 1, 2017 Posted August 1, 2017 Right now I'm falling towards skipping Owen, or just covering it briefly. But I'm also happy to follow alone if others want to do it as well.
Blarghy Posted August 5, 2017 Author Posted August 5, 2017 That works! If anybody wants to go ahead and post, that's fine; otherwise, within a few days when I have more time, I'll do another update and bring all the characters back together in the city proper, so you can share what you've found and plan your next move.
Recommended Posts