Homebrew system thread II, part 2

[Jub]

An MS paint map would be pretty nice, because I'm still having trouble picturing exactly how the groups are split up and where things are.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

[Speaking of Lisanna] I wouldn't say knee jerk, must do something, that's closer to deVerett actually. Mainly it's that she has an adventurer's reduced sensitivity to risk, and believes that desperate times call for desperate meaures.

I skipped a clause there; my point is more that she tends to take risk-insensitivity to an unusual degree, such that when she sees a dangerous plan that offers high potential payoff, she reflexively grabs onto it without stopping to do the cost-benefit analysis. Immune to Someone Else's Problem fields, in other words.

And that may not actually be how the character was 'historically' played, but it's more or less the capacity in which we are seeing her.

OOC MK II:

I think you're assuming things are happening faster than they actually are.

I'm assuming much of that confusion is occurring in Larric's head, which is actually a fairly good place for it.

Honestly, it's in my head, not his. He can see what's going on. Even if he's not a practiced tactician, he can at least tell exactly what the groups of armed men are doing, and the physical location of the streets and crossroads around him. I can't.

The problem is that I have to describe what he does based on my own limited grasp of the situation. It's a variant of the same problem that had Sir Alfred threatening to burn down nonexistent forests to get at individual elves.

Think how fast groups move, how fast formations move if they want to keep any kind of formation, any kind of tactical order; you're faster than an organised group of troops. (Shield walls don't jog. Break up into open order to move quickly, tuck in again to stand and fight.) You're not cut off, at this point I wish I could post a tactical map, it can't be as simple as drawing it in mspaint and posting it in the [img ] tags, can it?

Panzer did exactly that once. Remember?

The only tricky bit is that the image needs to have a URL address of some kind, which just requires putting it up somewhere on the Web.

She's not trying to draw the Valdemironi temple guard away, she's taking advantage of how desperate they are to get the staff back and trying to get them to pursue at all costs, opening their flank and making themselves easy meat for the Ikhrani militia.

They are desperate but not stupid, and mean to leave a screen of twenty to thirty men (surviving skirmishers making the difference) to cover that flank, and come at you with the rest. At the moment you are still with the militia, at the right, northern, flank of the Ikhrani line, at a crossroads made larger by the cleared site where a building was pulled down and the materials scavenged- uneven ground but theoretically clear.

Lisanna handed the staff off to give herself a free hand to wield her blades with

Ah, right, which means that in effect Dirt has the staff, not Lisanna. I got confused about what's going on. Let me rewrite my actions:

IC:

Basically, the Valdemironi main body is trying to circle round the Ikhrani troop-blob to get at us, while leaving behind a screen of Valdemironi warriors to stop the troop-blob from getting around to their side and rear. Larric's instinct is to scuttle backwards in turn and get into position where the party can form a short line, anchored by the Ikhrani militia-blob on one side and some kind of solid wall on the other.

Presumably this would involve retreating around the blob's perimeter, and is pretty much what Lisanna was trying to pull in the first place. Can we do that?

[Jub]

OOC: Ignore the IC stuff that didn't make sense in context.

IC: Looking around at his friend's and regulars, at the adventures right next to him, at the Ikhrani militia, and at the Valdemironi and their leaders Bertram realizes that the best thing he can do is attempt to take out the senior officer. Fighting can't be avoided, but lives might be saved if one side can be broken and forced to flee. Currently the group he's found himself with seems to be moving to a more defensible position leaving the more numerous militia to hold the fanatics at bay.

He openly questions this and asks, "Where are we if the Valdemironi manage to pull off a routing of the militia and more importantly, do you think that the losses, even if they hold are going to be worth it? I don't, I think we're best off trying to take out the enemy leaders and leave the Valdemironi troops to be crushed by superior numbers. That ensures that we can get away and that nobody in command will have eyes on us while we find a better place to defend ourselves."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

It's Lisanna who says 'If this was just a people's fight, you'd be right. It isn't.' She adds to Larric, 'You wanted a solution that didn't involve wholesale slaughter? That-' gesturing with her crystal broadsword at the staff Fifi is now trying to make sense of through her tastebuds, '- could be it. Be a lot neater, cleaner and more straightforward to unravel their magic with their own tools. Much less chance of frying everybody's brain.'

She waits a second then adds 'Get it wrong and we could do exactly that of course, which is a fair reason for them to want it back.'

(Looking at her character sheet, duties 4 sense of duty 5, age nineteen, Simon you may have a point there. Pitchforked into a job she wouldn't expect to get for another twenty years or so, is unfortunate enough to take seriously, and trying to deal with a bad and arguably deteriorating situation as best she can- that is not a situation in which one learns circumspection and moderation. As far as she's concerned there really is no such thing as someone else's problem, it all comes to her anyway.)

The two groups move towards each other, and remind me what kind of zapping and shooting you're doing before it comes to that.

[Jub]

"We can at least take out these guys in plate here so we don't need to worry about being chased by this lot," says Bertram as he starts to push through the crowd towards the front.

He's never been exactly the stealthy sort, but he does hope that his cloak hides his mail and that his rough shield will cause eyes to skip over him and blend him into the militia. He talks to himself as he moves through the crowd, 'One quick blow... I need to do this quickly and cleanly so those troops will see the best among them fall and run. If I can't more people will have to die.' He just prays that he'll be able to sneak close enough to get in a surprise blow with his axe.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Hm. I'd figured Lisanna for a few years older than that- not many, but a few. Larric is in his late twenties, pushing thirty; I'll bear the age differential in mind from here on out.

IC:

Larric's been in a couple of platoon-level fights, enough that he's starting to think about what to look for. The bulk of the Valdemironi force is headed straight for us. We have a handful of men about us to keep us from totally caving in, but still, anything that slows up and knocks back the Valdemironi is to the good.

There isn't distance for a sniping shot with a lightning arrow, so...

As the Valdemironi militia advance to within whites-of-their-eyes range (5-10 yards), Larric tries an area effect against some of the Valdemironi moving toward his part of the battleline. A sudden surge of overpressure- Air magic- slams into them from chest height and up, intended to topple, deafen, and disorient, causing the front ranks of the Valdemironi attack to get tangled up.

[Fiji_Fury]

Dale hears Bertram's statement and sees him starting to push forward in the crowd. He taps Dirt and nods toward Bertram. "Make a good distraction at the front so that man can spit the skull of the well-armored templar? Crush some skulls on your own perhaps? I have your left side."

Presuming that Dirt basically agrees and moves forward, Dale does the same. He'll angle his blades (sword and dagger) at 'leaders' if they come close, but he'll just as gladly strike down rank and file to clear room. Mainly he's going with the Ogre to make sure the big lug isn't overwhelmed. Especially since the Valdemironi host seems desperately interested in the staff Fifi is clutching.

(If Dirt agrees, I think we have the bait needed to distract the Valdemironi so Bertram can make an attempt at beheading the leadership so to speak).

[Kaelan]

Well Dirt could always throw Bertram at the Templar...... No? plan B then.

"OK", Dirt hands Dale his crossbow and door (with the attached Fifi and the staff as there is no sense in risking poor Fifi in the melee at this point of time). Working his axe into a rotating motion in the front at speed Dirt will advance towards the Templar with a view of creating a path and a distraction for Bertram to follow down to his foe.

[Jub]

Given that the lead Templar will have more visible threats to focus on Bertram will aim to be the second or third man in. He flips his axe around in his hand and gets ready to plunge the stiff butt spike through a weak point in the mans heavy armor. He'd favor a blow to the back of the neck if it's open, but a shot to the armpit or the back of the knee are more likely to be open as the knight turns to fight the much larger Dirt.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

The long pause was the result of me thinking "Well, I've just dropped myself in it, haven't I...setting a situation up with expectations, which I should have known better. Offer them a battle and I should have expected they're going to behave like, well, like heroes instead of sensible people. It would be good if they took enough of a share of the fight to look shiny and noble, but not so much as to try and get killed- well, my own damn' fool fault for giving them this much of a chance to bite off far more than they can chew. Well, let's hope the Tactics rolls are at least vaguely positive. NB for the future; smaller battles."

Larric's zap will have a tactical effect; it won't do damage directly, but it will reduce their skills, probably not massively but by enough to make a difference- hopefully. (In practise it may take off some of the edge priestly magic has given them. You can boost your own side's abilities by similar methods, with a suitable power.)

And there's always the chance they'll cock up the countermove. Which they, ah, so. It's a bare success on Larric's part and a complete flub on theirs; couldn't have gone better if you'd written the script.

Expecting to be zapped, the leading edge of their formation opens out, and their armoured leader- who should be best equipped to take this sort of thing- comes forward. The rush of air reduces their advantage, but it gets the one you really need to kill to stick out at the front where you can actually get at him without being buried in temple guard.


Bertram is trying to sneak and be a leader at the same time, which really doesn't work and I'm going to go with the second idea, and Dirt and Dale's ideas clash- Dirt is handing off his shield and crossbow to Dale, who isn't there to pick them up as he's charging too; one of the Ikhrani militia ends up with the thing, looking quite surprised and horrified by the staff wielding carnivorous plant. Fifi's a bit surprised too. (Lisanna is beyond being confused at this point.)

All three of the fightery- types, Dirt, Dale and Bertram and a trail of his friends, are countercharging. This is a recipe for fast, brutal and confusing.

The knight templar is competent, at least; Dirt (height and momentum) reaches him first, swings with the axe, is met by the shield, at a shallow angle that deflects rather than takes the force of the blow, and he sidesteps and tries to feint, getting Dirt to turn his back on one of the temple guard.

The guard is about to stab Dirt when Dale gets there, and finds, because they have half- turned, Dirt right in front of him; Dale tries to go round the big ogre, and has to try to go through the temple guard to do it- impaling him under the armpit, stopping Dirt from being stabbed in the back.

Bertrand goes for the attack, aiming for the back of the man's neck with the spike, but he reacts in time, gets his sword to it and deflects the axe just enough that the point of the spike slides along rather than biting in. One of the guard swings for Bertram, a blow with a spear that fails because the back end of the spear is still tangled up in the lie, and a backswing with the axe catches him in the hip and drops him.

Round two?

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

The long pause was the result of me thinking "Well, I've just dropped myself in it, haven't I...setting a situation up with expectations, which I should have known better. Offer them a battle and I should have expected they're going to behave like, well, like heroes instead of sensible people. It would be good if they took enough of a share of the fight to look shiny and noble, but not so much as to try and get killed- well, my own damn' fool fault for giving them this much of a chance to bite off far more than they can chew. Well, let's hope the Tactics rolls are at least vaguely positive. NB for the future; smaller battles."

Part of your problem is that a normal weekly-meeting gaming group experiences more decision cycles per week in your game than we do. They're used to playing in the setting you create, where avoiding the thick of the fight is wise and often the key to good planning.

Whereas we're reacting more like default players and thinking "how to win the fight?" Although I would think Larric's action is still fairly in line with "took enough of a share of the fight to look shiny and noble, but not so much as to try and get killed;" he's not the one heroically charging into the battle.

IC:

First glance-
Larric makes sure there are men between him and the enemy, at least enough to keep them off him for a few seconds. He needs a magical attack that can hit a target on the far side of an ogre without passing through the ogre. He sees Dirt and Dale (and who's that random guy named Bert? ) converging on the temple guard officer.

Second glance-
Larric readies another one of his ear-boxing implosion attacks- at the officer. A spherical shell of air, thumped inwards onto his head in a pressure wave. He wills intensity into the blast wave, hoping to at least get enough effect through the templar's resistance that it'll significantly distract him while he's fighting the others.

[Jub]

Bertram isn't happy with the way his initial attack turned out, but the only thing to do is to try and bring this guy down before the rest of the force regroups. The plan is to try and off balance him with a bash from the shield and then finish things with a good blow of the axe. It's risky to completely ignore the militia and focus all his attention on a single foe, but he trusts his mail and the rest of the militia to keep the spears from ending him.

[Kaelan]

Seeing our chainmail comrade engage the Templar Dirt will switch his attention to the rest of the troops, trying to keep them off Bertram long enough for him to heroically do his job.

[Fiji_Fury]

Dale is baffled by Dirt's tactics (the two of them should have a heart-to-heart after all this to clear up communication) but sees the Ogre disengage from the Templar and round on the spear-rabble that is starting to reform. He uses the Ogre's bulk to screen his own movements from the Templar and then rounds on the armored target seeking to strike from an off-side as Bertram presses his own attack. Dale will tap into Movement (4) and do everything he can to use it as a speed/strength enhancement for his own strikes.

OOC: I'm imagining this as a whirling ball of chaotic looking but hopefully death-dealing pointy metal bits lashing at targets of opportunity and the Templar, who remains a priority. By my count Larric staggered the closest portion of the Valdemironi host, then their leader was struck at by Dirt and Bertram while I cut down a spear man who almost had his shit put together. Now, with Dirt moving at the grunts and me dancing around to assault the Templar we hope to bedazzle our opponents long enough for them to make more errors to be made and our side to start taking greater advantage of them. That Ikrhani militia would pretty handy right about now...

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

I'm baffled by Bertram's tactics; this guy is likely in charge of them because he's good, too good to take risks and make grand gestures with. Single combat is fine and chivalric, and if it was only or merely for honour, it would be the right thing to do, but you're not, and combat is chancy enough without taking chances you don't have to, so bring your mates. As many as can fit around him, ideally.

(I don't think anybody filmed it at all- Stamford, last year, one of the best swordsmen and biggest showoffs I know- Duncan- last man standing on his side, and eight of us trying to hunt him down; there's some of the main clash but not of the free fight afterwards, but that was a classic example of how one man fights many, and there were only four of us left when we finally got him.)

From the back, the Ikhrani militia are doing rather well. The court sorceress is doing something impressive with flickering sheets of flame in the air, and if she doesn't have the mana to crisp them and it really it is all smoke and mirrors, tactical bluff, she's doing a good job of acting to back it up.

Larric's implosion is resisted, but it is time consuming and demanding enough to do so that it gives Bertram a chance to attack while the templar is off balance; the shield bash is a success, but he's already reeling- knows that if he waits to pull himself together you'll be in with the axe, so chooses to give ground and absorb the hit rather than take it. Bertram actually pushes him back out of reach of his own axe.

Two of the militia try to cover him by stabbing at Bertram, he blocks one on the shield and catches and hooks the other one away with his axe; Dirt moves against them, swinging for them, denting one's shield- boss but the other brings his spear up, aiming for Dirt's face, and the shield goes with it; Dirt hooks him under the shield, right in the stomach, he drops his weapons and slowly folds up, falling.

Dale moves in with a flurry of blows against the Templar, who has already had to look in too many directions and cannot block all of them; the one that connects does so on the inside leg, he drops the point of his kite shield to try and stop it but a little too late, but from how wide the one eyeball you can see through his visor just went, not fast enough. No blood on the blade, so probably blunt trauma. Still standing, but reeling a bit.

The engagement is general, all down the line; if you can hold, or drop the Templar, then the Ikhrani militia can fold in and squish the temple guard. Next round?

[Jub]

OOC: It isn't really single combat at this point and wasn't intended to be. This course of action was born out of the knowledge that if this Templar stays in the fight more townsfolk than are needed will die. Bertram would rather offer himself up than see that happen.

IC: If disengaging from the militia is possible Bertram will try to distract the Templar a little bit longer so Dale can attempt another flurry. By distract I mean swing at his sword side leg and either by connecting with that blow, or by following up with another body block with his shield knock him to his knees.

If not he'll try to hook a spear or two with his axe so he can allow some of the men to the sides and rear of him some extra room to attack and move.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric thinks, what will the templar or the other Valdemironi temple guards have trouble coping with? The templar is hard to bewitch, but he can't deal with being that close to three warriors, especially when one of them is Dirt. However, Dirt, Dale, and the random guy need

Air and Substance again- Larric singles out the zones on the party warriors' flanks, where Valdemironi guardsmen are threatening them and drawing their attention away from the effort to mob the templar. He sifts the winter air, looking for the whizzing, whirring corpuscules just a little heavier than the rest, and calls to them. Larric starts drawing the oxygen out of the air there, commanding it upwards (possibly smack into Lisanna's sheets of flame). That will leave the Valdemironi minions gasping and vulnerable if they press through the zone of effect to attack the party.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

I was waiting for the rest of the party, but I think I can guess what they're up to- and it goes interestingly well.

Bertram and Dale attack the templar, Dirt and Larric's oxygen trickery distract and harrass the friends and support, two of the militia try for him as well; their plan to hold the line against the militia while they try to ge tthe staff back is not working well, and it's mainly the court sorceress looking after that end.

Dale goes for him, he turns to face, Bertram has an irresistible target- between them, axe sword and fending off, you manage to beat him to the ground, with several dents in his armour- reduced below zero wounds, but no individually life threatening injury. There is much clanging, swearing and fending off other people in the way, but- if the four of them running at you can be stopped- you have a prisoner.

[Jub]

One goal accomplished Bertram steps up and squares off against the emerging threats. This time he takes a defensive stance, shield ready to deflect even more punishment and the axe waiting to counter attack when he gets a chance to step past a spear and attack the person holding it. Given that these men have been held off thus far with minimal attention, he's confident that they'll be able to disengage in short order.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric picks one of the Valdemironi miniontroopers charging the party's warriors, grits his teeth and focuses his will down to a narrow plane. The Valdemironi hits a pressure wave coming the other way, chest height and up, designed to bowl him over and daze him long enough to keep him out of the first clash of arms.

[Fiji_Fury]

Shouting a the Valdemironi militia:

"Back! Back or he dies!" gesturing to the felled Templar with sword tip aimed at a now motionless vulnerable spot.

Dale hopes this works. Enough people have died already, there's no desire to see more of them, even the misguided Valdemironi if it can be prevented. D'nor takes no joy in slaughter and too many of the people fighting are needed to rebuild Qulan.

[Kaelan]

Dirt's solution is somewhat easier.

Any of the militia that approach within axe reach die (hey, its more food for the pot and Dirt's going to be eating well tonight....).

Withdrawing back into the ranks Dirt will collect his goods (along with the staff in Fifi's grasp) providing that he is not drawn into more combat, otherwise it's back to more axe swinging goodness.

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Well, Larric's approach is basically to punch one of the Valdemironi in the face by remote control, and Bertram is doing pretty much the same thing as Dirt only on a smaller scale; I'd say Dale's the only one who's getting fancy here.

Which probably speaks well of his suitability for this game system.

Seriously, I've tried to play Larric as a clever but kind of unsubtle tactician- he tends to work through a fairly limited playbook and expands it with no more than one or two tricks per fight, interspersed with repetition of things that have worked before. He doesn't go for the kind of complex (arguably overcomplex) stuff I gathered that Verone would get up to.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

that's not unreasonable; doing mostly what worked last time with the ocasional foray into wierdness is fair enough- it's excessive playing with the possibilities, going 'ooo, what can I do with this' that helps erode the sanity of so many mages.

What happens- the temple guard Larric pushes off balance tumbles backwards, one of hs mates manages to pull him out of the way and cover him with a shield, Bertram swings for the second one and hits him in the shoulder, but does only light damage through his mail and padding.

Dale is, unfortunately, largely preaching to the brainwashed. A couple of them take heed, but they're not the ones at the front of the formation baying for blood. Has to fend off two of them trying to stab him.

Did he overhear Lisanna telling Larric that she felt there was something that smelt wrong about this, they were pushing too hard, and may have had "help" deciding to do it? If they were prodded towards this, it was pushing at an open door, they're certainly not innocent, but possibly not solely culpable? Looking at them, the strained, driven look of people being pushed on by spellwork, it's quite believable.

Between that, Dirt tearing one of them in half, Fifi brandishing the staff, and Lisanna doing horrifyingly incendiary things, there's a moment's pause. High tide. They could push forward again, or break and run. They're wavering. One more round of fighting and shouting- actions?

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Hm. Speaking of trying what worked before, or at least seemed to sort of work.

I'm going to assume that Larric's combination of Thaumaturgy/Perception/Human Perception/Supernatural Awareness is sufficient that he actually does grasp that the Valdemironi temple guardsmen are under the influence of mind control magic. Possibly multiple overlapping patterns of it, washing back and forth, pinning the aforesaid open door in their heads in the 'so open your brains fall out' position.

IC:

This probably isn't going to work, but it is exactly what Larric would want to do. He's been getting angrier and angrier about liars and the dupes who love them, ever since the night at Sir Alfred's estate. Not that he's a saint, but trickery outrages him at a personal level, in a way that sheer bloody-minded villainy like a horde of orcs doesn't.

He's got a good head of righteous anger built up, and this time the standing wave of deception isn't (entirely?) operating under the aegis of the god of immunetofacts. Who knows? It might even work.

He growls and stomps forward to within a few paces of the front line, hoping no one throws anything at him and trying to duck if it does- but most of his attention is on weaving an Air-powered megaphone in front of himself, to channel his voice just forward of friendly lines, so as to hopefully not deafen anyone standing right in front of him, or at least not anyone he likes. A few yards out from his face, the spell boosts the amplitude of the waves of sound into something nice and booming.

Then, the alchemist winds up the knot of frustrated common sense in his head, wraps it in contempt for folly and sheer loathing for the sort of people who make a career out of tricking other poor saps into getting killed for the sake of a power game...

And lets it fly, into and through- to serve as driving force for- that Insight-powered glamour-cracker he used back at the village against the two elves from Alavanirimire, carrying it out into the Valdemironi troops.

I don't know what or even if the supercharge rules are for this game, but Larric would drive this one very hard. Hard enough to take a day's rest and no magic use to recharge from. Maybe even hard enough to pull psychic muscles. This is his real, hated enemy: not any particular monster or person or plot, but ignorance and blindness and lies.

At the same time that the glamour-breaker thumps outward from his will, he shouts, consciously amplifying his voice into something heavy and forceful with the Air magic, vague even in his own mind about who 'them' is but sincere down to his bones:

"You're loyal men to a good god! You don't have to be dupes to all and sundry! This wasn't supposed to happen! Even your own priests didn't want it like this! Don't let be fooled anymore!"

OOC:

From a gamist standpoint, hopefully that will at least set that open door in their minds swinging a bit, get them confused about why they're there, doing what they're doing. Maybe, maybe it cracks the spell and they run, who knows?

From a character standpoint, Larric will probably be disappointed but not entirely surprised if it doesn't really work. I'd have to think for a while about what he'd think if it did.

Hm.

Seriously, I felt frog-marched to this, though it's not the worst idea in the world if I do say so myself. I can't imagine anything that would be more Larric to do than trying to crack the brainwashing driving a bunch of temple guardsmen onto his own side's swords, while shouting angrily at them in words of one syllable that they were being a bunch of idiots.

It's a pity I built him with Persuasion-Charm instead of Persuasion-Temper, now that I think about it... Probably because he doesn't do this for a living.