Homebrew system thread II, section 3

[Simon_Jester]

EDIT MK II:

By the way, if you ever get around to making an actual player's guide or GM guide for this system, using a specific example (like 'the pyromaniac example') may be a good way to help get around the "I don't know what these skills are good for" issue. Without (and you're right, this is important) creating the impression that the stuff in the table is ALL the skills are good for.



And yes, this is going to be necessary. If I might remark on the difference between you and a hypothetical target end user of this system:

My impression of you is, you've done a wide variety of things, aren't fresh out of university or any silliness like that. You have more practical experience with medieval weapons and craftsmanship than, oh, 99%-plus of the population. You have learned a fair amount of the history of these things, either in pursuit of your hobby, for the sheer love of doing so, or both.

In short, to give one illustrative example, you know how hard it is to make a sword with period tools. I don't, and neither does the typical twenty-something who might want to run this system.

Therefore, if you're still sticking to the stated goal of getting this system into a state where it can be run by other people... one thing you need to do is provide those people with some guideline for the difficulty levels of various tasks, to support or supplant what you can insert into your own campaigns by working from experience.

[Kaelan]

OC - Hello All (& I'm back into having time to read and play properly again!)

I agree with Simon - guidelines would be helpful. My 2 cents worth would be to offer guidance on the more 'physical' aspects first (combat, social interactions etc) as most players can easily relate to this in game terms - even though they may be bringing hang-ups such as 'Hitpoints' to begin with. Side bars and 'in-game' examples are often the best way to show this. Maybe even offer some real world historical examples...
I know you're trying to avoid tables, but a general guide of comparisons would help.

Anyhow, enough side tracking - back to the game!

IC

Gods only know what Dirt's been collecting

Do you really want to know? Yes!...
A few new seeds he's picked up on the travels. A couple of new skulls for his bongos and a few snacks for Fifi. Not much in the way of shiny disks as he's already got one of each colour. If he ever finds different looking ones he may pick them up.

After following the group on the death trap Dirt is torn between two confliction options. Stay on deck to keep an eye on the evil water, or go below where its out of sight (but he still knows it's out there. Waiting.). Eventually he opts for the upper deck where he can keep an eye on things. Deciding on the best way to proceed he decides against pulling out the bongos to increase the boats speed (See Larric the lessons are paying off, Dirt is learning that humans have some funny quirks) and instead opts to concentrate on his earth magic.

Knowing that water is a partial enemy of earth, Dirt will attempt to form an earth shield around the boat to help keep the water at bay - forming a better seal around the boat.

Rational: Spoiler

Water is closer to air than earth. Animals breath air and fish breath water. Thus water and air are close to each other. Aren't we glad that magic all works on your point of view

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Writing the guidelines is going to take a little while, I can throw something together in fairly short order- there are certainly real world examples to use, quite a lot of them tending to be full of blood and bits, well gamers tend to be a bit like the crowds at the roman arena anyway, full of enthusiasm for other people getting maimed...


Until Dirt does his frankly strange thing, it seems to be working fairly well- Herault seems to have stopped moving, probably sleeping under a bush somewhere, and it doesn't look like he's made very much distance out of town. You could get ahead of him easily, if you thought it good to do so. The river outflow from the lake is your best bet, there are stages and wharves in a sort of small hamlet there that you could stop against.


What Dirt's attempt to provide an anchor is going to achieve is anyone's guess- let the dice decide and (a 12, fortunately-) that's not enough to impede the boat very much, or fuse it to the lake bed, or weigh it down to the point where it starts to sink; all of which could have happened, and Dirt would have found himself swimming, as well as owing the temple a great deal of money; Larric and probably Dale are woken up by one of the boatmen shouting at Dirt

'What are you doing, you big green idiot- are you trying to get us sunk?'

[Simon_Jester]

Larric stumbles awake, then looks over the side and groans, thumping his hand lightly against his head in an attempt to clear his wits.

To the crewman he says "Hang on. Let me explain."

He goes over to Dirt, explaining very slowly. With hand gestures...

Although the look in his facial expression says "I'm hamming it up, play along" and not "I'm a condescending twit."

"Boat try to keep you dry. Boat floats, you dry. Boat light, boat floats. Wood light. Rocks not light. Heap of rocks on boat make boat not light. Boat not light, boat sink. Boat sink, you get wet. Don't get wet. Don't sink boat. No heap of rocks. Okay?"

OOC:

Larric is attempting to use the explanation to Dirt to amuse and Persuade the boatmen, in a comically exaggerated fashion, that this was just the ogre being dumber than their usual cargo of dead trees, har har, look at the poor witless ogre, no reason to get mad, no harm done.

Thus, hopefully, defusing the confrontation, because Dirt hopefully realizes by now that Larric actually does respect his intelligence, but the angry boatmen might be a problem.

Also, because I was wondering what that'd look like in words of exactly one syllable.

[Kaelan]

Dirt carefully ponders the message.
Obviously we need more powerful earth magic to make water repellent rocks. Of course that may result in the boat sitting on an empty river bed surrounded by a wall of water, so probably not a very effective idea. Another solution possibly..

"Dirt need to know wind magic. Make boat float over water. Next time Dirt learn this he do. OK"

On a side note, provided that the earth seal on the hull was intact the displacement of the hull should still keep the vessel afloat. Of course this is depended on the integrity of the earth seal...

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

You've actually just reminded me of a very interesting chemical footnote and outer marker on the possibilities list that Larric will probably have heard of- the actual warships of the Authrani empire are, in a complicated alchemy powered sort of way, solar driven.

What happens is that they have no masts, as such, they look like low streamlined dome structures floating on multiple hulls- the largest is a pentamaran- and photosensitive skin. Quite what happens and how it's done is very definitely a state secret, but the apparently semi- living skin soaks up the illumination that falls on it and congeals it into liquid light, slightly viscous and quite incredibly dangerous.

It has to be kept stored within mirrored chambers, because it will spontaneously release on very little provocation; it is used sprayed into the water, where it releases the concentrated heat and light of acres of sunshine- hydrojet propulsion, effectively, and enough to move very large things terrifyingly fast. It's uses as an explosive and, when released at the focus of a pivot- mounted, mirrored dish as a ranged weapon, are not at all secret, rather the stuff of horror stories.



Larric's explanation does not entirely convince the boat's crew; after they think about it for a second, they realise Dirt can't really be that stupid if he can do magic. Dangerously short of common sense is probably more like it, and actually much less reassuring. (The Persuade check is a technical success, very heavily uphill against the prevailing facts.)

They listen to the explanations and think, uh oh; we are towing a skiff astern, right? That's emergency plan A accounted for... assuming we won't need it just yet, there are a lot of unemployed watermen, with any luck we won't need to deal with these people again, where's the nearest bit of shoreline? Um, maybe we'd better not annoy, one, two, they're all magic users dammit, we should have got danger pay for this.

'Where do you want to be put ashore?'



Oh, and on the subject of airboats- in principle, yes. In practise, they haven't really caught up with the concept of 'class'- those that do exist tend to be one offs, pushing the boundaries of the art, quite highly idiosyncratic in configuration, often quite individual in their design and operations, and most of all maintenance, requirements. And how many of Kuquan's small royal flotilla do you think survived the civil war and invasion? (About a half of one, actually.)

One for the future- if Njal gets his way, the not too distant future.

[Simon_Jester]

'Where do you want to be put ashore?'

"That way." Larric points in the direction that the archpriest-dowsing compass has been pointing them.

As they approach the shore, Larric sighs and dips into his purse, recalling what they paid the boatmen, tacking a quarter of it as a jab in the direction of hazard pay. "And I think we owe you, for the fright Dirt gave you- they don't have a lot of boats in caves."

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

I was about to make a gag about the deeper caverns white water rafting society, there, but considering that most underground lakes and rivers are going to be fully enclosed, you've got a point. (Although it is the sort of ridiculously dangerous sport the younger svartalfven would actually enjoy, where prowess matters and you have an excuse to swagger).

Ashore is an undistinguished mud flat; Larric is probably the least agile of the three of you, but you make it up to normal land eventually. What is in sight are the foothills to the north- starting to be able to recognise landmarks, now- the road running about three hundred yards back from the lakeshore, what looks to have been a small tower, a toll point or guard post that has been blasted into bits, probably over the winter, the remains of a wooden building burnt down, but the ruin is likely occupied- there's a tent of sorts, looks like a simple sail tent, next to the charred timbers. Farms along the road, two about six hundred yards apart, one to your right, one closer to Qulan.

The ground rises gently towards the foothills of the Orhan range- you've been this way before, although a few miles further north. Needle's pointing towards, wavering a bit, either the ruined tower or the burnt inn. The barge punts it's way off and starts heading back. What are you all doing?

[Simon_Jester]

Larric may be least agile, but Dirt probably has about 1.5 times the ground pressure. Which of them has more trouble with mud? Good question.

Hm. Larric eyes the needle, murmuring "The inn, the tower. The inn, the tower. Wish Bertram was here, he might know what's going on around here. We don't know which building he's in, he's an old man so he probably can't outrun us either way..."

Whichever way the party ends up walking (I'm waiting on input) Larric will stop the party before they move. He pauses for a moment, mumbling to himself... and planning out something he's already given a lot of thought to over the past few days: the best mental warding charms he can construct out of Insight and Vision magic.

Hopefully something that can armor the psyche a bit and stop or at least muffle the effect of Valdemironi mind-whammies. The ward is reactive in character: Insight to reinforce the consciousness, to watch the mind, and alert the subject that the true nature of the thoughts now occupying his head aren't his, that their true nature is from outside, and Vision to inspire him with instinctive revolt and revulsion at the foreign influence.

Once something occurs to him that he's fairly sure would work... he fishes in the pocket where he keeps his writing supplies. The wax tablet died heroically and explosively in action up on Mount Honeycomb. That leaves the slate-book with its sticks of fine white clay, paper, and... a couple of those 'sticks' of his. The ones that looks like a rod of lead wrapped in wood, but probably isn't lead. The black, glistening material goes really well on the small pieces of paper he... hm.

Paper may not stand up to much energy; he can do better than that, once.

He focuses on Dirt, to the extent that he'd be willing to pay double mana cost to charge the runes after they're done, because he does NOT want a hypnotized ogre coming after him with an axe. This time, he takes his slate-book,, and carefully scribes the runic mind-protections charm on it in chalk. Repeatedly, layered on each side of each page. Then he empowers it. Hard.

He hands it to Dirt. "This is to protect your brains from mind-magic. Wear it close to your head. Please don't break the book. It was hard to make, and I'm fond of it."

(I'm not sure how much of a reserve Larric's got left, but this is really important. Dirt is arguably our party's single point of failure when it comes to a mind-controlling enemy, because he has no special resistance, could probably kill Larric with his bare hands in short order, and might very well overmatch Dale too, unless Dale pulls out some nasty tricks with his low-order magic).

Then he takes care of Dale, then himself. Slightly anachronistic pencil on paper- what's really anachronistic is using sorcery to compose the graphite out of raw charcoal- scribed with the neat handwriting of someone who spent seven years before the quill learning to copy out and bind books. "Hope these work..."

[It probably won't be enough to completely stymie the effects of someone whose mind tricks are as powerful as Herault's are likely to be, not by itself. But Herault is likely not at his best, he may not have much incentive to fight at all and might thus be deterred by wards he could drill through given a bit of time. You never know. So I fondly hope these wards will at least sort of protect us partially.]

[Kaelan]

Larric may be least agile, but Dirt probably has about 1.5 times the ground pressure. Which of them has more trouble with mud?

Larric - dirt has bigger feet and thus probably less ground pressure. I suppose we could always do the maths of F/A to work it out exactly.

Dirt takes the tablet and puts it on his head, Tying it down gently with some cord from his gardening supplies.

"Tower first - take look and move from there."

[Simon_Jester]

Hm, if his feet are, oh, 25% longer (and proportionately wider) relative to the rest of his frame compared to the average man, then yes, that would balance out the effect from the square-cube law. Assuming he's not stockier than the average man.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Fifi can probably hold that tablet and use it as a shield; actively parrying with it will (with dice luck) be more effective than relying purely on resistance, which means also that Dirt isn't trying to use it as a hat, or tie it on with string. Or- feel free to improvise a solution.

Some protection is better than no protection- he is likely fairly powerful, to hold his place and rank he has to be, and to be fair, seizing the initiative and stopping him getting an incantation off is on the probabilities more likely to keep your minds your own than taking it and defending against it- but anything that makes his job harder makes your survival more likely.

It's dawn. It's the time most people, in an age before much in the way of artificial light, get up. What do you think- would he have had the energy to face other people, would he have gone for the tent, or would he have wanted to avoid anybody else and gone to hide in the ruined tower?

[Simon_Jester]

Larric looks at Dirt and nods his head, finally done with his runic spellcasting.

"His power comes from power over people, but he's just got beaten because he couldn't control people, couldn't stop them doing something stupid. If he's at the inn he'll likely have minions, this will be tough. If he's at the tower, and he might well be, this might end faster. I say try the tower first."

[Kaelan]

"go quiet, or go for speed?"

[Kaelan]

OOC - or wait and catch our breath......

[Simon_Jester]

OOC:

Sorry, I'd been waiting on Fiji, and maybe I shouldn't have. He's been away from the forum for two weeks, does anyone have a means of contacting him other than PMs? I already tried that.

[Fiji_Fury]

OOC:

Really sorry everyone. I have been swamped by family and work and haven't even looked at the forums in those two weeks. I'll be sporadically available for the next couple of weeks but should be checking in more often and neglecting this thread much less.

IC:

"Tower first. If I were avoiding people I might be there and if I weren't I'd post a set of eyes as high up as possible. The light is rising and the ground is relatively open. We do this quickly or not at all."

Dale nods in thanks to the ward that Larric gives him, then checks for confirmation. He knows Dirt is thinking the same as himself on the initial destination.

[Kaelan]

Dirt readies his equipment, drawing back his crossbow in case its required on the approach over the open ground. He's expecting to have to switch back to his axe once they get inside. Only one final question to be decided upon, "Alive, or dead?"

OOC - Tried real life. Graphics were good but the gameplay sucks

[Simon_Jester]

"Alive, unless he tries turning our brains inside out. We want what he knows, we want him to help make the other priests stop the crazy."

OOC:

Patriarch Herault's actual standing was as court chaplain prior to this incident, yes? So... would he have been down in the First Age fortress? Or would he have been up on the surface with everyone else?

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

I don't know about that; real life pyrotechnics can be fun, although gunpowder doesn't seem to keep the flu away. Just back from the 370th anniversary of the end of the siege of Newcastle, filling in as pike and cannon crew, and a side order of mad random Presbyterian ranting (method acting is a wonderful thing...) but the downside of the event seems to have been a case of the lurgi. Probably just a bad cold, always feels worse than it actually is.

Looking at the army articles of warre and code of conduct, first comment, "my God, we're the Taliban-" on second thoughts, the Scottish army of the 1640's was a much more efficient and better organised rigidly uncompromising theocratic tyranny. Quality counts, you see.


Anyway, to answer the question first- he would undoubtedly have wanted to be up on the surface of he had known what was going to happen, but he got dragged down the cavern with the rest of the court; missed out on the initial stages of the plan, but may actually have started it in motion when he returned to the surface. Then realised it was all going horribly wrong.


As you start towards the tower, you move forwards, with some caution, but looking at the ground between here and there, and thinking of the problems of dragging him back, and all the competing interests who won't thank you for it, and how much crap there is going to be to wade through, and how tired you all are, how much has fallen to be your lot, why isn't it someone else's turn to be fate's punchbag, is this really our fight? Is it actually worth doing? Maybe letting go is actually the sensible option for once, let someone else go through the grief...

Larric and Dirt make their resistances and realise that one of the powers the Valdemironi do have is that of delegation, which he must be using in reverse to try to convince you that this, that he is someone else's problem and can safely be delegated. Larric on a natural one.

Well, it's a good bet he's in there.

[Simon_Jester]

IC:

There is a faint ethereal 'claaang' as the Someone Else's Problem field ricochets off Larric's head; the alchemist feels a sudden urge to try and compute the tab in a Zarthani eatery. Seeing none in the vicinity, he snarls a bit, frustrated, then realizes what's going on. Looks around, Dirt is still plodding forward. Dale... if Dale is starting to lag behind."

"Dale? He's meddling, don't listen to it. We've people to hold to account. Debts to pay. Matters to set right."

[more interaction with Dale if need be, pending the death-priest's response]

He shouts toward the tower: "What we really want is to make sure the people who tricked you don't get away with it!"

[Kaelan]

Well, so much for stealth and surprise then.
Dirt increases his pace towards the tower. We need to cut down the amount of time he has to throw mind arrows at us. It also looks as though capture is starting to be overtaken by take down....

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Fiji? Anything?

The rest of the group are heading, in their own separate ways, for the tower.

Dirt, running, is the first to get a reaction. He doesn't only have the divine magic of his god, after all- the ground twists and hollows under Dirt's feet, requiring some nifty athletics to avoid falling into instant pit- successfully, though.

Dirt is closer to the tower than Larric or Dale, being ogre- sized will do that for you, and hears Herault shout 'Go away.' Could be there next round. Regrouping and going in together, charging ogrishly, what?

[Kaelan]

Charging ogrishly

At this point keeping the pressure up on what's hopefully a single mage\priest will lower the chance of magical attacks against the party. Dirt will formulate a more exacting plan once he has sight of our foe.

[Simon_Jester]

Larric is pushing forward as fast as he can too; he called out the truth and saves his breath for now.