Aberrant: Nova Reality - The Rat Hunt

[April Rice]

I think April might be acting somewhere around now - technically, much earlier, but she's been holding her action.

[The White Rat]

I suppose we could discuss the dex drain aspect of WR's Q-Vamp further. But I'd rather do it on the Aberrant discussion board. That way everyone could participate

It's the start of a new round, so whoever has the highest initiatve would go first. As I mentioned earlier, I rolled a 9 to add to my 16 for a total of 25. Although I think Immobilize lowers initiate with the dex drain, so my initiative is 21. What would the sand-bog do to my initiave as well?

Unless Vali's initiativ roll is low, it would be his turn. If not, I'm up.

[Madison 'Vali' West]

Vali goes first at 24, I guess.

Questions:

-Does the Rat know Vali has come up on him?

-If so, does the Rat use an action to dodge any of Vali's attacks?

-If Vali hitsl, how much damage are his strike(s) going to do, if any? He's doing [10]+7+successes damage vs. WR's Bashing soak?

I'll try to post around 5:45 am tomorrow (Tuesday).

[April Rice]

April's first in initiative order. She rolled a 24 (at least - I don't have her fully stated out), but she's also burning quantum on Enhanced Initiative (x1) every round of this fight.

However, I think she'll continue holding her action in case she needs to interrupt the Rat's action. Close combat isn't really her thing, anyway.

[The White Rat]

Vali, WR rolled a 6 successes on his awareness roll (at +2 difficulty). WR knows you are there.

Rat's bashing soak was 12. It is down to 10 now because of the Stamina drain due to Alchem's gas.

Considering WR is now stuck in a pile of wet sand, all he can do is block.

Rat takes a multiple action. He will block twice and then use his powers. His block rolls are 4 and 1.

[Madison 'Vali' West]

Vali hits twice, rolling three successes (blocked) and 5 successes (hit), doing 4 levels of damage.

[The White Rat]

First a question before WR takes his turn. If something is an automatic ation does that mean it happens automatically without taking an action? Or does it mean that it happens automatically with no roll necessary for it to succeed, but it still takes an action?

If it is the former, then WR is still in decent shape, but if it is the latter, then WR is in not so good shape. I'm specifically speaking of the Regeneration Enhancement.

[Ptesan-Wi]

[...blasted alternate login...]

[April Rice]

I think it's still an action, in terms of other dice pools needing to be split to accommodate the action (though the action itself functions automatically). But this is in absence of a book.

[Sandcaster]

Per the description of Actions (Aberrant, page 106):

"Some actions, such as talking, walking and other simple physical deeds, are automatic, not requiring dice rolls. Other maneuvers, mostly those related to combat, are called dice actions, and they demand that you roll dice to determine the outcome."

Also, under Movement (same page):

"Movement is often an automatic action, but a character can take no other action that turn if she moves the entire distance that she's able to. A character may move half her running distance and still perform a dice action."

So it appears that no, an automatic action does not mean that it happens automatically without taking an action, with a conditional exception made for making a partial movement. The term "automatic" merely means that there is no dice roll involved; you automatically succeed at Regeneration (so long as you have the required Quantum Points available to spend).

[Sandcaster]

That being said, I honestly think that we're all getting waaaaay too caught up in the mechanics of this thing; we should be able to tell a good story cinematically.

[The White Rat]

sounds good to me.

[kestrel404]

Agreed. There's too much chatter on the backchannel.

It's a story. Make it a good one and let the rules sort themselves out.

[Sandcaster]

Well, since Vali was so nice as to completely obliviate the advantage of a half-buried WR, Sandcaster is dealing with the consequences.

[Madison 'Vali' West]

First, did Rat change his action, or unless he planned to close with Sandcaster and use Quantum Imprint on her? Secondly, this action would be at -5 dice and at +2 difficulty (the gas). -5 dice for having already taken two other actions, unless he chose a defensive action, in which case he couldn't use QI on Sandcaster.

A good story is a must, but Rat is getting a whole lot of mileage out of one action.

[BlackStar]

In any case, I think that the trick of Alchemist with a little help from my character would take him out.

BlackStar has 17+10(from Enhanced Init.*2)+ roll of 6 = 33 Init. but he chooses to wait for his opportunity. Then he makes his move and have 8 successes on his attack.

At the same time, he prevents the propagation of the gas in the sewers.

[April Rice]

April has activated Accelerate Time, and she'll be using the one extra action (she only has the one dot in Temporal Manipulation) as a full dodge action every turn until the end of the fight (she maintains if necessary). If Rat tries Q. Vampire again, she area dodges (Teleport).

Her dodge is Dex 5 + 5M with something like 4 dice in Athletics. If Rat connects, all of her soak beyond Stamina is in force field effects, so he wouldn't be able to use Q. Imprint on her unless he broke through the non-Stamina soak (that is, touched her).

I don't have her stated thoroughly enough to give a soak, but I can work out a ballpark figure if he does hit her. It's unlikely enough that I'm not really bothering now.

This turn, she activated Quickness as well, using that to make four attacks after Combat Teleporting into the scene. He's already spent all of his actions, so he can't dodge/block. Her base attack dice pool is 7 + 5M before splitting dice pools. Each attack hits.

Her Strength is 2 + 1M with an active bashing Immolate (Q5 and power rating 2) for a total damage pool of 15 dice + 5 autosuccesses + oversuccesses on attack rolls. Counting over successes, she deals damage effect as follows for each attack (adjust as appropriate - I don't know Rat's soak now that he's Imprinted from Sandcaster).

First: 22 dice + 5 succ

Second: 18 dice + 5 succ

Third: 23 dice + 5 succ

Forth: 17 dice + 5 succ

All damage is bashing, and if he falls over after a given attack, she stops attacking him (she's not going to beat a guy to death). She's using Precision as well, so she's not going to kill him.

And the sad thing is that if she tried this on Wakinyan in "Entrapment," it would be just short of pointless. He'd be like, "Yup. I soak."

[The White Rat]

Vali, I burned a point of Willpower and got 2 sucesses on the three die I had left, 0 for the regular two die for his Martial Arts, and two for the 1 Mega die of Dex. With the automatic success for the willpower, that is a hit. As for closing the distance, you punched me out of the sand towards Sandcaster, all WR had to do was lunge at her.

Rat is soaking 19 at the moment. I doubt that he will remain conscious after April's barrage.

[April Rice]

"I doubt that he will remain conscious after April's barrage."

Hold on that - I'm PMing you, eventually. (I'm slow.)

[The White Rat]

I will try and post later (if I can). If not, then tomorrow. Sorry everyone.

[April Rice]

Can't believe I didn't think of this before ...

Everyone's acted, so we're at a new turn. April rolled a 10 on initiative, plus her initiative stat, which is at least 23 at the moment, going by my minimum guess. (I really should get around to stating her soon.)

TK roll to 'hold' the Rat, rolling an abysmally poor (seriously ) 8 succ, to be opposed by the Rat's Might pool (which, I believe, is 2 dice). Ties go to April.

The power doesn't mention an attack roll, so I think it's a straight resisted action. But, if an attack roll is called for, she rolls 9 succ.

She still retains her extra action from Accelerate Time as a full dodge, and spends a quantum to activate Quickness to disarm.

Disarm: 11 succ on her attack roll, and she needs five succ to successfully disarm. I'm not sure that the Rat's DD would help him dodge a disarm, since she is targeting his (solid) weapon. Even if he has Attunement, I think that requires an action to apply. Of course, if he's held by her TK, he can't dodge anyway.

[The White Rat]

WR rolled a 1 on initiative, so he goes on 17.

DD gives him a +2 dodge. Disarm is normally at +1 difficulty, and if you are unarmed, you have an additional +2. However, since WR has no possible way of resisting the TK atack, it should be simple to disarm him.

Rat has 3 Quantum left.

[April Rice]

Is there anything else he'll do? I suppose he has enough quantum to do a Q. Vampire or something. He may have time to max something, depending.

It doesn't look like any of us have big plans, so I'd suggest that White Rat wrap up the fiction, unless something particularly complicated is going to take place.

If he does a Q. Vampire burst, April doesn't dodge - she can take it, and it wouldn't degrade the strength of the powers she currently has fixed on the Rat. (Finishing the fight is more important that avoiding some temporary dex drain.)

[Madison 'Vali' West]

27 inititive ... rolled a ten!

Vali is burning another q for Multitasking and hitting the Rat's location with a Disrupt attack.

The wall takes 15 damage and he actives his Disrupt attack for 6 successes in a contested roll vs. Rats Q+node.

He is down another Willpower and to 10q.

[The White Rat]

On WR's final Q-Vamp (uncontrolled) he had 7 sucesses out of 16 reg and 1 mega dice with a +2 difficulty. He is now in a state of catatonia.

[BlackStar]

Sorry for the sudden disappearance, but all of you knows about real life problems, sometimes.

Remember that even if he´s not doing anything, BlackStar continues controlling the gas with his force bubble. He´s going to destroy it teleporting to the space.

[kestrel404]

I was assuming you missed some, since it's gas, so we're still going to have to de-contaminate the area.

[BlackStar]

No problem, I have changed the post.

[kestrel404]

Great, thanks.