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Trinity Universe: Masked Men OOC


Archer21

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Editorial written by Robert Kane, & published in the Gotham Globe

Bwahahahahaha!!!!! ::laugh ::laugh ::laugh Oh, I love it. Too bad he's dead already. And the Lt. Bullock bit was nice too. ::smiley1

Hoo boy...this is gonna be a great game, I can feel it! ::biggrin

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Yee-ha! ::hehe ::biggrin ::cool

I literally danced around the house after reading this! Later, our hyperactive smoke detector went off, and I removed the battery with panache - when my 14-year old nephew said "Thanks!", I replied "Glad to help, citizen!" The things my familiy has to put up with!

This is gonna be soooooo cool!

edit: Alright, I threw the first pitch. 'Hey, batter batter batter - swing!"

Prof, is you want to play Polly for now, that's cool by me - in fact, I'd almost prefer it. If not, I'm more than game!

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Yeah, I'm afraid I've chosen to limit the number of PCs in this one - check out the last few posts of the 'New Games' thread to read up on the build-up to the game.

Oh, just thought I'd remind the players that characters with Attributes at 4 or 5 need a Quality for that Attribute - nearly everyone seems to forget them (which always surprises me, since I always think the re-rolls are pretty useful).

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  • 1 month later...
*Hmm, I bet that’s the Watchman, the man with the cane must be the Whistler, I wonder who that big guy at the bar is…*

What? You have some sort of 'pierce disguise' knack? Well, maybe you do... but the civilian looking guy attacking the goon doesn't exactly stand out as Vigilante.

You sure you're not jumping to conclusions here, Prince..?

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What? You have some sort of 'pierce disguise' knack? Well, maybe you do... but the civilian looking guy attacking the goon doesn't exactly stand out as Vigilante™.

My bad, I was under the impression that everyone was in Disguise... I know the Whistler has donned his opera mask and was using his signature cane, I must have misremembered the Watchman doing the same... I will edit. ::halo

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  • 3 weeks later...
Unaccustomed to anything like a tuxedo, it takes [The Viking] a bit longer to figure out the series of buttons and the awkward suspenders. Finally putting on his polished shoes, he manages to finish dressing just as they arrive at Nightingale's.

The long knives disappear under his fancy coat in a redesigned pair of scabbards designed after shoulder holsters. Opening the door, he bounds out as the doctor and woman also exit. Seeing the tattered and torn dress on her, he reaches back inside the vehicle, snatching the long overcoat the archeologist had given him earlier. Without a word, he wraps it around her shoulders, nodding at her. "Keep.", he says in English.

Unworried by the cold, he does notice a draft at his neck. Collar hanging open, he smacks his forehead, and fetches the bowtie in his pocket. Grumbling, he struggles to put it back on properly.

Told ya! ::tongue

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a couple of quick questions:

1) When using inspiration for ‘sheer heroism’, do you double the dice pool before or after wound penalties (ie. If you have a dice pool of 10, do you double for 20 then subtract the maimed penalty (-3) for a total of 17; or subtract wound penalty from 10 giving 7, then double for a total of 14)?

2) Same question in reference to multiple actions. Do you subtract the multiple actions penalty before or after the ‘sheer heroism’ usage?

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Raw dice pool is doubled - i.e. before any further modifiers are applied.

Sheer heroism only doubles one dice pool, so if you want the benefits for multiple actions, then they all need to go off the same Attribute + Ability pairing. E.g. if you wanted to both dodge & fire a gun & used sheer heroism you'd need to decide which dice pool to double, you couldn't double both; but if you wanted to attack & dodge against a dozen guys in H-T-H then all those actions could go off of Dexterity + Martial Arts - the raw dice pool would be doubled, then multiple action penalties applied as per normal.

Of course, even sheer heroism may not be much help when you try to attack a guy who is covering you with a loaded Tommy Gun... ::rolleyes

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Of course, even sheer heroism may not be much help when you try to attack a guy who is covering you with a loaded Tommy Gun...

True, I guess what I was really visualizing to myself may actually be three actions.

1) Slightly dodge to the side to get out of the way of the gun (from a cinematic standpoint I see him basically rolling on his side and the bullets hitting the ground mere centimeters away from him)

2) Throw

3) Ready to dodge again

I guess in my mind I was kind of combining 1&2. Your call if you'll let me alter his action to look like the above. As far as my understanding of your previous post goes, 'sheer heroism' will apply to all as they are all dex+martial arts dice pool.

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True, I guess what I was really visualizing to myself may actually be three actions.

1) Slightly dodge to the side to get out of the way of the gun (from a cinematic standpoint I see him basically rolling on his side and the bullets hitting the ground mere centimeters away from him)

2) Throw

3) Ready to dodge again

I guess in my mind I was kind of combining 1&2. Your call if you'll let me alter his action to look like the above. As far as my understanding of your previous post goes, 'sheer heroism' will apply to all as they are all dex+martial arts dice pool.

The problem is that:

a) you can't dodge bullets in Adventure! without getting behind cover (see p.202). White Dragon is as close as anyone can get to being able to dodge bullets (& yes, as long as he can actually still move those shooting him will suffer the difficulty penalty for his Knack), but he'll still get no roll in this situation.

B) a Maimed character is 'a bloody mess' who can only 'hobble about' (see p.207), so acrobatics are right out.

Considering that Vito just shot Bai Long down to Maimed when the guy did get a roll, & was behind cover, what chance do you think he has if he's relying on Vito botching his attack roll? I haven't rolled yet, so you can go through with these actions if you want - just so long as you realise what it is you're trying to get your character to do.

Elements of the game are meant to be 'cinimatic', yes, but in both pulp stories & action films people heavily wounded & covered by a guy with an automatic weapon usually don't try to attack - that's reflected in the rules by the fact that doing so means your character is most likely to get killed.

If you really feel the need to keep attacking poor Vito, then I suggest the best way would be to use some sort of Dramatic Edit - your proposed actions are suicidal. ::wink

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So, just to make a clear situation painfully obvious: We're all waiting for the Prof's next ST post, and he's waiting for Prince of Boredom to change his last post or confirm his suicidal action. Right?

Ok, so I'm impatient... ::rolleyes

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  • 3 weeks later...
End of Act One

[in the interval the PCs can get on with their various activities - just post what your characters are doing next. Once everyone has posted, I'll introduce act two - the penthouse at the Monolith hotel.]

I'm kinda assuming that the vast majority of The White Dragon's downtime will be spent in recovery. That being said, Heritage, where did the Whistler take him? He obviously will not be very happy if he ahs to remove his mask.

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What I'm trying to achieve here is a 'pulp' feel for the game, & to maintain the pace.

I know full well that when faced with the opertunity to make choices some players have their characters do little or nothing, whilst others spend months (real time) working out the fine details of their character's lives.

So what I'm saying, in essence, is that anyone who is going to follow up the only real obvious lead the characters have been given, & visit the penthouse, will be arriving at roughly the same time - be that the same night or several nights afterwards. (I.e. whatever the group consensus ends up being).

Between the end of 'act 1' & my intro' for 'act 2' PCs have an opportunity to do stuff - I'm not trying to railroad people here after all, just maintain the pace - but I'm trying to avoid the need for going into detailed role-play for just one or two characters & therefore leaving everyone else high & dry.

It's not the most 'realistic' approach, sure, but I think that a 'pulp' genre game is one place where we can get away with such 'amazing coincidence' without ruining the feel of the thing.

So a post about what your characters do before going to the penthouse (or, if they aren't going to go there, a post to that effect) is all I'm really looking for. For the sake of group unity, try not to specify exact times (since if everyone posts that they'll go to the penthouse the next day, & one person insists on going that same night it'll mess things up for the majority) - a general indication / flavour text of what your characters are doing is the key here. Think of it as a single panel of a comic book with a little picture representative of the activity your character is going about & a block of descriptive text. E.g.:

"After the explosion at the warehouse Doc Dynamo heads back to his secret lab where he secures his experimental electro-discombobulator, repairs his suit, & calls Paper-boy Pete to see if he has any information on this mysterious 'Hooded Face' character..."

[This sort of info' gathering is fine - although a related PM will help me to know what you're looking for]

"... Finally, recalling the mysterious figure's comments about a 'cat of gold' he heads to the museum's new display about the Egyptian goddess Bast."

[This last being a lead-in to the next 'act' as already revealed - out of character - by the ST]

It's not the way these things usually work, I know, but I'm hoping it'll help with the whole pulp atmosphere thing.

If anyone thinks it's all a naff idea, then please, let me know.

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Sorry, between illness and stupidity, I didn't post yet, but will do so now. I like tooho's idea about getting a room in one's civilian identity, so I'm totally swiping it ::tongue.

As far as White Dragon goes, Whistler probably would drop him off at a hospital - sorry, don't know any grubby backstreet surgeons ::confused Out of respect for his identity, he would allow WD to remove his mask out of his sight.

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Elsewhere...

The White Dragon surveys the hotel. It's a large building, but he's sure he could climb it at full health. In his present state, however, he's unsure that it'd be a wise feat to attempt.

Since we kind of 'pulped' away the time delay, I'm unsure exactly how good/bad he is feeling...

Also, got a rules question. Exactly how does the resistance skill work to reduce health penalties? From reading it, I understand I can make a check every turn and if I succed I get an amount of dice pool back equal to the resistance skill for a duration equal to my successes. My question is, can I do it indefinately.

Ie. Could I fight for 10 turns and every turn use resistance to reduce my wound penalties? If that's the answer then I'm happy, but it seems a little powerful...

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Since we kind of 'pulped' away the time delay, I'm unsure exactly how good/bad he is feeling...

It takes a month to heal a single Health Level from Maimed (Lethal), two weeks if he's tended by someone with Medicine 2 or more, or one week if he's tended by someone with Ability Mastery in Medicine (p.208 to 209). No-one's actually mentioned where he was taken or what happened to the guy after he left Nightingales, but in any case, it's only the next night (at most) so he hasn't healed at all. If he doesn't get medical attention, then he'll only have healed a single Health Level by the time the next adventure! comes round in the next game month (if we ever get that far).

Also, got a rules question. Exactly how does the resistance skill work to reduce health penalties? From reading it, I understand I can make a check every turn and if I succed I get an amount of dice pool back equal to the resistance skill for a duration equal to my successes. My question is, can I do it indefinately.

Ie. Could I fight for 10 turns and every turn use resistance to reduce my wound penalties? If that's the answer then I'm happy, but it seems a little powerful...

It can be rolled as often as you like, but each roll is an action (as per normal): i.e. if you want to roll Resistance & punch a guy in the same turn, then you take the normal multiple action dice pool penalties to do so.

Obviously Resistance rolls don't stack - i.e. if you roll two successes one round, then roll another success the very next round, you've gained nothing (since the single round's worth of success you just gained was already covered by the first roll you made) - so you can't spend an hour rolling Resistance & build up a 'bank' of successes. What you can do is roll again each time your last roll's duration expires (again as an action). Also, since Resistance itself suffers normal dice pool penalties, rolling again once you're already making a successful effort to resist the pain can produce more successes.

Also note that Resistance doesn't stop a Maimed character being a 'bloody mess' or other such descriptors (p.207), & only helps movement as much as the amount of penalty it removes. Characters at Wounded or below still can't sprint, & characters who are Crippled can still only crawl at best.

White Dragon is usually a pretty fast guy (he walks at 7 meters per turn, runs at 17 meters per turn, & sprints at 35 meters per turn). Whilst Maimed he can't sprint at all, walks at 2 meters per turn, & runs at 5 meters per turn. With his Resistance he could walk & run at his normal pace (whilst the effort lasted), but still couldn't sprint at all.

As a long-term effort, taking his penalties into account, White Dragon is going to need to pause to re-roll his Resistance every other turn (on average). Climbing an art deco hotel would usually produce a rate of three meters per success, at very little difficulty; but it's currently snowing heavily, & very cold, so that rate of ascent would be less, whilst the difficulty more. So, he'd likely have a total rate of ascent equal to about ten meters per minute. That's presuming, of course, he's making no effort to stay concealed at the same time... ::ninja

To be brutally honest, he's better off walking in the front door in civies.

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it's only the next night (at most) so he hasn't healed at all.

Ok, that was not made clear, in fact based on your previous post you had seemed to purposefully not say a specific day...

No-one's actually mentioned where he was taken or what happened to the guy after he left Nightingales

Ok, I thought that was pretty clear based on Heritage's IC post:

If you're not going to fight, let me get you to a hospital - I have a car nearby.

and mine:

Alexander Stephens slowly stepped out of the taxi, handed the driver a twenty and headed into his small shop in Chinatown. He could still feel the pain of the gunshot wounds that, until recently, he had feared would be fatal. He was just lucky that The Whistler had been able to drop him off at the city hospital and (having removed his hood and tell-tale gee) they had bought his story of just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Also, Heritage's OOC post:

As far as White Dragon goes, Whistler probably would drop him off at a hospital - sorry, don't know any grubby backstreet surgeons  Out of respect for his identity, he would allow WD to remove his mask out of his sight.

I realize they are pretty generic, but I didn't think you were looking for detail beyond 'went to the hospital' during downtime. My bad.

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Ok, that was not made clear, in fact based on your previous post you had seemed to purposefully not say a specific day...

Yes & no - what I meant was that, due to the powers of cosmological pulp-era fate faeries (or what-have-you) all the PCs wouyld turn up at the same time. Since more than one character was keen to turn up as soon as possible, that meant that everyone had to (or miss out on all the... ahem... fun ::devil ).

I realize they are pretty generic, but I didn't think you were looking for detail beyond 'went to the hospital' during downtime. My bad.

No, you're right - it's just that, at this early stage of the game, it would have been kinda' helpful to get a few details: such as whether Whistler & / or Echo have now seen White Dragon's face; did he sign in under his own name; who paid for his treatment; did he discharge himself against doctor's orders; what sort of hospital did he end up at (NYC has more than one, & of variable quality, doesn't it? ::confused ) - that sort of thing. After all, a guy who's just miraculously survived multiple gunshot wounds could be of interest to doctors, the police, the media, criminals, etc., etc.. But hey, who needs Cipher, right? ::sly

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  • 1 month later...

Okay, that's a wrap for Issue 1 - feel free to post your character's concluding actions, naturally.

Issue 2 will start sometime in the next game month - I'll introduce it once any 'between issue' stuff has be sorted out.

Yes, I will assign XP (despite my better judgement ::sly )... ::rolleyes

For the time between issues feel free to post your character's general activities - just don't expect me to follow-up on any attempts to get into stuff that requires in-depth role-playing: the idea here is to keep the 'pulp'-style pace going (& to avoid some of the more problematic incidents that have cropped-up in my other games on this site - such as one or two characters getting to role-play whilst others are forced to sit things out).

As always, feel free to ask questions & pass comments on the game so far (er... politely, please ::wink ).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Right-oh - no questions or comments then I guess...

BTW: no, Cynthia doesn't notice if any of the other ice-sculptures are of the other vigilantes; Polly thinks the group is a good idea - but isn't too sure about all of the members; the Viking can indeed cross paths with Whistler & Echo - but I'd doubt if Whistler & Echo have too much spare time with which to devote themselves to teaching him culture (what with the full-time careers, social engagements... oh, & the crime-fighting sideline... ::rolleyes ) - in any case, Polly seems to have developed something of a crush on the Norseman...

My posting of Act one of issue two was meant to be a signal for players to post their characters' entrances into the next month's meeting - that is, if anyone's still interested in playing (it's hard to tell with no feedback)? ::confused

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no, Cynthia doesn't notice if any of the other ice-sculptures are of the other vigilantes

cool, that was the only thing I was wondering...I was busy correcting exams and watching Sky Captain today...and the latter means that I'm definitely still interested in A! ::thumbsup

I'll be posting shortly...

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