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Post by Rigil Kent on Oct 21, 2017 11:15:12 GMT -6
Working on this now. The following is my current working teaser for this installment:As with so much else, nothing is set in stone, however. Some notes: - Colin is not intended on being "Active" for this adventure; he'll be off doing something else.
- I am currently trying to figure out whether having this set near the eclipse in August or early October with the groovy red lights works best. Will keep you apprised.
- As stated at the table, Jack has been "demoted" and lost a level of Police Rank due to the tower-portal hijinks. PC can recover those 5 CPs. All three PCs are aware that someone in state government wants Special Investigations to go away, so this demotion and the subsequent long-term suspension for Jack seems to be the first salvos in an unseen war.
- I am presuming that the various PCs have their own agendas that they would like to advance, so tell me what your character (or characters in Giger's case) is doing in this period to advance those goals so I can incorporate this into the game.
- I'm currently unclear on how many episodes "Dead Line" will go as I'm a little concerned that what I do have is inadequate to fill the entire period (hence my request for info about each PC advancing personal goals and objectives so I can pad it out with character-specific scenes and actions.
More specifics as they trickle down...
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Post by Rigil Kent on Oct 23, 2017 15:00:24 GMT -6
Some additional notes based on my current thinking. "Dead Line" is going to begin on 8/18/17, which is 3 days before the eclipse. I've updated the time use sheet with the proper date. Please take a look at it when you can. Related to that, we'll need to add Colin on there. Regarding the question about the Profession Skill (Law Enforcement) that came up during episode 5, it does appear that both Jack and Woo need this skill. Looking at the time use sheet, I see that Jack has 6 unspent OSBI OTJ points and Woo has 2; I would recommend that the former (at the very least) spends 4 of those points in this Professional skill and I will update Woo's character by spending the 2 he's earned in that skill. For definition purposes, this is the catch-all skill that will be used whenever something comes up that is law enforcement related but is not obviously covered by existing skills. For example, "canvassing a crime scene" would fall under this category but talking to witnesses (Interrogation) or profiling a serial killer (Criminology) would not because they already have skills. Character specific: - I am aware that both Jack and Sofia have declared some intended actions for the down-time, specifically, Carter intends to investigate the shoot-out in order to figure out what really happened while Wizard Torres has stated that she wants to speak to Father Cristián Arreaza regarding his bizarre connection to Penemuel.
- Lee still has Aoibheal pestering him about getting the "kinslayer" out of prison. Regarding this, I realize that I did not quite do as good a job as I should explaining this: Shay Mackenzie is a young woman who Lee put in prison a few years ago after arresting her for murdering her parents (who she insisted were already dead ... like vampires!); he also linked her (circumstantially) to a couple of other missing persons. That Aoibheal wants her free is kind of interesting since Fae never do anything for free. Ever.
- Woo's grandmother has popped back into his life to train him following his "Awakening" and she is a hard master. He's spending a minimum of five hours a day training with her and that's on top of his normal 8-hour work day, so he's likely exhausted more often than not. She's also put him on a special diet of fish and rice. Grandma also would like him to ditch this police crap so he can focus entirely on training to be ... hmm ... I need a cool name evocative of the "immortal Iron Fist" ...
- I need to figure out how we determine the progress of his investigation into his father as well...
- Colin will be paid a visit by the Wardens who give him a very harsh warning about any violations of the Laws of Magic. I am currently unclear as to whether Sofia intends to officially adopt him as an apprentice, but at the very least, she might fall into the "part-time" master bit (so Colin becomes a kinda-sorta apprentice.) That's entirely up to the players to determine.
- Colin has also found himself thrust into a celebrity spotlight as he's become "Kimberly (don't call her Kim) Howell's" boyfriend and the celebrity watchers have noticed.
So ... huzzah for having a sugar-momma, I guess? Kimberly's parents were eaten by the Jade Court vampires (drained of their "life chi") in front of her and she knew that she was on the dinner menu, so she's still a bit traumatized from that and has made a conscious effort to shed her 'party girl' image ... which means Colin has sort of become her Morality Pet at the moment.
But beyond the above, are there any other specific things your character wants to do? Give me some direction so I can write stuff around your characters. Proactive PCs (and players) are awesome!
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Post by LabRat on Oct 26, 2017 11:05:19 GMT -6
Plans for Sophia for Chapter 7
1. Investigate Father Cristián- Well not so much investigate but check out what the heck he is doing discussing matters with a denarian. That is major bad news, and so Sophia would think that it was a part of her wizardly duty to determine if their interaction is a potential threat. I can’t remember, did Father Cristian act surprised when Sophia escorted the denarian to him. Or did he take it in stride?
2. Deal with Jenks and the Ring- Once Jenks wakes up Sophia will start to try to open up a dialogue to try to get some information on Jenks in terms of his life story and how he manifests his powers. It is rather obvious that she isn’t necessarily interested in Jenks himself, but more of how can he handle technology and what exactly is that ring on his finger. Making assumptions, but this might put Jenks off a bit, especially when Sophia offers for him to stick around so that she can investigate his abilities and “keep and eye on him”. If Jenks has questions then she tells him enough to cover the basics but just barely. I am sure that at the end of their conversation that he has more unanswered questions than what he started with, which adds to his frustration. Now I don’t know what Giger’s plans are for Jenks but if he gives her a “thanks but no thanks” reply then she will undoubtedly respond with a “well, you know where to find me” answer that is dripping with the assurance that only a seasoned wizard can have that yes, you are going to get into trouble, and yes you will undoubtedly need my help in the future.
3. Explore Bavinger house- I’m sure we touched briefly on this but I am sure there are oodles of secrets at Bavinger that Sophia hasn’t even begun to scrape the surface. What good is being THE wizard if she doesn’t even know the ins and outs of her own house? Plenty of plot devices can be found here.
4. Find out what happened in Chile-Probably should have done this last chapter but I don’t think I did. Surely the wizards have an official report or something that would give the details of what happened in her hometown and why they were attacked by Red Court. She wants to know what records they have and if it would give her insight. I fully expect this to be a dead end but you may surprise me.
5. Find EDUARDO!- This one….could become a bit interesting. I could see this being Sophia’s Achilles heel where she may ultimately blur her sense of duty with her own personal agenda. She wants to know what happened to Eduardo while he went away to Brazil. Why the Reds and the Whites are at war and especially why is it happening in OKC. If Eduardo had anything to do with the attack on her hometown and the death of their daughter. WTF is Eduardo doing here? Right now she’s a bit shell-shocked and rather furious. Lots of things could happen with this though in terms of plot hooks. She may make an uncomfortable deal with the Whites al la The enemy of my enemy is my friend trope. She may uncover something about Red Court and the Council will tell her to drop it but her sense of retribution forces her to go a bit rogue. And the main question is she seeking Eduardo for answers, or simply to kill him?
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Post by Gigermann on Oct 26, 2017 14:10:05 GMT -6
I suppose if Sophia has this (or any) discussion with Jenks at The House™ he will end up wanting to see more of it. I say the two of them end up in a mini-adventure getting lost in it somewhere, and bond over it.
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Post by Gigermann on Oct 29, 2017 16:05:40 GMT -6
Lee is getting worn out with the OSBI at this point, and has been murmuring about quitting. In the meantime, in preparation for his eventual exit, he's starting to try to tie up some loose ends on any of his old cases that might have been supernaturally excused. Specifically, he's dealing with the paper/leg-work involved in getting Shay released and reopening the case for which she was convicted (and being perpetually confused regarding Aoibheal's interest). He'll be entertaining ideas about what sort of occupation he might do next. Also, there's the off-and-on fighting (perhaps a future "occupation"). Some of his change-of-pace may be related to his regular therapy sessions. Tarot: 3 of Swords: "Hurtful" information will be revealed—I'd probably interpret as the "fight club" coming out Colin has been thrust into the wizards' world, and is learning what he can, both from Sophia and his own outside research. He and Sophia both are curious about the circumstances of his technological affinities, and the nature of the Ring™. He and Sophia will have had a Noodle Incident or two over the year, including getting lost in the House. He will have been seen "stepping out" with Kimberly, but he's having fun screwing with people trying to research who he is. He's continued his hacking "career," which Kimberly is slipping into, and his YouTube show has featured a popular interview with Kimberly, and a bit more insider rich-and-famous content, and cryptozoology/conspiracy stuff. He's more recently gotten involved with a group attempting to create their own "Star Citizen" clone/rival, Space Trucker (that won't ever really go anywhere). Tarot: Queen of Pentacles, Reversed: "…a woman who insists that everything be the best and won't accept anything less."—I'd interpret as he's struggling to keep up with the lifestyle
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Post by Magman on Oct 31, 2017 21:05:05 GMT -6
Jack will be helping Lee with his investigations Leg work part (gotta keep busy even though the boss says no). Do I know who Shay is? While doing this he wants to keep a close eye on Lee to see what he has been up to. Get more back ground on Woo. I don't recall if Sofia was able to able to reverse Cosima vampiric condition. I want to check into that. And while I am visiting Sofia I'd like to see if she knows a way to convert my two earrings into rings to wear on my fingers.
Spent four points from OSBI OTJ points time use sheet for the recommended Profession Law Enforcement skill. Spent two points from time use sheet (broadsword). Can I use the three points in the time use sheet (wrestling) and add one point from points gained to increase wrestling skill?
Also in the time use sheet I stopped increasing the one hour usage for broadsword and added that one hour to the 0.5 that was being used for knife. If that is alright?
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Post by Rigil Kent on Nov 1, 2017 11:29:29 GMT -6
Plans for Sophia for Chapter 7 Investigate Father Cristián- Well not so much investigate but check out what the heck he is doing discussing matters with a denarian. That is major bad news, and so Sophia would think that it was a part of her wizardly duty to determine if their interaction is a potential threat. I can’t remember, did Father Cristian act surprised when Sophia escorted the denarian to him. Or did he take it in stride? Since the events of volume VI, Father Cristián has been out of the country. Sofia will learn from his Church that he was summoned to Rome by the Pope himself, which all of his fellow priests consider a great honor. He will have just returned to OKC when play resumes. As to your question about him ‘acting surprised,’ if you recall, he did not even sound the same when he spoke which hints toward him not necessarily being in the “driver’s seat” at that moment... With this in mind, it sounds to me (and both you & Giger may wish to comment) that at the moment, Colin remains a ‘free agent’ who is sort of a pseudo-apprentice (ala the poor, doomed Kim Delaney to Harry Dresden in Fool Moon.) Am I perceiving this correctly? I know that Giger said he was likely going to be very leery about joining any sort of organization, especially one like the White Council initially, and Sofia is evidently unprepared to take on an actual apprentice, so this looks to be an informal arrangement at the moment, yeah? How much actual instruction does Sofia hand out to him? Or is she like a crack dealer wherein the first taste (of Magick) is free? This is likely going to be an ongoing thing and, like I mentioned F2F, one of these days, I’d like to do a ‘PCs are trapped in the House’adventure down the road (maybe use ‘House Calls’ as the name?), but I haven’t got any specifics on this yet. The Wardens will likely have something on this, though inevitably, they’ll want something in return and would no doubt be interested in knowing why you’re interested in this.. Let me digest a bit. So it sounds like you’re thinking of this as a long-term goal then? Looking at her current stats, I note that Sofia is not an investigator, so she’s likely going to be stymied on this for a bit. Presuming that she starts digging into this almost immediately, she’s not going to find out a lot about what’s going on for that reason - good thing she knows some actual, trained investigators! And it appears that one of them wants her to do some stuff for him! - without going ahead and reaching out to people she should not (e.g., Diana Raith or some other fairly significant supernatural thing.) Meta-Game Note: Eduardo is actually an Enemy for Matias and his appearance would normally be predicated upon that control roll; if you’re actively seeking him out in this way, though, that’ll change. A further meta-game note: I noted that I’ve Worfed Eduardo twice in a row now (first when Mat saw him get blasted by Solomander in ‘Death Curse’, now when everyone saw him get thrown out the window by Colin) so he’s clearly going to have to do something really nasty (and get away with it!) if he’s going to remain a believable threat... Lee is getting worn out with the OSBI at this point, and has been murmuring about quitting. Noted. Will be interested to see how Jack reacts to this. Heh ... the two of you are going to end up like Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson from season 1 of True Detective, aren't you? Regarding the Shay Mackenzie thing, that’s going to come up straight away in the first session. We’ll handle that there. Hmm. In addition to the fight club thing being discovered by someone, this plays in well for "Dead Line." Note that I've skipped Colin for the time being as he is not likely going to be involved in "Dead Line" so I will comment on those at a later date. Jack will be helping Lee with his investigations Leg work part (gotta keep busy even though the boss says no). Are you not investigating the shoot-out from the end of the previous adventure to find out what actually happened as you originally stated or is this just ‘in addition to’? Yes. Long story short: young woman (barely into her twenties now) who Lee put on death row because she murdered her parents and had circumstantial ties to a string of other deaths, all of which she claimed (mostly off-the-record) were because they were ‘monsters.’ At the time, Lee thought she was going for the insanity plea and worked hard to see that it didn’t happen. Now that he knows monsters do exist, Lee (at the behest of Aoibheal) has reopened the case. He’s been weird for a while now, but it’s getting worse. Since Lee has the ‘hurtful information revealed’ thing going on, Jack has probably found out about Lee being involved in an underground fight club, which is definitely an issue. Further, Jack has definite confirmation that Lee is involved with Aoibheal in some capacity which can’t possibly be good (don’t think Carter has Hidden Lore (Fae) so he doesn’t know how not good this is yet.) His dad was a cop killed in a routine traffic stop when Woo was a kid. Since then, his mom has remarried. What other kind of info is he trying to learn? No, she has not reversed that. As far as Sofia knows, there is no way to do so hence, Cosima is still stuck in a stasis box at Bavinger House. She’ll have to have the earrings for a while to study and analyze them which is not a short process. And that means they’ll be unavailable for him to use... Character point expenditures approved.
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Post by Magman on Nov 1, 2017 20:52:14 GMT -6
In addition to. Now that you have explained the Shay case. Sounds like it needs to be looked into and I'd like to help Lee if Lee is willing.
If Sofia is willing to help out. I'll help her out regardless.
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Post by LabRat on Nov 2, 2017 14:58:25 GMT -6
As to your question about him ‘acting surprised,’ if you recall, he did not even sound the same when he spoke which hints toward him not necessarily being in the “driver’s seat” at that moment... Ah okay, must have missed that. Makes more sense now...Well a visit is certainly in order With this in mind, it sounds to me (and both you & Giger may wish to comment) that at the moment, Colin remains a ‘free agent’ who is sort of a pseudo-apprentice For that, I am taking Giger's lead since it is his character. I was merely playing off what I perceived Jenks would do given his personality. If Giger decides that Jenks would really want to join up with Sophia then that's just fine. Though I do think that having a "bonding" episode would help segway that relationship. Right now Sophia is in over her head (I keep saying that!) so she views Jenks as one more thing she has to deal with. Regarding magic use, yeah she is a total crack dealer. She wants to leave a lasting impression that even though he may not be interested in learning anything now, it will settle in the recesses of his head and sparks a thought every now and again to keep his interest. The Wardens will likely have something on this, though inevitably, they’ll want something in return and would no doubt be interested in knowing why you’re interested in this. Oh I have no doubt that they will. But that's okay, she really hasn't done anything with the Wardens so it was only a matter of time before they showed up. So it sounds like you’re thinking of this as a long-term goal then? Yes, because it will really solve things on two fronts both professionally and personally. She will be contacting Jack as to how to go about this, or if he has any resources at his disposal. Of course she will help out with anything he would need. And hopefully I can put some investigative point into her sooner than later. It is a shame she doesn't have any. Presuming that she starts digging into this almost immediately, she’s not going to find out a lot about what’s going on for that reason [...] without going ahead and reaching out to people she should not (e.g., Diana Raith or some other fairly significant supernatural thing.). pfft! Nah, she is going to go hit up her beau Byron to see if he would be willing to lay the smackdown on her ex-husband.
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Post by Gigermann on Nov 2, 2017 16:44:55 GMT -6
Jenks is going to shy away from things that contain words like "duty," "obligation," "responsibility," etc. So he'll be keeping it "unofficial" as long as he can.
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Post by Rigil Kent on Sept 17, 2018 17:54:35 GMT -6
In the event that everyone votes for me to pick this back up, I am contemplating doing something of a point decrease to clean up and reduce the complexity of the characters for those who have not fully "latched on" to the system. For example, Sofia has 100 points sunk into the Ritual Path Magic stuff, but it is rarely used except when the GM pushes the player toward it and Matias' "newer" character version is gun fu'ed ... which probably doesn't make sense for a player who is admittedly "not a gun guy" (which is a GM fail - I pushed for that instead of trying to figure out more what the player wanted from that character) and Jack has at least two advantages I'm aware that he's never used. Throw in the possibility that Xeno may be joining us (not sure - he hasn't said) and I don't want him to start out with a 400+ point character. I'm already thinking about how to incorporate this point change into the actual narrative ...
I've also contemplated switching over to the Dresden Files Fate System entirely, but I actually don't know how that works (sadly, I missed my Fate game at GenCon so I've not played it) and I'm not sure how well that would go over since, historically, MagMan loathes rules light systems and I expect it would also eventually bug WxMAN as well (though hey, I could be surprised.)
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Post by WxMAN on Sept 17, 2018 19:56:30 GMT -6
I expect it would also eventually bug WxMAN as well (though hey, I could be surprised.) I have played quite a few more narrative games at GenCon as of late, and found them relatively enjoyable for one-shots and whatnot, though I agree with your assessment - I too am concerned about how long a super rules light system will be fun outside of one shots..... Though I also haven't played Fate yet either... hopefully next year....
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Post by WxMAN on Sept 19, 2018 11:17:49 GMT -6
Matias' "newer" character version is gun fu'ed ... which probably doesn't make sense for a player who is admittedly "not a gun guy" (which is a GM fail - I pushed for that instead of trying to figure out more what the player wanted from that character) While I appreciate the concern, I do have a passing interest in guns - I am just barely gun literate outside of recognizing a handful of popular guns - but do not have any desire to own one personally. Also, as you can guess, I'm not a shrinking violet, so if I didn't want Matias to gun fu, I'd of said so - I was looking for ideas as far as where he needs to go, and you provided them.
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