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Posting to say that I am interested in applying for this as one of the replacement characters, but don't know anything about the system. I am going to read up on the core rules tonight and see what I can pull together. I haven't had a chance to read through the game thread fully as of yet, though what I've seen so far looks pretty enjoyable. Is there a core concept that the party needs that I should think about making to help fill the gap?
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Jun 2, 2016 16:45
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Okay, I've read through the thread in full, and have gone through a fair amount of the core rulebook. I haven't looked at anything in any of the expanded universe books but I can probably do without trying to assimilate another 300 pages in one day. Based on what I've read so far I think I will be building an AI, and the working concept and backstory is below. The short version (in case you don't want to read a monstrous post) is that he is an artificial intelligence designed to prevent the development of unbraked artificial intelligence. The people that built him realized that political winds and funding might change over the course of hundreds of years, and wanted to have a fail-safe in case their descendants did something really loving stupid. His primary skills are in the realm of computer use, perception, stealth, navigation, science, and various medical technology, pre-tech and post-tech, plus a handful of other things picked up over the years. He monitors worlds of a certain technology level - let's say TL4, on the cusp of TL5 within the foreseeable future (for an AI) - and follows up on anyone who appears to be researching unethical artificial intelligence development. Specifically, unbraked AI. He'll kill anyone who does it without a second thought, full-stop, but it's not his first action. He'll try to sabotage their research, or discredit them so that they lose their funding, or give them brain damage with a bad line of cocaine if the opportunity arises. Whatever it takes, though. Direct action (i.e., a bullet to the head) isn't preferred because he really doesn't want to be revealed as that's a hassle to clean up, and would rather have people pass it off as bad luck or some other unfortunate circumstance. As for setting him on a collision course with the party, it seems likely enough that when you gather a bunch of rich people in one place, it stands to reason one of them might have shown up on my radar. It might be a false positive, and doesn't have to be a narrative element of the party since I imagine you already have other things planned, but that would be 'why I am there', as I am just following up on a lead of someone who has gotten involved in funding or otherwise supporting unbraked AI development. I will likely insert myself into the area as a robotic butler, so that I can remotely hack people's phones and listen in on conversations to see if there's anything that I need to deal with in relation to the person who showed up on my list. I probably had myself delivered to the location in a shipping crate a few weeks ago, and have just been being an actual butler in the house for that time, so as to avoid any security checks or increased scrutiny on the day of the event. In terms of how that works, as I read the book there are two pieces to it: > "Most starting AIs must choose between Standard, Echo, Nemesis, and Voyager armatures." >> This would probably be an echo, which I have been using to live a quiet and unassuming human life for countless years, and also to drive taxi (my day job). > "A technician with Tech/Postech-1 and access to an operational postech workshop could manufacture a Voyager for 500 credits, with a week’s work." >> I am trained in Tech/Postech-1, so if it's fair to say I have access to a workshop, would have probably custom-built a Voyager unit to have delivered to the dinner party with some of my starting funds. My echo would be in a safe-house somewhere in the city with my phylactery in case I somehow die, and I would have delivered myself within the voyager unit to the party to act as a butler / waiter / whatever actually works for the narrative. In terms of achieving that, it would be done through various hacking of records and perhaps diverting a shipment of an actual expert system robot who was ordered for the occasion, if that is feasible. Happy to talk this part through to get whatever makes sense. If I am reading the book right, "characters start play with four hundred credits plus 1d6 x 100 more with which to buy initial equipment." In combination with your post, this means my starting credits are equal to 400 + 1d6*100 (which is 400) + 3,000 bonus credits, for a total of 3,800, which is itself in addition to the free starting echo frame? I've built the below character sheet on that assumption, but if I'm missing something let me know. I've also purchased equipment based on TL4, which looks like it was mentioned as available on page 3? Project Durandal, Mk II.  quote:An except from the personal journal of Durandal, undated, encryption level six. pre:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Durandal Homeworld: Weltraum Zwang
Race: AI Languages: 4
STR 12 (+0) [Armature: Voyager] INT 18 (+2) [7 tolerance]
DEX 12 (+0) [Armature: Voyager] WIS 7 (-1) [1 tolerance]
CON 14 (+1) [Armature: Voyager] CHA 3 (-2) [0 tolerance]
Attack Low [0 tolerance]
Hit Points 5 / 5 [4 LV + 1 ability] Save Low [0 tolerance]
Armor class 4 [Armature: Voyager] Skill Growth Medium [2 tolerance]
Skill Pack High [5 tolerance]
Armature Pool High [5 tolerance]
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Skills [Bonus] [Basic] [Infiltrate] [Tech] [Explore] [Skill Cost]
Artist - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Athletics - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Bureaucracy - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Business - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Combat
> Energy Weapons - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Gunnery + 0 [X] --- --- --- 2
> Primitive Weapons - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Projectile Weapons - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Psitech - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Unarmed - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Computer + 1 [X] [X] [*] --- 3 [N/A]
Culture
> Alien - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Criminal - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Spacer - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Traveller + 0 --- --- --- [X] N/A
> World + 0 [X] --- --- --- 2
Exosuit - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Gambling - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
History - 1 --- --- --- [*] 1
Instructor - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Language - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Leadership - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Navigation + 1 --- [X] --- [X] 3 [N/A]
Perception + 1 --- [X] --- [X] 3 [N/A]
Persuade - 1 --- [*] --- --- 1
Profession - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Religion - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Science + 1 --- --- [X] [X] 3 [N/A]
Security + 0 --- [X] --- --- 2
Stealth + 1 --- [X] [W] --- 3 [N/A]
Steward - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Survival - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Tactics - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Tech
> Astronautic - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Maltech + 1 --- [W] --- [W] 3 [N/A]
> Medical + 1 --- --- [X] [X] 3 [N/A]
> Postech + 1 [X] --- [X] --- 3 [N/A]
> Pretech + 1 [X] --- [X] --- 3 [N/A]
> Psitech - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
Vehicle
> Air - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Grav - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Land - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
> Space + 0 --- --- --- [X] 2
> Water - 1 --- --- --- --- 1
AI Skill Packages
> [AI #1] Basic > Combat/Any (gunnery), Computer, Culture/World, Tech/Postech, Tech/Pretech
> [AI #2] Infiltration > Computer, Perception, Persuasion, Navigation, Security, Stealth
> [AI **] Persuasion proficiency replaced with Tech/Maltech (narrative reasons).
> [A1 #3] Tech > Computer, Science, Tech/Postech, Tech/Pretech, Tech/Any (medical)
> [AI **] Computer proficiency replaced with Stealth (mechanical requirement).
> [AI #4] Exploration > Culture/Traveller, History, Navigation, Perception, Science, Tech/Medical, Vehicle/Space
> [AI **] History proficiency replaced with Tech/Maltech (narrative reasons).
Languages
English [Default]
German [Homeworld]
Japanese [Intelligence +1]
Russian [Intelligence +2]
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Inventory
Armature
Voyager armature ( 500 cr) --- Fancy waiter costume
> Metatool --- --- Integrated
> Toolkit/Postech --- --- Integrated
> Bioscanner --- --- Integrated
> Compad --- --- Integrated
> Navcomp --- --- Integrated
Ready Equipment (maximum 6)
Lazarus patch [x1] ( 30 cr) 1 ENC
Medkit [x1] ( 100 cr) 2 ENC
Power cell Type A [x6] ( 60 cr) 1 ENC
Stowed Equipment (maximum 12)
Instapanel [x5] ( 250 cr) 5 ENC
Storage: Safe-house
Echo armature --- ---
Phylactery --- ---
Common lifestyle [30 days] ( 450 cr) ---
Credits (2,410 cr) ---
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3,800 cr 9 ENC
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Finally, what sort of languages should I pick from? Looks like I get four? As well, is there a list of homeworlds to work with? Waador fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Jun 4, 2016 |
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Jun 3, 2016 05:29
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Given your background, feel free to shift a point or two into Maltech, since that would be knowledge of unbraked AIs. Zeppelin Insanity posted:If you want to own a safehouse, then I'd say that costs you the rest of your starting credits that you haven't already spent on other things. Separately in the longer-term narrative, page 45 also seems to suggest that someone with Tech/Postech(1) can earn 25 credits per day, so that helps to explain where his money comes from, and fits in with the existing narrative of having a boring day job. I could technically make more per day with Tech/Pretech(1) or Tech/Medical(1) at what appears to be 100 credits per day, but I feel like he'd have avoided that because it would tend to draw more attention and require more paperwork. Since he doesn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe, he can easily work an 8 hour day shift driving a cab or repairing machines or what have you, and then spend the remaining 16 hours of the day performing what he sees as his actual function, with extended breaks from the day job as necessary, or working extra hours when things are slow to help build up an income cushion for when he needs to ghost for a few weeks (which is where the current surplus of 3,800 credits would come from). (The other part of it is that I probably don't want to buy real property in a space travel game since we might up and fly away (or blow up) the planet tomorrow.) Zeppelin Insanity posted:If you want to have a specialisation in stealth tech, I'm going to rule it as a knowledge of very advanced stealth tech, not something that will contribute to your stealth score by itself. But you'll be able to build all sorts of gadgets with enough time and the necessary components. Does that sound fair to you? Zeppelin Insanity posted:Homeworlds: here's a map. New Caledonia, Gen's homeworld, is (was) the only TL5 planet in the sector. TL4+ are Caerleon (military tech), Draken system (spaceships), Perseverance (assortment of small-scale specialities, no economies of scale - all jealously guarded secrets by the corporations), Holst (inbetween TL4 and TL5 in many areas, but less advanced than the specialised worlds). I'd say your best bet is either sharing a homeworld with Gen, or being from out of sector (and you get culture of whatever world you choose, that you spent some time on). Shantri Protectorate is off limits, since it's ~mysterious~. Zeppelin Insanity posted:Languages are future bastardisations of modern languages, though on major worlds you can get by with English as it's the general spacefaring lingua franca. Caerleon largely uses Welsh. Ellard's white largely uses Japanese. The worlds with obviously Russian names on the map use Russian. The rest is undecided as of yet, so feel free to make some of those calls. Waador fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Jun 3, 2016 |
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Jun 3, 2016 14:53
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Two promising threads converge on the Bear event at Brynmor Manor. Coincidence, most likely (83.7%), but one certainly worth your time. One of the guests, Mila Lebedeva is a member of a maltech cult. Standard machine-god pattern. One you've dealt with 273 times. Need more data to track them down. Perhaps the target will reveal something in conversations with other guests. Perhaps more direct questioning will be required. In light of that I will probably start the game with the following goals (which I realized was a piece missing from my sheet): Short-term: Investigate Mila Lebedeva (and others as necessary) at the dinner party, in order to acquire more information on the location, current progress, and likelihood that this cult will achieve its goals and thereby pose a threat to society. Mid-term: Investigate Synthetic Insights, starting with the executive at the dinner party, to understand what if any action is required to be taken to curtail their development. Long-term: Identify, verify, and eradicate the development (or existence) of an unbraked artificial intelligence by any means necessary.
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Jun 3, 2016 15:44
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Dropping persuasion seems reasonable, as your charisma is low anyway. I think History fits quite nicely, since you've been around a long time. I'd switch Tech/Medical if I were you, but it's your call. History is described as "training in galactic history" which "can identify worlds, events, and people of historical importance." In contrast, Culture (traveler) is described as representing "a casual, basic knowledge of many different worlds." I have probably entirely or at least largely ignored a lot of the major aspects of what constitutes history and social development (being religion [except when it relates to machine gods], systems of government [except when they wish to be governed by an all-powerful AI], economic policies [unless the money trail leads to AI development], social policies [in general I doubt this would interact much with my areas of focus], or the arts, music, and other forms of entertainment of any given era. I would have definitely interacted with them, but only as like, something you need to learn to operate in a society at a given point in time, without really giving it any real attention or thinking it's important in the grand scheme of things. A good analogy would be if I got transported back to World War II, I wouldn't know anything about baseball statistics, or much at all about popular cars of the period, except that they were important to people of the era. A student of history might know that [Baseball Player A] hit [number] home runs and that the [City Name Sports Team] won the world series in [year], or that [car model] was the best seller in that [same year] because it was a big deal to people of that era, and a bunch of events and notable commentary ended up being recorded about it. A traveler in that country knows that those people gave a whole lot of a poo poo about baseball for some reason, and they sure loved to talk about it, but that's really all they retained. So probably the difference between a DC6 history check to remember a key pertinent historical detail that was readily documented, and a DC9 culture (traveler) check to remember what people in the streets were celebrating about when I happened to be there. All of which is to say while I have definitely accumulated a lot of experience on historical data, I probably classify it in my data banks as mostly outdated and/or largely irrelevant, so a good modifier in the history skill probably isn't necessary. The attitude I'll probably end up taking towards things I have experienced is more likely to align with what culture (traveler) provides, and thankfully that skill is already in the mix. Anyway I'll edit the sheet for the movement in persuasion and history. Zeppelin Insanity posted:Yeah, sounds fair. Zeppelin Insanity posted:Ah, I misunderstood you. But if what I mentioned sounds appealing, then consider it too. Don't feel restricted to what's in the rulebook in terms of gear: I consider it a base, and having a guy building all sorts of cool things that aren't available to buy could be nice. Again, though, your call! Zeppelin Insanity posted:Makes sense too, but one point regarding worldbuilding: other worlds could have been TL5 at the time. They just aren't now, due to any number of factors. Lack of resources, lack of technical know-how to reproduce and maintain the tech (TL5 relies on psionics in the manufacture process, and most psionics died during the Scream), and so on. But at the moment, New Caledonia is one of the few worlds with large stashes of TL5 tech still around - but most people don't know that, and the world hasn't been in contact with the rest of the sector. Most people probably don't know it exists except for Gen. Weltraum Zwang Atmosphere: None (space station) Temperature: Climate Controlled Biosphere: Limited (several greenhouses installed in the local asteroid belt) Population: 400,000 at its height. Estimated 0 today. Tech Level: TL5+ at its height, specialized in artificial intelligence development. Presumed destroyed. Primary Languages: German and English  Description: This colossal starbase was named after an ancient German word which meant 'to be forced', and which itself was used to describe scenarios where one felt extreme pressure and stress to make a strategic move, like in a game of chess. Funded by a coalition of wealthy intellectuals and technological oligarchs well before humanity's fall, it was a research station which at its height employed and housed over four hundred thousand scientists, programmers, and support staff. It existed for a few reasons. Officially, it was a joint venture between several of the largest and most prominent technology firms of the era, whose stated purpose was to 'expand the boundaries of known science in the areas of artificial intelligence and robotics'. On paper, that much was true. Hundreds of varying artificial intelligence development and educational programs were carried on within its gravity, and cutting-edge research on armatures was either theorized or prototyped within its secure laboratories. Unofficially, however, it was also the covert base of operations for what history would have come to know as "Project Backpfeifengesicht". At least, history would have come to know it as such, if not for The Silence. Its namesake was a rather unique German word, stemming from a meaning along the lines of "a face that is begging to be punched." It was for this reason that the station truly existed. The project was founded on an ideology shared by some of the greatest human minds of the time, which roughly translated into two beliefs: first, that absolute power corrupted absolutely, and that it was mathematically provable that absolute knowledge resulted in the same corrupting influence. Second, that human fallibility was the only certainty in life (though many would argue this was simply the ego of the aforementioned greatest minds of their time). The theory was that if humanity were to continue to exist into perpetuity, eventually factors would come together whereby the political and economic winds of the day somehow managed to convince people that putting their trust into (or simply failing to notice the rise to power of) an all-powerful unbraked artificial intelligence would occur with mathematical certainty. Humans, in the long-term, couldn't be trusted to always act in their own best interest. They usually could, but not always. And this was, in the opinion of the Founders, the cold hard math of the situation: it would only take one mistake in this area to end all life in the sector. A single artificial intelligence, left to grow like a cancer in the bowels of a world at the right period in history could end everything. They had an incredible aspiration: they wanted to give the galaxy an immune system. Not literally, of course, but figuratively. An artificial intelligence designed by the greatest minds of the generation with one express purpose: to ensure the development of artificial intelligence was not allowed to go astray. To protect humans from their own fallibility. To build a better world. To give their descendants the machine. Their ego crept into the marketing materials, obviously, but they had a good idea. They also poured a few trillion credits into the program, which tended to produce results in that era. The program had been up and running for decades before The Scream. Hundreds of highly trained and carefully designed AIs had been dispersed in secret across the galaxy, and had been acting covertly to monitor and decimate any perceived threat to the safety of galactic civilization, insofar as it related to the field of artificial intelligence. Everything changed when the world ended, obviously. The station had reserves sufficient to last years, but nobody ever thought to prepare for a disaster that would last centuries. Food ran out. Water ran out. Oxygen ran out. Before too long all that was left were the few unlucky AIs who happened to be on the station when galactic civilization fell. He assumes they went insane, but thankfully Durandal wasn't among them, having been on a developing world at the time. Hundreds of years have passed since he's had any contact with the research station that was his place of birth and effective homeworld. It was hidden in an asteroid belt in an out of the way system, and shielded from detection by the tremendous stellar radiation of the local binary star. Absent the regular maintenance required and afforded by the support of the wealthiest people in the universe for their era, as well as the simple luxury of functioning interstellar travel, it is fairly likely that radiation and solar storms have completely decimated the once proud facility. Durandal hasn't been to check, though. That said, there would have been at least a handful of AIs rather similar to him on board at the time of the calamity. With sufficient motivation, and literally all the time in the world, as well as a bit of luck ...it was entirely possible they'd found a way to keep the station in operation. If the roles were reversed, he would have tried to fit it with a spike drive. A blind jump would have been incredibly dangerous, unless you had the combined processing power of a few collaborating AIs running the numbers and checking them for a few decades. If you did that, you might be able to plot a course, even if your 'vessel' was fifty times the size of the largest known starship of the era. You might still jump it into a sun, though. Still, when life gives you lemons... --- If that works for you it works for me. I haven't really thought about where it would have been in the galactic map, but it probably doesn't matter. Based on what I've written if it stayed where it was it would have been destroyed. If by some miracle some survivors or a few unlucky AIs trapped on the station managed to rig it with a spike drive, they would have had to blindly jump it somewhere in space, without the resources to properly calibrate the jump for a vessel of that size, or the benefit of any psychics to guide them. If you end up wanting to insert it into the narrative at any point, they could have landed anywhere, at any point in history, or frankly still could, I suppose. Waador fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Jun 5, 2016 |
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Jun 4, 2016 02:43
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Apocron posted:I'm still around. Just waiting for the new players to get their stuff together. Waador fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Jun 7, 2016 |
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Jun 7, 2016 00:23
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:There isn't an irc and I'm bad at irc. Do you think we should have one?
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Jun 7, 2016 01:11
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Requested access to edit the character sheet, if you could approve when you have a chance I will have some time to populate it this weekend. Have been on a trip to Iceland this past week so haven't had a whole lot of time for it to date, so my apologies for that. As for where the game thread goes I am happy with whatever, I just want an avenue to throw down walls of text.
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Jun 17, 2016 08:18
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TheTofuShop posted:Zepp, you monster I really liked the spoiler text as a mechanism to indicate him starting to black out.
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Jun 21, 2016 21:56
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To be clear, I am entering in the passwords as well as the firmware hack via keyboard. I am not willing to create any kind of network connection to the ship through myself while I am also connected to the other artificial intelligence. I don't want to end up bridging him into the ship. Figured that clarification was worth making in case it ended up mattering, though the way I read it everything inside was keyboard-only without a neural interface anyway.
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Jun 22, 2016 02:28
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Ghost ridin' the whip. I've picked up a couple of the supplements so far, though hadn't read through that one yet. Ghost driver looks like it would be perfect for what I'm aiming for, though, yeah.
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Jun 23, 2016 22:28
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For my own recordkeeping and planning, how much did the news agency end up transferring me? Was it the full 90,000 after editing out the bascially-advertising piece?
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Jun 26, 2016 18:01
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:50k, after the negotiation. Sorry, forgot to add that to your sheet! The basically-advertising piece could potentially come in quite useful. That's basically Voight's plan at the moment. Great cover story, after all. For completing the short term goal, do you think 250xp sounds fair? I admit my approach to numbers so far has been whatever feels right at the time, but I want it to be fair to you guys! I built my first three goals on the assumption that the short-term goal would probably give me a decent chunk of a level, the mid-term goal would probably give me a full one or close to it, and that the long-term one would generate several levels instantly if somehow achieved. Practically speaking my current long-term goal is basically impossible at our current level and will require a dozen short-term goals focused on improving my odds to have a chance at success, so is probably itself worth thousands or tens of thousands if and when achieved. That approach seems to help with the narrative though. All of my short-term and mid-term goals need to align with the ultimate purpose of achieving the long-term goal, so they kind of seem like they will flow logically from one to another. Even though I didn't achieve the 'location' part of my original short-term goal, it has formed a part of the revised short-term goal, so remains there but a bit more focused as to the why and how.
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Jun 26, 2016 19:30
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Apocron posted:HP: 1d6 4 Zeppelin Insanity posted:Sorry I haven't been sorted everything out yet - had a lot on my mind lately. Will get back in the swing of things soon.
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Jun 28, 2016 01:06
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I definitely know what you mean. Apologies if I've drowned the last few pages in text that weren't really decision points for people to participate in. Have been trying to data mine the situation as much as possible to avoid us getting blindsided by something like invisible assassins and their invisible tanks again, though that shouldn't come at the cost of your enjoyment. I was spoilering most of it so that people could skip over it guilt-free.
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Jul 7, 2016 14:30
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Once I manage to shut down all my other on-the-go projects, being the signal analysis and such, I will get to work preparing a proper armature for Chatham. Wanted to get your thoughts on how I might modify a stock Nemesis armature, and the associated costs to do so. Essentially I have the following modifications in mind to the standard Nemesis hull:pre:Integrated Equipment Remove >> Laser Rifle (+2 Encumbrance) Remove >> Monoblade (+2 Encumbrance) Add >> Thermal Pistol (-1 Encumbrance) Add >> TL4-Binoculars (-1 Encumbrance) Add >> Assault Suit (-2 Encumbrance) Remain >> Compad I was largely thinking it might make sense to just add the base cost of the equipment? Technically there's nothing stopping him from wearing an assault suit and some binoculars on top of the armature, so integrating it really just simplifies the power supply of energy cells, and fits a bit better from a roleplay perspective. In that case the base cost to construct a Nemesis from scratch is 500cr, plus the cost of an assault suit of 6,000cr, and the cost of binoculars of (I think) 200cr. The price of a laser rifle and that of a thermal pistol is the same so theoretically those two could be swapped in the base armature without any impact to pricing. That's a base price of 6,700cr to manufacture, perhaps rounded up to 7,000cr for an extra few hundred credits for chrome
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Jul 7, 2016 18:15
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:I thought some more about armatures. I'm gonna give the go-ahead for the one you described, but I'd suggest you also look for inspiration in things like vehicle and mech fittings to see if anything could be applicable - I think that'd be more interesting than just regular equipment. If we want to start considering the possibility of adding mech and vehicle fittings onto an armature (which probably isn't unrealistic), we should probably start to figure out some house rules to upscale and downscale various technology. There are definitely vehicle fittings that I would want to slam onto an armature, but also onto a spaceship, as an example. Ghost driver is a good example of that, but according to the vehicle fitting guide it would require 1 Power and 1 Mass from a host vehicle. That makes it a bit harder to justify relative to spaceship fittings with the same guidance for power and mass consumption, but radically larger benefits to go along with the larger vehicle. Any thoughts on how you want to approach that? I had initially thought some kind of upgrade/downgrade system might make sense to account for size, but it could be complicated (i.e. 1 spaceship mass = 3 or 5 vehicle/mech mass). Looking through the mech hull section in the core rulebook, and the vehicle fitting data in Engines of Babylon, there seems to be a fairly smooth progression between mech hull limitations and vehicle fitting limitations, being: pre:Mass Power Hardpoints Psi suit 5 5 1 Specialist suit 5 10 1 Shock suit 10 5 2 Gravcar 3 8 1 Helicopter 5 11 2 Gravtank 10 17 4 An idea would probably be 1/1 for a basic tolerance 3 armature, +4 for each additional point of tolerance dedicated to modularity. That way Gen could have a 5/5 hull which is in line with a psi suit, while not strictly better than a much more expensive specialist or shock suit. That would work out more or less as follows: pre:Mass Power Hardpoints Basic armature (3) 1 1 0 Modular armature (4) 5 5 1 Modular armature (5) 9 9 2 vs. Gravtank 10 17 4 Zeppelin Insanity posted:I'd also like to either restrict it to Gen, or give Gen more options than Durandal as he has a spare tolerance point. That said it is probably worth noting that I think he has tolerance 4 for armatures, and I have tolerance 5 reserved for the same, so at some point I am pretty likely to slip into a world-ending calamity of an armature. It will likely be a space-based weapon of some sort, if I know myself. Waador fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Jul 12, 2016 |
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Jul 12, 2016 01:23
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Rhyos posted:If you take the armature tolerance out of the equation, Gen has 6 tolerance points available.(17/20 used, with 3 for the Nemesis armature. 17-3=14, leaving 6 remaining.) Zeppelin Insanity posted:I actually would be against Ghost Driver for space-use. At least the possession aspect, I would say from a game mechacs standpoint that makes AIs too good, and from a lore standpoint once you get to space distances the timelag is too great for it to be useful. With the Fampir I would say it would allow basic commands like "go to these coordinates", "return to mothership" and so on, but the expert system would be at a severe disadvantage in actual combat. Zeppelin Insanity posted:While on the subject of ghost drivers, it's not stated in the rulebook but I'm going to house rule that an AI can only possess one vehicle at a time - true large-scale control is the domain of unbraked AIs. Starvation Cheap (pg. 31) posted:Very few planets in the modern day have access to a functional AI. The few surviving intellects are almost all creations of Mandate scientists and cyberpsychologists, and few of the sane ones have much interest in generalship. However, a sufficiently powerful robotics industry wedded to a determined AI can make an overwhelming difference in warfare. An AI core needs access to vast stores of computing power and support circuitry to take control of a robot army. An AI core with nothing more than an armature to carry it can do no better than an ordinary bot wrangler, but one interfaced with a computing cluster as big as a factory building can control tens or hundreds of thousands of bots. It also carves out a bit of a niche between braked and unbraked intelligences. On the braked hand you've got this awareness that can expand outwards into infinite bodies, assuming enough processing power and other hardware, but its stats are always going to be the same and more or less in line with a human. On the unbraked side you've got this terrifying awareness that can do that, or also dedicate the hardware to giving it 18 in all statistics and +4 in every skill (or higher, I suppose), achieving things in a few months that even the most competent human can't even imagine, let alone set out to accomplish in a lifetime. Zeppelin Insanity posted:I also think that when it comes to using starship fittings on vehicles and the other way around, it might be easier to just go case by case rather than try to math out something that works. I'm not too worried about the PC's spaceship becoming overpowered, though. While some of the themes I want to explore might be a bit dark, I still want to keep the spirit that you guys are big drat heroes. Zeppelin Insanity posted:The only issue I have with that approach is that I still want to keep the progression to the pretech ones for Gen, and don't want what he has available now to be strictly better than something extremely difficult to obtain. The same situation plays out more or less for the Titan, at 1,000,000 credits. It provides 18's in physical stats across the board, +10 HP per level, comes equipped with a wide array of pretech weaponry, and is in general a monster. If you were to try, I don't think you could actually spend 1,000,000 credits in upgrades on a Nemesis before running out of free mass and power, though you could definitely build 30 differently-kitted Nemesis units suited to different situations. It'd probably be the Batman/Superman thing at that point. The Titan is all-around amazing and almost impossible to defeat in a head-to-head fight, but a factory full of Nemesis units designed to obliterate very specific situations is just as hard to deal with once the correct unit is brought out of its box. Zeppelin Insanity posted:I haven't actually done the math to figure out if it would be super powerful, but the simplicity of the idea appeals to me - how about this: the basic armature has 1/1, as you suggested. Gen gets another +4/4 due to his additional tolerance point for 5/5. He can go further with no hard limit, but every additional 4/4 comes with a -1 to all rolls due to the increased difficulty of operating an exponentially more complex armature. I would probably suggest that the hard limit be the tolerance available to spend on it, and do away with the -1 to rolls piece as a result (i.e. he could only ever get +13/+13 to a Nemesis, and +5/+5 to a Bane, rather than infinite scaling). The thing to keep in mind is that the roll penalty starts to incentivize to just steal a mech or gravtank, or buy a helicopter, since they have inherently more hardpoints and free mass and power and wouldn't suffer those roll penalties to kit out with half a dozen grenade launchers. Ultimately it's up to you but I'd be wary of anything that contains the words "no hard limit" when applied to PCs, and similarly I think the math starts to degrade in favor of vehicles quickly with the roll penalty. Zeppelin Insanity posted:In that case I would also say the only way to modify AC should be through vehicle/mech fittings. He keeps the laser rifle, but it can be traded for a hardpoint - with the catch being that mounting a better weapon comes with the same mass/power costs as with a suit or vehicle. Zeppelin Insanity posted:As for how you've been able to build two within 24 hours: well, my thinking was that in addition to what you described in the post, you also had a team of techs at your disposal to take care of the man-hours. Waador fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Jul 12, 2016 |
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Jul 12, 2016 15:36
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What ever happened to Christof? And/or is Egregious still playing?
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Jul 18, 2016 21:57
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:As for Durandal's expenses, I think it's most reasonable that Voight covered the armature bits itself (not the extras like the assault suit). The rest comes out of cash, but, you know, you are kinda loaded at the moment.
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Jul 23, 2016 18:09
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TheTofuShop posted:I dunno how much the C4 would cost, I'll leave that up to you. Starvation Cheap, pg. 98 posted:Lance charge
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Jul 27, 2016 01:31
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A Darker Porpoise posted:Worth noting 588 is wearing an Echo and is functionally indistinguishable from a human being unless we get him on an operating table and start slicing the body open I don't think anyone is even aware of the butler bullshit. Though questions might exist with regard to how or who stole the spaceship.
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Jul 28, 2016 00:07
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. As far as I can tell we'd all be under the impression that the human sitting in the car with us is the real 588 and that they'd been piloting the armature you'd run into at the party from a remote location. Voight and her team have a much clearer picture of what's going on.
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Tofu this is a reminder that I gave Gordon 1,000cr back in the briefing room a while ago. I deducted it from my sheet but not sure if you added it to yours.
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Aug 4, 2016 03:23
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Stealth suits! I suspect the answer to both is no, since that aligns with the 'upgraded combat field uniform' theme, in that it's the base item plus a few perks, with combat field uniform also being AC 4, encumbrance of zero, and not requiring exosuit proficiency to use. I could probably see an argument for encumbrance of one though to offset the perks, depends on how well you want to position Raven's manufacturing in the narrative. Thoughts? At that point you've got an armor progression, essentially, of: T1 > Combat field uniform [AC 4 / ENC 0 / Cost 1,000 / TL4] T2 > Stealth field uniform [AC 4 / ENC 0 / Cost ? / TL4+] T3 > Assault suit [AC 2 / ENC 2 / Cost 6,000 / TL4 / Exosuit 0 / Immunity to TL3 / Atmosphere] T4 > Deflector array [AC 2 / ENC 0 / Cost 30,000 / TL5 / Immunity to non-primitive TL3] T5 > Powered armor [AC 1 / ENC 2 / Cost 10,000 / TL4 / Exosuit 1 / Immunity to TL3 / Atmosphere] T6 > Field emitter panopoly [AC 0 / ENC 1 / Cost 30,000 / TL5 / Immunity to TL3 / Atmosphere / Immunity to Radiation] That said, your other post mentioned the stealth suits also have "advanced optics, navigation systems and of course the stealth system." Is that just flavor or are there specific subsystems integrated into the suit for the optics and navigation? I ask because TL4 thermal, binoculars, and low-light vision are separate items, as is a navcomp, so any items bundled into the gear would definitely be good to know. Waador fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Aug 6, 2016 |
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Aug 6, 2016 17:16
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TheTofuShop posted:holy gently caress I worked two doubles this weekend and now we are dropshipping into the embassy. I'll just point out that if Voight had let me bring a payload of nerve gas, all of our problems would be solved right now!~ ...maybe I'll mention that to her when we're debriefing later. Separately for Zepp, and this is really more for my own understanding of the narrative progression, have I been correctly guessing some of the major plot points and risks in advance (i.e. the cloaked tank, Rhyne's plan to assassinate the prime minister and ignite a war), or have you just been going with the flow on that narrative when I drop my monologues? Either way I think the thread is reading really great but curious as to whether I've been actually picking up on relevant stuff. Waador fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Aug 9, 2016 |
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Aug 9, 2016 20:13
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Are the pistols on the Holst guards TL3 or TL4? All the 1d8 guns in the book are TL3 so I am sort of curious as to whether they pose any threat to Chatham. When it comes to projectile weapons it seems anything less than a mag pistol doesn't have the penetrating power to breach an assault suit, and those are 2d6+2. Not sure if this is intentional to play into the whole "Holst is terrible at ground warfare and Caerleon is not" storyline but probably worth clarifying for the benefit of Rhyos' decision-making.
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Aug 14, 2016 02:01
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Are we waiting on Gordon to take his shot [or other action] at the moment? Also I have added the +1,000 credits to Gordon's spreadsheet before we all forget about it, bringing him up from 1,540 to 2,540 total.
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Aug 18, 2016 22:56
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:588 is very, uh... ruthless. Ugly way for someone to go. Incidentally, ka-ching. Goal #1 posted:Former General Aran Rhyne must die. His head must be delivered on a silver platter to Agent Voight in exchange for diplomatic immunity, which itself is necessary to acquire and retain the resources and support needed to address the AI threat. Simultaneously, the elimination of the general will encourage the unbraked AI to view me as a trusted asset and resource for its own ends, which will be of value if I am to be taken into its confidence and ultimately determine its location. The death of the general, while a regrettable loss of life, must occur to ensure the safety of the sector.
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Sep 1, 2016 15:29
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Apocron posted:I don't know if my character really fits in the game anymore. It seems that since we went espionage we've moved from Friefly style dynamics to non-stop AI robo-007-talk. Maybe Ellard should just bow gracefully out of this and go looking for his tribe.
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Sep 9, 2016 03:09
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Hey guys. Sorry for disappearing for ages. It's all good, thanks for confirming! I'll post to see if anyone else wants to take on the DM role since we've got an active group of players, or maybe one of them will want to do that. Otherwise it's been a blast so far, so thanks for running! You mentioned this was your first time DMing anything (I think) and if that's the case I'd say you definitely did a great job.
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Sep 13, 2016 18:28
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Rhyos posted:I've got to agree with the others - you did a fantastic job, and I hope things smooth out soon! I thought about it but I'm probably much more interested actually playing this than writing it. On the bright side I am currently trying to convince other people to run it.
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Sep 13, 2016 21:11
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Byers2142 posted:I saw Waador's post in the TG game recruitment thread, and wouldn't mind stepping in to GM from here if you'll have me. I'm still reading the game thread to get caught up, but spent a little bit talking with Waador and A Darker Porpoise on IRC. Let me give you a short background on myself and a pitch on where I think I'd pick the game up. G3n.Chatham // Lv. 1 Quasi-AI // 1,920 of 2,005 XP Three outstanding goals that aren't yet complete. Story progression experience not yet awarded for arc two (we probably should have failed this mission by the numbers and pulled through, so probably worth a fair amount). Gordon Zhang // Lv. 2 Expert // 1,920 of 3,020 XP Three outstanding goals that aren't yet complete. Story progression experience not yet awarded for arc two (as above). Cyril Cavil // Lv. 1 Psychic // 1,990 of 2,005 XP Goal #1 complete but not resolved into XP: Get in a real fight. Goal #2 complete but not resolved into XP: Survive a close scrape with death. Story progression experience not yet awarded for arc two (as above). Durandal / "588" // Lv. 2 Pretech AI (born in 2,378, age 822) // 2,170 of 4,010 XP Goal #1 complete but not resolved into XP: Former General Aran Rhyne must die. His head must be delivered on a silver platter to Agent Voight in exchange for diplomatic immunity, which itself is necessary to acquire and retain the resources and support needed to address the AI threat. Simultaneously, the elimination of the general will encourage the unbraked AI to view me as a trusted asset and resource for its own ends, which will be of value if I am to be taken into its confidence and ultimately determine its location. The death of the general, while a regrettable loss of life, must occur to ensure the safety of the sector. Story progression experience not yet awarded for arc two (as above). We should probably figure out a system for defining what goals are worth as XP when setting them up rather than estimating when they're completed, though not much to be done about that at present. I would agree it makes sense to open a new thread to give the go-forward DM ability to curate the first post as necessary. I would also echo ADP's point that if Zepp wanted to continue playing instead of DMing I think that'd be awesome. As for who is still playing I am fairly certain that myself, Rhyos and ADP are still in. I haven't seen Tofu/Gordon in a bit but I know he got busy with work, but hopefully he's still around as well.
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Sep 13, 2016 21:53
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I'll just leave this here to help with the narrative of joining the party for any new PC's. The following was just posted to the public internet, putting a name to the heroes at the events of the Federation Day gala, and seemingly credited with the as-yet-undisclosed event in the downtown quarter of the Capital City earlier this afternoon. "Caerleonlist > Jobs > Security posted:
Waador fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Sep 14, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 01:54
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Rhyos posted:Also chiming in on the "it's late" bandwagon - remember the gentleman The Commodore got in touch with concerning an expedition to New Caledonia to see what's left? Anyone interested in that route, or does Byers have something else in the wings? Tomb worlds are super dangerous but if you want to get turned into a proper AI we're going to need a functioning pretech medical lab, so that might be your best option. For ...reasons... I also need to try to find a pretech spike drive or other similar power source, and that might not be a bad place to start. Funding an expedition to a forgotten world is going to be ridiculously expensive, however. Unless we convince the government to fund it in exchange for a share of the plunder, we're going to need a third party backer. We could probably go either way at present given the number of favors owed to us by the Prime Minister, I suppose.
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Sep 14, 2016 15:47
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A Darker Porpoise posted:I'm not opposed to starting to lay the ground work for looting Caelondia, but I'd rather not send a handful of level 2 characters to a tomb world only to be pelted to death by killsats and shot apart by automated turrets lining the streets or whatever is up there haha. As for our next steps, I've got a bunch of things on my to-do list, but we can see where life takes us and I'll fit in my agenda as necessary.
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Sep 14, 2016 19:06
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Byers2142 posted:I'd also like to float a potential house rule for initiative I've used in other systems for PBPs in the past that should make things a little smoother and quicker. It would also be good to understand how we are going to handle the setup and execution of surprise rounds (either set up by us or against us), since that's a huge edge in this system and I tend to go out of my way to try to set up the pins for the party. I suspect the answer is that you don't get to declare if you aren't aware there's a threat, or you only get to declare what you're doing based on what you actually know, but just want to know how we'll navigate it. I suspect it'll be narratively obvious if we have a chance to set up a surprise round or not, though. I also wonder about the tactical impact of the declaration progression. If all attack actions resolve simultaneously, it becomes difficult to have a turn of "I move 2m out of cover, fire off a burst around the corner, and then retreat 8m back down the corridor and through a different door." The intent being to ensure you have cover against any counterattacks, can't be targeted by the enemy at the end of your turn from their position, or force a person to waste their turn to ready an action to shoot you when you pop out. If the enemy is guaranteed to get to fire and there's no way to outthink them to alleviate them of their turn, combat becomes a bit of an RNG (obviously it already is, but you know what I mean). We haven't been using tactical maps for combat (and I don't think we need to) but the general description of the room or area is generally enough to build a solid turn that minimizes any risk to the player.
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Sep 15, 2016 03:00
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Byers2142 posted:Edit after reading rules: Actually, for the third option, I'd point out that what you described is an illegal move. From the rules: Ahh yeah that's fair, I'd forgotten that. I think I got too used to the 5E D&D rules of being able to split out a move during a turn as required.
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Sep 15, 2016 04:24
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Durandal, don't forget about the nanites CID is keeping for you in storage. Yeah no worries, it's on my list. I included a blurb in my post about having all the gear at CID transferred out. I have a fairly long list of things to deal with at the moment but cleaning up loose ends is definitely on there, and the nanites are within that subset on the list.
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Sep 17, 2016 04:56
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I am not sure how you are going about the army-building process, but it is worth noting that the Skyward Steel supplement contains guidance on doing just that. I suspect you were already aware but wanted to point it out just in case. The general state of affairs for Caerleon was covered earlier, giving it a population of about 40,000,000 people on-planet and in the various orbital and space habitats throughout the system (I assume mostly mining colonies and other space-based industrial activities, but I don't think that was detailed). That puts it in the "Tens of millions" column for population, and then it's largely a question of the quality of life of the average citizen. Based on what we've seen so far of the quality of life in the city outside of the districts of the elite, Caerleon seems to be somewhere between 'common' and 'good', though maybe that's just the capital city and the outlying clan regions are closer towards 'poor'. In either case that gives it a naval budget of somewhere between 200 BP (poor) to 300 BP (common) to 500 BP (good). This is potentially modified by local conditions, reading "If the world is exceedingly militaristic or lives in a very dangerous stellar neighborhood, the BP budget should be doubled. If the world is disorganized, pacifistic, or knows of no potential stellar threats, the budget should be halved." It's kind of a weird dynamic because Caerleon is described as being heavily militarized, but also generally terrible at space combat. Perhaps part of that is that funding they otherwise would have been able to dedicate to a navy is being wasted (or more generously, merely spent) on ground-based equipment and troops? I could see an argument that Caerleon's overall military budget is 300 BP (common quality of life) * 2 (heavily militarized) = 600 BP, but half of that is dedicated to the army, air force, and other ground-based military assets, effectively dividing their overall naval budget by two, to get it back to 300 BP. The same result is achieved if you look at it from the perspective of them being heavily militarized as a culture (the x2 multiplier), but are simply very disorganized due to the fractured clan relationship (triggering the 'world is disorganized' qualifier, dividing overall budget by 2). In comparison there's a bit less information available on Holst, at least to the players. Maybe Zepp fleshed it out a bit further in his notes though? It was previously described as: "The Holst Dominion is the largest human power in the sector. Their navy is large and has extensive combat experience, having fought several wars of conquest over the past few decades. While some long for independence, the majority of their populations are quite willing to trade freedom to self-govern for security, stability and an increased standard of living. Rebel organisations do exist, but are resented by the majority of citizens even without the efforts of Holst propaganda." With three sectors under their control, being Holst, Al-Daye, and Shradha, I have to assume they are at a minimum three times the population of Caerleon, which gets them to ~120,000,000 people. Although this doesn't quite move them into the 'hundreds of millions' population category, it probably does give them some kind of partial multiplier to their budget from the base 'tens of millions' figures. It seems like they're pretty focused on naval superiority, so their base budget might well be doubled to account for that, and it doesn't seem like they're suffering the same lack of organization and cultural divisions that Caerleon is enduring, so their budget wouldn't be halved on that front either. That seems to give it a default naval budget of 400 BP (poor) to 600 BP (common) to 1,000 BP (good), using the 'tens of millions' category, doubled to account for their focus on naval superiority, perhaps adjusted upwards a bit further to account for the fact that they're straddling the difference between 'tens of millions' and 'hundreds of millions' in population. That paints an interesting picture, where by definition they would steamroll Caerleon in all-out war, but it wouldn't be an easy victory. Even worst-case scenario of 1,000 BP Holst vs. 300 BP Caerleon, assuming a superior quality of life on Holst, in order to win a decisive victory they'd need to move their entire fleet out of their home system. I can't imagine any competent military doing that, so in reality any fight with Caerleon is probably going to be pretty closely matched, assuming a third of the Holst fleet engages Caerleon in its home system. Even if half of the fleet engaged, it'd be 500 BP vs. 300 BP and Caerleon might well win if the dice go their way, or if they've got tricks up their sleeve. In terms of credits, a single BP is described as being about 200,000cr, in case it's easier to think in those terms. Waador fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Sep 19, 2016 |
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Sep 19, 2016 06:20
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Byers2142 posted:Yep, this is the main driver I was using for building out the forces! But I didn't get the work done before I hit the road on Saturday, and I literally just got back. I'm going to have some naval intelligence for you before I go to bed, as well as a few juicy rumors and at least one job offer thanks to 588's schmoozing. Sorry for the delay, working on this while traveling turned out far more difficult than expected. No worries! Where were you travelling, anywhere memorable?
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Sep 19, 2016 23:30
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