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The Bronx Storage Facility CONSEQUENCES posted:Mr. Face arrives at a lot not far from the facility, passing it on his way out - There appear to be plastic walls erected around a few storage space entrances, obscuring his sight, and construction warning signs posted around them. There are also men dressed for construction, but Mr. Face has tended to the spirits of working men for a long time, and these aren't working men. They are far too clean, and far too fit. Basic Chunnel fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Oct 21, 2016 |
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Oct 21, 2016 00:38
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ZiegeDame posted:I'm fine with feed the poor investigation angle. No, no, the Embed would be a convenience/QoL thing, like In My Pockets: you take a selfie, and hordes of fans, celebrities, and paparazzi WILL descend upon you with a DJ and bottles of bubbly, in 15 minutes or less or your Aether back. On a Dramatic Failure, you accidentally CC one or more God-Machine agents.
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Oct 21, 2016 00:41
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We're on track for 5:30 PM, I think
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Oct 21, 2016 17:58
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Sorry, 6
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Oct 21, 2016 20:21
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Immediate Aftermath posted:What was initially feared to be a terrorist attack at Penn Station was publicly announced as a gas main explosion shortly afterward - most of the station was unharmed but the Amtrak railway along the route to Chicago was badly damaged. Four MTA workers were killed in the explosion. The state is planning an investigation and a memorial service for those killed is being held outside Penn Station on Saturday afternoon.
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Oct 22, 2016 02:46
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I would like to retcon the grand theft auto slightly: Mr. White didn't just walk up and tell the man-creature firmly to leave. He opened the door, punched it in the face and barked at it to gently caress off. (Ftr, this isn't Mr. White being an opportunist who genuinely believes that brazenly stealing from the God-Machine is a good idea; this is Mr. White being furious about getting pushed around by the GM and enacting petty revenge by breaking its toys. If doing the metaphysical equivalent of breaking this thing's kneecaps and forcing it to grovel before me proves too impractical, I'm just gonna drive to an abandoned lot and trash it.)
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Oct 22, 2016 02:54
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Basically I had this planned out as a straightforward heist, then TF said "this is obviously a trap", and I thought "No, this isn't a trap... wait, it's obviously a trap". And so it was. I'm sorry for the time crunch, and the sort of floaty / wibbly wobbly descriptions of the chaos following the entrance of the exile. I knew we were running up on time and didn't want to drag us out into a fight. For the record, the exile wasn't purely a deus ex machina - the storage area in the Bronx was where the auction's lots were being stored, and sent through an arcane portal set up to MOMA. Had the Cell infiltrated the storage area (or even pushed through with more of the board game-y PBP stuff) they would have encountered the exile earlier, and either fought him or used him to their benefit. The plot was (spoilered for OOC): Comrade West himself had acquired the incriminating documents after killing John Sheldon, and made it seem as though they had been sent to Bainbridge as a means to lure the Cell into infiltrating the auction and intercepting the package. Upon opening the package, a gadget would trigger alerting the God Machine to the area, and West to the instant of breach. West plotted an attack on major infrastructure for that Friday night, to begin immediately after the trap was sprung. That way, most of the area's guardian angels would be en route to MOMA instead of Penn Station, where the infrastructure was located. As for the exile, AXT12-42A, it was a guardian angel meant to protect a specific object central to an occult matrix. When the creation of the matrix failed for other reasons, it was exiled. Still nominally angelic, 42A subsisted by protecting the occult object even as the GM no longer held any interest in it. Through an agent, West stole the object from out under its nose and lured it to the auction, and by the final night, it had been deprived of its purpose for long enough that he became a Sliver when pressed. This could have been meant as a failsafe in case the Cell was thwarted, or as a means of tying loose ends. Had the Cell investigated John Sheldon's death in-depth or attempted to steal the package in days before the auction, West's scheme could have failed and the story would have played out pretty differently.
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Oct 22, 2016 03:40
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Terrorforge posted:I would like to retcon the grand theft auto slightly: Mr. White didn't just walk up and tell the man-creature firmly to leave. He opened the door, punched it in the face and barked at it to gently caress off.
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Oct 22, 2016 03:43
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So I feel like the black bars stuff there is really cool and I would have liked to play out what's there a lot more than what we ended up doing, which is mostly spectate without knowing why any of the things that were happening well, happened. Clearly the storage stuff was central to the main plot. That should have been something we did in the session, and it should have been pushed more as a thing we needed to go look into. I was under the misunderstanding that it was a side-quest, which was why I was willing to drop it to go do plot things. I didn't see any connection between the storage and the auction and thought we could do the storage stuff afterwards as it was a separate thing. I was clearly wrong, and I would have liked it if there was a "Hey, if you guys don't do this, you miss out on some big stuff" warning, even if that's a little spoilery, because otherwise we miss half the mystery and nothing makes sense. The reason I wanted to get to the auction already was because we'd done several weeks of setup, and I was really starting to feel like none of it actually mattered. (Which, apparently, it didn't.) The pact I spent a bunch of time getting didn't even get me upstairs anyway and I just ended up using some embeds which didn't require any setup. The stuff with 'you need to balance the auction and other things on Friday night' was interesting but there was no payoff from any of it. We spent like two hours arguing over how to siphon Aether off the bridge the other night and I'm just... annoyed right now because we could have spent that time doing the storage thing instead and advancing the plot. I don't feel like my character participated meaningfully in this adventure and I'm struggling to figure out what I could have done differently with the information I was given. It's not that I don't like the character moments (Fidelity's play thing or Query's bowling date) but when they take too long they kinda kill the story momentum. I'm feeling kind of down about this whole thing right now. This isn't me blaming anyone, I had to ditch halfway through one session because of Sam's vet visit and I know I was the one pushing to get to the drat auction already, but I mean, there has to be something better than just allowing us to skip the entire plot. Have some NPC show up and be like NO REALLY GO HERE, or something suspicious we can latch onto. If Lenny said his cousin was eaten by an acid beast instead of shot by gangers Query might have been more interested in the storage units! (Or just if it was weird in some way) or maybe his boss actually assigns him that case so he HAS to look into it, and can't decide to not go there like a dumbass. Or maybe one of Fidelity's new friends tips her off to Comrade West planning something big next week, suspiciously on FRIDAY. Or someone approaches Mr. White looking for protection in exchange for information on West's newest scheme. Basically if we're being oblivious, we need to trip over something that brings us back to plot. Otherwise... this happens.
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Oct 22, 2016 18:01
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Basic Chunnel posted:spoilers How much of this came to light in the aftermath? Because if Mr. White finds out he was used, he's going to want to have some words. Basic Chunnel posted:Makes sense! And I would also say that, if you haven't caught an Agenda yet, this would place you pretty firmly in the Saboteur camp. Yep. Y'know, looking at it now the Saboteur condition is exactly what I've described White as doing from the start. He probably doesn't get along super well with other Saboteurs, though, seeing as he's not so much about creating a better future as about getting rid in the biggest thorn in his personal side. mistaya posted:words I have to agree. I thought the climax was particularly, uh, anticlimactic. When the guy went for the documents I thought we were at least going to get a chase scene and maybe some interrogation action, but then he just died and the end result was that rather than doing something, we just went to a place and watched something happen. Having an NPC grab one of us by the nose would probably have helped the whole thing substantially. Also we should probably try not to spend so much time e.g. debating the finer points of which part of the thing exactly you have to touch to siphon of Aether. Seems like the sort of situation where the GM can just make an executive decision on the spot and if we're really concerned we can look up the exact mechanics later.
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Oct 22, 2016 19:59
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Mistaya, you were going to be gone for a few weeks, right? I think I'd like to take that time to prepare and then take a stab at STing this thing. I'm thinking I'll just go for the default Demon hook: Infrastructure is happening. There'll be a focus on investigation and probably a big finale where you find and break/steal/hack the linchpin.
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Oct 22, 2016 20:01
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Terrorforge posted:How much of this came to light in the aftermath? Because if Mr. White finds out he was used, he's going to want to have some words. Well I know for sure Fidelity is gonna have some words with the Bainbridge guy about why they were trying to auction off a loving bomb, and who exactly gave it to them.
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Oct 22, 2016 21:20
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Yeah, what mistaya said. Especially that some scenes did NOT need to take more than a few minutes. Getting Aether from the bridge should not have required a whole lot of planning and optimization, let alone two hours' worth. The entire auction felt like a 'gotcha' because every time we tried investigating the sketchy stuff like the storage unit or John Sheldon's death... Okay, deep breath taken, because this needs to be said: you take way too loving long to say stuff, and get bogged down with rules minutiae and chains of references when you really need to instead say yes/no/roll for it. Travel times in particular are a gigantic pain in the rear end, and if they keep the group split up when a party split is eating into our playtime, you need to just handwave them somehow because verisimilitude is second to having fun in the game. We ended up not investigating the storage unit because we were were dreading another full session-length derail, and - I say this as a GM, speaking from experience here - if the players end up skipping over a section, or missing it due to inattention, you need to find a way to bring the important details back into the public view. There was no indication that West was planning something, other than his contacting us in the first place. There was no foreshadowing about Infrastructure at Penn Station, or any angelic security around the area, or other demons running ops nearby. Pastor Ted's efforts to look into the situation through the proper channels were met with an ex-detective threatening him at gunpoint, and dealing with him nonviolently ended up biting him in the rear end by getting him flagged. Query had to struggle to get twenty minutes of investigation in over three five-hour sessions. This is An Issue.
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Oct 22, 2016 21:24
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All points raided are extremely valid. Tbh a lot of this story was a perfect storm of bad planning on my part - I tried to be looser about design and made the fatal mistake of going with what I found cool rather than what would have worked simply and effectively. That helped to push me to write when I was otherwise too stressed, but it perveted the plot. The Exile/Sliver thing was something that originally was just an opportunity at the storage facility, an opportunity to use a desperate party as a patsy (or a potential ally). It was a spontaneous decision to bring him in to MOMA. He should not have shown up, in retrospect. I made a very conscious choice to avoid plot-nudging NPCs - I felt like a low point of my first game ST was having the stigmatic woman the cell bailed out of jail provide plot details unbidden from the time of first meeting. I felt like that stifled player creativity. At the same time, avoiding that requires anticipating other means of advancement that players might use, which is impossible. I didn't want to push you guys and ironically I ended up pushing you out of the endgame altogether. On that note, I felt like I was trying to push you guys toward the storage area, but I realize now that introducing that second arrow pointing toward the place during Query's off-hours gave it the appearance of an unrelated side quest. In any case I took as a given that reason to go was out there but i didn't establish any good ones. Overall I think I'm too weighted toward caution when it comes to ST fiat and moving things along, but I also just made some plain bad calls. The facade query bought was in my notes as "public auction only" but I didn't make that clear and should have simply made it apply to both auctions on the night of. Additionally I had the initial meeting with Ted and the leg breaker sketched broadly but everything else with him was improvised, and I improvised very poorly - the flagging was a bad call, it just felt like letting a Bainbridge goon in on the fact that the auction was being targeted and then letting him go should have had consequences (not criticizing Ted'a actions, which were in character).. Verisimilitude won over sense, as has been said. I also really suck, frankly, at preparing combat, and in large part this has to do with my lack of spatial intelligence, I think - I can't really envision spaces beyond their most basic, and certainly not dynamic ones. So fights tend to devolve into incoherent D2DVD action scenes in large empty spaces. Fights aren't scenes in my head, they're pieces on a vague grid. It als accounts for how travel and time have been persistent issues for us. So in general, while I love continuing to build up this Cell, and spending time with these characters, I'm not good enough at crafting stories to do them real justice. I'm not fishing for reassurance here, I mean I lack the spontaneous inspiration and attention to detail and ability to juggle elements that good STs have. My games, far from being well-oiled machines, end up lumpy and uneven. I don't know how to improve. I can't find a happy medium between heavy planning and winging it, because neither work for me. I would love to play as a character if you all would have me, I'm interested to see what TF brings to the tabletop.* *Another bad choice - making the early decision to de-emphasize the GM and infrastructure in favor of other, less colossal WoD concerns. As it happens, Demon kind of mechanically demands that you focus on the former. Basic Chunnel fucked around with this message at 08:31 on Oct 23, 2016 |
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Oct 23, 2016 07:57
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If we want to try a palate cleanser for a week or two, there's a game called "Hollowpoint" that I haven't picked up in years and kind of want to take for a spin again. It's basically an extremely simple system (short list of ranked skills that determine all rolls, plus consumable buffs that heavily rely on voluntary character sacrifice to keep stocked) made to emulate a John Wick / Expendables-style ludicrous action film as quickly as possible. It was compared a lot to Fiasco, the make-your-own-Fargo game, if you played that.
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Oct 23, 2016 08:30
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Basic Chunnel posted:If we want to try a palate cleanser for a week or two, there's a game called "Hollowpoint" that I haven't picked up in years and kind of want to take for a spin again. It's basically an extremely simple system (short list of ranked skills that determine all rolls, plus consumable buffs that heavily rely on voluntary character sacrifice to keep stocked) made to emulate a John Wick / Expendables-style ludicrous action film as quickly as possible. I'm down, but probably not this Friday. Basic Chunnel posted:I made a very conscious choice to avoid plot-nudging NPCs - I felt like a low point of my first game ST was having the stigmatic woman the cell bailed out of jail provide plot details unbidden from the time of first meeting. I felt like that stifled player creativity. At the same time, avoiding that requires anticipating other means of advancement that players might use, which is impossible. I didn't want to push you guys and ironically I ended up pushing you out of the endgame altogether. Y'know, I noticed this, but honestly I thought it was more of a positive than a negative. Yes it does occasionally make things feel a bit too convenient, but I've played with GMs who are real hardasses on the whole mystery thing and I can tell you with great confidence that a brief lurch in the willing suspension of disbelief beats the snot out of staring at the gates of Moria for 75 minutes because nobody can figure out the stupid riddle. Basic Chunnel posted:So in general, while I love continuing to build up this Cell, and spending time with these characters, I'm not good enough at crafting stories to do them real justice. I'm not fishing for reassurance here, I mean I lack the spontaneous inspiration and attention to detail and ability to juggle elements that good STs have. My games, far from being well-oiled machines, end up lumpy and uneven. I don't know how to improve. I can't find a happy medium between heavy planning and winging it, because neither work for me. I thought the first chronicle went pretty well. Missed out on a few things and threw you a curveball or three, but overall it progressed smoothly, probably due to the abundance of hints and leads. Thinking about it, I don't think anyone ever just like, came up to us and started spouting exposition. Maybe Regina was oddly forthcoming about her personal history and supernatural experiences, but we had to bail her out of jail first. As for finding a balance, this guide seems to have good ideas. It's made with Pathfinder/DnD in mind and I haven't personally tested it so I can't vouch for it from experience, but it, uh, sounds like a good plan. TL;DR: set up a situation and characters with motivations rather than plan out a series of events, because it's easier to adjust to Mr. White eating an important side character if your notes say "Simon needs a silver athame for his ritual" rather than "On Thursday, Simon plans to buy Solomon's Knife from Mr. Fredriksen". I'm planning to do this for my run, so we'll see how it turns out. How does everyone feel about starting a new Chronicle with me as ST? Oh and since we're airing out frustrations anyway, does anyone have a problem with anything I do? I know I have a habit of inserting myself into other people's play when I have an idea I just can't let go of, but idk how bothered you are about that.
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Oct 25, 2016 21:48
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Thanks for the links, I'm excited to see this approach in action. I never had any issue with the way you've played - the character came through very well and if anything, your decisiveness cut through my timidity on more than one occasion. We're definitely off for this week (I have to take my cat to the vet that day as it is) but I should probably make a new character anyway - Graham's fine but if we're taking Mr. White out of the picture for this game, we could do worse than to introduce another bruiser.
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Oct 25, 2016 22:23
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Basic Chunnel posted:Thanks for the links, I'm excited to see this approach in action. I never had any issue with the way you've played - the character came through very well and if anything, your decisiveness cut through my timidity on more than one occasion. I was planning on running Mr. White as something like an Ally. He's busy with his own stuff, but if you really need a problem to disappear, well, you have his number. So do what you want. I don't think any particular skill is going to be in any way mandatory, so only make a new character if you feel like it. The one thing I could see becoming a problem would be if you were competing for a niche, and while there is an argument that Ms. Sharpe is encroaching a bit on Fidelity's gig, she differentiates herself pretty soundly with that significant investment in Crafts and Science. Speaking of niches, I've noticed that it's been a bit of a challenge to find things for Pastor Ted to do. So I wanted to ask Thesaurasaurus: when you made the character, how did you imagine him participating in demonic missions?
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Oct 25, 2016 23:24
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Terrorforge posted:I was planning on running Mr. White as something like an Ally. He's busy with his own stuff, but if you really need a problem to disappear, well, you have his number. I envisioned him as mainly handling the diplomatic side of things - you know that guy in every heist movie, who's up at the party mingling and trading banter with the hosts/villains while the rest of the crew loots the casino vault or what have you? Kind of like that. Outside of the MISSION GO segments, he's pretty well-placed to do community outreach, both normal folk and the various supernaturals on Manhattan. He's not much for BURNING IT ALL DOWN (and at this point, probably does not like Comrade West much), and prefers to build up what he sees as his little community of exiles. As an Integrator, he's probably best-equipped for dealing with loyalist angels. This hasn't come up much in-game since there's been so many desperately-pressing matters taking priority (and also he's not sure how much the rest of the group wants to hear it), but he has some theories about why the God-Machine is so paranoid and homicidal. Most other splats - and especially Mages - have some sort of historical lore involving a time when things were generally better, but then something in the world...broke. The Supernal Realms were cut off from the world by the Lie and everyone else struggles not to fall into the Abyss; Father Wolf's death raised the Gauntlet between Flesh and Spirit, etc. Ted suspects that since the God-Machine is interwoven with reality, one or more of these events severed the relays between its component processors, and now the God-Machine has gone full Castle Heterodyne. The God-Machine isn't malevolent, per se, but the lobotomized qlippothic husk left behind is malfunctioning, badly. Sort of a Gnosticism deal, with the G-M as The Demiurge. E: and as long as we're clearing the air - Terrorforge, you DO kinda tend to talk over people. Sorry.
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Oct 26, 2016 00:44
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Thesaurasaurus posted:I envisioned him as mainly handling the diplomatic side of things - you know that guy in every heist movie, who's up at the party mingling and trading banter with the hosts/villains while the rest of the crew loots the casino vault or what have you? Kind of like that. Outside of the MISSION GO segments, he's pretty well-placed to do community outreach, both normal folk and the various supernaturals on Manhattan. He's not much for BURNING IT ALL DOWN (and at this point, probably does not like Comrade West much), and prefers to build up what he sees as his little community of exiles. Since I was raised in a frozen hellscape, you'll have to educate me; how, if at all, would being a pastor limit his ability to do that? For starters, does he wear a collar or some other obvious badge of office in "civilian" dress? Is he always in Cleric Mode or would it be acceptable (to him personally or for pastors of his denomination* generally) to spend Friday night playing poker and drinking beer? *Episcopalian, right? Thesaurasaurus posted:As an Integrator, he's probably best-equipped for dealing with loyalist angels. This hasn't come up much in-game since there's been so many desperately-pressing matters taking priority (and also he's not sure how much the rest of the group wants to hear it), but he has some theories about why the God-Machine is so paranoid and homicidal. Most other splats - and especially Mages - have some sort of historical lore involving a time when things were generally better, but then something in the world...broke. The Supernal Realms were cut off from the world by the Lie and everyone else struggles not to fall into the Abyss; Father Wolf's death raised the Gauntlet between Flesh and Spirit, etc. Ted suspects that since the God-Machine is interwoven with reality, one or more of these events severed the relays between its component processors, and now the God-Machine has gone full Castle Heterodyne. The God-Machine isn't malevolent, per se, but the lobotomized qlippothic husk left behind is malfunctioning, badly. Sort of a Gnosticism deal, with the G-M as The Demiurge. I'm definitely hoping to explore the relationship between demons and angels. And for what it's worth, Mr. White has no patience at all for Integrators who just want to go back but is certainly willing to entertain the notion that the Machine is somehow broken, and his only objection to trucking with angels is the practical concern that this is an incredibly dangerous thing to do. Conversations like this are also something I as a player would love to engage in. Thesaurasaurus posted:E: and as long as we're clearing the air - Terrorforge, you DO kinda tend to talk over people. Sorry. No, I'm sorry. I'll try to bite my tongue in the future, and feel free to give me a poke if I get out of line.
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Oct 26, 2016 03:02
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I'm down for Terrorforge as ST. I'm also down for more in-character philosophical discussions; I'm sure Pastor Ted has some things to say on the concept of love.
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Oct 27, 2016 01:38
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Looks like something came up for my 11/4 - A tattoo appointment's gotten moved up to 7-11 PM that day. So unless you want to incorporate a character who's constantly howling in pain, plan around my absence for that day!
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Oct 27, 2016 21:23
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Well, you can't say constant, unbearable pain is exactly off-message. But I wasn't really planning on starting that week anyway. Currently I'm looking at 11/10, depending on whether people are available.
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Oct 27, 2016 22:12
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Here's a question as I wind down my character creation - is Professional Training a merit that a Demon could conceivably get? It's not really a question of cover / demon distinction (even if it were, sanctity of merits would settle the issue), but rather - can a demon, after their fall, be said to advance in a profession that they were more or less custom-built to succeed in? I think I would argue that demons are still capable of learning, both how to use their skills in new ways (Demon going as it does with the old sci-fi canard of perfect machines being inherently uncreative relative to humans) and more importantly how to function and blend into human social grouping. So the idea passes muster for me personally. But I only ask because Pro Training is exceedingly powerful as a merit - at merit dot 1, they get two free dots of contacts related to the field, essentially a 3 for 1 deal. On top of that, a second dot gives you 9-again on every single roll that uses any of the two skills associated with the profession. That seems shockingly broad to me (and something I would put at 3 or 4 in the merit progression tbh) but I guess a seasoned pro could be just that good in their field. Most characters don't get 5 dots in a skill anyway. Anyway, I'm speccing this Lawnmower Woman demon that has 5 skill dots in computer plus a specialization in hacking plus merits that ease extended actions plus numerous demonic gifts that overclock hacking ability plus inborne ability to hear, decipher and manipulate all light and radio communication wavelengths, plus the ability to travel physically through them. Going to be pretty useful against adversaries on the cutting edge, extremely useful against adversaries with tech infrastructure older than 5 years, and completely useless in the middle of a pine forest. Fun and mayhem forthcoming. Basic Chunnel fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Oct 31, 2016 |
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Oct 31, 2016 08:49
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Sidebar - I know it was noted during our last session that security at the auction itself was really light. Well, turns out my notes for scene construction mentioned that Fidelity had successfully used her interlock to get the security chief to stop caring so much about keeping the net tight (at the meeting to secure her spot as a buyer). In retrospect this should have made getting Query and Mr. Face in easier, but I stumbled there.
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Oct 31, 2016 09:01
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Basic Chunnel posted:Here's a question as I wind down my character creation - is Professional Training a merit that a Demon could conceivably get? It's not really a question of cover / demon distinction (even if it were, sanctity of merits would settle the issue), but rather - can a demon, after their fall, be said to advance in a profession that they were more or less custom-built to succeed in? It's not? It would? The only wrinkle I can see with a demon having Professional Training is the fact that it offers both job-related Contacts, which is obviously tied to a cover, as well as bonuses to skills, which is obviously inherent to the demon. I don't see how sanctity of merits would address that either, because then you run into the problem of what to do with your Contacts (Informants, Police) when you burn your PI Cover and move into Milly Sue the housewife. Obviously you could work something out, but by RAW those contacts would still have to be related to a career the demon no longer has. Basic Chunnel posted:I think I would argue that demons are still capable of learning, both how to use their skills in new ways (Demon going as it does with the old sci-fi canard of perfect machines being inherently uncreative relative to humans) and more importantly how to function and blend into human social grouping. So the idea passes muster for me personally. But I only ask because Pro Training is exceedingly powerful as a merit - at merit dot 1, they get two free dots of contacts related to the field, essentially a 3 for 1 deal. On top of that, a second dot gives you 9-again on every single roll that uses any of the two skills associated with the profession. That seems shockingly broad to me (and something I would put at 3 or 4 in the merit progression tbh) but I guess a seasoned pro could be just that good in their field. Most characters don't get 5 dots in a skill anyway. Demons are definitely capable of learning. Hell, in a lot of ways the Descent is fundamentally about getting creative with yourself and becoming what you want to be. Even if that thing is an earthly version of what you were supposed to be in the first place. Plus I think you're overvaluing 9-again. Even in a really large dicepool of 10+, you're only looking at an average of something like 0.35 extra successes per roll, and most of the time that won't even matter because it can never make you succeed at a roll you would otherwise have failed. For most applications of most skills it's essentially a Specialty in extended actions, which is a nice little boost but probably the weakest thing that Merit gives you. On a side note I kind of like how broken Professional Training is, and I especially like that it starts by giving you some free Social Merits, because it creates a powerful incentive to put points into I Have A Job even for those of us who would otherwise be tempted to dump every point on the sheet into shooting guns and doing magic. ... and on that note I just realized that giving Mr. White two dots of PT would have been strictly better than the two dots of work-related Contacts he currently has. Oops.
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Oct 31, 2016 09:54
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Here's a character: Miriam “Miri” Foster (Ms. Weaver, formerly SQ12-4040Aq1), Guardian Inquisitor Sent by the God Machine to assist kidnapping and ransom outfit run out of Queens, New York, SQ12-4040Aq1 was custom built for interference and sabotage. Benji Morris and his brother Ray met the shape of Miriam Foster in an all-night diner and Benji put moves on her that wouldn’t have worked on any human woman. Fortunately for him, she wasn’t. The Guardian angel’s purpose was to do no more and no less than prevent the work of the two-man crew from being obstructed. New York City was flush with heirs and heiresses enamored with the endless nightlife, and the parents with liquid assets sufficient to buy back safety, but in 2011 it was far from the lawless place that would allow such brazen crime against people of such status for more than one outing. For the Morris twins, SQ12-4040Aq1 was the great leveler of obstacles. In the field, they were untouchable. In the aftermath, they were untraceable. Even as private and public security increased in the wake of their spree, guards and cops were always in the wrong place, radio static became oppressive, confusion reigned. Cameras shorted out, evidence databases became corrupted. Miriam kept them safe from behind a screen back at the stash house. Even when a pair of old school, notebooks-only detectives came around the neighborhood, a petty argument in a White Castle parking lot quickly escalated into a brawl, and they were taken off the case. But like any normal humans achieving the impossible with regularity, the Morris twins grew proud, and they stopped listening. They aimed higher. They had accrued substantial ransom earnings over six months and wanted to spend it, to show off. That SQ12-4040Aq1 could not cover so easily. Worse, they wanted to graduate from nighttime snatches of heiresses, to home invasions in the Hamptons. Cut out the middle, get the jewels directly. Why not? Because, SQ12-4040Aq1 said, the routine they developed was the right one. Their big payday, the one that would get them in a position to cash them out, launder the money, and go free, had not yet arrived, and they had to stick to the plan until that time. But after so many successful jobs, SQ12-4040Aq1’s advice began to sound like orders. They made up their minds and left for the most opulent home they could find. SQ12-4040Aq1 knew it could not control this situation outside of its well-defined parameters. There was no plan, just improv, and so many variables to juggle, so many contingencies to account for. It pushed and pushed to change course, called openly for feedback from the Machine, but it was disallowed from taking direct control. When the Morris twins arrived at the house, it was a disaster from the jump. Sloppy, loud, and soon, violent. A whole family shot dead. SQ12-4040Aq1 watched it happen from behind a screen, its eyes wired to the house security cameras. SQ12-4040Aq1’s calculations changed, and rapidly. It had been tasked with protecting the crew from obstacles and compromise, but the output, the thought, emerged – the greatest threat to the Morris Twins was now their own judgment. Miriam felt a great wave of pale disgust roll over her, felt all the work she’d done over six months fold in on itself in her mind, all worthless now, wasted on these people. She sat for several minutes, empty. Then she shook herself, and focused her eyes through the camera, pushing her mind into the bloody room where the Twins were now arguing. Benji said they needed to get out of there, now, but that’s not what Ray heard. He went cold, for a moment, and then he shot Benji in the face. Miriam realized that in her distraction, the home security system had been freed from her control. The approaching sirens were audible, grainy through the camera. Ray looked around at the carnage, and put his pistol to his ear. Two hours later, what was once SQ12-4040Aq1 had managed to sever all ties between Miriam Foster and the Morris twins. Her power was a fraction of what it was, but in her (previous life?) she had done a good enough job keeping it all clean to cut free now. Where the tightbeam ports once her, relaying the voice of the Machine, there was nothing now. She left the safehouse, with enough of the ransom cash to start over, and fled into the city, another woman with a bad past. That's how Ms. Weaver arrived in NYC's demonic mileiu. ***** tl;dr Ms. Weaver was a Guardian angel whose charges got too big for their britches and she got sick of them. More soon! Basic Chunnel fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Oct 31, 2016 |
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Oct 31, 2016 19:41
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After her Fall, Ms. Weaver still maintained a great deal of affinity for electronics and computer networks, though less as a semi-ephemeral presence within the wires and radio bandwith (she can, in demonic form, travel through such things physically) and more as a imminently capable but mundane user. To the mortal world, Miriam Foster is a hacker gone good. And she is, to a point - she created two aliases, M@j3stE and W*tc|-|M*n (ed: I hate leetspeak but hey, it's the culture). M@j3stE was a capable hacker with some neat tricks to her name, W*tc|-|M*n is Ms. Weaver at her full unfettered power. Miriam cashed in the M@j3stE alias for practical reasons, going public as Miriam Foster and, through a dominant showing at NYC's premier hackathon (none of the competing teams could seem to get on the same page), securing a plum position as the resident white hat for the prestigious Castle Rock brokerage firm in the city. The pay is good, but just enough to live comfortably in Williamsburg with a bit of walking around money. She works mostly independently but needs to be onsite in Midtown Manhattan three days a week, working with Castle Rock's networking team to patch holes and test the integrity of systems. The contacts she makes through legitimate hardware and software vendors allow her sweetheart deals for building her own rigs, powerful, clean and disposable enough to keep ahead of the God Machine's agents should she need to do sustained digging. As it is, Foster's not terribly social, with a husky, smoke-bitten voice (the cover came with the habit) and most of her free time spent either remotely probing companies and individuals she suspects of being connected to the God Machine, or hacking targets for fun. The W*tc|-|M*n alias is still active and connected to numerous groups and individuals throughout the darknet, and has amassed considerable respect and favors among prominent black hats. She maintains encrypted and oblique contact with other Inquisitors in Tel Aviv, Cape Town and Manchester, sharing theories and information gleaned from their work. Ms. Weaver made contact with the Demons' Republic of Manhattan in 2014 while investigating a vegan restaurant chain / God Machine cult and cracked into its email servers while the demon known as Engineer was doing likewise. Tentative arrangements were made for freelance work for the Agency under Comrade West and Weaver has since become a full-fledged member, working frequently in concert with Engineer to determine and then undermine the technical capabilities of God Machine forces in New York and experimenting with gadget creation and theory. As a joining gift she received a souvenir from the successful operation against the vegan restaurant cult - a coffee grinder that is in fact an intact piece of infrastructure, generating and holding 2 aether on a regular basis (on close inspection, it grinds coffee with hundreds of tiny teeth). She keeps this and other valuables in a small bolthole that she maintains. Most recently, Weaver was recruited as part of the Agency team that scuttled infrastructure under Penn Station, helping to delay civilian first responders and create conditions favorable to the strike team. After the operation was completed, she was surprised to find Engineer turn up at her door with an acquaintance - one Mr. White - who had managed to make off with an extremely conspicuous truck-sized piece of infrastructure and was looking to unload it and lay low. Weaver made quick arrangements with her contact in Cape Town to have it placed on a Long Island-based fly-by-night smuggling barge and shipped there for study on the same night. White holed up in her apartment for a few days. Cape Town now owes her a favor. So does Mr. White. ***** Something has been bugging Ms. Weaver lately - though the bloody copper third rail of the Penn Station was successfully destroyed, she has been going over the intel from the site in the weeks leading up to the operation, and a pattern, imperceptible outside the big picture, is jumping out at her. Most logistical infrastructure maintains a rough 1/1 in-out movement ratio - the God Machine maintains day-to-day supply chains to feed in and maintain its infrastructure and moves recycled materials out. But Penn Station was running a ratio closer to 1.015/1 - every four or five days, a small amount of material went into the city and stayed there. The more she looks at the data, the more Ms. Weaver becomes convinced of its significance. The God Machine is building something. When Weaver brought this to Comrade West, he was skeptical. The discrepancy was well within statistical margins of error, and moreover the destruction of the Penn Station infrastructure, a surely crucial facility, would be more than enough to disrupt the God Machine's ongoing operations. But Weaver did not share his optimism. Given that Penn Station was only being watched for a few weeks, it was impossible to determine how far along the suspected project was when it was disrupted, if it was disrupted. And the slow-drip supply of materials would, if anything, indicate that the God Machine is onto the Republic's surveillance and working to circumvent it. Manhattan and the demons within it are in far greater danger than they realize, especially as they bask in the afterglow of a supposedly major victory. Ms. Weaver feels it in her core. Alone in her convictions and without Agency support, Ms. Weaver is left to make her own way in investigating this threat. But she knows a certain freelancer, one who told her, as he crashed on her couch, the reasons why he and his Cell aren't liable to trust Comrade West's judgment. And she is owed a favor.
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Oct 31, 2016 22:32
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Looking great! Just a couple of things: You're missing a Specialty. Specifically, you're missing the extra Specialty that's a potential Cover violation. Craft (Gadgets) could apply, but having your Cover-violating Specialty be in something that would almost certainly violate your Cover anyway is a bit of a cop-out. You've got two dots of Firearms. Does she own mundane firearms? Are they legal? I hear NYC has pretty strict gun laws. 2-dot Suborned Infrastructure tends to be a bit stranger than just having unusual parts. The coffee grinder will pulverize just about anything, but if you don't "feed" it every other week or so, objects in the vicinity start to turn up as fine powder in its collection tray. And lastly, were you planning to answer some of those questions from the beginning of the thread? As the post says you can answer as many or as few as you like, but I'd appreciate if you could do a couple so I have some NPCs to work with.
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Nov 1, 2016 04:35
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Oh I'll answer the questions for sure, I just felt like I wrote a ton and should take a break - all that was actually the condensed second draft  And I completely forgot about the compromising specialty. I forget if embedded gadget creation rolls for compromise - exploited gadgetry certainly would, I think. But point taken. Maybe beam weaponry under firearms? She has a laser cutter as a technology. For, uh, heavy duty soldering. But that would be even more egregiously cheesy than gadget specialty. I'll have to think it over. I'd say something like "occult circuitry" but that would probably fall more under… occult. Bionic science? Electro-Neurochemistry? Maybe I'm thinking too broad here and just need any old thing that Miriam Foster just wouldn't know via hobbies. As for NY gun laws, there are a lot of hoops to jump through and permits tying you to the weapon but it is definitely legal for citizens to own handguns. And afaik the loopholes for private sales (gun shows, person to person) are as gaping as they are everywhere else in the country. Even if Weaver owns a pistol legally she would have the serials filed off and ballistic grooves altered. If she doesn't do it herself she definitely can get that kind of work done through the Agency. Basic Chunnel fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Nov 1, 2016 |
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Nov 1, 2016 05:01
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No rush or anything. The gadget rules don't call for any automatic compromise rolls, they just note that it causes a lot of weird side effects that are likely to eventually draw the attention of the God-Machine. My point was more that the compromising specialty is supposed to be something that puts a crack in your facade if a mortal finds out about it, and the ability to construct eldritch artifacts kind of does that regardless of what your Cover is and whether or not you are especially good at it. And I might actually let a specialty in beams slide, especially if it was in Crafts rather than Firearms. Maybe even take Interdisciplinary Specialty and have it apply to both. Either way, "how the gently caress do you know how to operate a top secret gigawatt laser prototype?" is exactly the sort of question a compromising Specialty is supposed to raise. Feel free to think it over further, though.
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Nov 1, 2016 05:51
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I'll think it over! BTW, here's roughly what I envision Weaver's full demonic form to resemble:  The finer details mark Ms. Weaver as biomechanical - the plates are not true metal but a superconductive shell-like substance made up of billions of microscopic alloy fibers that are quite soft until electrified, at which point they interlock and harden into rigid armor. Between the plates is velvety black skin that smells of burnt ozone and produces a slight electric hum and buzz to the touch, like a tesla coil toy. Jutting out from the flesh in various places are short and vestigial spine-like antennae, appearing as blackened bone horn inlaid with gold and copper wire. Most are tipped with dim blinking lights of red and blue and orange, the result of some strange automatic measurement. She has three blue-green eyes - the largest appears much like the iconic eye of HAL-9000, but close inspection (if anyone ever gets that close) reveals an actual monochrome white iris at the center of the blue glow, that flickers as if blinking. This is the eye that perceives the visible light spectrum and emits the cutting blue laser when used. Nested below the central eye are two eye bands drawing quarters of its circumference and appearing as tracks of shimmering LED light. These eyes split duty providing feedback on the breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum, much as human eyes split duty covering depth of field (eg one might be seeing tight radio frequencies and the other seeing broader frequencies, contracting or expanding range to focus when needed). Weaver walks on four hands which can directly interface with any electronic through contact with circuitry (via spindly, ribbon-like fingers that slip into cracks and chassis) or indirectly through close-proximity electromagnetic manipulation. More importantly, they possess a unique quasi-magnetic quality that reacts not to charged polarity but to artificiality - As long as a surface is man-made with a clear line of movement, Weaver can magnetically bind herself to it with blinding speed, walking on walls and ceilings and pinballing in the blink of an eye. When Weaver enters "Dataform", her physical form retracts, like so:  Once retraction is complete, Weaver's shell becomes fully superconductive and compresses and abstractifies the space of her form, allowing it to move instantaneously as a living message through both wired and wireless communication tunnels. Basic Chunnel fucked around with this message at 08:53 on Nov 1, 2016 |
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Nov 1, 2016 08:45
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I don't know if it's noticeable but I really really love making Demon characters.
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Nov 1, 2016 08:46
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Galfway into my questions and I realized that there was a lot of stuff we didn't get to in our last game, that we can tie up with PBP. Specifically there was Mr. White's intervention into a labor dispute upstate, and Fidelity using Whispers in the Night of Teeth to woo a wizard. There may be more but that's what jumped to mind. We can do these normally or as a quick and easy 1-player CYOA, ala the Storage Facility upthread. What do you all say? I can write up the CYOA scenarios pretty easily.
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Nov 6, 2016 10:08
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Alternatively you could tell me what your goal is for the side plot and how you hope to achieve it and I'll write it up / see where you end up. You may not end up with what you originally wanted but you'll get something.
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Nov 7, 2016 05:42
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Yeah I don't think I've got any long bouts of prose in me right now. My main goal with flirting with wizards is to have a friend who is a wizard, possibly to share leads on strange occult matrices that a wizard might want to study in exchange for wizard favors. The healthiness of this relationship may vary based on what wizard faction he belongs to.
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Nov 7, 2016 06:11
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Would you rather I just straight up write the mini story or do you want the CYOA route? Fwiw, I am almost 100% unfamiliar with CoD Mage, maybe TF could provide an assist there or I can avoid the lore and go as generic as possible. Depends on how you'd like the setting to be.
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Nov 7, 2016 06:28
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Basic Chunnel posted:Galfway into my questions and I realized that there was a lot of stuff we didn't get to in our last game, that we can tie up with PBP. Specifically there was Mr. White's intervention into a labor dispute upstate, and Fidelity using Whispers in the Night of Teeth to woo a wizard. There may be more but that's what jumped to mind. Basic Chunnel posted:Alternatively you could tell me what your goal is for the side plot and how you hope to achieve it and I'll write it up / see where you end up. You may not end up with what you originally wanted but you'll get something. I'd do a pbp post of my own but I'm kinda full up with prep work so I'm gonna go with Option C. My plan was to play Good Cop, pretending to be on his side while subtly* hammering home the notion that he's a gnat, a momentary nuisance, and if he pushes it all he's doing is setting himself up to be swatted. Maybe try to squeeze some symbolic concession from Corporate, make him feel like he accomplished "something". Assuming that goes well I was hoping to lean a bit on George. I did him such a big favor, after all. And I can do him more favors! So many little favors. Enough, hopefully, that his life won't be such a sad little snooze-fest when I decide I want to have it. Groom him for a soul pact in other words. e: obviously though the latter half of that plan got a bit compromised when Mr. White had to duck underground for a bit *This is what the specialty in Suggestion is for btw; planting ideas in people's heads Basic Chunnel posted:Would you rather I just straight up write the mini story or do you want the CYOA route? I know next to nothing about Mage 2.0 besides what I learned reading the first edition Awakening rulebook, but that's certainly enough for me to feel comfortable winging it. I don't need to know the exact mechanical and metaphysical intricacies of the Realms Supernal to know that someone who goes to secret magic auctions half-naked and starts drawing warding sigils at the first sign of trouble is a shaman uninterested in blending in. Dude does spirit magic, doesn't care about mortal politics and thinks he's way smarter than you, but that you might be useful to him. A Mysterium Thyrsus Mage, if you want the technical terms. All you need is a name and you're ready to roll. e2: by which I mean I'm kind of familiar with MtAw first edition but not any of the stuff introduced/altered with the CofD rebranding Terrorforge fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Nov 7, 2016 |
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Nov 7, 2016 17:51
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Yeah I'll have to go with option C as the lowest effort on my part. I can think of lots of ways that Spirit could be used to ruin an angel's day.
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Nov 8, 2016 00:47
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So I'm pretty much ready to go. Are we on for Friday? On a side note, I plan to lean a bit more on the horror aspects of the WoD so be prepared for nastiness. If anyone has a problem with that, or any particular kind(s) of horror/violence they're uncomfortable with, now would be a good time to tell me, either right here in the thread or by PM.
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Nov 8, 2016 12:37
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