Fat Gandalf's Bar & Lounge (OOC Chat) - Chapter Six

[Purr]

I would personally advise you to have some mecha combat skills, just to help keep you up to speed with the rest of the group.

Good advice from the player whose character did not get blown out of the sky! Yay, Sherwood! =)

think it might work better if I go against my first intuition and go for a military training and education, then pick up the interest in cloning/etc later down the line

There is a Field Scientist O.C.C. that might fit. If you want to go civilian, I can put something together where your group of scientists (likely UEG) used unarmed custom Logan veritechs to help carry out their research. This would provide piloting skills, but combat skills would have to be purchased.

Where exactly are we in the mecha development?

The ASCs mecha are virtually brand-new while the Stealth Logan is a secret prototype (stolen by the Wild Cards who had NO business being where they were at, but they were a very nice bonus with the mission they were on, so why not? =) ).

All ASC mecha are still in their first stages (so the poor Veritech Hover Tanks still don't have reinforced pilot compartments!). The Broadsword's technology is on another level altogether.

Sherwood is sitting in a stealth logan, so I'd assume that's the newest technology - what would be the model before that?

That would be the standard Logan.

Oh! If you want a connection between cloning and machines. Look no further than the Zentraedi. Could shift the science to Zentraedi tech in general.

Now, there is a neat idea! While you have Cera in your group, you do not have a human with those interests and therefore their perspective.

Mind you, the Zentraedi who allied with Earth spilled what secrets they knew a long time ago, so Earth knows how to make Zentraedi mecha more or less. They just lack a reason to do it (why make mecha for 40 foot tall giants when all of your people are around 6 ft tall?).

Where this character concept might shine in the Wild Cards is when they meet the Zeki-Zentraedi and Ura-Meltrandi, both of whom are loathe to give up any military secrets, but how much can you hide from a tight group of Traversers?

=)

 

[Kaerri]

What would be the logical choice as an MA when the focus is on quickly getting some amount of self-defense and such together?

I usually ask Dann when I need a martial arts recommendation So I don't have a specific answer, but I do have a suggestion: check out the section titled "The Martial Way" and see if any of those look interesting? The stickied thread has a good long list, and the other threads get into more detail for a few systems.

Now I'm not quite sure how a character like that would get into space, but it'd be likely some kind of research project, I'd reckon.

As Dannigan already said, we aren't actually in space, we just happen to have a spaceship for a base. I feel I should clarify that neither spaceship, nor Traversing, nor even our team's mission were at all known to us at the start of the game, nor for some time afterwards, and that it's completely possible (likely, even) that most of Earth's population is similarly ignorant, so there may not be the need to include any of that in your character concept.

We are all here together for the same purpose to kill evil alien jerk-faces and save Earth to have a good time with like-minded people in an environment that's fun to do it in.

Both of these goals are accurate as stated.

Right now, Sherwood is sitting in a stealth logan, so I'd assume that's the newest technology - what would be the model before that?

The Stealth Logans are actually prototypes that we, ah, acquired from a secret outpost. I believe Toph's Ajax is top-of-the-line as far as public knowledge goes? (Might be wrong about that, I can almost manage to keep my Valkyrie's stats straight, much less anyone else's.)

 

[Purr]

I believe Toph's Ajax is top-of-the-line as far as public knowledge goes?

Yes it is without any doubt. =)

The rest of your statements are pure gold (like you). =)

 

[Silanon]

Zentraedi were certainly what I had in mind when I thought about the cloning - the connection to tech might actually be interesting. Now obviously, many things are known about the Zentraedi mecha by now - however, that comes with the fact that they are damn tall. A line of thought I just had: It takes time to take something that's unreasonably large (unless you happen to be a Zentraedi) and find a way to actually build a small version that works as intended - perhaps in that direction, it'd be possible to find a small project that a young researcher could have potentially worked on. Mind you, I'm not looking for something that'd have top priority, those cases should be solved by now - maybe a small quality-of-life adaptation that you can pick up... anyway, that'd just be a small detail.

Now that you mention Cera: I have, at this point, still little idea about the npc companions of the group. Of course, I have seen some of it, but certainly not everything. Let me know if you think that there's too much potential overlap, or potential conflict that's not avoidable - just like I wouldn't want to build something that doesn't work with the pcs, I'd want to avoid trouble with well-established npc's as well. Obviously, similar areas of expertise could also be to the benefit.

Right now, I can't find the respective occ in the books that I have access to - might be blind, though, I'll recheck that later. I found the REF version, but that's probably not the one you meant, is it? From looking at the options that should be available, I'd actually think that the Logan is the best choice theme-wise - so having access to them for research purposes sounds like a good idea.


Thanks for the clarification about the Broadsword - somehow, I expected it to float through outer space, which would've made things more difficult in some regards. If the requirement is simply to be on Earth, that should hardly be an obstacle.

 

[Kaerri]

Well, it is a spaceship, so that's a natural assumption. It happens that's not where the story is, though, so thus far it's spent most of its time in atmosphere or underwater, since our characters came aboard.

I don't think we have anything like the scientist I'm envisioning from your posts? One of the NPCs is a medical doctor (as is one of the PCs) but I think that's as close as we've got to biological sciences that I'm aware of.

 

[D. Rex]

A biologist might be pretty interested in Traversers. What it does to the body. If they are actually human. Effects on the mind. Side effects. Etc.

 

[Purr]

Initiative order (Beginning of Action #3, Round 1 - Outpost #5 is 7,500 feet away)
Outpost #5: 15 (4 AA guns [Guns 1 & 2 on 3rd Action, Guns 3 & 4 on 2nd Action])
Outpost #5: 15 [3] (Surface-to-Air Missile Launcher - lightly damaged)
Cera: 14 [3] (Stealth Logan - Guardian mode, Mario's wingman - Readied action to protect Mario)
Elinor: 13 [3] (Super Valkyrie - Jet mode with Trouble/MechaKitten, 45/56 SRMs remaining)
Mack: 9 [3] (Super Valkyrie - Jet mode, Elinor's wingman - Delayed action. "Fire on first drone that threatens Elinor.")
Toph: 8 [2] (Ajax - Jet mode with Professor Stein)
Mario: 7 (Stealth Logan - Guardian mode)
Griffon Drones: 4 (#5-6, coming in straight at you, 1.5 miles away, at about 400 miles per hour and roughly 400 feet in altitude.)

 

[Purr]

Kaerri Sherwood Psychie D. Rex Silanon Hey fellow gamers! You've been following the Attack on Outpost #5, right? Well, Toph has a little problem! I think she knows what it is... but do you know what it is? =)

 

[D. Rex]

Kaerri Sherwood Psychie D. Rex Silanon Hey fellow gamers! You've been following the Attack on Outpost #5, right? Well, Toph has a little problem! I think she knows what it is... but do you know what it is? =)

That her opponents attacks outrange hers?

 

[Purr]

That's pretty much it! Once out of missiles, anything outside of an Ajax can hit it while it can't fire back in reply! Sure, there are only two drones left, but then you've still got Outpost #5 to deal with. The SAM can reach out for miles and those AA guns have (as mentioned before) at least a 4,000 foot range.

So... any ideas on how to help a Tactical Girl like Toph out or is she prey for the AA guns until she gets inside of 2,000 feet? =)

 

[D. Rex]

That's pretty much it! Once out of missiles, anything outside of an Ajax can hit it while it can't fire back in reply! Sure, there are only two drones left, but then you've still got Outpost #5 to deal with. The SAM can reach out for miles and those AA guns have (as mentioned before) at least a 4,000 foot range.

So... any ideas on how to help a Tactical Girl like Toph out or is she prey for the AA guns until she gets inside of 2,000 feet? =)

AA guns are just that. Anti Aircraft. As such the bulk of their firing arc is upward, where aircraft dwell.

As such again, flying very low to the ground will give her a greater chance of skirting under their firing arc.

 

[Silanon]

Hi there, just stopping by to share bad news - I've got major trouble with my pc at the moment. Since I've got damn important stuff on there, that'll probably consume most of my time until I've got it back working. Probably means that my presence here on RPN will be very limited for the next few days - so if I'm suddenly awfully quiet, that's the reason.

 

[Psychie]

I am thinking on landing in Battloid mode and running up on foot to engage the AA guns. Hopefully they won't be able to target me as well then.

 

[Psychie]

But let's get the drones out first. Using a double blast from her Ion Pulse weapons, along with an Action Point to help ensure a hit. Damage (assuming I hit) is 2d6x10 + 20.

 

[Sherwood]

I was thinking about trying to duck between buildings in the ruined city to play hide and seek with the guns, so we'll have to see if they can lower their barrels down enough to target a ground opponent.

Safe bet is that they can, but we can hope.

 

[Purr]

Silanon Thank you very much for letting us know, Sil. One of my biggest rules in this game is if a player is going to leave long-term, to let one of us know. It doesn't have to be me, but it ought to be somebody.

Ghosting drives me nuts because I tend to care a great deal about people so I've even put this rule into our House Rules section (called "Shop Talk"). However, I noticed that you have been really good about this in Sherwood's Rifts game (which was one of the reasons you were invited here! =) ).

I hope your PC troubles go away soon, Sil.

Psychie . Toph accelerated earlier. But now, is Toph hanging back with the rest of the Wild Cards and waiting for the drones to come to her? If so, her aircraft won't be in gun range for a few actions at least (but that also keeps her with her group).

What precisely do you want Toph to accomplish?

 

[Psychie]

I was thinking that with our combined rate of closure, I should be in range of my Ion Pulse weapons quickly. I'm trying to save my last few missiles, and go for a dogfight in jet mode with these drones. If I cannot reach them this action, I'll just stay defensive until I'm in range of my guns.

 

[Purr]

O.K.! If my memory serves (and I am involved in a few games now so it might not), only Toph raised her airspeed to 500 miles an hour. Everyone else is back at 250 mph.

Since Toth has nothing in range of her guns in the moment, may I recommend you have her keep an eye on the SAM site? The less missiles it puts into your team, the better.

 

[Psychie]

Sounds like a solid plan. I'll keep a close watch on it. Thank you.

 

[Purr]

Sure! =)

 

[Purr]

Initiative order (Beginning of Action #3, Round 1 - Outpost #5 is 7,500 feet away)
Outpost #5: 15 (4 AA guns [Guns 1 & 2 on 3rd Action, Guns 3 & 4 on 2nd Action])
Outpost #5: 15 [3] (Surface-to-Air Missile Launcher - lightly damaged)
Cera: 14 [3] (Stealth Logan - Guardian mode, Mario's wingman - Readied action to protect Mario)
Elinor: 13 [3] (Super Valkyrie - Jet mode with Trouble/MechaKitten, 45/56 SRMs remaining)
Mack: 9 [3] (Super Valkyrie - Jet mode, Elinor's wingman - Delayed action. "Fire on first drone that threatens Elinor.")
Toph: 8 [3] (Ajax - Jet mode with Professor Stein, Delayed action - defending against SAM site)
Mario: 7 [3] (Stealth Logan - Guardian mode)
Griffon Drones: 4 (#5-6, coming in straight at you, 1.5 miles away, at about 400 miles per hour and roughly 400 feet in altitude.)

 

[Silanon]

At this point, getting the pc back online seems to imply getting a new harddrive and power supply unit, and reinstall most things from scratch - yay! In other words: I'm in it for the long run. On the plus side, there's actually very little I'll be able to do during the week, so perhaps the influence on my presence here won't be that bad after all... we'll see, no false promises.

Anyway, before unfortunate circumstances turned my day pretty much upside down, I made the attempt to write a few paragraphs for what might potentially be a good character choice - basically beginning the journey on the Defence school, leaning into the science direction within the given options there, and then turning towards the more proactive (think: mecha-using) side of things after contact with the Logans within the research group. Now I'll revisit that with a fresh mind tomorrow, but it looked like a path that actually gets where I'd want to be character-wise. Basically, I tried to take the last few things y'all proposed here, threw them together with what I had in mind, and it should work out well. Now, that's pretty vague at this point, I reckon - I'll make it more precise when I'm able to, just thought I'd mention that I feel like I'm on the right track character-wise at the moment.

As a remark: Thanks for pointing the shop talk out. I found it already during my first search through the threads here, but finding it twice is better than never. Nothing's worse than upsetting people by breaking a rule you've never heard about. I'll have to revisit the details at a later stage, at least those about specific rules - but I already made a mental exclamation mark behind the "you exactly have what's on your character sheet", because I'm a specialist at having absolutely outdated character sheets in that regard. Not this time, though, not this time...

 

[Silanon]

Alrighty, I found a few quiet moments to write down a few things - nothing particularly fancy, but I figured I might as well share parts of it to give you an idea in what direction I'm headed right now - maybe let me know if you see soomething in there that's problematic? Warning: The name might change - the latter snippet is inspired by me stumbling across a certain name while looking for options, but it should still give a decent idea of the character I have in mind without that particular part. Note: Both things overlap; still feel like the first part includes stuff that's not in the latter, so I figured I'd share both.

Spoiler: 1 - thoughts on her world view

Guess in the end, the military calls us all. Tried to stay away for a while, thinking about "Zentraedi air filters and their applications to human survival technology". But once you've been in a Logan once, and you found out how easy it is to get it going - it's not a tough choice, really. Sure, there's much to learn, and much to think about. But it takes years to get the right idea, and another few years to implement it. How much time do we have? Not saying we should forget about the rest, far from it. Still spending time on the lab when duty doesn't call too loud. Mostly quickly analyses, nothing fancy. Still reading those books about a world that died before I got to see it. But I want to read those books without thinking that their author's hometowns lie in ruins. Seen the wastelands myself, from above and from the ground. It'll take ages to rebuild, and a ton of good ideas to get there at all. But first we gotta make sure that there's still someone left or we'll build fancy, empty houses.

Spoiler: 2 - part of an interview for advanced mecha training, or something like that?

Tell you what you need to know about me, in a few words? I can try... ever seen a pack of wolves, running through the snow? They aren't those savage beasts most take them for. They don't just throw themselves at their prey and hope for the best - they wait, observe, find a weakness. They stick together, keep each other safe, share what they've found and learnt. Highly social, those, even compared to us humans... so what? Well, as you can read in those papers, my name is Ylva Idadotter. Old name, both parts. Ida's my mom, and she filled in all those formulars so that I got this nice, traditional surname. Still got as much, if not more, from my father, though even if I barely see him. Soldier, deployed in Japan at this point, I believe. Mecha pilot himself. Guess it's in the blood. Anyway, the name, Ylva: Means 'the she-wolf'. And that's pretty much what you'd get. Some amount of cleverness, if I may praise myself like that. Teamwork. Someone who gets the job done, and is the very last one to leave. Teamwork again, since it's so damn important. Don't get anywhere on your own. Learnt that during my studies, and again during the practical applications.

Add a few insights that aren't quite common, I'd say. Spent years thinking about "Zentraedi air filters and their applications to human survival technology". Familiar with today's knowledge of genetical engineering. Scientific basics in most militrary-relevant fields, as taught in the Stockholm Defence University. Had access to unarmed Logans for research purposes, was our pilot for them - did the cargo plane thing before, you know, only small ones, though, and so they decided I'd be the best choice amongst us. So add a few hours to what I mentioned in the formular if you think it's important, wasn't sure if it'd count or not.

Other than that? Other people wrote things about me, and I sent them in; they probably know me better than I do. I like books, and I want a world where the hometowns of all those great authors aren't just ruins. Guess that's the same for everyone here, more or less, though. Maybe consider that I didn't immediately join the military after school, like many others. Chose another path, learned, then decided that this is where I want to be, for now. Maybe that's worse than the usual candidates, you tell me. In any case, thank you for inviting me here. I know that there are many candidates for the advanced training, so I'm honored to be here at all.

Maybe that's a good point to end: Others have spent many more hours in Logans, and have seen thrice as many fights. That's an amount of experience that I can't provide at this point. I do believe that I bring different qualities that can make up for that, but that's always a matter of considering the trade-offs. Let me tell you that I will do everything I can to compensate any weakness that you might perceive. During my last few years in Stockholm, I had the most additional night shifts for a reason. And I'll be up there again if it means that I'm doing my part just a little better.

 

[Purr]

Silanon That's good stuff!

If anyone has any ideas for Sil's character, please add them! In the meantime, we are going to take it into Conversation and go from there. =)

 

[Psychie]

Don't feel too bad about missing your missile shot there, Sherwood. At least you did some good in the end!