[OOC Thread] [The End of the River]

[kaliket]

How many snakes are there? It looks like we've gone from 2 that were uncovered to 10 or more. Could you describe the scene a bit for me?

 

[Tikor]

You are standing on a somewhat sturdy mass of roots that is so thick you cannot see the soil. Around and above you there are roots sprouting from trees high into the air, creating a maze below each mile-high tree. It is an artificial twilight because the canopy far above absorbs most of the light from the Sun. So far 12 snakes have come up from this root-floor and seem intent on attacking you. You were not suprised because you heard their scales scrape across the severely intertwined root floor on their way up from wherever they came from to the surface you stand on.


The snakes are individually the proper size for snakes (they aren't massive pythons) that of about 5 feet long and about 5 inches in diamaeter at the thickest. They sport black scales with red spots (also scales) and have pink mouthes, forked tongues and white fangs. Their eyes are black and their heads triangular.


These snakes seem to be hunting as a pack instead of individually as snakes usually do. They are coordinating their attacks without any obvious communication, instantaneously (this is strange, humans need time to set up coordinated attacks, and snakes rarely cooperate even with their own species except to mate). Another unusual observation is that you have yet to see the tail of any of the snakes.

 

[Shru]

Another unusual observation is that you have yet to see the tail of any of the snakes.

<.< And the puppyface trying to pull one up just popped it in two, instead of bringing it above ground.

 

[Tikor]

Dexterity + Relevant Ability + Specialties + Accuracy
2 (Dex) + 0 (Melee) + 0 (Specialty) + 4 (Accuracy) = 1 success ><


I fail! Using DDV of 6 against the snake's attack.

1.) You're using martial arts. You're a bird using a natural weapon (beak), you're not wielding a sword/club/ect.


2.) Where do you get 4 accuracy for your beak? I'm terrible in that I haven't done your other form's crunch, but natural weapons are usually +0 or +1 accuracy.


3.)

Meip:
Step 2: Snake 7's DDV 2

I forgot to give you stunt dice! Take 2 and my apologies.


Lets just redo your Step 3. Dex+Melee+Specialty+Accuracy+Aim-Internal Penalties is the full formula, since I think that was what you're going for. Lets put your beak as +1 Accuracy (like a human's punch) unless you have something I'm missing about the 4 Accuracy.

 

[Tikor]

I've decided to declare modified DVs in step 2 instead of unmodified for the purpose of attack rerolls in step 3 having as much info as possible and to stop confusion about multiple DV values.


Obviously you won't know all the modifiers to your DVs when you declare step 2, just give me as much info as you can.

 

[Tikor]

I'm thinking we should give Wolf the fur mutation so he has a touch more soak.

 

[Anyet]

Lets just redo your Step 3. Dex+Melee+Specialty+Accuracy+Aim-Internal Penalties is the full formula, since I think that was what you're going for. Lets put your beak as +1 Accuracy (like a human's punch) unless you have something I'm missing about the 4 Accuracy.

That works fine for me. When I'd done my forms, I'd basically just grabbed the numbers for some of the creatures listed in the core book. So for my spirit form I'd stolen numbers from the Raiton (Core 348) which came out as Attack: (Speed/Accuracy/Damage/Rate) being Beak: 6/4/2L/1


I'll go ahead and fix the accuracy listed in my character sheet for that one if you want to look over the rest of the forms and make sure they are where they should be. (Oh, and should I be using the numbers for a Raiton or a Strix?)

 

[Tikor]

I'll add in rolls once you give me stunt dice.

On attacks you roll your attack dice on Step 3. This should be after I give you stunt dice (ending step 1) and your target declaring Step 2.

Do these snakes have fangs? Also, do I have a sense of which direction they originated from?

The snakes are individually the proper size for snakes (they aren't massive pythons) that of about 5 feet long and about 5 inches in diamaeter at the thickest. They sport black scales with red spots (also scales) and have pink mouthes, forked tongues and white fangs. Their eyes are black and their heads triangular.

The snake's brothers then make their way to the 'surface' above the root floor to surround Arnuk and Wolf where Arnuk put a hole in the root floor. 10 beyond the 2 already revealed appear.

i.e. down.

 

[Tikor]

I'd stolen numbers from the Raiton (Core 348) which came out as Attack: (Speed/Accuracy/Damage/Rate) being Beak: 6/4/2L/1

These are derived statistics. The accuracy comes from the Ration's Dex of 3 and Martial Arts of 1.


You, however, have a Dex of 2 (You use the lower of your Dex or your form's Dex on attacks unless you have a specific Knack), a Martial Arts of 0, and you chose an exceptional target for your Heart's Blood hunt, so your beak has +1 Accuracy (i.e. the storyteller says so). Your derived statistic for Accuracy is 3 and that's what you should write down on your char sheet for easy reference.


i.e. Total Accuracy (what you put on your sheet) = Dex+(Ability)+Specialty+Weapon Accuracy.


Full formula Accuracy (what you roll in combat) = Dex+(Ability)+Specialty+Weapon Accuracy+Aim+Stunt-Internal Penalties.


I could have prevented this if I did your crunch earlier. I will stop being a slap soon.


The bigger issue to clear out here is that even if you shapechange into a bunny, you have the stat sheet of a Lunar (you). Your form might give you some bonuses, some penalties, changed mechanics (move being 3-d in flight form), definately a different outward look (which may help you evade notice) but you still have all your mental Attributes, Abilities, ect. The Lunar book makes this much clearer than I do, but I don't have the book to quote you a page at the moment.

 

[Anyet]

... and you chose an exceptional target for your Heart's Blood hunt, so your beak has +1 Accuracy ...

Is it fairly safe to assume that this will be the case with most of my forms? And if so, should I just update all of them now to save some confusion later? Also, yay for finally starting to understand where these numbers get pulled from! Thin air wasn't exactly a convenient place to go with.

 

[kaliket]

Attack edited. I think I did the calcs correctly.

 

[Tikor]

Is it fairly safe to assume that this will be the case with most of my forms? And if so, should I just update all of them now to save some confusion later?

If you want to draft your heart's blood forms like I did Arnuk's, be my guest. Reviewing should be less work for me ^^. They are still subject to my approval.

Also, yay for finally starting to understand where these numbers get pulled from! Thin air wasn't exactly a convenient place to go with.

Your progress is impressive, young padawon.

 

[Tikor]

6 Successes [was 12 until I noticed the lack of penalty!]

My heart goes out to you, lost awesome rolls, may you return soon.

 

[kaliket]

Attack edited for damage. By the end of this fight, I should get the rhythm down.

 

[Tikor]

Attack edited for damage. By the end of this fight, I should get the rhythm down.

1) No worries. Exalted combat is non-intuitive and you're doing quite well. Both in-character and out.


2) Just post your raw damage calculation, subtract the soak values I give you in step 8, and tell me what you roll in step 10. No need to pull that all back into your Step 1 post. We got the back and forth just perfect this time. I will condense some of these steps where possible and I'm open to ideas for speeding up play. I like for the players to calculate their raw damage and roll damage dice because you guys know your raw damage and the sum of your effects better than I do (and some Charms activate on Steps 7 and 10).


Player attack:


1) Player declares step 1


2) ST awards stunt die and declares step 2 with fully modified DV


3) Player rolls Step 3, uses Step 4 if he wants to/can


4) ST: If miss, report if Step 9 is used. If not, end. If hit, report if Step 6 or Step 9 are used. If still hit, report soak and hardness values.


5) Player calculates raw damage, applies hardness and soak, rolls damage dice, uses any Step 7 or 10 effects.


ST attack (Player has no applicable 3rd Excellency, or counterattack):


1) ST declares step 1


2) Player declares step 2 with as much DV info they have


3) ST calculates fully modified DV. ST rolls Step 3, uses Step 4 if he wants to/can, declares hit or miss. If miss, end. If hit, calculate raw damage, apply hardness, soak, roll damage dice.


ST attack (Player has applicable 3rd Excellency, no counterattack):


1) ST declares step 1


2) Player declares step 2 with as much DV info they have


3) ST calculates fully modified DV. ST rolls Step 3, uses Step 4 if he wants to/can, declares hit or miss. If hit, ask for Step 6.


4) Player Step 6. If miss, end. If still hit, report


5) ST calculates raw damage, apply hardness, soak, rolls damage dice.


ST attack (Player has applicable 3rd Excellency and counterattack):


1) ST declares step 1


2) Player declares step 2 with as much DV info they have


3) ST calculates fully modified DV. ST rolls Step 3, uses Step 4 if he wants to/can, declares hit or miss. If hit, ask for Step 6


4) Player Step 6. If miss, end. If still hit, report


5) ST calculates raw damage, apply hardness, soak,


6) Player reports any use of Step 9.


7) ST rolls damage dice


3) Did you see me answer the fangs/direction question farther up in this thread?

 

[Tikor]

5L + 7L + 4L = 16L taken.
Wolf the Truly Unfortunate rolled the following in his 16 dice:


10, 5, 2, 9, 6, 4, 6, 8, 3, 6, 1, 3, 7, 4, 5, 3


Using 7 as the target number, the roll resulted in 5 successes.

I've already rolled the damage die. Sorry if I didn't make it clear but each listed success in the 3 Step 10's against Wolf are lethal levels of damage. You can learn all about marking damage on page 150 of Core.


Talking:


Tdlr version: Changing Shape does not effect what you are able to understand (outside of limited communication with creatures who share your shape). See Lunars page 126-127. You can talk to Arnuk and Meip just fine so long as you still have vocal chords.


Long version:


Dog-Ear Method is useful for many things, but you don't need it to talk to shapshifted Lunars. Lunars spy on people in animal forms all the time - this would be somewhat ineffective if you couldn't understand the conversations. In animal forms that can approximate human speach you take penalties to Social Combat rolls, and maybe needing a successful roll to communicate at all in some circumstances. In animal forms that cannot approximate human speach, you need Glance Oration Technique (Lunars p.177) or you have to communicate like Lasse.

 

[Shru]

In animal forms that cannot approximate human speach, you need Glance Oration Technique (Lunars p.177) or you have to communicate like Lasse.

I totally think I failed at interpreting things, then. Do I still need Glance Oration with Dog-Tongue?

When in animal form, a character using Dog-Tongue Method can also speak any human tongue she knows.

>_< Not trying to split hairs. Trying to plan things in the not-so-far future.

 

[Tikor]

When in animal form, a character using Dog-Tongue Method can also speak any human tongue she knows.

When I say 'approximate human speach' what I really mean to say is 'capable of making noise in something remotely resembling the way humans do'. Thanks for asking me to clarify.


When STing for Lunars it pays to think of contingincies - it is the Lunar's nature to go out of bounds. The unwritten assumption of the above is that you are an animal that can make noise. You can gain knacks that allow you access to Wyld tainted animals (Luna's Hidden Face p.134), some of which are incapable of making sound. Perhaps they don't breathe at all, or they simply don't have heads. Except for those extreme cases, the above holds true.


You do not need Glance Oration Technique for any of your known forms. Dog-Tongue Method works, for you, 100% of the time as advertized.

 

[Tikor]

Step 10: 2 successes. Wolf also takes a poison effect Damage 4L, Toxicity 2, Penalty -2. I'll need a Stam+Resistance roll from him to see how this goes down.
Step 10: 1 success. This poison does not stack.


Step 10: 3 successes. This poison does not stack.

Wolf takes 6L damage. This is levels of damage in step 10, which is very different from raw damage in step 7.

Step 7: raw damage 3+2(additional successes) = 5L
Step 7: raw damage 3+4(additional successes) = 7L


Step 7: raw damage 3+1(additional successes) = 4L

This raw damage is not the final word. The die pool for rolled damage is actually calculated in step 8, and is what is called post-soak damage. Rolled damage does not explode (10s count as 1). Rolled damage are actual levels of damage, attained in step 10.


Summary:


Raw damage - what the attacker does.


Post-Soak damage - what the attacker has left after soak is applied.


Rolled damage - The successes of the rolling of post-soak damage, with no explosions.


Rolled damage is actually marked off on the character sheet.

 

[Shru]

Ugh. =\ I wonder why I'm having such trouble finding these things in the book when I look for them. =\ Sorry for being such a pain. ;__;


I'm cool with getting a mutation for Wolf to make him more battle-ready -- what does it cost / how would I go about it?


In other news, are we waiting on Douser to react to what she sees? If so, use the below. If not, ignore the below. (I'd wait for a verdict before writing something, but if I'm LUCKY, I'll be home around 6, so...


Douser, totally on it


Douser looks at the teeming mass of snakes, happy with the obvious and ready solution. She takes a deep breath, gathering power to make herself heard above the hissing, growling, smashing combat playing out below. "They can't move!" The rich Forest-tongue rolls out of her scaled and feathered body incongrously. "The abomination is trapped in the roots -- let's leave it."

 

[Tikor]

Ugh. =\ I wonder why I'm having such trouble finding these things in the book when I look for them. =\ Sorry for being such a pain. ;__;

Apology not accepted for it is not needed. Exalted is not simple. There is always something more to learn. I consider this a feature.

I'm cool with getting a mutation for Wolf to make him more battle-ready -- what does it cost / how would I go about it?

The storyteller smacks his head, gives you permission to (obviously) give your pet the mechanical effects of the fur, claws, fangs, and wolf's stride mutations found on Core page 288 and Lunars page XX (have to go look), and you edit your char sheet. (We'd already given the claws and fangs implicitly by making his attacks lethal, but Wolf should have a 'mutations' section where this is spelled out).

In other news, are we waiting on Douser to react to what she sees?

Nope, though that's a great reflexive action to throw in there. We're waiting to see what Wolf does.

 

[Tikor]

Re-reading, Arnuk, because your DV refreshed your Charm slot was open. You again put the 1st Dex in it by defending with it this tick.

 

[Tikor]

Heart's blood form bonuses edited in. Let me know if you think I missed something. All attacks are at accuracy +0, 0 additional successes unless specified. If I missed claws/fangs (Core p.288) or Fur/Feathers/Scales somewhere (and I'm sure I did), please add those in, I have to run.


Arnuk, I edited yours a bit too.


Meip, what is a tree pard?

 

[Tikor]

See page 137 of Core for info about diagnosing and treating patients. See pages 137, 149 and 150 of 1e Core for even more info on Medicine. Medicine has many uses (like treating disease), but restoring lost health levels is not one of them. I will allow you to speed recovery of even Exalted beings by half, however, by properly dressing their wounds at a difficulty of the health levels lost.


Instant health level restoration is the providence of Charms.


As for mote regenreation, that battle took about 10 seconds. Once you guys get moving again I'll note some amount of time passing and the mote regeneration that comes along with that. See Core page 115 about mote regeneration - artifacts and hearthstones that give mote regeneration stack with those values.

 

[Anyet]

Heh, I pulled the Tree Pard out of the Compass of Terrestrial Directions (Vol 3 - The East). It's basically just a gray and black leopard that is well adapted to life in the trees.