Topic: Aether Jam - Game Cancelled. Forever. (Read 6858 times)

USEC_OFFICER · « **Reply #90 on:** February 15, 2013, 08:15:50 pm »

I have finally determined that I definitively, certainly, will not be there on Sunday. Sorry about that, folks.

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #91 on:** February 16, 2013, 10:57:53 am »

Episode 1, part 2: ...and then we're off!

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #92 on:** February 16, 2013, 10:58:23 am »

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #93 on:** February 17, 2013, 12:41:26 pm »

Combat and Spellcasting
Figured I should finally write this down somewhere accessible....

Wounds and Combat
Step 0: Decide how many actions you are going to take this turn, both on your turn and as a reaction. For every action you make available, beyond the first, you get a -1 to all your rolls (Unless you are a Raticavian, in which case the penalty only applies for every other, meaning at 3, 5, 7). This needs to be done before you take your first action - even if you don't use the second or beyond, well, caution has it's price.

Things that count as actions:
Attacks
Defenses (that use a weapon skill rather than Evasion)
Big Moves (charges, leaps, or sprints covering greater than a rooms distance)
Quick Cast (A spell that the player chose NOT to charge, or the release of a spell that was charged on a previous turn but not yet on this one)

On your turn, when fighting with (for example) blades.
Step 1: Roll relevant attack skill. Compare the result to opponents evasion skill roll (unless they have an action left that allows them to use their weapon skill in its place, and choose to do so. In that case, compare to that instead).
Step 2: Calculate the difference.

<= 0 : Attack fails, or is deflected.
1 : Glancing blow, half damage
2,3,4 : Solid blow, regular damage
5+ : Critical Strike, double damage

Note: Object and enemies that cannot fight back or evade (or choose not to) have a defense roll of Terrible. A player attempting to evade can, you'll note, roll lower than this - evading into the attack, it turns out, is counterproductive.
Step 3: (Assuming a hit has been scored) Roll a damage roll - this is based off your effective power, and compared to the armor of the target if the target is armored. Most targets are not, in which case use this result directly - else, use the difference as your result. Note that blades and other weapons tend to give a +1 effective power modifier here. After being calculated, your damage result is then halved for a glancing blow (and rounded down), and doubled for a critical hit.
Here the wound results of various rolls:

Impossible : The attack fails to damage the target.
Terrible, Poor : Scratch - No effect. 3 scratches turn into a Light Wound.
Mediocre : Light Wound - Target suffers -1 to all actions. Every third Light Wound causes target to lose a point of fitness.
Fair, Good : Serious Wound - Target suffers a -1 to all actions, and loses a point of fitness. This may cause scarring.
Great : Terrible Wound - Target suffers a -2 to all actions, and loses 2 points of fitness. This may cause additional damage in the form of lost body parts or long-term injuries.
Superb, Superb+ : Mortal Wound

At half fitness, rounded down, a characters must make a Mediocre Willpower check each turn or fall unconscious.
At zero fitness or less, characters must make both the previous check an additional Poor Willpower check to not die. Every point of negative of negative fitness increases the difficulty of this check by one level. Failing this check results in death at the end of round. Passing this check causes the character to lose a point in fitness at end of round instead.

Stabilize/First Aid
A successful Stabilize/First Aid attempt (versus the same difficulty as the Willpower test) does not reduce the chance to die, but DOES stop successful Willpower checks from causing additional damage. A stabilized character at 0 fitness ceases to roll Death Checks at all.

A First Aid check can also reduce the penalties from all wounds by one, and is run independently against each of these wounds. It may only be attempted once per wound.

Surgery
A successful Surgery attempt (versus the same difficulty as the Willpower test, plus 2) restores a point of fitness, up to 0. A succesful shaping spell of power versus the number of negative fitness points reduces the surgery difficulty by 1 (and can be made as part of the same action) and increases the amount of fitness restored by 1. A successful Facets roll against the same target reduces the surgery difficulty by 1 again, and stabilizes the target even if the surgery fails. If you cannot shape, you MUST have a needle and thread. If you cannot use Facets, you MUST have a knife or other small blade. If you lack any of these requirements, you cannot attempt the surgery at all, or (in the case of a failed spell or facet use and no backup equipment) the surgery automatically fails. If the surgery attempt fails, the target is no longer stabilized (unless you passed the Facet check).

Using Magic
Important stuff touched on here:
Power, Will, Fitness, Casting Level, Charging

To cast a spell:
0.Decide if you wish to set aside other actions - remember, this results in a penalty!
1. Decide on the spell you wish to cast.
2. Set the spell power to a value equal to or less than your character's Power stat.
3. Roll a casting check versus the power level of the spell. If you succeed, either:
Release the Spell immediately. This counts as a Quick Cast. It is cast at the desired power level.
OR
Start Charging the Spell (You cannot use other actions this turn)
If a casting check fails - The spell is disrupted and fizzles!
4. If charging, Add 1 to the spells power. You may now either release the spell as Standard Cast, or you may choose to hold it at the current power level until your next turn - If you hold it, your next turn starts at step 3, with the spell power at it's new value.
If you are attacked or otherwise distracted between turns, make a Control Spell check to stop the spell from being disrupted.
5. If a spell is cast or disrupted, make a Willpower check versus the spells power. If you fail, lose a point of Willpower. A Character with no Willpower falls unconscious.

Ultimuh · « **Reply #94 on:** February 17, 2013, 12:47:56 pm »

Forgot all about this thing.
Aw geez, and I wanted to play Skyrim Dragonborn DLC with mods I just managed to merge the Leveled lists of. :p

So.. same time as last time?

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #95 on:** February 17, 2013, 12:58:05 pm »

Yeps.

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #96 on:** February 24, 2013, 10:49:41 am »

Episode 2: Pit Stop

Spoiler: General (click to show/hide)

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #97 on:** February 24, 2013, 10:53:22 am »

Spoiler: general (click to show/hide)

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #98 on:** February 24, 2013, 12:40:20 pm »

The Details of Magic for: Blinking

About Blinking
Difficulty is determined by volume blinked and distance traveled. Some materials are more or less expensive to blink through than others. Air and Aether are about equal in difficulty, and are the standards from which blinking difficulty is derived.

Like electrical current, a blink spell will follow the path of least resistance, if it can. Crafting a blink spell is like laying copper wire along the path you want to follow, and then giving yourself a nudge so that you fall along the path until your desired departure point. Blinking will push things out of the way (if it's easy enough to do so) at it's destination, and if it can't (i.e. if that would be difficult) it will follow the path of least resistance by blinking you somewhere nearby that exerts less force on a departing object. This is generally expected, but not always safe to rely upon - Blink Traps are well known for killing blinkers trying to enter enemy ships by magically altering a special very deadly location on the ship as the space that is easiest to blink to - forcing a departure point, though, could easily end up with you halfway in a wall.

Blink Spell Details
It's important to know that Blinking works via a Blink Field. This is a single-surface three dimensional object. It can be contorted into interesting shapes but (normally) has no internal gaps or disconnected components, and this field always emanates from and completely envelops the caster.

Blinking maintains momentum and direction! You can not turn, rotate, or accelerate an object through the use of blinking. (Combining this with a guide path created by the Warp spell, however, remains an option for a variety of complex maneuvers)

If a Blink ends within a solid object that not easily be displaced, the result will be the blinked objects and the target being fused, or at least the parts that overlap. This is horrible to behold. If the fusion does not kill the Blinker (for example, an arm is fused, but not their brain or heart), they must treat it as an injury, with the severity determined by GM fiat. They must either remove the now trapped body part, or make a very difficult blink check to remove it.

Blinking connected object apart from each other is quite difficult. Blink spells are actually quite weak in regards to exerting force, and overcoming physical bonds is quite difficult without extreme effort. Something that is simply resting against another object is fairly easy to overcome - teleporting someone out of there close is not difficult. A tightly bound manacle is moreso, glue or the forces holding the body together even more difficult, and the atomic forces holding a metal blade or ship together are almost impossible to overcome.

There are no negative side effects to a failed blink spell (one that is miscast or fails to meet it's power requirements), but a successful blink spell that doesn't go as planned can be deadly.

Casting the Blink Spell and calculating required power levels
Blinking always targets at least the caster, and has a base cost of 1 for a normal volume object (like said caster), meaning that 1 point of spell power is always dedicated simply to getting the spell going. Each doubling the volume brought along with the blink increases the cost by 1. (Blink Bombers have special designs that greatly reduce this cost - a Small Blink Bomber and it's contents, assuming the Blinker is inside, cost only a single additional point, and a Large Blink Bomber only costs 2).

The cost of a blink is also influenced by the length of the blink - under 25 feet has no additional cost, but at 25 feet the cost is increased by 1, and it is increased again each time the distance is doubled. (10 feet would cost nothing more, 25 would cost 1, 50 would cost 2, and 100 feet would cost 3, and 200 feet would cost 4, for example)

When you begin a blink spell, you must choose a target. You can not change the target after you have started casting, so when attempting to blink to a moving object, it is important to either succeed in one turn or correctly guess where the target will be on the turn you release the spell.

Attempting to create an internal exclusion zone in the Blink Field is possible, but difficult. Add 2 to the difficulty of this Blink per such field created - not that such fields do NOT reduce the volume effected by the spell, and can be of any size.

Attempting to Blink an object that is connected to another object will usually follow the path of least resistance and bring both objects instead - most often causing the spell to fail due to a lack of power, if the attached object is large enough to increase the volume cost required. You can supress this effect, although the cost is based on the strength of the bond. Loosely attached objects, like worn clothes, a light handshake, or a loosely held item, cost a point of additional power. A tightly gripped weapon, a shaped manacle that presses into and indents the flesh, and skin tight elastic clothing is more difficult, at a cost of 2. Something that is bound tightly enough to be considered the same object, but which could easily be broken off, has a power cost of 1 to 3, depending on the physical force required to pull the objects apart. The bonds that hold water together would cost 1, a block of Styrofoam or pulling an object from sticky syrup would cost 2, and normal glue would probably be a three. To pull apart normal organic material, flesh would be 4, tendons 5, and bones 6. Metals range from 7 and up, depending on thickness and material. This cost is related to one point of contact, and is relevant to the amount of force needed overall to seperate the object with pulling. While flesh only costs 4, pulling all the flesh off a persons body results in attachment to multiple tendons and bones and would cost far more, while leaving behind a finger would only require paying the Tendon cost.

The difficulty in pulling apart two objects that have been fused through blinking is a bit anomolous - the objects aren't really bound in a meaningful sense, and most of the difficult comes from only blinking the parts you require. Removing a casters body part from a fused object adds a cost of 2 to the Blink, and removing an object that isn't part of the casters body adds a cost of 4.

Blink Disorientation
Blinking repeatedly can be disorienting. For the turn immediately after a Blink in which you were involved, you get a -1 to all checks (-2 if Blinking to an completely unfamiliar area, or -3 if the Blink was unexpected) from the effect Blink Disorientation. This penalty is reduced by 1 at the end of each full turn in which you do not Blink, and stacks if you make multiple Blinks on the same or consecutive turns.

Counters to Combat Blinking
When fighting enemies that field Blinkers in combat, there are a few counters that can be employed. The simplest is creating hooks that pass through the body, requiring them to pay the additional exclusion cost in order to blink you out of your vehicle or armor, or to blink away your weapon. This is painful, but often a valuable investment. Immersion in a sticky liquid or putting yourself in a location where a Blinker could not safely enter without fusing themselves is an additional possibility, and is what protects most Pilots, encased as they are in a pod that only they can fit in. Simply limiting an opposing Blinker's knowledge can be enough to prevent a Blink, or at least make it less useful. Finally, you can surround yourself with materials that make blinking difficult, increases the cost of passing through. Many larger ships will specifically invest in anti-blinking hulls for this exact purpose.

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #99 on:** February 24, 2013, 04:10:01 pm »

The Details of Magic for: Warping

About Warping
Warping is a touch-ranged power that creates an unstable segment of reality, twisting it into a different form. It has been said that Blinking uses a tightly refined type of warping, and there are definite similarities in technique between casting both spells. Warping, however, is a bit more versatile, allowing for a few different uses

Guide - Guides a projectile along a path originating at the caster. Has a base cost of 0 power plus 1 for each 25th foot of distance the projectile is guided. Each additional point of power provides a +1 bonus to accuracy, and increases the effective range by 25%. Larger objects cost additional power (guide a falling or leaping person costs an additional point). Guided objects can, in fact, be curved around corners - however, this level of control means the chance to hit becomes reliant SOLELY on the power of the Warp spell used, and loses any accuracy bonus from the character firing the weapon. Sharp corners cost an additional point of power, and u-turns cost an additional 2 and require at least 2 hallways widths as the tightest turn radius.

Weaken Armor - Substantially weakens a section of hard armor, such as hull or Roller plate. Costs 0 power for a touch rend of less than 2 foot diameter. Each double of the diameter costs an additional 1 power. Can be rendered into a field extending from the hand for an additional power per 10 foot distance. Each point of power put into this spell determines the value of "armor degredation" the target suffers (which reduces the armor level by the same amount). Armor degredation does not stack, instead going with the highest value of Weaken Armor spell cast on it. When used as a field and hitting a non-hardened target, this counts as a Rend Flesh spell instead.

Rend Flesh - Deals damage to living and non-hardened targets. Costs 1 power for a touch Rend against a Small creature. Player-sized targets cost 2. Can be rendered into a field extending from the hand for an additional power per 10 foot distance. Each point of power put into this spell determines has a chance of causing a wound, based on the power.

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #100 on:** February 27, 2013, 10:35:32 pm »

As a note: Session will be an hour earlier this week. We're gonna give it a try.

GlyphGryph · « **Reply #101 on:** March 06, 2013, 09:56:10 pm »

Since Cript is gone, and half the remaining players were missing last time and I've not heard from them since...

Yeah, I think this is dead in the water. Sorry for failing, everyone. :/

Ultimuh · « **Reply #102 on:** March 07, 2013, 03:27:36 am »

Well at least you tried..

Dwarmin · « **Reply #103 on:** March 07, 2013, 03:50:12 am »

Quote from: Ultimuh on March 07, 2013, 03:27:36 am

Well at least you tried..

We'll put that on his tombstone.

freeformschooler · « **Reply #104 on:** March 07, 2013, 07:25:40 am »

Quote from: Dwarmin on March 07, 2013, 03:50:12 am

Quote from: Ultimuh on March 07, 2013, 03:27:36 am
Well at least you tried..

We'll put that on his tombstone.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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Author Topic: Aether Jam - Game Cancelled. Forever. (Read 6858 times)

USEC_OFFICER

Re: Aether Jam - Next session, same bat-time, different bat-channel

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Next session, same bat-time, different bat-channel

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Next session, same bat-time, different bat-channel

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Next session, same bat-time, different bat-channel

Ultimuh

Re: Aether Jam - Next session, same bat-time, different bat-channel

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Next session, same bat-time, different bat-channel

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Next session, same bat-time, different bat-channel

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Next session, same bat-time, different bat-channel

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Next session, same bat-time, different bat-channel

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Beware: Here there be Void Dragons

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Beware: Here there be Void Dragons

GlyphGryph

Re: Aether Jam - Game Cancelled. Forever.

Ultimuh

Re: Aether Jam - Game Cancelled. Forever.

Dwarmin

Re: Aether Jam - Game Cancelled. Forever.

freeformschooler

Re: Aether Jam - Game Cancelled. Forever.