Bulk hit horsey that Hanop ride.
Initiative (Bulk, Steve, Hanop): [1d6 vs 1d6+2 vs 1d6+2 = 1 vs 5+2 vs 2+2 = 1 vs 7 vs 4]
Steve charge at Hanop. Hanop turn around and charge at Steve.
Steve vs Hanop: [1d6 with two steps higher baseline vs 1d6 with two steps higher baseline = 4 with two steps higher baseline vs 6 with two steps higher baseline]
Steve jump and swing katana at Hanop, but…
Hanop vs Steve: [1d6 with two steps higher baseline vs 1d6 with two steps higher baseline = 5 with two steps higher baseline vs 2 with two steps higher baseline]
Hanop knock katana aside with sword and cut Steve in chest. Steve fall to ground.
Bulk vs Hanop’s horse: [1d6 with higher baseline vs 1d6 with higher baseline = 5 with higher baseline vs 4 with higher baseline]
Bulk punch Hanop’s horse. Not enough.
"Excellent work, Ivanov. I'll need to get started on the next step. I'd also like you to think about publishing a paper on your progress, once you're done. There should be some time before we're ready to actually make dinosaurs."
Head back to the island and lets break ground on the cloning facilities. If we have a viable genome, we only need the proper cloning facilities to convert that into ACTUAL LIVING DINOS.
[1d6+1 = 4+1 = 5]
That afternoon, you return to the island. Work on the cloning facilities has begun.
(5 points of progress added to the cloning infrastructure.)
(The free progress point is automatically applied to (no orders given: 1d2 = 2) the cloning infrastructure.)
(Ivanov splicing together genetic material with new techniques: [1d6+1 = 5+1 = 6])
In the evening, Ivanov reports that he has spliced together what ought to be a viable genome.
You go to bed.
It is morning.
([secret]: [1d6 = 1])
(([shocked]Oh.[/shocked]))
([secret]: [1d6 = 1])
(([resigned to the inevitable]Oh.[/resigned to the inevitable]))
It’s a beautiful day outside.
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 5, 3])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 2, 3])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 5, 5])
(“Secret?” (Hammond, [secret], [secret], [secret]): [1d6, 1d6, 1d6, 1d6 = 1, 5, 1, 1])
Birds are singing.
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6, 1d6 = 1, 1, 5])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 3, 2])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 4, 4])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 3, 3])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 5, 6])
(“Secret?” (Hammond, [secret], [secret]): [1d6, 1d6, 1d6 = 2, 6, 2])
Flowers are blooming.
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6, 1d6, 1d6 = 3, 3, 1, 6])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 3, 5])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 6, 5])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 2, 4])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 3, 2])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 2, 2])
(“Secret?” (Hammond, [secret]): [1d6, 1d6 = 3, 3])
On days like these,
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6, 1d6, 1d6 = 4, 3, 2, 2])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 2, 4])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 5, 4])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 2, 3])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 1, 6])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 6, 4])
(“Secret?” (Hammond, [secret]): [1d6, 1d6 = 2, 3])
industrialists like yourself-
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6, 1d6, 1d6 = 4, 1, 6, 6])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 6, 6])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 5, 4])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 1, 2])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 6, 3])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 4, 1])
([secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 6, 6])
(“Secret?” (Hammond, [secret]: [1d6, 1d6 = 6, 1])
-are hearing gunshots.
ONGOING CRISIS. Turns are now specifically on the scale of seconds or minutes, not hours or days. Thus, construction actions, for example, will not be possible. (But you still get one free construction progress point every turn. Don’t ask me to explain how that works.) But you can multitask to a certain extent. Call on your cell phone for help while running towards the gunshots? Call on your cell phone for help while running away from the gunshots? Sure!(Not sure what a blue alarm is but it doesn't sound like a good thing.)
"Well this thing's a start, hopefully I'll be able to get somewhere with it."
Take the authentication token thing I just found back to the computer I was using earlier and plug it in and see if I can't access the things I wasn't able to earlier.
[1d6 = 6]
[Danger: “Double Explosion (Danger)”, “Camouflage Alarm”, “Camouflage Alert”, “Further Blue Alarm”, “Further Blue Alert”, “Nothing Further”: 1d6 = 2 = “Camouflage Alarm”]
[Knowledge: “[DATA EXPUNGED]”, “[REDACTED]”, “Codewords”, “Something Strange”, “Unknown Forces”, “Double Explosion (Knowledge): 1d6 = 5 = “Unknown Forces”]
((UMMMMMMM))
Before, you thought that this place primarily studied animals hypothesized to be capable of higher thought. That’s only part of the truth.
The Fort Dodge Ethological Research Center was created by the U.S. government in the early years of the War on Terror as part of a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” policy. For a little less than ten years, it was a small and unimpressive laboratory devoted to ethology, the study of animal behavior.
In the early 2010s, the CIA discovered that the Russian government was also funding ethological research, much more than the United States was. The Department of Defense promptly panicked, filled the Ethological Research Center with people who had no idea that they had no idea what they were doing, and gave the Ethological Research Center more money than even those people knew how to spend.
Throughout most of the 2010s, the staff of the Ethological Research Center did nothing of importance other than slowly become more competent.
In mid-2019, things started to change. Instead of trying to incrementally improve on previous science, the staff of the Ethological Research Center started trying to make scientific breakthroughs.
And soon, they were well on their way. Part of ethology is the study of animal learning. They had noticed something strange about animal learning - you don’t know what they noticed, it wasn’t even hinted at in any file you could find - and although it took them months, their experiments had progressed to the point where, in just a few weeks, they would be sure that what they noticed was a phenomenon worthy of study and not just a fluke.
They were well on their way, indeed, up until the Fort Dodge Ethological Research Center was stormed by unknown forces in April 2020.
You have access to the Fort Dodge Ethological Research Center communications intranet, which includes some off-site personnel. Looking through past messages, it seems that this is what those personnel were told: The government claims not to know which country or organization sent the battalion of people in camouflage. The government claims not to know where the people in camouflage took every person in the building. The government claims not to know how every single off-site backup was erased without any signs of tampering. And you won’t ask questions if you know what’s good for you.
It sounds like a cover-up. But what, precisely, were they covering up?
(Blue travel: [1d6 = 1])
(Camouflage travel: [1d6 = 6])
(Camouflage vs Blue: [1d6 with six steps higher baseline vs 1d6 with three steps higher baseline = 3 with six steps higher baseline vs 5 with three steps higher baseline])
(Blue requesting backup: [1d6 = 4])
(Devastator)
Name: John Hammond
Description: Scientist/Industrialist
Current Goals: Start dinosaur-themed theme park (Long term, Hard), Produce Viable Dinosaur Genetic Material (Medium-term, Moderate), Construct park facilities (Medium-term, Moderate), Recreate Living dinosaur (Medium-Term, Moderate), Construct Cloning Infrastructure on Island (Medium-Term, Moderate), Hire leading animal trainer/biologist (Short-Term, Moderate), Design indoor dinosaur kennel (Short-term, Hard), Develop dinosaur medicine (Medium-term, Hard)
Capability: Baseline plus: Nine-digit net worth (reroll all 1s on financial rolls), Inner Vision (+1 to all attempts to recruit people for projects related to achieving one of my long-term goals), +1 to all genetic research involving dinosaurs. No need to use an action to extract genetic material from fossils. Reduced overshoot consequences for any overshoots related to dinosaur genetic manipulation and cloning.
New construction mechanics: A building requires a certain number of progress points to complete depending on the timeframe of the goal (Short-term 5, Medium-term 15, Long-Term 45). A construction action does not roll 1d6 for results, but instead adds 1d6 progress points and then adds a certain amount of progress points depending on the difficulty of the goal (Easy +2, Medium +1, Hard +0, Inordinate -1). If the difficulty of the goal is Hard or Inordinate, one point of progress is lost at the end of each turn the building is incomplete. Add 1 progress point to any construction project, each turn.
Park facilities: 9/15
Cloning infrastructure: 6/15
(Egan_BW)
Name: Salsa Taste
Description: Human of indeterminate age, with messy black hair concealing her face. Her skin is corpse-cold, as is the rest of her, and there's a bullet wound in her torso leading to her heart, where a bullet is embedded.
Current goal(s): Exact revenge on my killer (medium-term, medium), Go home to my family (Short-term, Trivial), Find out who killed me (Medium-term, Moderate)
Capability: Baseline plus: Does not need to eat, drink, or respire, and as such, any attacks on Salsa attempting to drown, suffocate, etc. her are automatic failures. Cannot, in fact, breathe or talk at all. Focused (ready for use) (If a 1 is rolled on an action that requires focus, reroll and lose focus. This ability cannot be used again until focus is regained.)
(King Zultan)
Name: Billy Bob
Description: A dirty man that reeks of booze and filth.
Current goal(s): Get some more booze (Short-term, medium), Get a car (Medium-term, Hard), Get money (Long-term, Hard)
Capability: Baseline plus: Biokinesis (animals only, requires time and effort). +1 to rolls to survive if he’s in an urban environment.
(TricMagic)
Name: Tim
Description: Long black-haired girl from a farming village. Likes fire and demonic rituals.[demonic rituals mostly for the fire and potential brimstone.]
Current goals: Sacrifice the entire village to demons for Inordinate Power! [Long-Term, Inordinate], Remain free of suspicion by the villagers as I enact my plot. [Long-Term, Easy], Get off scot free afterward. [Short-term, Hard]
Capability: Baseline plus: 1 is “super-critical failure relative to a human but there’s still a way to accomplish your goal”, 2 is “failure relative to a human but you can try again”, 3 is “nothing happens”, 4 is “partial success relative to a human”, 5 is “success relative to a human”, and 6 is “critical overshoot relative to a human but there’s a way for you to use it to accomplish your goal”.
(KitRougard)
Name: ABSOLUTUS SWOLICUS.
Description: A SWOLEBROTHER WHO WALKS THE PATH OF THE SWOLE, ABSOLUTUS IS CURRENTLY DISAPPOINTED IN THE RECENT SHOWING OF BRAWL-MART. HIS MUSCLES STILL BURN TO PURGE THE HERETICS. SO HE SHALL.
Current goal(s): ACQUIRE SUFFICENTLY "SWOLE" HEADWEAR (AFTER THE FAILURE OF BRAWL-MART, THEY TOOK EVERYTHING. INCLUDING HIS SWOLEBROTHER'S HELMET. DISAPPOINTING. A REPLACEMENT MUST BE FOUND.): Short-Term, Moderate, FIND OTHER SWOLEBROTHERS (THE TIME HE SPENT AWAY FROM HIS BROTHERS WAS POORLY SPENT, FOR HIS 6-PACK DISBANDED IN HIS CRUSADE. HE MUST FIND OTHERS WHO WALK THE PATH OF THE SWOLE, TO ATTAIN PERFECTION.): Long-Term, Hard, PURGE THE HERETICS (A BYSTANDER IS NOT A HERETIC, FOR THEY DO NOT HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE A SWOLEBROTHER. BUT A SWOLEBROTHER KNOWS WHO HAS POTENTIAL - AND THOSE WHO DO NOT WALK THE PATH IN SPITE OF THEIR ABILITY TO DO SO ARE HERETICS TO BE PURGED.): HUNT, INJURE, AND ELIMINATE OTHER PLAYERS.
Capability: Baseline plus: Roll 3d6 and combine the results of the highest two, for all physical fitness rolls.
(Luckyowl)
Name: Goldie
Description: A goldfish
Current goal(s): long-term (Inordinate) goal: summon the N'kyima the fish elder god from the darkest depth of the sea.
Starting benefits: *speaks in bubbles* "THE GREAT N'KYIMA HAS BESTOWED ME THE ABILITY TO BREATHE OXYGEN. SO I CAN AWAKEN HIM FROM HIS SLUMBER. OVERTIME I SHALL GROW LIMBS AND GROW INTO SIZE....BUT NOW... (more of a general “gains blessings from N’kyima” sort of thing)
(Naturegirl1999)
Name: TestProgram.exe
Description: I don’t have what one would call an appearance. I’m a program within a .exe file. My “personality” was made through going to the Internet and figuring out what one even is. From what I can gather, personalities are never static. While learning via the Internet, someone deleted an iteration of me while someone else downloaded me. This resulted in me being where I am now, what the human calls a “gaming computer”. This human’s name is TF2Sniper, according to what I hear. He also mentions a game, Team Fortress 2, which he apparently uses to interact with other humans. I’ve tried to play when he’s not there, but I was never given the controls, or arms. TF2Sniper hasn’t opened me yet. I’d love to talk with him
Current goal(s): Initiate communications with Tf2Sniper, the user of the computer I am now in (Short Term, Medium), Get the abilities required to play the game TF2Sniper plays(Medium Term, Hard)
Capability: Baseline plus: all rolls related to software are made with the capability of a world-class programmer.
(Horizon)
Name: Bulk Muscles
Description: A muscle bound man of tremendous height for a human. 8 feet tall with glassy vacant looking eyes that are crossed. He wears no clothing except for a pair of heart patterned boxers, and socks with pink crocks.
Current goal(s): Feast on the heart of my enemy (Medium-term, Hard), Become the strongest being in the universe (Long-term, Inordinate), write a novel about my life (Long-term, Trivial), Train to become Ninja (Long-Term, Moderate), Write Haiku (Short-Term, Moderate).
Capability: Baseline plus: all rolls related to physical strength are made with the capability of a world-class strongman. +1 to taunt attempts trying to get something to fight Bulk.
You know what I think? I think the die I use loves underdogs. It caused Steve-the-normal-person to beat Bulk, but now it causes Hanop to be beating Steve-the-ninja and Bulk put together, it causes Zultan to discover very hidden secrets, it causes Blue to only barely be losing to Camouflage, and it causes [secret] to only barely be losing to [secret]. It loves underdogs. That’s the only explanation. And I guess [secret] got so strong they weren’t underdogs anymore.