2014-10-30 Underwater Lab

Summary:

From: 9/28 5PM Near Hawaii
To: 9/28 11PM In Lab about 1 mile under the surface of the Pacific Ocean
Goal: To Determine other teams fate and destroy the Lab
Outcome: Successful, but complication(s)
Who: (All 9 - Full House) The Arachnid, Dark One, El Gordo, Hive Mind, John Doe, The Flea, Ray Dan, Sloth, Solar Flare
NPCs: Captain Vadim

Setup:

They had just recovered from a fight with 4 villains that attacked Vadim's ship.

Not wanting to waste any time, they jump in their stolen sub and head for the base.

What Happened:

As they approached the base it launched a few torpedoes at them.

Through lucky piloting by John Does, and application of Dark Ones telekinesis they were able to avoid taking any direct hits.

But it wasn't quite good enough, concussion from a nearby hit damaged the sub such that many small leaks appeared.

The pressure was intense 1 mile under the surface of the Ocean.

If they didn't get out soon they would be crushed by the pressure.

Luckily the labs power was offline, there must not have been any more power for the defensive systems, no more torpedoes came after them.

Unluckily the labs power was offline, so the airlocks weren't powered.

They were barely able to maneuver them sub to the 2 small airlocks and disembark before the pressure in the leaking sub could kill them,

Oddly another sub was below an airlock on the Ocean bed.

They eventually forced their way into the lab, but their sub was now unusable.

Bodies of the people who worked in the lab and the team that tried to deal with the lab were not to be found - just blood stains and bits of clothing.
They were attacked by little blob things that copied their abilities, and they were able to deal with them without much trouble.
Finally they had to deal with a large creature that looks like it was once a Fin (one of the shark like invaders).
They dealt with it, but it stung El Gordo before it went down.

They then got the power back on.

Questions:

* Why was Vadim's ship attacked?

* How are they going to get out of there?

* Who was running this lab?

* Is El Gordo okay?

Next:

2014-10-23 Heading to Underwater Lab

Summary:

From: 9/21 8PM Near Kyoto

To: 9/28 5PM Near Hawaii

Goal: Get to an underwater experimental base

Outcome: Delayed but on track

Who was there: The Arachnid, Hive Mind, The Flea, Sloth, Solar Flare, El Gordo

Missing: Dark One (was kinda there but fell asleep!), Ray Dan, John Doe

NPCs There: Captain Vadim, Heisenberg

Setup:

Sloth was going to have some big troubles if he couldn't get some needed secretions from Heisenberg.  Members of "The Seven Deadly Sins" that weren't in Kyoto took a ship journey with him to meet up with Sloth.  Luckily for them their buddy ship Captain Vadim ? (last name forgotten) the smuggler, just happened to be transporting medical supplies to Hawaii.  (? Really, a smuggler just transporting medical supplies, yeah must be what was going on), so they hitched a ride with him.

Start:

They finally caught up with the transport ship just before it reached Hawaii.  As the pilot, John Doe stayed in the sub, as the rest were climbing up out of the sub onto the transport ship, Bam! Attacked by 4 supers who must have been pretty darn confident because they jumped out of a helicopter which sped off without them.  A battle ensued but they eventually triumphed against the attackers.  Vadim was grateful that they saved his ship from the pirates and was able to dig up some healing packs for the injured to heal.  The Arachnid decided that they would not kill the pirates and recruited a couple of them into Omega, but one of them (Jester) wouldn't agree to it.  Luckily Vadim offered to take him off of their hands.

Conclusion:

They are now ready to go to the underwater lab and try to determine the fate of the team that went there before them.

Questions:

What will happen to the Jester?

Will the other pirates end up in Omega?

Does it matter what Vadim is doing near Hawaii?

Next?:

2014-10-16 Aftermath in Japan

Summary

Date: 9/20 3PM to 9/21 8 PM (local time near Japan)

Location: From mountains near Kyoto, to in a Sub just off the coast

Goal: Get to an underwater experimental base

Outcome: Amazingly: On track

Review

They failed to recruit Monolith, pissed him off, pretty much have no way to salvage their relationship with him, and even worse, Sloth is near dead, unconscious, and incapacitated somewhere underground. 

The Start

The "Seven Deadly Sins" messed up pretty badly in recruiting Monolith.

Destruction realizing how poorly they have been performing send in "John Doe" and "The Arachnid" steer them onto a more productive path.  He was considering sending the kid, but thinks he is better placed elsewhere for now.

Cleanup

The new guys arrived just too late to help with Monolith.

John Doe rigged up something from junk found in the ruins of the Buddhist monastery (Monolith had some high tech comforts) and located Sloths body.

They dug him up and with healing pack, got him down to 2 wounds.

They got a text from destruction telling them to cease their pursuit of Monolith, but they tried to come up with a way to get him anyway - which starting with Sloth tracking Monoliths underground path for a bit.

Apparently someone called the police around when the battle occurred, but the earthquake trashed the roads up to the mountains and it took hours for the police to get there.

John Doe learned Japanese and looked like a monk for a while to try to gather intel, he didn't really have success.

They hiked back to where the plane was to spend the night, but the earthquake had destroyed the plane and killed the pilot.

A nearby building was in good enough shape for them to spend the night.

Moving On

The next morning Destruction told them that they had alienated Monolith and abort that mission, then  directed them to find out what happened to a team he sent to an underwater base the aliens were doing experiments at.  He gave them the location of a high tech mini sub they would need to get there.

John Doe was able to get the normal looking guys onto work teams as helpful Americans to aid in the cleanup after the earthquake that had greatly damaged Kyoto.  The Arachnid sweet talked someone he was working with and got some great intel on the sub base.

They planned their attack out and at dusk made a 2 pronged attack on the base.

They took out 6 guard drones before the drones could get an attack off.

The Arachnid sealed the "office" building some V'sori were in, and was able to keep them bottled up until they finished their mission.

And I cannot stress it enough, the mission went as smooth as velvet (a baby's bottom? - whatever)

John Doe jacked into the minisubs computer and piloted out of the dock, making an illusion to make it look submerged as they speed away.

The V'sori finally blasted through the wall of the building but by they it was too late the Sins were already gone.

Questions

Is Monolith lost to Destruction?

Why did the police show up at the monastery?

What happened to the team in the underwater base?

How will Sloth feed his secretion dependency? (he only has a weeks supply and they are now about three and half days out, also a sub isn't going to get them back as quick as a plane)

What sort of resistance might they get from the aliens - keep in mind outside of Star city they leveled most big cities, and applied great force elsewhere, only in Star City to they use kid gloves.

Next

2014-10-08 Recruiting in Japan

Summary

Date: 9/18 9 AM ET to 9/20 3PM Japan time - Note: ET is Eastern Time - and screw Daylights Savings shifts
Location: From Star City to Kyoto Japan
Goal: Get an Earthquake making super out of retirement to help save the world
Outcome: Failed

The Start

The "Seven Deadly Sins" used a healing pack on Shifter to heal him.
Destruction let them know they needed to get Monolith to help him defeat the invaders.
He told them Monolith retired to a Buddhist temple in Kyoto.
Apparently Monolith was some sort of Earthquake making super, but none of them knew any details about him, and no one tried to gather any additional information about him.

The Journey

Then they safely made it to NJ to where Destruction had a DC-10 waiting to bring them to Kyoto.
It was a long trip with a couple of stop overs and went uneventfully.
They made it to mountains outside of Kyoto and the plane was cancelled in a place that was prepared for it.
They  walked up to the temple insisted on going in and getting to Monolith.
Only one monk spoke English, and he told them Monolith would not see them and that they should go.

The Battle

They decided to just walk past the monk and enter the temple.

Monks blocked them, but Hive Mind flew past them as bees and they started defending themselves.

There where ten monks there and it seems all 10 of them were quite brutally murdered (or do any of them still live?)

Monolith saw them massacring his protectors and was pissed, and after an 11(?) year vow to never use his powers again he activated them and attacked.

Sadly he doesn't have good control over his powers, they caused an earth quake several miles across, it destroyed the temple and no doubt did great damage to Kyoto.

Monolith was unable to defeat the Seven Deadly Sins, but was able to burrow underground.

Sloth followed him caught up to him and fought him deep under ground.

Sloth lost, Monolith escaped.

Questions

Where is Sloth?

Where is Monolith?

Can they get Monolith to work for Destruction now?

The Day After - Session 2

SPOILER WARNING if you are going to play an RPG campaign in the world of "The Day After Ragnarok" - then please don't read these posts.

Huh What?

The World Sucks but make the best of it
World War II ended with a bang - but not of a gun.  More like a bulldozer falling off a building, but no that would be like a mosquito hitting the ground.
Somehow Germany was able to summon the apocalypse, from Norse mythology the serpent that would destroy the world - But we lucked out - sort of - an American bomber loaded with a nuke was able to get to the serpents eye before it grew to its full size (it's head was only 350 miles across!).
They sacrificed their selves to kill it and venom spewed into the upper atmosphere and it came crashing down.
Most of the world is in tatters now, not much of a summer in a few years, the venom spread magic, twisting and destroying things it touched.
The splash down of the serpent caused giant tidal waves that devastated most of the US east of the Rockies, and then the venom twisted what was left there.
California, and Texas are doing okay.
The British empire has gotten stronger - but England and Europe are trashed, it is now lead from Australia which was virtually untouched.
It will take a long long time for this snake to rot, and there are some wonders to be made from its flesh.

Poisoned Lands

That is history, it happened 3 years ago.

The group happens to be in what is left of Knoxville, the mountains gave it enough protection to not be completely washed away.

The flood and the serpent venom has really trashed this part of the US, it is now generally called The Poisoned Lands.

Strange beasts roam, many crops become twisted and poison, but people still try to make a go of it, and heck, some of this weird stuff might be worth a pretty penny.

They looked for some work and were in luck, the mayors office called for some volunteers.

It seems a small town that gains protection from the city, decided they don't need any protection any more.

The group accepts a task to travel out there and see why, they can also get nice bonuses if they can persuade the town to come back under the cities protection.

On the Road

While they are travelling, something all too common occurs - they are attacked by bandits.

Luckily they don't have too much trouble dispatching them (unless having your jet pack engines get stuck shooting your straight up is a problem - but hey only one guy had one, and yeah that snake stuff made it possible to create.  Anyway it only took a few seconds to unjam).

Turns out the bandits had just left a town, and low and behold, it is the town the group is headed to.

The bandits are like, no way we aren't going back to there, there are monsters there that nearly ripped us to shreds.

The detour and hand off the bandits then head back on their mission.

Our Town

They make it to the outskirts of town and find a girl and her brother apparently he is sickly so they can live here (huh?).

The mayor figured out how to make some sort of brew with tainted corn that temporarily turns people into these fighting monsters that will protect the town.

If you don't come from the town, then you have to give up a family member to volunteer to defend the town by imbuing this brew.

The mayor talks openly about this and tries to convince the group to help him sway other towns to use this brew to be free of the city (but be under the mayor instead).

...

The Day After - Session 1

This is just a reminder about what happened.
I will definitely miss alot...

On their way

The gang were on their way to GenCon (2014?).
It was the middle of the night (people have jobs, so they couldn't leave earlier).
The driver and the co-pilot noticed some strange billboards that they don't remember ever seeing before on the trip.
They were about an attraction with worlds largest wicker basket (sadly they weren't told the signs were weather beaten and looked like they had been there a long time - so they must have been there before even though they were not remembered).
There was a sudden detour (Sudden? yeah sudden, no advance warning, zooming along, and not many cars backed up before it).
So they followed the detour.

Ooops

They saw a coyote.
They saw another coyote, but the co-pilot thought it looked identical.
They saw another coyote, and the co-pilot was sure it looked identical.
They got a flat (luckily not a blowout).
They pulled over to deal with it.
As they walked around the van to see the flat, someone walk around from the other side of the van.
A storm was starting, with lightning and not yet rain around them.
He looked like some sort of barbarian warrior, he must have been some nut dressed up for GenCon a few hours early and traveling that way.
(Through the power of my bad memory...) He said something _like_, "You must get the book undamaged, every thing depends on it..."
Did they see him after he spoke? I don't remember, but they did all black out just then.

After the Dream

They awoke - sort of...
They have a strange flashback, to a dream where they were geeks traveling to GenCon, but not to worry about that, got to complete the mission.
Got to get the stolen intelligence back...

Chase

They are speeding after a train in snow covered country (Siberia?)
They got there too late, they were supposed to get to it before it left.
They commandeered what vehicles they could find.
A couple of things like this (sort of a snow jeep):
http://media.hobzob.com/files/419/vehicle/4b90608f53c3b/IMG_0166.jpg
And a bunch of snow mobiles.
The train was heading uphill, there was a chasm and a bridge not to far away.
The tracks went through forest, they must have been here a long time, the trees were tall.
There was a bit of drama where they had to navigate around trees and around and over iced, snow covered boulders.
Some highlights:
One of them jumped off a snow mobile onto the train, got his leg stuck in a ladder was bent over backwards almost falling off before another pulled him up.
As they were traveling over the box cars from the back of the train to the front (where the passenger cars were), they saw someone stick his head out from a few cars ahead then the train lurched, and then the cars started separating
Too bad they were on the train cars starting to fallback.
But with the all the trees some of them were still in vehicles and hadn't yet made it onto the train.
Someone (or a few?) jumped back off and planned to zoom up to the front of the train, and oh yeah don't forget there is a chasm getting ever closer.
A couple of them sprint towards the front of the train hoping they can get to it before the trains separate too far.
One of them gets there as it is just too far away and does his best long jump anyway - of course he doesn't reach it - but hmm, he didn't fall on the tracks either...
He was able to jump far enough to grab onto the edge of the car (really a ladder on the end of the train car).
He was then able to shove the stunned guy who separated the trains, tumbling him away.
But Wait! did that guy have a swastika on his arm? - nah couldn't be, this is 2014.
Maybe the jump wasn't so impossible, another one of them made it, but there was no way anyone else could make the jump.
But they were less than a minute from the chasm.
The 2nd guy across has a knack for machinery, he figures out how he can swing down and around the side of the train and trigger a break.
It is enough that now the escaped cars start to catch back up to the train.
The driving ace in the remaining vehicle messes up badly [ or did he do a great maneuver? ] and hits a boulder which just happens to fling his vehicle up and onto a box car.
Everyone is on the train now.

Give 'em a Hand

They fight their way through  2 cars to the front passenger car and end up in a stalemate with an enemy agent holding something out the window, the intelligence they are after (or could it be from the dream, some book they must protect? -nah)
One of them who didn't fight through the cars is still on the roof, and remember that chasm, guess what they are over it now.
Anyway he dives over and lays prone over the agents hand and grabs the book.
He pulls but cannot quite get it loose.
The guys in the cabin see what is happening so one of them runs up and with a machete and with a perfect slice, chops the agents arm off.
Which is good right?
The guy on the roof is pulling the book, right?
Um, not so good... the book was being pulled inward, with the arm chopped it is trying to fall down and backward - so like a tug-of-war where one side lets things go slack... He drops the book...
Bye by, all the way down the chasm.

Maybe we can get it somehow, maybe it is... and they black out again.

Is This Spamming People?

I just heard something that made me think these posts might be spamming to google+ if so please let me know and I will dig deeper to figure out how to stop that form happening.  Thanks

Gaming Tech - Roleplaying

A great GM Hangout episode about Role Playing as opposed to playing the numbers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLQfkOf9rRA

Possible Extra

If we do do The Day After Ragnarok, then everyone will get some extra.  If 'American' then an extra skill, if British Empire double money (or maybe half money if not British?), other may give survival.  But no matter what, don't choose this until we all meet, I think it is important to discuss as a group, since I am going to be really stingy with default rolls with such a big group.

What Next - I have a plan - We need characters

After being shocked, and stunned, and worried, a plan is coming together for next session.  I think I (and we) need a better understanding of the system, so I have something in mind for next week.  It will let us explore some mechanics I don't think we have ever used.  It will work best with modern day chars, so maybe we just use the 'insipired by yourself' charactacters we talked about.  I am going to try to get to Nates today for gaming, and maybe can work on some of the chars then.  Feel free to be really liberal in what 'inspired by yourself' means, the main thing is that they are modern day starter characters.  If need be we can work on chars Wednesday so if it seems overwhelming then just give up.  Also remember that your hinderances are really important, bad stuff is great, using it and playing it up is worth bennies.

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Player Questions Needing Answers

I need to work these out about players.

Are you a core player or not?
How tied are you too a certain setting (like d&d like fantasy)?
How do you lean on a scale between role playing and combat simulation?

Bed time, and I am sure there are many more questions, but I will have to think of them later.

Some cross worlds thoughts in answer about a setting...

Yeah I am always interested mixed setting worlds, but haven't been able to figure out how to do it right.  I was going to lead off last night or next week with: "You fell asleep and as you woke up you realized the life you were living was just a dream as you get ready for your trip today".  And then have transitions like that happen periodically, but it won't work without without a good way to tie things together in a big overarching framework, with trouble and rewards somehow following around from world to world, and somehow allowing growth to happen in a meaningful way.  I really don't like the idea of simply mixing worlds together because then you just have a mess of everything being there at once (magic, tech, monsters, and so on).
Maybe I should find out more about RIFT and see how they handled it.  But hmm, writing thing has given me a few more good ideas about how it could work...

The Bad News

Why is there always bad news...  With a big group I think we aren't going to be able to do any deep story role playing, so I don't think Zombie apocolypse will work.  We need to do something else.  At least that is what I think.  Let me know if you think differently.  I think it needs to be something with lots of combat (since everyone is involved at once that way).  Or does it just not work at all? Or should we focus on a smaller group each week and few people sit out and play board games? Or are just a few people the main people who do a lot and the others become mostly extras?  Maybe instead of zombies we do something more arcane or techy, maybe something like John Carter of Mars, perhaps you all somehow get warped to Mars and get caught up in a war with lots of battles and magic like tech.  Any thoughts?  No matter what, the more I think about it the less I think the zombie thing will work with so many people.  Maybe we do meet on Tuesday with a smaller group? but who in it? Jeez. - I really don't want to try to do something that is heavy character story driven if we won't have a chance for people to play their characters.

Errors and Clarifications

Okay we weren't sure of some of these, got some wrong, and were just wondering about others (oh and if any strangers see this, we are using Savage Worlds):

• Hold - holds everything until you use it, so cannot move and hold action. (house rule couldn't find proof)
• Keep your card if you hold (but it doesn't really matter what it is)
• Looks like you get only 1 action and any number of free actions, and guess what, moving is a free action
• We need to have more -1 to shooting for light cover if things are partially obscured
• About damage, first is your initial state, then if hit, or hit with raises, this is what happens:
• Fine + Hit -> Shaken (we had this right)
• Fine + Hit with 1 Raise -> Shaken and 1 wound (still good)
• Fine + Hit with 2 Raises -> Shaken and 2 wounds (still had it right)
• Shaken + Hit -> Shaken and 1 wound (still got it)
• Shaken + Hit with 1 Raise -> Shaken and only 1 wound (!whoa what, the shaken doesn't turn into a would if you are damaged with a raise)
• Shaken + Hit with 2 Raises -> Shaken and 2 wounds
• Yikes! with a throw a normal miss deviates up to half as far as the throw was
• Breaking things is much harder! Objects have Parry of 2 (yeah even that door), and NO, I mean NO aces affect to hit or damage of Objects (they have no vitals - at least generally), so to take down the door you really need to do like 10 points of damage, and without any Aces increasing damage.
• Improvised Weapons are -1 to Fighting or Throwing, AND give you -1 Parry as well.
• Tests of Wills, like Taunt, Intimidate, or Trick, only yield a +2 against the opponent on the next action,  to make them Shaken, you need to make it with a raise.
• Armor just adds to toughness, you still use Parry to hit, armor doesn't affect Parry.  So basically it makes you harder to hurt, not harder to hit.

What is This?

It seems like we need a place for stuff relating to Role Playing so I made this.