>>/quest/831688
Like I said, Bard Serenader with variant multiclassing in Rogue Medic. It's a complicated class, but the basic concept is a "Hello Nurse" who's not reluctant to use her sex appeal.

First off, the bard feats that I'm replacing with Serenader feats aren't very applicable to Azure's background and playstyle. Azure isn't as much an academic as Hore; she's been trained in a few subjects involving politics and physics, but spent her childhood living in an underground mansion surrounded by luxury, her family's faith is basically semi-agnostic so they'll pray to the gods but will use any and all scripture as toilet paper, most arcane technologies and magics used in the Youngmasons' architectural designs were treated as black boxes and curriculum was in favor of physics and legal issues, etc. Azure understands engineering and nobility, but not much else, and at the core of her training is the skill she needs as a businesswoman - diplomacy. That means bardic knowledge and Lore Master are thrown out the window, replaced by Silver Tongue Adept and Silver Tongue Master. She's a songstress, so she might be enticed by other bards' songs to learn from them but is too narcissistic to be charmed by others that easily. That replaces Well Versed with Hard to Charm. Her phoenix blood means she hasn't experienced courage for most of her life, but she has learned to charm others during her travels for sensual indulgences. That replaces Inspire Courage with Serenade. And of course, Azure doesn't want others to run away from her from fear, she wants them to be entranced by her beauty. So that replaces Frightening Tune with Song of Devotion.

Second, while there are other classes which appeal to her higher ambition, like the Diva class, they just don't work or don't feel right for Azure. Diva might be an appealing class, but Azure's criminal reputation (mostly due to Pog) means she needs to be on the move, and is infamous instead of mainly famous. Divas also play out as abusive insulters, who break things and then accuse others of being too incompetent and meek to serve them with expensive wine glasses they deserve, which doesn't fit Azure's personality. Azure might be spoiled, but she's an pampered hedonist, NOT a sadistic brat.

Third, Azure can't rely on spells alone. There are situations when she might run out of spells, or spellcasting might be restricted, or even dangerous to cast without permission. The medic class is for out-of-combat situations when she and other injured members of the party are idle, allowing her to spend some time healing without using up her magics. Salves are mostly for in-combat situations, to give out simple healing after her bardic performances run out, with healing spells only used if someone takes a big hit or after a fight. The added dodge bonuses at higher levels also tie in to her avian features. Generally speaking, if there's a "ranger archetype" that can be used for variant multiclassing healing, I'd consider taking that instead. To multiclass, I'd have to give up Inspire Courage, and Heroics; for Azure, those aren't exactly things she believes in.

Still, in retrospect, taking the variant subclass means Serenade will only affect a single target at high levels. I'm planning to have Azure take on high-level multiple-target charm spells however, so it balances out. If you want, I can play Azure as a Serenader with no variant multiclass.

Here's the spell list I came up with:
Cantrips - Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Know Direction, Resistance, Unwitting Ally
Level 1 - Cure Light Wounds, Tap Inner Beauty, Aspect of the Nightingale (basically one healing spell and two beauty accessories)

At her current level plus charisma modifier, she can cast 3 1st-level spells a day. If you see any spells that are even more effective at increasing charisma, constitution, or just plain "must-have for any bard" useful, let me know.

I gave it some thought and decided Pog can be a barbarian, but an Armored Hulk archetype. He's clearly not good at dodging, but has excessive layers of heavy armor. Couldn't find a better choice.

>>115890
Unwitting Ally is a fiddly little tactical thing that I can't figure out how to represent in GURPS terms, so swap that out for a personal grooming and feather-recoloring effect.

Aspect and Inner Beauty are mostly just +2 to stuff you're already good at, which is bland and redundant. Instead, how about Fool's Gold and Innocence?

>>115885
Hore- Caravan Palace: Lone Digger
Azure- Caravan Palace: Wonderland
Pog- Caravan Palace: Rock It For Me
Ivori- Squirrel Nut Zippers: Soon
Embri- Squirrel Nut Zippers: The Suits Are Picking Up The Bill

Hore's an action girl, one waiting for the right moment to lay waste with plasma bolts and ax-crazy.
Azure's haughty and dreams of having it all, even when she has less fortune than she realizes. She'll get there, though, or die trying.
Pog's a happy-go-lucky spontaneous dangerous creep.
Ivori's a parasitic influence, a shadow with a murderous, maddening agenda; in this case, "Soon" feels like someone hijacked a marching song and turned it into a dirge of doom, much like Ivori sneaking in the background to turn someone else's story into a living nightmare followed by death.
Embri entices others into a debt they believe to be charity. Embri's training in ninja arts was as a geisha-assassin; think Assassin's Creed Hide-in-plain-sight tactics, where she uses charm to lure others only to discreetly murder them while everyone is watching but no one is paying attention.

>>115892
>swap that out for a personal grooming and feather-recoloring effect
You mean Prestidigitation? Sure. Might come in handy, anyway.

Important question: Should I have Azure get Spark? This is so she can commit regenerative suicide at any given time, like say, if her wing is broken and she's seconds away from having her head cut off by a reaper, or if she's trapped underground and doesn't want to spend the next three days starving to death. I mean, it's a powerful tactic, but I think it might be creepy with a side order of unintended and costly side-effects. If you're not going to let me pick this, I'll just get Light so Azure can make torches that won't set her on fire.

>Aspect and Inner Beauty are mostly just +2 to stuff you're already good at, which is bland and redundant.
I figured stacking would be overpowered if it wasn't limited: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0767.html
Note that Azure has taken dump (7-8) scores in Strength and Constitution (not like she needs either), and slightly above average (12-13) scores in Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom. Everything else goes straight to Charisma. This is BEFORE she gets the charisma bonuses for being a phoenix-blooded harpy mutt.
I'm getting Eagle's Splendor (+4 to Charisma) at level 3. I figured I could push it a little further with Tap Inner Beauty. I'm also planning to fill Azure's 2nd-level spell list with other stat boosts, like Fox's Cunning (motive is to make Hore a genius when she's inventing stuff), Cat's Grace (For Hore and Pog during combat), Boiling Blood (Pog's an orc, this makes him even stronger), Human Potential (target gets to choose which stat to temporarily increase by 2), and Cure Moderate Wounds (getting a healing spell in each spell level category).

... Okay, important question: what happens when you cast Rage on a berserker? Do they use their Rage Powers when someone else forces them into Raging, or is it as if they have no Rage Powers whatsoever? Because if the former holds, that might be a good replacement for Human potential, or Fox's Cunning, or whatever.

>Fool's Gold
Well, Azure lost most of her gold coins from exploding. But she does spend a lot of cash, so yeah, this makes sense.

>Innocence
Yyyeah I can see why she'd want that.

Also, I haven't selected a Versatile Performance yet, but the first two are Singing(Bluff and Sense Motive) and Dancing(Acrobatics and Fly), that I'm sure of. Important question, since the wiki might have a typo: Masterpieces require both performance skill ranks and an appropriate sacrifice (feat or known spell), but do they also require the Versatile Performance feat?

>>115889
>No lightning

Alrighty then, if that's not an acceptable power, what would you recommend for a lightning oriented innate ability? I was imagining she had access to her innate power previously, but didn't readily have access to metal/gemstone jewelry, and thus was still discovering these new aspects; If it comes only from jewelry, it undercuts some of what I had envisioned, and I think I'd prefer to focus on the lightning aspect over the jewelry aspect. If it helps, I was envisioning she came from a nomadic background, located somewhere similar to the Mongolian steppe, and life revolved mainly around herd animals and controlling access to farmland.

>
To address music, I've had some time to think it over; Your character's music choices are interesting Kome, but I can see a connection. The music video for Lone digger is particularly appropriate for Hore, even if I'm not sure how the some relates. Wonderland makes a lot of sense to me though as a song for Azure.

I'm not set on any of these but I had some songs I thought were at least reminiscent of my characters, even if they're not quiet "theme song" material

Maru: "invincible" by OK GO (her original concept was actually conceived to this song

Isaiah: "Be Human" by Scott Matthews. Not neccisarily for the "be human" ascpect, but more for the similarities on a yearning for experiences one can never have.

Kent: Kent was harder, as they're A) one of my happier characters, and B) not super defined in terms of personality yet. Maybe "Crazy in Love" by Kiyoshi Yoshida

Riv: Probably something off of downward spiral by NIN, not sure what exactly though. Maybe some variant of "The Tree Song" by Kiyoshi Yoshida as well.

Stone: Also harder, but maybe "Circle of Life" by Elton John

Alphious: Hardly said one line, but I have something of a picture for his character in mind- "Zoot Suit Riot" by Cherry Poppin Daddys I think is fitting for his hedonist nature

Curious as to whether anyone else has songs they feel fit their characters.

>>115895
>You mean Prestidigitation?
I'm breaking it up into narrower effects. If you want a single spell that can do as many different things as Prestidigitation, it's going to represent experimental exploration, which means it's going to be unreliable.
>Should I have Azure get Spark? This is so she can commit regenerative suicide at any given time, like say, if her wing is broken and she's seconds away from having her head cut off
Broken limbs or other severe injuries already autoignite, assuming the air is breathable. Spark wouldn't significantly accelerate the process. Dancing Lights is a better pick, unless what you're looking for is a ranged weapon.
>what happens when you cast Rage on a berserker?
Time under the spell doesn't count against their daily limit of controlled rage, same as with a skald.
>Important question, since the wiki might have a typo: Masterpieces
Serenader isn't much of a change, it's still well within the scope of the bard class in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. What practical capabilities are you looking for from these 'masterpieces,' exactly?
>stacking
Passholdt's Minister of Punctuality, Einsoku Amphoranung, routinely combines Alter Self, Ant Haul, Boiling Blood, Bull's Strength, and the Half-Dragon and Lolth-Touched templates to push his carrying capacity up above twelve tons, and then Intimidating Prowess to apply that same overwhelming force socially. He's also got a lot of permanent Symbols of Scrying, some in places the smugglers think he doesn't know about.

Don't worry so much about plus or minus two. Circumstantial modifiers or mundane training and practice can do that, and it's only going to matter when the dice come up really close to the threshold of success or failure anyway. Instead of thinking about that, think about the kind of conditions under which Azure's social skills would face overwhelming adversity. Per http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/700/roleplaying-games/advanced-rules-diplomacy , the only situation where a diplomacy check's difficulty can scale upward indefinitely is when the party you're seeking to persuade isn't interested in talking at all. In Exalted, the simple way to avoid most social-combat problems is by switching to physical violence, because it happens so much faster than people can normally construct a persuasive argument. GURPS has rules for language barriers and cultural differences which make communication - and thus persuasion - more difficult. And every system has some threats which just can't be dealt with socially at all. You might be able to call off a golem or zombie by subverting it's handler, but they aren't necessarily accessible, and nobody negotiates with an earthquake. In "min/maxing," minimizing weaknesses comes before maximizing strengths. That's not alphabetical. It's because getting K.O.'d before you bring your strength to bear makes the exact magnitude of that strength irrelevant. What are Azure's weaknesses?

>theme songs
>Nine Inch Nails
Nistamatsin wears huge nails on his head and shortens his name to 'Nin'. This is not a coincidence.

I haven't really thought about musical influences for the rest of my characters.

>>115902
>if that's not an acceptable power
I wasn't saying it was completely unacceptable, just that it wasn't the specific power I was thinking of. I hear "pretty soldier" and I think of weaponized princess bling. Malkov has a lightning-based power, but it's very short ranged, basically an enhancement to his unarmed strikes. If you want http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/call-lightning/ an artillery effect, something which can reliably hit targets far away and behind cover, there should be some compensatory limitations. Setup time, FP cost or other cooldown requirements, conditions under which it doesn't work, that sort of thing.

Maybe one of her parents or grandparents was a huraka? Could go for somewhat broader wind control powers, with the major limiting factors being how long she has to prepare and how much open space is around her. So, underground in 10' wide tunnels, roaring just produces a blast of wind which can knock people down, or rearrange fog inside the Bloodmist Labyrinth. In larger caves, several minutes of setup produces a swirling vortex which can expend itself by releasing electrical discharges comparable to a single siege crossbow magazine. Out on the open steppe, a day or more of standing on a hilltop and howling (while clouds swirl, revealing your approximate position to anyone within a hundred miles) could culminate in a crackling hurricane to devastate an army.

>>115907
Well, that just makes it seem obvious in retrospect. Nistamatsin actually made me think of the song "Otherworld", which is the result of a bunch of different people who aren't related by a common band; Nobuo Uematsu, Michio Okamiya, Takuya Sugimoto and Bill Muir being the main names I see associated with it.

>>115908
Ah, gottcha. In my head, I was imagining the jewelry emulating iconic sailor moon devices such as the wands or tiaras, but as I though about the intersection between her background and such I got more attached to the idea of lightning and stormy weather than the jewelry concept which originally inspired it. The power you described sounds great; fantastic, even. Thematically I quite enjoy the picture you painted of her shouting on a hilltop.

On a side note, do you feel it's appropriate or useful to keep this thread going? Or should we start up another disqu thread to keep this from getting too long? Pros are obviously a shorter thread, cons being we split up the information and potentially cause confusion.

>new disthread
We've actually been planning it for a while now. I just promised to make a hex map for the title card and have been dragging my feet. I'll try to get it done tonight.

>I'm breaking it up into narrower effects. If you want a single spell that can do as many different things as Prestidigitation, it's going to represent experimental exploration, which means it's going to be unreliable.
"Preen Feathers" it is.

>Time under the spell doesn't count against their daily limit of controlled rage, same as with a skald.
I guess I'll get this so Azure can add some extra, non-fatiguing rounds to Pog.

>Serenader isn't much of a change, it's still well within the scope of the bard class in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy.
Cool.

>What practical capabilities are you looking for from these 'masterpieces,' exactly?
Honestly, I picked them for their high rank requirements because they'll be taken at higher levels, nothing we need to worry about any time soon. But for a phoenix, divine light is weaponized sunlight worthy of a harpy, and an earthquake would turn the tide for a harpy in a valley.

>What are Azure's weaknesses?
Low Strength and Low Constitution, minimal combat skills, prideful, high-profile (hard to stealth, maybe the feather preener can fix that though), and unknowledgeable about the world in general.

Pog covers Azure's physical weaknesses, but there are times when they are separated or she's in a fight; covering this means (A) talking her way out, (B) running like hell, or (C) finding a new partner to hide behind.
(A) High Diplomacy and Bluff ranks.
(B) High acrobat and fly skill ranks thanks to Versatile Performance: Dodge.
(C) Attempt to charm an enemy / neutral party into protecting / fighting for her.

I guess that's somewhat limited. Here's a list of 1st-level spells I'm considering, in addition to Cure Light Wounds, Fool's Gold, and Innocence:
Vanish - Invisibility makes fleeing easier.
Unseen Servant - For triggering traps, but this might not be that useful.
Unnatural Lust - Oh man, if Azure and Ivori are in the same party, this is a must-have.
Touch of Gracelessness - If Azure is up against a fast opponent, one round is all she needs to slow him down for the remainder of the fight.
Touch of Blindness - Same idea as gracelessness.
Toilsome Chant - Because Azure was raised by dwarves. I could take this and forgo the medic subclass, making her buff to skills MUCH more useful.
Timely Inspiration - What are the rules for this? Do I just call out that I want to use it if someone's roll is pretty high? Because this is one hell of a spell.
Share Language - Because of what you said about some language barriers. But I'm making Azure learn linguistics, so would this help or be redundant?
Shadow Trap - Simple yet effective.
Remove Fear - This is to help Geoffrey stick together, but would it anger him?
Memory Lapse - If negotiations go south with an individual powerhouse, this could be the difference between life and death.
Liberating Command - Could help if she's held by a brute.
Jitterbugs - Keep target distracted from pummeling Azure and company
Itching Curse - Same idea
Hideous Laughter - This might be funny.
Haze of Dreams - Slow the enemy down, and fleeing is easier.
Ear-Piercing Scream - Now THIS looks like a winner.
Cultural Adaptation - Might help diplomacy. Maybe.
Charm Person - Always useful, but Serenaders are mostly Charmful anyway
Blurred Movement - Azure is either perched on Pog or on the move in combat, standing still isn't something she does while arrows and axes are being thrown in her face.
Adoration - Azure is a sucker for fame.

Honestly, I don't like playing mage characters because of the excess number of spells. It's one big complicated optimization problem, and I don't understand what synergizes from the documentation alone.

>>115892
>Unwitting Ally is a fiddly little tactical thing that I can't figure out how to represent in GURPS terms
I'm not sure if it's a problem, but Maru's currently got that on her list.

>>115893
>She'll get there, though, or die trying.
>She'll get there, though, or [and] die trying[, repeatedly].
Fixed that for you.

>>115906
>spark for auto-suicide versus self inflicted injuries igniting
The main advantage I see for spark for that purpose is she could activate it while restrained, and unarmed.

>>115910
No rush, historically, threads don't break till around 2k posts, and that limit might have been adjusted. (Nice looking hex maps is something I've been putting off ever since we hit the overworld too).

>gdoc, Hore, Mutations:
>Low-level nanomachines assist with natural healing. Hit points regenerate slightly faster based on satiation, which decreases slightly faster. Sleep heals from burn faster. Does not restore any hit points when dying
>Kome was here, is this legit to add?
Kome, for future reference, that document is meant to be a reference for known capabilities and inventories. And I don't recall this being introduced at chargen, or level up. Unless JL says otherwise, I don't think Hore has what amounts to built-in ring of regeneration?

Good rule of thumb is if you can't copy paste it from a thread, it probably doesn't belong there.

>>115911
I can sympathize with the challenge of trying to pick useful and interesting spells from long lists, that's for sure.

strngy 2017/09/21(Thu)02:40 No. 115923 ID: af6e04
File 150598682294.png - (71.15KB , 1295x921 , maplayout.png )

>>115062
Threw this together in hexographer just to see if I've got the layout right. Anything I need to fix?

>>115923
Might wanna label the Bloodmist Labyrinth by name, since we now know of 3 different dungeons accessible from the overworld.

>>115923
Hex northwest of the canyon should actually be coastal hills, not swamp. Monastery is in the swamp hex northeast of the canyon. This was an error in Davina's initial map. Otherwise, looks good!

All right, Azure's updates pushed to gdoc, pending further revisions.

That leaves figuring out Rhea's spells, and everyone else's everything.

>other spells Azure is considering
Of that list, what jumps out at me is
>Remove Fear
Given that pretty much every PC has some fear that could disable them at a critical moment, measures to counter that will probably be useful. (Although, with the appropriate application of charm and social skills, a bard might have some ability to calm someone down without a dedicated spell).

I was afraid to ask this, but since I chose Variant Multiclassing so Azure could be a Serenader with the medic sub-class, does that mean Azure loses Bard spells per day and spells learned at level 3 along with her level 3 feats, or does she keep the spells per day and spells learned but loses the level 3 standard bard feats and any level 3 archetype feat replacements? Because Unnatural Lust is kind of important for her to get if when Ivori eventually gets a turn. Wiki doesn't really explain this part in detail.

>>115945
>Variant Multiclassing
This is NOT a straight-up Pathfinder game, and that particular variant is not one I am using. Azure's medical expertise can be represented by regular skill points, particularly considering she's more of a decadent dabbler than a proven professional. Hore Wutashi doesn't have (functional) Eclipse Phase-style medichines, either; she might have once, but they burned themselves out sculpting her biologically impossible elvenoid/goblinoid hybrid physiology into something that could survive puberty, and nobody she's ever met has the skills OR the tools to do basic nanotech diagnostics and maintenance, let alone major repairs.

I have lost count of how many times I have told you (you specifically, kome, nobody else does this to nearly the same extent) to stop making up mechanics. This is my quest, I make the rules. I'm trying to make those rules fair and consistent (among other things) and I'd accept constructive criticism, or even pedantic analysis of errors and self-contradictions, but I neither require nor appreciate your blunt and presumptive "assistance" in the task of game design itself. If the muse compels, I strongly suggest you try running your own quest to get it out of your system, instead of bucking for moderator status in this one every time I go too long between bapping you on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper.

If anyone wants to know how the rules work in this game, just go right ahead and ask me, preferably from a more or less in-character perspective. http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/17231/roleplaying-games/dissociated-mechanics-a-brief-primer

Speaking of which:
>>115914
>Maru's currently got [Unwitting Ally] on her list
Swap it for Detect Recreational Intoxicants. Can't spot, say, cyanide, but tracks down a pipeweed stash just fine, and 15 seconds of concentration is enough to assess degree of sobriety with greater practical precision than modern breathalyzers (since it seamlessly accounts for degree of tolerance, nonstandard drugs, interaction effects, etc.) from twenty yards away and through some walls.

>>115948
>Stop trying to add game mechanics like nanomachines
Sorry. I thought it was canon, seemed way too overpowered anyway. I'm not going to argue about you removing it.

>No variant multiclassing
I'm reading heavily from d20pfsrd because I don't have a complete 'framework' on how tabletop RPGs work in general. Can you put a cliffs' notes of rules you don't want us to bother you about into the character page or some other google document or something?

>Just finish up your character
Other than some minor worries that versatile performance doesn't allow you to respec skill points (should add a few anyway for safety) and a few more questions that can wait until she gets to level 3, I got her level 2 configuration set up.
Revised Feat List:
0th Spells - Preen Feathers, Dancing Lights, Detect Magic, Know North, Resistance
1st Spells- Cure Light Wounds, Fool's Gold (the one where someone in possession of a gold piece you cast the spell on is susceptible to your charms), Remove Fear
Versatile Performance - Sing
Skills - Appraise 1, Diplomacy 2, Disguise 1, Fly 1, Heal 2, Linguistics 1, Perform (Dance) 1, Perform (Sing) 2, Profession (Courtesan) 1, Profession (Merchant) 1, Profession (Architect) 1

>>115950
>I thought it was canon
It's my understanding that Hore does have nanotech of some variety or another. The problem is that they doesn't count as a formal mutation, or have the in-game effects you claimed they have. (Largely, they seem to be fluff that justifies some of Hore's powers, or the way automated repairs unlock new capabilities on level up).

I mean, basically every character has things that are true about them that don't immediately translate into hard mechanics or stats.

>Can you put a cliffs' notes of rules
If I may be so presumptuous, I'll give it a whirl.

Character creation rules are as described in the dungeon thread OP. You don't need any external resources there, except maybe as inspiration for mutations / abilities / vulnerabilies / etc.

The level up process boils down to picking an archetype for broad development.

Then, based on that archetype, JL will suggest or ask you to select spells and/or feats / new abilities consistent with that archetype. (And you can ask for input from other players for brainstorming, if you need or want it).

I like to think of this as selecting additional tools for your toolbox.

You don't need to worry about what d20pfsrd or anything else says about how to build a character. We're only really using external resources as lists of spells / abilities / powers / feats / whatever to reference.

I may be over-simplifying, and it's true that tabletop familiarity might save you from asking what things or how many of them you should be selecting at a given level up, but that's hardly necessary, and it's easy to ask.

>skills
In the same vein, you don't really need to keep track of those. JL just treats you as good (or not good) at a skill as makes sense for your character's specialization and established history.

For example, you'll notice there's no list anywhere stating out how good Davina is with a sword, or diplomacy, or charming a partner into bed, even though you can infer she's good at those things from her background.

I think where you're having trouble is you're treating this as something very rigid and predefined and complex (which to be fair, are all things tabletop games can be) when this game is more organic. I might call it free form, but that really doesn't capture the care and thought JL so obviously puts in weaving elements together.

>>115953
>The level up process boils down to picking an archetype for broad development.
It's also possible to focus on practical capabilities without much of an archetype (other than what's been established in character creation and over the course of play), even very narrow specializations like "I want to get better at flirting without saying anything out loud, just with posing and suggestive gestures, particularly to orcs" or "I want to get better at stabbing folks, specifically by kicking them in the kidneys with this specific pair of high-heeled shoes. And also walking around in a dungeon while wearing said shoes without falling down all the time, I guess." The way GURPS works, spending points on a narrow specialty (three one-point perks for the high heels thing, plus however many in a technique for targeting a given hit location with a given type of attack) makes you better at that one thing than if you'd spent the same number of points on broader expertise, and when the specialty hits diminishing returns it'll spill over to the general skill anyway. The World's Greatest Eye Surgeon is going to be at a disadvantage when the task at hand is clamping off a spurting artery inside a gunshot wound to some other part of the body, but still far better than somebody who's never been trained in surgery at all.

But that's quibbling. Mageykun seems to be on the right track. More generally, if you want to know the rules, go back and read what I've already written about them in this thread, the previous discussion thread, and the various quest threads. If I had a more condensed "cliff notes" version ready to go, it would already be in there somewhere.

I could do all the research myself, compile and tidy up my notes and spoon-feed 'em to... someone who's not actually one of my patrons, even at the $1 per month "guaranteed response contingent on patron not being a jerk" level, last I checked? I could do a lot of different things, but I have to prioritize.

Well, I'm out of ideas. Is there anything else Hore can ask the union?

>>115957
Well logically, now that you've gotten an understanding of what the problem is, and that you've gotten chummy with them, you could try persuading them into resupplying our ship. Either:

1) Bribe / persuade the strikes to help us out, despite the strike.
2) Try to resolve the root cause of the problem so the strike goes away.

I'm not exactly what solution would satisfy #2, and for #1, the question is what you offer them.

Or you could decide you'd learned enough and leave to touch base with the rest of the party, and maybe get dragged into what's happening with 'Cap' and Esmeraude. Or you could ignore responsibility and take advantage of the free drinks to get blackout drunk. Lots of options!

>>115948
>http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/17231/roleplaying-games/dissociated-mechanics-a-brief-primer
An interesting read, and gives me the vocabulary to explain why, say, Davina hasn't gone out of her way to ensure Comfort for the Lonely is always active.

>and you can ask for help or input if you need it
Speaking of:
>>/quest/831049
Input on Rhea's spell list? Stuff like light or spark and some fire effects seem inferior to or redundant with Rhea's innate stuff. Producing flame and resisting fire she's already got down.

Probably one of the only obvious shoe ins is Purify Food and Drink. I guess detect poison would be practical for a chef although I sorta want to resist giving literally all of my characters the same spell.

>>115948
Sounds useful. I missed that the first time around- just noticed when I was going back and checking up on my spells to see if I took light. Sadly, I did not. Still, that seems useful enough- got a good nose for drugs. Thank you Magey for keeping everything up to date

>>115968
Option 1 - Hore's charisma is low, she got lucky this time. Azure's the one with all the speechcraft skills. Pass.
Option 2 - Tried to suggest selling unique secrets to the Nyancompany, but it looks like they've racked their brains and found nothing they want to give out. Hore would need more data to figure out a better solution.

So I guess she'll just say goodbye and tell the Union she's going to meet up with her team to try and mediate this situation.

>>115970
Well, in a bind, that flaming melee weapon trick might work for a light source? In general though, you do have party members who can create light, and if you're concerned with the immediate brothel basement situation, Viste does have Dancing Lights.

Although I'm not sure if Maru woke up soon enough to tag along or not.

>>115972
1) I'd point out that these people already like Hore. (I mean, Hore is sorta salt of the earth and crude in a way that dockworkers can relate to her. Plus, dog people. And you've been hanging out drinking together, which is often good for making friends). You've got a circumstance bonus to leverage, here.

Don't be so quick to dismiss option outside a character's specialization. Sometimes, the best person for the job is the person in the right spot, not the person with the highest skill.

I mean, what's the worst case for trying and failing? Your new pals say no, or they toss you out of the bar, or maybe a crit fail results in a bar fight.

>>115974
Spark would also produce light at a negligible initial cost- the flaming weapons don't last long, and spark is at will, but property damage is obviously a concern. Light isn't an immediate issue, just a generally useful tool. Maru doesn't have dark vision, and she's scared of cap. Being able to see better would be comforting for her IC. OOC, I'd rate it as a bad idea unless we're unable to see

>>/quest/832437
This means Hore and Vos get lost for three hours, doesn't it.

Do I roll to see WHERE Hore and Vos end up that is definitely not near any other party members, or will you build a scenario without additional roll input?

>>116003
If you're really lucky, you might crit your way out of danger- although I doubt a crit fail and crit success back to back will simply cancle out with no consequences- more likely, you'd be left with something advantageous happening to Hore, and some lingering pentaly attached to Strngy

>>116003
Well, Hore could try to do something to mitigate or influence that poor roll, but it is a little tricky since you don't know what it will cause, yet.

Never let the eel-man navigate!

Who's "Ann Onamouse" ?

Not me; is that a new patreon? I don't remember there being 4 before, and if I'm not mistaken the monthly total just went up

>>/quest/832583
... Are high rolls good now? Or are the bugs just that experienced?

>was quietly murdered
Wait, I thought Viste was simply an alternate persona that Davina uses via disguise checks.

>>116038
>Wait, I thought Viste was simply an alternate persona that Davina uses via disguise checks.
Yes, but Vos doesn't know that, in-character.

The poor roll resulted in Vos drawing the wrong conclusion from the available evidence.

>>116026
Apparently we can add mystery solving to that list.

strngy 2017/09/25(Mon)00:45 No. 116047 ID: af6e04
File 150632550165.png - (33.60KB , 900x220 , map.png )

Here we go! Hope it looks alright.

strngy 2017/09/25(Mon)00:51 No. 116048 ID: af6e04
File 150632591845.png - (34.92KB , 900x220 , map.png )

Made a small (but probably useful) change

>>116048
I like the textures.

Two positional details: the hex with Zelkor's Ferry in it should be flipped left-for-right, and the red bear's hex should be flipped top-for-bottom.

Might also be sensible to represent the paved- road-and-aqueduct connection between Passholdt and Orcmeet somehow, as well as the border fort in that hex immediately east of the red bear.

Thanks to some combination of effective movement speeds, communication through holding up signs, and a series of elaborate plans that fail abruptly and catastrophically just short of the finish line, I am picturing 'cap' as Wil E. Coyote and Viste as The Roadrunner.

>>116050
I'm personally satisfied with which side of that paradigm I'm occupying.

>Did she look him in the eye? Did Maru?
...level 0 interaction allows level 1 response. Prisoner imitates eye contact, and unless the interrogator lacks exposed eyes, involuntarily or unconsciously returns it. Which allows a level 2 responses. It's trivially easy to shortcut 0 to 2. Lies of omission are only off the table for a prisoner spontaneously volunteering information.

Yeah that goes in a bug report. Although my verdict is already "scrap this entire framework for something simplier that's much more biased towards the interrogator." The current model is far too biased towards the prisoner. For example, the interrogator has no way to be certain what level is active, while the prisoner functionally always knows what he's being prevented from doing.

>whisperweb
...Which would allow trivial remote escalation if an accomplice swears at him.

>>116053
I can't find the binding rules anywhere, I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I'm gonna go ahead and act without them, based on the fact that I think it makes sense IC that Maru also forgot the exact details- meticulous planning isn't really her thing

How do we defuse the situation? Captain is on the verge of manipulating Maru into attacking, if we can just gag him before he says too much...

Hore has a creepy little gnoll laugh. Should I have her laugh at the song to defuse it, or would that trigger a high-level counter?

strngy 2017/09/26(Tue)00:51 No. 116076 ID: af6e04
File 150641229172.png - (37.39KB , 900x220 , map.png )

New and improved!

>>116069
>I can't find the binding rules anywhere
This post >>/quest/818953

You're currently holding a lethal weapon to his neck, so I'm pretty sure the whole scale is open to him right now.

>>116072
I... think it's just a matter of putting him back in the box at this point and ignoring provocation?

I mean, I was kind of hoping Maru's crowning moment of awesome, where she got cap to crack and actually show fear was pretty much it.

We got him dead to rights, and he knows at least some of us are willing to put his head on the table. He can't seem to help being provocative or bluster in the face of that, though.

Obviously this isn't a perfect metaphor, given how different this is from a pen and paper tabletop RPG, but let's say a level 9 warrior have 100 health- a critical hit guarantees you do damage, but 2d8+2 still isn't that much off the top as compared to say, 1d8+2. Clearly this is still a social encounter, and the dice system works a bit differently, but it makes sense to me that a single crit doesn't instantly solve everything- just diffuses the results of Vos fumbling a roll, and putting cap on edge. Maru is currently waiting on Viste to make the decisions as to how to proceed; if she were in charge she probably would have tried to cut off his leg so he can't run away anymore, and hauled him back to the ship to get locked in a dark box where no one can see or talk to him. Her little speech was really more for herself, and everyone else than for cap- even if you don't like what's going on, trust that the boss- Davina, and Viste as an extension of Davina's will, are handling the situation, and don't make any stupid decisions, no matter how much you want to kill the guy in front of you and wipe your hands of this whole mess. She's telling herself and Vos that they should trust Viste, and telling Viste that she's upset, but she's doing her best to keep it in check and let her handle it instead of subverting her authority and forcing her to manage cap and 3 other people.

>>116079
He asked what you want. Maybe try telling him what you want, at least with regard to his own immediate behavior?

>Maru is currently waiting on Viste to make the decisions as to how to proceed
>Maybe try telling him what you want
Ah. Clear, detailed, non-cryptic orders.

The enemy of taciturn, enigmatic alter egos the world over.

>>116124
I don't know about Davina/Viste, but Maru wants him dead. Hence her waiting for orders.

I would imagine we want him to come back to the ship peacefully, but honestly? It doesn't seem like a good idea to keep carrying him around, too much risk compared to the reward. We've seen the captain would be capable, under the right circumstances, of executing everyone on the ship and stealing it. The sorceress, if given the choice, would probably not be sentimental enough to turn down such an opportunity. Not sure what the boss thinks but Maru is skeptical that there's something worthwhile to risk keeping him around

>>116076
https://tgchan.org/kusaba/questdis/res/116125