SF and Gaming Blog

A followup to my previous Actual Play post.  As before, this is an actual transcript of the message game on Dreamlyrics.com

“Quick,” Hollis muttered in mild disappointment. But now without the crossbow pointed at her, she could grab the whole person and slam him into the ceiling head first a few times. Which is what she was going to do if he was still visible…

He seems to instinctively understand what Hollis is trying to do; he drops the crossbow and concentrates on trying to avoid being dragged ceilingwards by hanging on to the stair rail. He’s pretty strong, and Hollis doesn’t have quite the right psychokinetic grip on him. But the wooden stair rail begins to creak and splinter.

“Get down here!” he cries, “Mad wizard!”.

“Not mad,” Hollis murmured. “Merely annoyed. I get that way when people try to kill me.” She shifted from trying to yank him skyward, to whipping him back and forth like a rag doll in the hands of an angry child. Since he’d tried to kill her, breaking a couple of wrists or his neck from the whiplash effect didn’t bother her in the slightest.

Sooner or later he would come loose — the sounds from the rail made sooner sound likely — and then he would be *hers*.

“We might think about backing out in just a moment …”

She could use the man to stop up the entryway while they escaped, but they needed to get him loose and get moving.

But he’s not hers just yet; she can feel him struggling, and he’s strong. Somehow he manages to brace himself, and avoids getting twisted around. That handrail isn’t going to last long, though.

Another man, this one small and wiry, appears at the top of the stairs. He’s got another crossbow.

“The woman!”, cries the big man, “Be quick”.

He aims the crossbow. 

With the new arrival Hollis couldn’t wait to wear out the handrail; she had to let go of his — so she could twist the new arrival so that his crossbow was pointed at her first assailant as he released.

“Gath, you can jump in here anythime …”

“Stop!”, says Gath, “I can explain

The man with the crossbow pays no attention.

“This is for Rik, bitch”, he says, as he looses the quarrel.

The big man lets out a strangled gurgle as he rolls down the stairs, to lie sprawled at the foot of the steps with a crossbow bolt sticking out of his neck.

By the time he reaches the bottom, the crossbow man has gone,

This starts out with a couple of opposed rolls between Hollis’ Superb psychokinetics and the unnamed NPC’s Good Strength.  Both rounds ended in ties; my NPC was lucky with the dice; I really hadn’t expected him to live this long.  When the new arrival turned up on the scene, his luck ran out. This was Crossbow vs. Psychokinetics, and the result was Terrible vs. Great. That’s a difference of -5.  Since I’m not using the extended combat rules fo this, that’s a near death, and because he’s an unnamed NPC and mere canon-fodder, it’s game over for the big man.

This is an “actual play” example from my ongoing online game on Dreamlyrics – the actual thread is here. It’s a conflict between Hollis, the psychokinetic human rebel assassin played by Nicki Jett, and an as-yet-unnamed NPC, actually guild security from the Guild of Victuallers. Hollis is searching for clues in the cellar of a tavern – the stakes for the meta-conflict were that Hollis would find a Significant Clue in return for a ‘complication’.

It’s a typical cellar of a tavern; full of beer barrels, some redundant furniture stacked in one corner. Hollis’ eyes are initially drawn to a bloodstain on the floor; enough blood for a nasty wound, not enough for someone to have bled to death.

A little searching reveals two items; a five-glerin coin bearing the head of Sarkan Vorsath of Karmork, and square black object resembling the communicators issued to members of the Karazthan.

“Aha,” Hollis whispered. “A clue. Two of ‘em, in fact.”

She collected the items and after a close perusal, pocketed them, then continued to search. aside for looking for clues, she was also trying to figure out the route the bad guys had employed, as opposed to the one Gath used to escape. She assumed that was they way she’d come in.

“Put you hands where I can see them” comes a male voice from somewhere behind Hollis. “And no funny business from you either, Gath”.

Hollis kept her hands wide and turned toward the voice, taking note of any useful objects in the vicinity as she did so. “No problem,” she said cheerfully.

The voice belongs to a thick-set human with arms and legs resembling tree trunks. Hollis doesn’t recognise the face, but she does notice he’s pointing a seriously large crossbow at her.

“Now, you two are going to explain to me precisely what you are doing grubbing around in this cellar. And that explanation had better be a good one”.

“Just trying to find my cousin Wozzeck,” Hiollis said cheerfully. “He’s not right in the head. Someone told us they’d seen him wandering around down here, so I persuaded this gentleman …” she turned to Gath apologetically, “I didn’t even get his name. Gath, you say? I persuaded Mister Gath to help me look.”

She gave Gath an imperceptible nod, then turned back. “Perhaps you’ve seen him. Stringy brown hair, about forty, with a scar right here … ”

… and with the faintest, harmless-looking flick of her fingertips along side her face, as if demonstrating the scar location, she *snatched* the quarrel right off the top of his crossbow.

Assuming that went as planned, she would flip the quarrel end for end and then drive it right into the big man’s eye.

This is a fight scene. Hollis has Fast-Talk at Fair, and Psychokinetics at Superb. The NPC’s relevant abilities for the encounter are Insight, Perception and Dodge, all at Fair, and Crossbow at Good. This guy is a professional, but nothing like the power level of a typical PC.

I decided to resolve this in two stages – first is Fast-Talk vs. Insight to see if Hollis managed to distract him. If Hollis wins, she can do the PK trick with the quarrel. If she loses, he attempts to shoot her (which would probably be Crossbow vs. PK to actually hit her, so he’d probably miss)

If Hollis wins the first contest, it’s then PK vs both Perception and Dodge – Perception to realise what’s going on, and Dodge to get out of the way.

Fast-Talk vs. Insight goes to Hollis, but only by a narrow margin. For the second contest, Hollis rolls -1 (Great) against the NPCs +3 (Superb) for Perception and 0 (Fair) for Dodge.

“Never heard of him”, he says. His reactions are far quicker than Hollis would have imagined; by the time the crossbow quarrel pierces where his eye would have been, his head is no longer there, leaving the quarrel embedded in the wood.

In the current playtest draft rules, there are two different ways you can combine two skills. In some circumstances you can use either skill, in which case you roll against both and take the best result. In others, you need both skills, so you roll against both skills, and take the worst roll.

I ruled Perception + Dodge as an “either” and used the better of the two rolls. Since his Superb beat Hollis’ Great, that means Hollis missed.

Now, in the context of this fight, I’m wondering if that approach really makes sense. Any opinions?

Another iconic NPC presented for comment. This one kills two birds with one stone – he comes from a family of feuding nobles, and hold a high-ranking position in one of the most powerful guilds.

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Alzardol Blerynthar d’n Tardeyn is a noble of Clan Blerynthar, and holds the position of a senior administrator in the Academy of Life, with ambitions to become Guildmaster on retirement of the present incumbent. As a member of the fractious Clan Blerynthar, he hasn’t managed to reach adulthood without making enemies, the most deadly of which is his half-brother Daraseth, with whom he’s feuded since childhood. He’s had to become a good duellist in order to have lived long enough, skilled in both the Nirvork duelling blade, and in unarmed combat. The score for duels with Daraseth stands at one-all; he bears a prominent scar on one cheek as a result of the last one.There are persistent rumours that something deeply unpleasant happened during his late adolescence.

Not that he doesn’t have the requisite skills for his job; by all accounts he’s a good administrator, well-versed in the minutiae of kandar law, and a good diplomat when it comes to resolving messy disputes with other guilds. Not that he isn’t prepared to be ruthless when the occasion demands; the guild will not expect anything less when its interests are directly threatened.

Lifepaths:
Noble, Guild Administrator

Keys:
Honour of the Clan, Duty to the Academy of Knowledge, Deadly Enemy: Half-brother, Dark Secret: (The exact nature of which is left for individual GMs to specify)

Principle Abilities:
Administration, Diplomacy, Kandar Law, Kandar Social Graces, Nirvork (all at Good)

Connections:
Clan Blerynthar: Good
Academy of Knowledge: Good

In Rob Donoghue’s design blog post what I want from setting, he lists three things he likes to see, one of which is faces:

Faces are what they sound like – NPCs. I am not proposing a need for stat blocks or detailed backgrounds, and most of my needs can be satisfied with a sentence or two of background. The NPCs I’m talking about are not important for who they are but rather for the purpose they serve. I cannot meaningfully interact with a government, nation, ideology or conspiracy, but I can meaningfully interact with a person who represents that group. Maybe they’re a person of authority for the group they represent, maybe they’re just an iconic member of that group, but that character _is_ that organization so far as my game is concerned. If I can put a face on the important ideas of the game, then they will mean more to my players.

Here’s one face for Kalyr. He does have a detailed stat block, at the same power level (four lifepaths) as the default level for PCs, using the current draft of the playtest rules. I’ll most likely drop him (and others like him) into the appropriate section of the settings chapter – in his case it will be the the section entitled “Religion“.

Zarvendol isn’t a very nice person. I would hope that the majority of games would see the likes of him used as a villain.

Name: Zarvendol d’n Areyn
Race: Kandar
Sex: Male
Appearance: 6’6” tall, copper-coloured skin and green eyes, hair dyed in purple and black streaks, prominent scar on cheek.

Lifepaths
Guild Background
Knight (three times)

Gifts
Extra Damage
Toughness
Talent: Quick Reactions

Keys
Duty to Temple of Kardak
Servant of The Guardian
Extremely Intolerant
The Only Good Enemy Is A Dead One

Abilities
Armed Melee Combat (Broadsword): Superb
Fast-Draw: Good
Kandar Fu: Good
Zarandar Riding: Fair
Dodge: Fair
Strength: Fair
Willpower: Good
Perception: Fair
Endurance: Good
Kandar Religious Lore: Good
Reading and Writing: Fair
Area Knowledge (home city): Mediocre
Streetwise: Mediocre

Connections
Temple of Kardak: Good
Guild of Victuallers: Mediocre

Weapons and Equipment
Fine quality Narvork sword +4 damage (includes +1 for Extra Damage Gift)
Hardened Ulsoghir hide armour, +3 armour (includes +1 for Toughness Gift)

Zarvendol is an archetypal Knight of Kardak the Defender. A xenophobic, bloodthirsty religious fanatic, he embodies all the traditional virtues of the holy defenders of the kandar race. To any human that encounters him as an enemy, he represents the very definition of the worst kind of kandar. If there’s a bloody pogrom taking place, expect to find him in the thick of it. When humans get in the way of his Narvork, he doesn’t recognise the concept of ‘innocent bystander’.