Cthulhutech - The times have changed

[Muse]

Fixed here too.. 
Except I need to buy another Focus. 

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

   This campaign calls for a lot of travel, right?  Makes a day job inappropriate.

It certainly sounds that way from Merashin's comment in the opening post:

You will begin in the Merida arcology on the Yucatan Peninsula. You'll travel all around the world, so all of the Tager types will get a chance to act in their optimal environment. I also intend to have you guys metamorphose at some point or somehow empower your abilities if you are a para-psychic or sorcerer.

Lizka isn't corporate material anyway. The Society is pretty much her job and her family at this point, as I see it.

[merashin]

There will be a fair amount of travel. You'll probably stay in one place for a month or two at a time (depending on which place it is), but that's just a warning of the future. You're characters won't know about it until it comes up.

[ChaoticSky]

Yesterday, I was briefly bemused to note that we have an Elizabeth and an Ylizaveta, but it's easy enough to sort out: Liz is NOT Lizka (and definitely not Lizenka or Lizochka).

Solution my character is going to use: Beth and Veta 

@Our Most Glorious And Benevolent Leader
Will this pack have been together for a while? Or are we a newly put-together gaggle?

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Solution my character is going to use: Beth and Veta 

Yes, yes. If you call her Lizochka publicly she'll have to punch you. More often.

@Our Most Glorious And Benevolent Leader
Will this pack have been together for a while? Or are we a newly put-together gaggle?

This is an excellent question. I can see advantages and disadvantages to either answer. Additionally, regardless of whether we are or aren't, there's got to be someone resembling a leader. The higher-ups will demand it. Someone has to be responsible for our excesses reining us in.

The little anarchist calls "Not it."

Darkling, given their attitudes and what little you've said about your character so far, your Efreet probably feels quite certain she's who should be in charge. Whether or not anyone else agrees.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

It occurs to me that I should probably mention a bit more about the character than is currently in her (damn it, still unfinished, might stay that way 'til Friday as I'm mostly away from my computer) background.

Yes, she's got a tattoo that says she's an anarchist. Yes, she's a criminal brat with a long history of not cooperating with the System. Those are both in particular relevance to the Russian elements of the NEG. She's not dedicated to the downfall of anything authoritarian anywhere, nor is she going to insist that the murder be run according to voluntary and equal principles or any such silliness: when you're doing dangerous things there's often no time to sit and take a vote so it's useful to have one person calling the shots.

She is not going to be (too much of) a problem for the murder in terms of cooperation. The Society is as close as she has to a family, the Murder is as close as she has to a gang...And any opportunity to keep doing what her pseudo-adopted-father Aleksei was doing will keep her something resembling happy (Yes, she can be happy! She is not always aloof or sulky, but unless you enjoy listening to music that sounds like a handful of wrenches and a Finnish death metal vocalist dropped into a 55-gallon steel drum with a running chainsaw and rolled downhill, you're not likely to see her acting happy all that often). She's usually somewhat reserved unless she's listening to her music.

Well, that or when she's around good food.

Oh, and of course killing Dhohanoids will make her practically ecstatic.

But while she will respond negatively to pushing or overt assumptions of authority with a bit of a sneer, she's not going to be uncooperative for the sake of being uncooperative or anything like that. Nor is she a loner, as many characters with crapsack backgrounds are - as mentioned, she treats the murder as her gang.

So if anyone was concerned that 'oh great, we've got a loner murderhobo on the team,' then no, no we don't. Unless it's your character.

[Retrokinesis]

*sneaks in*

Oh, hello! This is your friendly neighborhood Voidspeaker reporting in. With my approval finished I'm finally here. Still working on background and integrating my floating artillery cloud into the group. Do we know what the in-game starting date is? I was thinking a xenomix, but that decides how old she can be.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Oh, hey, grats on your approval Retro!

The game will be starting at the end of 2087, in October.

...

You will begin in the Merida arcology on the Yucatan Peninsula. You'll travel all around the world, so all of the Tager types will get a chance to act in their optimal environment. I also intend to have you guys metamorphose at some point or somehow empower your abilities if you are a para-psychic or sorcerer.

Just snagged this from the initial post in the forum. Welcome.

[ChaoticSky]

*chants* One of us. One of us. One of us.

Hehe. Welcome!

[Muse]

*waves to Retrokinesis *

Hiyas.  Weren't you going to run this game for us on Giant?  But we couldn't get players?

[Teo Torriatte]

If you are looking for players on Giant for a CT game, I would love to join!

[ChaoticSky]

Huh, now, i think my brain just skipped a gear, but i cannot for the life of me remember why a +4 ability that can only be used every other turn and uses two actions is worthwhile compared to a +2 ability that i can use freely. With two actions/turn, i can use the +2 twice, or the +4 once every other turn, so why would i use the latter?

[Retrokinesis]

*waves to Retrokinesis *

Hiyas.  Weren't you going to run this game for us on Giant?  But we couldn't get players?

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone :).

I was originally, but there wasn't a lot of interest and it never got off the ground. Until merashin took over GMing and Carn suggested moving it over here, of course!

WIP below!

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

  CONCEPT

Player: Retrokinesis       
Name:                  Callsign:
Race: Xenomix          Allegiance: Eldritch Society
Virtue:                Flaw:

  PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

Gender: Female               Age:
Height:                Weight:
Hair:                  Eyes:
Coloring:
Dist. Features:
Birthday:
Place of Birth:

  ATTRIBUTES

Attributes  |  Rating  |  Feat Level
------------|----------|------------
Agility     |    ?     |
Intellect   |    ?     |
Perception  |    ?     |
Presence    |    ?     |
Strength    |    ?     |
Tenacy      |    ?     |

  SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES

Actions:
Movement:
Reflex:
Orgone:
Vitality:
Drama Points:

  SKILLS

Skill      |  Expertise  |  Attr. Base
-----------|-------------|------------
           |             |
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           |             |
           |             |
-----------|-------------|------------
Spec       |  Expertise  |  Skill
-----------|-------------|------------
           |             |
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           |             |
           |             |

  QUALITIES

Assets:
Tager (4)
Tager: Rare (1)
Tager: Exceptional (2)

Drawbacks:

  SPECIAL ABILITIES
Voidspeaker Tager

  INSANITY

Points:
Disorders:

  EXPERIENCE

Total:
Spent:
Log:

  POSSESSIONS

  SPELLS

  ARMOUR

  WEAPONS

  WOUNDS

[Teo Torriatte]

Oh. Okies, I guess I will wait to see if an opening presents itself then.

[Muse]

I actually linked you to that interest forum, Luna.

[Teo Torriatte]

Mhm and I made a character for it too.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lCJt-TNnnnopu3DbVjy2hNW9N0mHY1HZztUj_WLjIMA/edit

EDIT- ok so it wasn't done and people were kind of picking her apart, but I was trying.

[ChaoticSky]

Whew, been busy as all hell this week, got my crunch done now, significant portions of her fluff will be finished tomorrow.

Linky Poke me if i messed anything up.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Huh, now, i think my brain just skipped a gear, but i cannot for the life of me remember why a +4 ability that can only be used every other turn and uses two actions is worthwhile compared to a +2 ability that i can use freely. With two actions/turn, i can use the +2 twice, or the +4 once every other turn, so why would i use the latter?

It would mean expending more points, but the only thing I can see that being beneficial for is:

Ancient Enemies: p.60

Demonic Uppercut (+4) – The Efreet may only use this attack every other turn. This attack uses two of the Tager’s Actions that turn, with the accompanying Multiple Action Penalties.

plus from p.46 of Vade Mecum:

Knife Hand (0) – This is a hard, straight-armed strike to soft tissue using the finger tips.

taking into account this paragraph, also on p.46 of Vade Mecum:

Note: Tagers in their shifted form can feel free to substitute an attack using their natural close quarters weaponry for any strike or kick in the Cascades.

and these paragraphs from p.46 of Vade Mecum:

Each Cascade discusses the philosophy, training, and look of the fighting style, the Skill Specialization required to use that Cascade, the fighting moves of the style and appropriate rules, and both three Action and two Action Cascades. You read Cascades just like a flow chart. Start with an opening move – most styles give you a couple of options. Follow the flow to choose a second move, and on to a third for a three Action turn. Each step of the way shows you your Multiple Action Test Penalty for that attack as well as what move you’ll be using so you can consult its specific damage and effects. It’s that easy.

But what if you portray a Character who is only capable of one Action per turn? Cascades are still useful to these Characters, because having access to a Cascade means that you have access to the individual combat moves within it. So while your Character may not be able to pull off a flurry of attacks, he’ll still fight in a more sophisticated way than his untrained opponents. Even if your Character has the ability to pull off two or three Actions in a turn, you may choose to only perform one of the Cascade’s special moves as an attack and forego all Action penalties that turn.

Which means that IF your Efreet has neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenJAH!!!!BANG1!!!! training then they can make their one attack-per-turn-because-it-takes-two-actions AS IF it were Knife Hand which has a zero multiple-action penalty because it is the first step of a cascade and you can substitute any Tager Attack as one of your ninjuhttacks.

Which means that every other turn you can replace your two flaming fists (which you take a multiple attack penalty on) with a single MIGHTY BLOW (which you don't take a penalty on) but which does just as much damage.

And Lizzy can continue to be the kind of elitist snot that everyone knows all Efreet tagers are because most tagers (including the ones in this party) didn't take the advanced courses even though the Society offers them for all tagers.

We could get into discussions about the odds of two attacks at -2 each landing vs. one attack at -0 and whether it's better to have a slightly reduced chance to do two twice or put all the money on a single chance at slightly better odds, BUT LEAVING THAT ASIDE, there may be times when you only have the opportunity to get one attack in, either because the opponent is about to bug out (in which case you use the big hammer) or there may be times you want to do something else like, oh, move, or hug an oil barrel, or whatever it is you big fiery people do in a fight and THEN do a +2 damage hit instead of not being able to cuddle with Mr. Fluffy the Oil Barrel as well as getting a punch in.

EDIT: Note that getting ES Nernjer training will require you replacing the Tager specialized focus your character currently has on Fighting with that. But since it's explicitly designed so that Tagers can use it, there's no reason you shouldn't be using it at all times when in Tager form anyway...And, gee, hey, you can use it in weird little alien hybrid form, too...which you can't do with 'Tager'.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Also, just at a glance, remember that you can't raise skills to Expert or Master during character generation. You have to work for those.

You do get Expert in your own language for free (unless you're one of those weird alien hybrids oh-wait-you-are who chooses to divide their languages between English and Funny-Alien-Noises ).

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

I guess I somehow didn't ever see the first post on GitP, Retro. I only saw the one which Merashin made.

[Teo Torriatte]

I would really love to get a chance to finish up and play the character I submitted.

[merashin]

I'm sorry, but I can't do that right now Luna. If I let you in then I'd have to let CIDE from Giant over here as CIDE asked before you did, and seeing as how I don't have any experience with running a PbP game (even though I've played in them and run non-PbP games before) 8 players might be too much. I'm fine with having you be second on the wait list though.

I think I'll get everything started once everyone's finalized their characters and I get my computer ready again (hard drive died, luckily my notes and books are hard copies). I'll set a deadline of Sunday for everything getting started (for the new hard drive to arrive.).

[Mnemaxa]

Huh, now, i think my brain just skipped a gear, but i cannot for the life of me remember why a +4 ability that can only be used every other turn and uses two actions is worthwhile compared to a +2 ability that i can use freely. With two actions/turn, i can use the +2 twice, or the +4 once every other turn, so why would i use the latter?

Because armor penetration rolls are separate for each attack, meaning your +4 attack every other turn is much more likely to penetrate 2 or 3 dice of armor than your two separate +2 attacks. 

[ChaoticSky]

Also, just at a glance, remember that you can't raise skills to Expert or Master during character generation. You have to work for those.

You do get Expert in your own language for free (unless you're one of those weird alien hybrids oh-wait-you-are who chooses to divide their languages between English and Funny-Alien-Noises ).

Aha, knew something looked off. Ill get that stuff fixed after work ^^

[Teo Torriatte]

I'm sorry, but I can't do that right now Luna. If I let you in then I'd have to let CIDE from Giant over here as CIDE asked before you did, and seeing as how I don't have any experience with running a PbP game (even though I've played in them and run non-PbP games before) 8 players might be too much. I'm fine with having you be second on the wait list though.

I think I'll get everything started once everyone's finalized their characters and I get my computer ready again (hard drive died, luckily my notes and books are hard copies). I'll set a deadline of Sunday for everything getting started (for the new hard drive to arrive.).

Alright fair enough. I'll look in the meantime to see if anyone else wants to play in a separate game, and hopefully between the two I may still get to play my character at some point.