A Rainy September Day
Oog. Crazy first couple hours of the day, though things seem to have settled. That's been par for the course thusfar this week. It's draining, and then I'm left with... quiet. I guess I'm thankful that problems have been resolved, but I still feel aimless when I've been running around doing three things at once and suddenly have everything working properly.
I guess the Star Wars game is running. With or without me. >.> I didn't expect discussion about character creation to turn into impromptu roleplay between characters. I guess that's good.
I also find myself wondering if I should be worried that I have one player who was largely ambivalent, one who was overly (in my mind) concerned about things, and one who is fixated on being mysterious.
Envoy: noun, 1. A representative of a government who is sent on a special diplomatic mission. Does being an envoy really make much sense if no one (or very few people) knows who you represent? That sounds more like a "spy" to me. ;)
The group has finished up in Autochthon(ia) and returned to Creation in Gem. Work is in progress, albeit unspecified, to get the city back in shape. Symphony offered to stay and manage it while the rest of the Circle carries on. There was mention that Tamara might want to stay with her, and Kashim might feel bound to stay with Tamara. Taking on another deathlord missing three members? Gah, that's a near-horrifying thought.
The Circle (well, part of the Circle) talked to Five Days Darkness about what's to come. It's exactly six weeks until Calibration - the time when we want to have the Queen of Winter's crown back to her. But we "need" the crown to kill the Mask of Winter in any permanent sense, so there's a major timing problem going on right now.
Nevermind that the crown can't be used from afar, it has to be put on him, and it doesn't actually weaken/limit him other than making him vulnerable to a permanent demise. So we're probably going to be relying on Selina's stealth capability to plant the crown (as we don't have Auric).
Contrary to implications I've read elsewhere, Five Days Darkness has repeatedly indicated that Juggernaut, the massive behemoth (is that redundant?) forced into the Mark of Winter's service as a mobile base, is a potential ally if we can free him from the creatures being used to torment/devour/slowly kill him. So that's likely to be a priority immediately before the confrontation. Perhaps "freeing" Juggernaut may be usable as a lure of sorts to get the MoW out in the open in the first place.
Naga still wants his old body back, but is starting to realize other things may be higher priority. The Circle wants to drop off the exaltation shards before going into battle, which means getting into Yu Shan, which... is a lot harder with a Sidereal-who-isn't-a-Sidereal-anymore, so there's hope 5DD can get a message to someone to assist. If we can use the gates, we can accomplish more before having to fight the MoW. If we're limited to sorcerous travel, that pushes things up a bit, but it's perfectly doable.
So... there are still some potentially-major problems:
1) We're at less than full strength. Three members have been alchemical-ized and, as I understand, are effectively lower-XP characters now with access to totally different abilities. Symphony (and/or others) may be remaining in Gem. All of this makes the Circle less capable than when fighting the First and Forsaken Lion.
2) Our Ace doesn't seem as good. The sword used on the FaFL shredded his armor, thereby reducing his defenses. All the crown does to the MoW is to make him killable.
3) Time. No matter how much XP we have, six weeks (less, considering) isn't long for training. It's probably not long enough to do much recon/intelligence gathering. And anything that comes up along the way has to be crammed in or shoved aside.
4) Lack of information. We went into the fight with the Lion almost blind. Now we know a little of what deathlords are capable of, at least. But the MoW is a different beast, or so we've been told. He fights more socially and with minions, whereas the Lion had no qualms about leading from the front. Given that, I have no idea how we're even going to pin him down in a confrontation to begin with. Plus, we don't know what artifacts or followers he has at his disposal. We don't know where he stays or what he does. The tactician in me wants to say "Unless we can get more information, screw this idea," but that doesn't really seem an option.
I don't know whether to be more frightened of freaky-yet-somehow-cute monkey-thingVee or "gave kiss, hinted at more, and acquired things" human-with-a-tailVee.
And I'm not really sure which way to go with what XP I have for Alexandra. There are a couple routes that might be useful at different things. Oy. Always the problem - trying to focus.
I guess the Star Wars game is running. With or without me. >.> I didn't expect discussion about character creation to turn into impromptu roleplay between characters. I guess that's good.
I also find myself wondering if I should be worried that I have one player who was largely ambivalent, one who was overly (in my mind) concerned about things, and one who is fixated on being mysterious.
Envoy: noun, 1. A representative of a government who is sent on a special diplomatic mission. Does being an envoy really make much sense if no one (or very few people) knows who you represent? That sounds more like a "spy" to me. ;)
The group has finished up in Autochthon(ia) and returned to Creation in Gem. Work is in progress, albeit unspecified, to get the city back in shape. Symphony offered to stay and manage it while the rest of the Circle carries on. There was mention that Tamara might want to stay with her, and Kashim might feel bound to stay with Tamara. Taking on another deathlord missing three members? Gah, that's a near-horrifying thought.
The Circle (well, part of the Circle) talked to Five Days Darkness about what's to come. It's exactly six weeks until Calibration - the time when we want to have the Queen of Winter's crown back to her. But we "need" the crown to kill the Mask of Winter in any permanent sense, so there's a major timing problem going on right now.
Nevermind that the crown can't be used from afar, it has to be put on him, and it doesn't actually weaken/limit him other than making him vulnerable to a permanent demise. So we're probably going to be relying on Selina's stealth capability to plant the crown (as we don't have Auric).
Contrary to implications I've read elsewhere, Five Days Darkness has repeatedly indicated that Juggernaut, the massive behemoth (is that redundant?) forced into the Mark of Winter's service as a mobile base, is a potential ally if we can free him from the creatures being used to torment/devour/slowly kill him. So that's likely to be a priority immediately before the confrontation. Perhaps "freeing" Juggernaut may be usable as a lure of sorts to get the MoW out in the open in the first place.
Naga still wants his old body back, but is starting to realize other things may be higher priority. The Circle wants to drop off the exaltation shards before going into battle, which means getting into Yu Shan, which... is a lot harder with a Sidereal-who-isn't-a-Sidereal-anymore, so there's hope 5DD can get a message to someone to assist. If we can use the gates, we can accomplish more before having to fight the MoW. If we're limited to sorcerous travel, that pushes things up a bit, but it's perfectly doable.
So... there are still some potentially-major problems:
1) We're at less than full strength. Three members have been alchemical-ized and, as I understand, are effectively lower-XP characters now with access to totally different abilities. Symphony (and/or others) may be remaining in Gem. All of this makes the Circle less capable than when fighting the First and Forsaken Lion.
2) Our Ace doesn't seem as good. The sword used on the FaFL shredded his armor, thereby reducing his defenses. All the crown does to the MoW is to make him killable.
3) Time. No matter how much XP we have, six weeks (less, considering) isn't long for training. It's probably not long enough to do much recon/intelligence gathering. And anything that comes up along the way has to be crammed in or shoved aside.
4) Lack of information. We went into the fight with the Lion almost blind. Now we know a little of what deathlords are capable of, at least. But the MoW is a different beast, or so we've been told. He fights more socially and with minions, whereas the Lion had no qualms about leading from the front. Given that, I have no idea how we're even going to pin him down in a confrontation to begin with. Plus, we don't know what artifacts or followers he has at his disposal. We don't know where he stays or what he does. The tactician in me wants to say "Unless we can get more information, screw this idea," but that doesn't really seem an option.
I don't know whether to be more frightened of freaky-yet-somehow-cute monkey-thingVee or "gave kiss, hinted at more, and acquired things" human-with-a-tailVee.
And I'm not really sure which way to go with what XP I have for Alexandra. There are a couple routes that might be useful at different things. Oy. Always the problem - trying to focus.
Not worthy of another post, but I feel like making a note of my thoughts, so I'll tuck this in here. - Integrity. I probably wouldn't have considered this so much if the Storyteller didn't feel Zeal was actually a playable charm. Since he's decreed it is for the game, I feel some impulse to actually get to it. Pushing Integrity up has the benefit of beefing up mental defenses some and a side charm or two allows things like recovery of willpower, recovery of virtue channels, and even a perfect social defense with the addition of a perfect physical ranged counterattack. Juicy stuff, especially since Zeal itself is so incredibly versatile. - Pursue Martial Arts. Getting through the rest of the base Solar Hero Form itself of overwhelming appeal itself, but it opens up access to Orichalchum Fists of Battle, which absolutely rocks for offense. Following Ebon Shadow Form gives mostly some utility benefits, including better potential defenses and paralyzing attacks. The latter could actually be of use against things like deathlords, but it still requires actually hitting. - More Social Offense. Things I want, but we just don't seem to be getting to the point of needing them so much. Presence/Performance Excellencies have been serving perfectly well so far. We might could use some Socialize/Bureaucracy/Performance Charms about the time we free Thorns (assuming that works), but actually getting to that point is more worrying. - Learn to Teach. With another Lore Excellency and a couple bumps to the ability itself, Alexi can get Harmonious Academic Methodology. This would be nice to have around, particularly with it's follow-up, reducing training times for a number of mental/social-ish things for the group. - More Healing. Alexi already has a buff healing combo. She could pick up Wholeness Restoring Meditation to be able to undo Crippling effects (and this was a serious consideration when we thought Naga "only" lost his arm). Further pushing into this area could even give access to granting Wyld mutations to people via surgery, but that doesn't seem like her. - Advancing defenses. Alexandra is very dodge-based. She typically goes into combat with a high DV (on the order of 16 thanks to Ebon Shadow Form), but against most opponents of note she doesn't want to risk getting hit so it boils down to using a perfect defense anyway. Refinement of Flowing Shadows is good against a flurry of attacks or a variety of attackers. That's a nice thing to have at one's hands. Also, for something like four of five Charms, it would be possible to get Adamant Skin Technique, which has some redundancy as a perfect defense, but it can do some things Seven Shadows Evasion can't. Long-term, it'd be nice to have both. - Attributes and Abilities. I haven't increased base attributes in a long time. There just hasn't been the time for it, really, and there are too many charms and such that seem to be of greater value. Similarly, abilities seem to be serving fine, though some have had to increase just as Charm prerequisites. - Virtues. There's not been much reason to increase these either, though Zeal might be one such reason. - Sorcery. You'd really think there would be more attractive spells. Right now, the only one in consideration is a Celestial-level spell that summons the Calibration Gate. Cloud Trapeze serves perfectly well for getting around Creation, but sometimes that's just not enough.
ReplyDeleteAs above... - Perfected Kata Bracers. So drool-worthy that Alexi almost would have used the soulsteel ones the Circle acquired. Unfortunately, they creep her out just a little too much. Ironically, I'm not sure the orichalcum benefits are really that great - inflict aggravatage damage on creatures of darkness. As opposed to jade's "add Essence to Soak" or the starmetal "reduce cost of same-style Charms by 2 motes." I suppose, though, with a philosophy of avoiding being hit and Solar Hero Supremacy to reduce Charm cost already, maybe it's worth sticking to orichalcum just for the cheaper attunement costs. Still... when you have a Form-type Charm active, you add Essence to accuracy, damage, and defense of in-style weapons. That's pretty huge, even if (I think) defense modifiers are halved in calculating DVs. The benefit of doing bashing or lethal at will and parrying lethal unarmed is less impressive just because it's otherwise doable with martial arts Charms already. Fighting unarmed, it also crosses well with her styles (though the starmetal bonus wouldn't) in that she can activate Ebon Shadow Form (pushing Dodge DV to around 20) and still use Solar Hero Charms to attack. Of course, Alexandra has still not gone all-out combatant, and may never. But these things are really, really good. - Replacement for Discreet Essence Armor. It's a set of bracers and anklets, so new bracers sort of preclude keeping this. Though it didn't come up much, having even minimal hardness can be quite useful at times (dragonblood auras) and these had the extraordinary benefit of not counting as armor. So... something (or multiple things) with a degree of hardness without counting as armor and at least one socket for a hearthstone would be great. Preferably without a Repair cost (as it stands, Alexi is probably having Tamara tune the things every now and again, even though they are rarely even activated). - Sorcery-Capturing Cord. One of those things that has incredible potential use by being able to store spells for instant casting later. It's a little costly to set up in that you need someone else willing to "catch" the spell you cast and spell Willpower, but that's still some incredible use. Plus you can potentially use it to catch actual offensive spells used at you. - Ring of Being. Oh, I probably don't really want one. As displayed by Vee, though, these things are a particular brand of cheese that works for pretty much everyone. It renders the wearer immune to the supernatural powers of anything not of Creation. Dead? Fae? This means a large number of things can only assault you mundanely, taking a lot of bite out of them. When I say cheese, I mean cheese. This is one of those items a Storyteller actually has to think around if he wants to endanger a character. - A Destiny Interdiction Field. <..> Okay, so in the books I've only seen these as a part of certain powered armor models. That's not really Alexi's style, she'd prefer a separate item that serves the purpose. Now, it would be dumping several bits of beneficial Sidereal Astrology in effect on her. That's bad. But being able to drop off Sidereal radar completely has a comforting feel to it and may actually be important sometime. - Lots of hearthstones could be useful, and with increasing essence pools, getting more than one would be a good thing. ... Really, even a +1 to certain rolls is a nice benefit. Alexi currently has a Gem of Sorcery, which can effectively discount a spell by 10 motes once per day. Of course, there's always the Gem of Perfect Mobility, which is another item of cheesiness that benefits anyone by lowering action speed (which I've seen be a massive advantage).
ReplyDelete>>More Social Offense.<< I don't know if you feel the same way, but I kind of feel that social offense is a bit bullying. I'm not saying we should be opposed to it, because it's certainly been used against us, and I think it will more in the future. But I kind of feel like it's the equivalent of roughing someone up?
ReplyDeleteOh, you're not alone. In general, I prefer my RPGs to keep social 'combat' in vague terms, with rolls that influence how the GM plays NPCs rather than rolls that dictate what the target does. In specific, I have some trouble with this because Alexi believes in freedom of choice and there's a point at which one ceases to be 'talking persuasively' and starts to be pushing their will upon others forcibly. But dang if it wouldn't be nice to destroy the Mask of Winter and have a city full of people who are actually grateful. >.> And that would probably require some sort of social charms to pull off.
ReplyDeleteI agree regarding the vague terms you mention. A GM, or other players, ought to be wary of using social combat too much. I think it's right to call it combat. Negative character interactions aside ("I'm not going to be around Mr Talkmedintoit anymore, because everytime I am, I end up in one of his schemes") I think it carries with it a negative OOC taint. In my experience, most players can handle their character getting beat up better than they can handle being told "you completely trust Mr Talkmedintoit because he's such a charming and persuasive guy" when you would rather play your character opposite. However, I think persuading the city to cheer us would be good! Bravo! A good use of social combat. Just make sure I know how long the effect lasts. ;)
ReplyDelete