SimplyJohn

Lone Star (Sci-Fi/Space Exploration/Criminal) - Party Full

May I join?

@Bonjour xx

Sure. At the moment we've got no confirmed characters (ones posted in the Character thread) and I'm looking for a party of four or five members.

Omnipocalypse [open]

Hope you don't mind me making Harry slightly racist and referring to T'Lora as a Blueberry. :)

Don't expect my posts to be that long usually, just wanted to give Harry a decent introduction and explain how he came to know who to look for in the bar.

Omnipocalypse [open]

The light was dimming and the Radcycle grumbled between Harry's legs as he crested the last hill and looked down over the town in the distance. It didn't look like much this far out, a cluster of prefab dwellings with a couple of more permanent structures at the heart of the town, most likely the bank and the jail if he guessed right. Not that he cared that much, there wouldn't be many in a town this far out from the central cities that'd be interested in the wares he had to offer.

Turning the handlebars Harry kicked the bike up into high gear, heading for the cluster of turbines scattered further along the rise. It always paid off to make an entrance in small settlements like this, especially when your guns were clearly holstered at your side. Not that Harry intended to threaten them in any way, but the sight of the longarm often helped get a good price for some of his scrap, if only to ensure he left quickly without having to draw the weapon.

Pulling up beside the sales booth Harry kicked the cycle into parking before hauling himself up out of the saddle. He'd been driving for the better part of three days and his legs were still tingling from the constant vibrations the bike's electric engine gave off as it ran. Taking a moment to rub some lift back into his tired muscles Harry reached down and tightened the exo-brace which helped keep his leg together, or at least that's the impression it gave. In truth his legs were just as good, if not better, than most human's his age. He'd been told that was part of the genetic inheritance he'd gained from his father's side of the family, not that he'd ever bothered to ask exactly what that meant.

Moving to the back of his vehicle Harry quickly yanked a large satchel up onto his shoulder before reaching down with both hands and hauling an old engine block up from the storage compartment. With an over-acted shuffle he quickly made his way over to the counter, waiting a moment as the attendant cleared some space for him before setting the heavy piece of machinery down.

"There you go Simon," Harry said smugly, "One Lightning engine, as promised."

"You're a wonder Harry," The attendant replied warmly, rising up from his seat to examine his new prize with obvious excitement. His eyes lit up a moment later as he stroked his hands down the side of the micro-element manifold. "Damn... flawless manifold, almost all shock plugs still intact... where'd you find this?"

Harry shook his head with a smile, "You know better than to ask things like that Simon. All I can say is that there's no previous owner likely to come looking for it." With that Harry pulled a battered old tablet from his satchel and with a swipe of his finger brought up his financial management program. "Now, as for business..?"

"No problem," Simon said, his iPhone already in hand as he tapped in the credit transfer. A moment later Harry nodded happily as the payment registered on his pad.

"Got something else for you too, prime grade power cells." Pulling the satchel mouth wider Harry let Simon take a peak at the high-capacity cells piled inside, each gleaming as if they'd only just come off of the assembly line. In truth they were all refurbished and drained, but with as little charging they'd work just as good as they looked.

Simon shook his head sadly. "I'd love to take them from you Harry, but business ain't too good right now and this has wiped out my readies. Best I can do is point you to a fella in town, he was in a earlier today looking for high-cap cells and had the look of someone who'd be looking to settle for the night. If you're lucky he might still be looking to trade."

"Yeah?" Harry said, tucking his tablet back in the pouch as he glanced down the road towards the town. "He look good for the money?"

"He was wearing a fancy wrist-comp and said he was gonna be buying an ion charge cell, so he'll have some scratch to play with. Best hurry though, might not want to buy if you leave it too long."

Harry smiled, a customer with ready cash, always a good thing for a scavenger. "Thanks for the tip. See ya soon."

With that Harry turned back to the Radcycle, stowing the power cells in back before kicking the engine into life. Moment later he was speeding down the roadway into the town, heading for the town centre. As he pulled up he spotted the sparse crowd clustered around the old truck belonging to a trader he'd dealt with a few times in the past, not always with a mutually agreeable outcome. Turning away from the market Harry made his way towards the bar with his satchel hanging down at his side.

Stepping through the door he could see the usually evening crowd clustered at their usual tables. In one corner a card game of some sort had started up and already several knick-knacks and gadgets were resting piled in the middle of the table. A quick glance told him the gadgets were all low-quality junk, including a couple of pieces he recognised as his own finds from a few weeks earlier. Turning away he was about to head back out the door when he spotted a rough looking man sitting with a Blueberry off to one side. He didn't recognise either of them, but the man's wrist-comp was distinctive.

'What the hell,' He thought to himself, 'It's worth a shot at least.'

Lifting his arm in the air with a friendly wave, which also gave everyone a good view of the custom stunner hanging from his belt, just in case, Harry called out to the man as he stepped up towards the table. "Hey there! You the guy looking for high-cap power cells?"

Lone Star (Sci-Fi/Space Exploration/Criminal)

EDIT: Actually I'm thinking a sort of stealthy/rogue-archetype character, mainly someone who's good at evading and disarming security systems, with the help of cyborg prosthetics

@Xartarin

The ship's a political hot potato right now, with several very powerful figures intersted in discovering what might be onboard, so it makes perfect sense that an agent would be srnt to infiltrate the party. And as for a security specialist, that'd be perfect for boarding a potentially hostile derelict.

Lone Star (Sci-Fi/Space Exploration/Criminal) - Party Full

The Dust is linked to Hundred through her own neural interface with the network, enabling her to direct their activity. The majority of non-phased, non-cloud Dust is suspended in a layer of non-Newtonian oil sandwiched between the layers of her suit, providing a highly-flexible, highly-durable armor layer.

@Tenish the Mighty

Just to check, if the Dust is used to create weapons and equipment and in its inactive state acts as a layer of armour then does this mean that excessive weapon generation would undermine her defenses?

HOLY SHIT, THIS IS BACK!?! I thought this shit died in the interest check!
Is it too late to sign on?

@TheMadAsshatter

Real life concerns caused a delay getting it off the ground, but in the meantime I've also managed to playtest a good part of the adventure and worked out some of the bugs in the narrative.

Feel free to throw your hat into the ring, so far there's no confirmed characters signed up and I'll be looking for a team of four or five specialists with the option of a couple more if we're in need of specializations.

Unusual Super Powers Roleplaying

Would it be possible to reuse the old rolls for the previous actions and simply have the other players quickly put them to another action?

@Nemaisare

You could do, but this could then lead to problems of over overlapping results. Going back to the guards example, the three guards enter ally #1 shoots guard #1, ally #2 sword swipes the guard #2, Tempus shoots at and misses guard #3. Tempus resets and shoots guard #2 instead, ally #1 shoots guard #1 and ally #2 is now charging down the corridor to engage with the already dead guard #2. This would leave guard #3 with a perfect opportunity to gun down ally #2 as they stand in the middle of the now corpse-filled corridor. Trying to switch the melee attack to guard #3 would cause problems as the difficulty of the attack would be different and ally #2 may not have succeeded with the same result.

The only way for the player not to find themselves at a disadvantage due to Tempus's interference would be to allow ally #2 to change the action they took in response to the interference, leading to a different outcome. While this would be fine as a one-off instance, with Tempus's powers firing off during every engagement the game would change from a plot-driven narrative to a long sequence of replays as each session ran ove4r the same engagement over-and-over until Tempus came out on top (or the other players get bored and head over to McD's instead.)

I actually did mean causal, not casual.

@Nemaisare

My mistake there, too used to dealing with typos on these boards. :)

The problem with determining the causal links in a chain of events is how far back do you take the chain and how do you account for changes in the chain which may have been caused by the smallest of actions, Butterfly Effect and all that. Different characters may also choose to do something other than what they had the first time round after Tempus reset, plus the players may choose to make use of their own foreknowledge to alter events, even though their character's wouldn't be aware of the change in outcome (cheating bastards that they are.)

Either way, I can see why this could have the same problem with the whole having to redo the turns for the sequence things all over again that being able to go farther back in time would have. Though a limit like, you can only do this once every twenty minutes in game, might work to make that happen less?

@Nemaisare

THe Star Wars roleplay system handles this in a good way by having Signature Abilities for high-level characters. These require the players to use Fate points to trigger the effect, require them to pass a skill check AND can only be used once per session. With these sorts of limits I'd be willing to allow Tempus a one-time free pass on time travel, with the warning that he may not even succeed if the skill test fails.

The physical travel through time rule would still apply though, so if he's almost dying after a particularly bad combat then he still wouldn't be allowed a miraculous cure by jumping back, although if there was a healer/medic in the party he may be able to get aid which wouldn't otherwise be available.

Oh, there's a plasma core. I have no idea what that means other than really hot fourth state of matter, so I'll just think alternative power source and be happy with that. :P I wasn't thinking too much have every component be singularly capable of one thing, just that along with the list of every component, the player might offer you a second list of basic arm functions and ideas they have so that they aren't always stuck having to quickly think up something, have some practise at thinking up combinations, and know what you're willing to let sneak past if it's not exactly scientific. Then you both have some idea of what the other thinks is acceptable and willing to compromise about.

@Nemaisare

I'll be using the Treknology rule for explanations on how the arm works, which basically means if the explanation looks logical at first glance and is consistent with what has happened before then it can be done, even if it's scientifically unsound in the real world.

Slice is a previously developed character the player wants to bring into the adventure and he seems to know what her limits are already, her backstory has all kinds of details which sound semi-plausible (like the arm being built out of a metallic crystalline lattice material which can grow along the paths of electrical current. making it easily compatible with Slice's nervous system.) I've already asked him to provide me with a list of the components he has at her disposal and what kinds of effects these would be used for. Once I have the list I'll check it and may veto anything which would give an unfair advantage (like a flux capacitor.)

I still say that a cyborg arm is going to be heavier than a regular flesh and blood arm, that, or it would be more easily damaged, particularly if it has the same amount of working parts. If something heavy hit it, instead of bruising, it might jam one of those components and until it can be fixed or rejostled into place, that particular component would be capable of reconfiguring with the rest. And whether or not those components work together or singularly, the rule of the more there are, the heavier it'll be still applies. :)

@Nemaisare

Crippling the arm will be treated the same as a normal arm, making it useless until repaired, the only difference being it would need a mechanic rather than a medic to o the healing. Since Slice's main role is to be a method of transportation for her arm, which is the basis for most of her abilities and attacks, I'm not going to set too high a limit on how easily it would get damaged, since it would be unfair to have her one ability taken out of action every time someone managed to hit it.

Lone Star (Sci-Fi/Space Exploration/Criminal)

Hey I wanna play a red shirt! :D

@DJAtomika

Not a gold shirt? :P

Unusual Super Powers Roleplaying

you could always have a villain like "Captain Corrosion"... Rather than the classic control over metal, he's very good at corroding stuff, at breaking down metal. Perfect for those pesky vault doors and guard weapons.

@Ellri

Interesting idea for a power, but how much control would the player have over it? Is it an activated power, where they can choose to corrode something when they touch it but can equally choose not to, or a permanently active power, where anything they touch, at any time, would corrode?

A good superpower should also have disadvantages, or at least inconveniences. Super-strength, for example, can be limited by the fact that finer motor control on fragile things like non-solid metal objects tend to break when squeezed.

A cryomancer probably won't do too well in hot environments, and visa versa for the pyromancer and cold environments.

@Ellri

There's already enough source material around to easily accommodate things like super-strength, melting cyromancers and the like, so I'm not having too much trouble building gameplay models for how to deal with their powers. It's the unusual and esoteric abilities which cause problems, since they can be used in unexpected ways which break the game rules too easily.

another interesting superpower would be someone capable of literally flattening themselves against a wall. And so forth. There's simply no real limit to what can be done.

@Ellri

Nice idea, but with characters like Reed 'Mr Fantastic' Richards, Elongated Man and Plastic Man around there's enough source material for those powers as well. :)

Unusual Super Powers Roleplaying

Hmmm... I have to say that there does not seem to be a lot that one can do with shadows,them being intangible manifestations of a lack of light, but if you can reshape them, I suppose that might have some bearing on, I dunno, freaking people out if they're around the corner. Manipulating it wouldn't really do much, that I can think of. Maybe I'm just thinking too small. But I can see useful implications for traveling through shadows if the character can then turn shadows into doorways. They could then potentially cut someone, if they're too big to fit or if the fall on the edge of the shadow but are pulled through. And there'd be other aspects to think of like what happens to them when they're going through the dark, and how they know where they're going. Actually manipulating shadow just sort of strikes me as hard and kinda pointless unless one happens to be in the circus and likes putting on shadow plays.

@Nemaisare

With Nightshade we're looking at the shadow powers being similar to using a Portal gun. He can jump in one shadow and immediately out of the other as though they were directly connected, and wouldn't spend any time suspended 'elsewhere' between the two. Nightshade can transport anything he's in physical contact with through a shadow with him, including other people and potentially a vehicle he's riding in as long as he could concentrate hard enough to make a portal big enough. And yes, he could grab someone, pull them back halfway through and then shut off his power to slice them in half, but this would involve him actually being able to grapple the other character first in order to pull them back into the shadow.

Note to self: Need to think about angles of shadows, as stepping into a shadow on the wall and then dropping from the ceiling or vice versa could be possible. Also dropping a target through a shadow on the floor beneath them would be a little too easy.

I do have a suggestion for Slice and Tempus, though the latter would likely only work if it's a turn-based, tabletop thing. Which I'm assuming it is based on what's been said so far. But rather than letting the character go back in time as many times as he can withstand, even if it is only for a few seconds, why not allow them to mess with time without being able to go back themselves? I think it's the spacetime theory? But if they could flip the order of two actions around in one or two turns, only two actions mind, and only things within a certain timeframe, that might give them a little more leeway, without either taking away the point of time travelling(a few seconds really isn't a long time at all) or giving them too much power.

@Nemaisare

The game we'll be playing is a tabletop turn-based system, with dice rolls to determine the success of actions and attacks, which allows for Tempus rerolling failed actions as he steps back and tries the same action in a slightly different way.

The problem with flipping actions is that if you replace something which happened in the previous round then the whole chain of events collapses, with every action past the point of change needing to be repeated. As an example, the party are in a hallway as the door ahead opens and a group of three guards arrives. One of the party shoots down the hall until they run out of bullets and kills a guard and another member of the party charges forwards to engage a second guard, slicing them down with a sword. Tempus pulls out his gun and shoots at the third guard but misses.

In the reroll model Tempus would jump back a moment and retake the shot, aiming a little to the left this time and hitting the third guard. In the flipping model Tempus jumps back to before the other party member shot and aims for the easier target who was killed by his colleague, stealing the kill for himself instead. The problem then is that the first party member's shooting attack now needs to resolves again against the two remaining guards and the second party member's charge would have to be resolved again, and so both the players would have to roll for their actions again even though they'd already succeeded. While this is better for Tempus it means you'd spend most of your playing time going back and replaying the same scenes again as each temporal incursion alters the flow of events.

This would need more thinking about, certainly, for instance, would causal actions be switchable, like throwing a glass and it breaking, or hitting someone with a sword and them falling over? And how much leeway would they have in defining a causal action if they aren't switchable?

@Nemaisare

The definition I usually use for a 'casual action' is something which has no effect on any character other than the one performing it. If they place something in their pocket or pick something up then that's casual, but if they interact with someone else, like hitting them with a sword, then it's not casual as the other character would need to have a chance to react to either prevent being hit or recover from the attack. Throwing a glass and it breaking may be casual or not, depending on the circumstances. If you're hiding and try to use the glass as a distraction it wouldn't be casual (the people hunting you would need to respond) but if you're in the middle of a friendly meal and toss the glass away then it's casual.

Someone drinking wine after it's been poisoned vs before it's been poisoned, for instance.... If that's something you wouldn't mind allowing, then you could say that the character would have to be able to guess or know which actions would achieve the goal they want(so they might not succeed in whatever they're trying to accomplish even if the actions do switch) and both actions would have to be within that limited timeframe(ie if someone had poisoned the wine days before it was drunk, they would have to find another solution, if they can).

@Nemaisare

One of the rules I'm imposing for Tempus is that he's physically travelling through time, and so any injury or effect he's suffered would persist. In the case of whether to drink a potentially poisoned drink or not, even if he travelled back after drinking the wrong cup he'd still be poisoned as he drank it and then traveled back and so as part of his own personal timeline the event did actually happen to him.

The main reason I'm using this rule is to prevent Tempus from becoming immortal with his powers. If the player steps out into a hallway filled with armed guards then he's going to get shot. The player would have to think their way around the problem rather than relying on their powers to get them through unscathed. However if Tempus stepped around a corner and spotted the guards before they shot he could use his powers to just back a second and decide not to turn the corner instead. In gameplay terms, the player would have to decide to make a saving roll and use the power before the enemy rolls to attack Tempus, rather than waiting to see if the enemies would manage to hit Tempus or not before choosing whether to jump back or not. In situations where he's already been attacked and injured he may still choose to go back to warn the party of an incoming attack, but would retain the injuries he'd suffered before travelling.

Similarly the precognitive ability I think you're describing reminds me of the Nicholas Cage film Next, where the character knew the outcome of every decision he could possibly make within the next five minutes, which let him walk through the middle of a battle between an army of terrorists and federal law enforcement officers without being injured, search an entire ship of mines without setting any off and finding the exact location of a hostage in seconds. All of these abilities would be far too powerful as part of the narrative and would involve the players having to either replay the same five minutes over and over until the perfect result was achieved, or simply jumping to the perfect result without playing through any of the failed attempts, which then makes any dice roll pointless as it could be simply wished away.

As for Slice, I see the point of an adaptable arm, and the unfair point of having to know how to make a plasma blast. But I think the whole listing what's in the arm is a good idea. And might do with another list of potential possibilities so that the player and the character both know what the arm is basically capable of before starting, and what you'd be willing to allow or not allow. But a true weakness should be set in place concerning maybe, power limits(do the batteries need charging?) or weight(the more equipment the arm has, the heavier it will be, the more lopsided the character's balance...)

@Nemaisare

The logic behind Slice's arm is that rather than having a different device for every use instead she has the components which lock together slightly differently to generate different effects. For instance the arm would have a phase coil, used to generate and control electromagnetic fields. This could be used to help control the flow of plasma, to create a magnetic force field, to create a railgun launch mechanism, to magnetise her arm, etc. Similarly the arm would have a plasma power core which could be used to project plasma, power a force field or electrify her arm.

However, if the player decided he wanted to try and use the arm to unlock a mechanical lock made out of non-magnetic components they wouldn't have a component which could be tailored to the task, so unless they could come up with an explanation as to how the plasma and magnetic fields could be used to unlock the door (other than blowing it off its hinges with a blast of plasma) then they wouldn't be allowed to use the arm to complete the task.

As far as power supply and weight goes, the plasma core uses up fuel as it operates but can also replenish itself over time. In terms of gameplay this works the same way as the Stress for Tempus's powers but in reverse where the power would drain as tasks are performed but then recover over time as the character rested. The weight issue is actually the reason for the interlocking components explanation of the arms operation, since it wouldn't need extra equipment to operate differently as long as the existing components could reconfigure to achieve the goal.

Omnipocalypse [open]

Name: Harold "Harry" Allnut

Age: 27 (?)

Appearance:

Harry Allnut

Personality: A rugged and gruff man, Harry much prefers to spend time tinkering with his latest find or tuning up his cycle than chatting with others. Dedicated and fiercely loyal Harry's always one of the first to step in and break up a fight, especially when he thinks someone's unfairly outnumbered or outclassed.

Skills: Mechanical engineering and maintenance, expert off-road motorcycle rider, skilled tracker and outdoorsman, experienced sniper and pistol marksman

Non-standard Abilities:
Bionic Implants: Cybernetic Eye: Harry has never revealed exactly what his eye lets him see and the best anyone's ever gotten him to admit is that it's considerably better than his old organic one. Observers have noted that he seems to be able to see through walls and have deduced that the eye has some level of backscatter x-ray detection along with enhanced night vision and thermal detection.

Equipment:
Rail Rifle: A heavily modified longarm sniper rifle whose barrel has been modified with electromagnetic charge coils which launch small metallic objects, commonly nails, at its target with high accuracy at extreme ranges. Sue to the long charge time for each shot (approximately 1.7 seconds) the Rail Rifle is best used as a sniper rifle, where plenty of time can be taken to line up the perfect shot.

Rail Rifle

Little Nelly: A custom built blaster pistol which fires concentrated bursts of densely packed negatively charged ions which can overload most electrical systems, including most biological nervous systems, with a single blaster. Charge time on the pistol (0.8 seconds) makes it best for single shot use, but it can be switched to autofire mode with considerable loss of power with each shot.

Little Nelly

Radcycle: Custom built all-terrain single seat vehicle with short-range VTOL hover unit. The Radcycle was built from spare parts, salvage and 'acquired' technology by Harry over the course of many years and he's usually found making adjustments and refinements to its design whenever he has a free moment. While the cycle mainly uses its dual wheels for propulsion it is also fitted with an anti-grav coil which is usually used to lower the vehicle's mass, increasing its cruising speed and allowing for easier handling over rough terrain. In a pinch the coil can be overcharged to allow the bike to perform impressive jumps and even fly for short distances, although Harry would be the first to admit the reliability of the flight systems makes driving a much safer option in most circumstances.

Radcycle

'Wrench': Harry almost always wears a power generator backpack with a multitool attachment on an extending arm. He mostly uses this when repairing and maintaining his equipment and occasionally seems to argue with the device as though it were a living thing, but this may just be an anthropomorphisation of his tools. The backpack also contains a long-range scanner capable of detecting most known unshielded power sources upto a kilometer away, along with valuable metals and other technological items.

Wrench

'Tablet': Seeing the need for data exchange, information management and gaming apps Harry built himself a simple but effective portable computer. Fitted with numerous data interfaces the Tablet can access most known network protocols and data feeds, along with acting as a messaging and extranet terminal. When not in use Harry normally carries the Tablet in a custom made carrying pouch slung over his shoulder, or just in whatever bag or satchel he happens to be carrying at the time.

Tablet

Carrying Pouch

Bio: As Harry rarely speaks of his past in any great detail no-one's exactly sure where he's originally from. Although he appears to be human at times he's mentioned a mixed race heritage, although whether this was merely in jest has yet to be confirmed. What is known is that at a young age Harry found himself alone in the world, force to scavenge for food and supplies. Early on he discovered a knack with mechanical devices which would serve him well over the years.

Constantly on the move, Harry has adapted well to a nomadic lifestyle, learning how to live off the land and hunt for food, as well as how to survive the sometimes harsh wasteland conditions he travels through. At some point one of his inventions would've literally blown up in his face, requiring him to have his left eye replaced with a cybernetic implant. Exactly where and when this had been done is something he doesn't like to talk about much, but then again he doesn't like to talk about anything very much, apart from technology.

Quote: "I ran out of red wires so I just used green for everything. That won't be a problem, right?"