Looking for an online gaming group!

[Marky]

No problem dude. Have fun!

[Marky]

You know, I think Willow Fruitpunch should have an evil twin:

 

 

 

[PoisonWar]

So, yesterday we've generated characters for Edge of the Empire, the core concepts are as follows:

- A pimpish Bothan Smuggler

- A Rabid wookie technician

- A sassy human bounty hunter

 

Feel free to develop your characters and their place within the universe so I can write something suitable up.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

- A pimpish Bothan Smuggler

- A Rabid wookie technician

- A sassy human bounty hunter

 

Feel free to develop your characters and their place within the universe so I can write something suitable up.

 

I totally did! But first, mechanics questions.

 

My first 30 xps were spent on bringing Presence up to 3, because really, if you want to be a Charming Space Rogue (or, even better, Pimplord of the Universe), Pre 2 just ain't gonna cut it.

 

It's the next 40 I'm stumped on. Basically I see 3 equally valid routes for me to go:

• Increase Presence to 4: more charm, more pimpiness (pimpity? pimpousness?). Would let me throw 4 dice on Charm (duh), Cool (resist Charm; also, Initiative when you got the drop on someone, but I suggest houseruling that you can use Vigilance in those cases if you want, because rolling Initiative with Charisma is some D&D 4E-level dumb****ery), Leadership and Negotiation (both of them self-explanatory). For that much-vaunted Charming Space Rogue goodness.
• Increase Cunning to 4: khajiit like to sneak! Would give me 4 dice on Deception (always useful, budget Jedi Mind Trick for teh win), Perception (the most used skill in our games, probably), Skulduggery (for opening locks that are too low-tech for our resident techies, and other generally illegal activities), Streetwise (I actually have a rank in this. Amazing.), and, weirdly enough, Survival (guess I can hunt; I'm a cat person after all. (That's racist!)). Guess this choice would make me a Charming Space Rogue.
• Pick up the Enterpreneur specialization for 20 and increase Brawn to 2 for another 20: this would make me a bit more well-rounded. Brawn 2 would make me less suicidally squishy overall (then again, I guess I can always hide behind the walls of muscle (yes, when you're 1.5 meters tall, even the Armored Space Waifu looks like a towering pile of meat in comparison), and it's not like we have an overall lack of Brawn-based skills in the party), whereas Enterpreneur is pretty much the pimpiest Specialization ever. They basically get lower-level Talents that generate them free money every session, and higher-level ones that let them throw money at problems to make them disappear, which is very fitting flavorwise. They also get Negotiation and Discipline as career skills, making me more adept at getting a good deal for us, and less prone to being tricked. Then again, I think the constantly-down-on-his-luck picaresque hero archetype, who's really great at fooling others, but is also easily fooled in return, is very appropriate for Edge of the Empire, which is something this choice would run counter to.

  Anyways, as much as I'd like to summarize this as a choice that would make me a Charming Space Rogue, that ain't gonna happen. (That's what the Pilot specialization is for!)

 

Am leaning towards Cunning 4, but I'm open to your input, guys.

 

 

And now, onto roleplaying considerations!

 

Basically, I've read up on Bothans, and aside from being Space Khajiits, their shtick is that they were spies who stole the plans for the Death Star, and, as a consequence, have fallen victim to widespread retributionary ethnic cleansings. (...So much for the whole "happy-go-lucky space opera escapism about majestically humming glow-in-the-dark phallic symbols and the triumph of Good over Evil with a side order of hot space princess action" thing, I guess...) Anyways, since EotE is ostensibly between Ep IV and V, I think this is a perfectly good time period for my character's family to have been killed off dramatically to provide motivation for me; hence, I think my Oath obligation should be "Sworn vengeance against the Imperial authorities who are responsible for the death of my brother". (Dead brothers are so comparatively under-utilized as a storytelling device, really. Hell, make it a whole kitty litter of brothers for even moar DRAMA.)

 

Personality-wise, I think my portrayal of him is going to be influenced by Han Solo (duh), Tyrion Lannister, Rocket Raccoon and Joe Pesci's character in Casino. But this is more of a high concept, personal guideline sort of thing; I mean, Chimron's fictional DNA is basically an unholy mix of Cugel the Clever and The Doctor, but those influences rarely show in the way I'm playing him/her/it either. So yeah, I'll elaborate on the particulars later, when I have a clearer mental picture of how those seemingly-disconnected parts of his personality and backstory play off each other.

 

In any case, "Pussylord" is totally a name I'll be using for him. I imagine it was a disparaging nickname some witless individual sticked on him as the resident cat person, which he took in good humour for the few years he had to work with the guy, then committed horrible violence on him once he was no longer useful, and used his desecrated corpse as a windshield accessory while driving across half the galaxy, cackling maniacally, fully embracing the once-derogatory title. Or something like that. (Or that's the story he tells people when they ask, while in reality he still owes the guy big money and would get into serious trouble for spreading these rumors if he ever heard. That could be fun.)

Edited March 23, 2015 by aluminiumtrioxid

[PoisonWar]

Okay, so we're doing something a little bit special today.

A Jedi-focused Wushu session that may or may not play into our upcoming EotE campaign.
https://app.roll20.net/join/760343/McP3Sw

[HeadClot]

So I have been looking to get back into Pen and Paper Role playing games for a while now.

 

Anyone got a good group willing to accept an newbie?

[Marky]

So I have been looking to get back into Pen and Paper Role playing games for a while now.

 

Anyone got a good group willing to accept an newbie?

 

We're willing.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

So, as an alternative to Mass: the Effecting, we could also use this. I quite like it, actually.

[Marky]

That's a nice book.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

Yes. I have to admit, I'm actually pretty pumped to play it, if possible.

 

Also: space pirates!

 

(They're not as cool as Exalted's zombie pirate ninjas, but Abyssals are still years down the line, so it's not like the two campaign ideas are stepping on each other's toes.)

Edited April 6, 2015 by aluminiumtrioxid

[Marky]

If we were to play a mass effect game, would it be before, during or after the three games? If after; should we rewrite the ending?

[PoisonWar]

We'll probably do some in between, it's usually good to have campaigns circling around, making sure things don't get too samey.

But then again, that's why WUSHU exists....

I'm gonna look through the other Mass Effect system Tamas has sent me, and see if what I can do to the script of my space pirate thing.
I've also gotta prepare the EotE tie-in.

 

But yeah, we can bounce some ideas on how the story ends for the two Jedi in training who went to look for their missing master in the slums of Nar Shadda.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

We'll probably do some in between, it's usually good to have campaigns circling around, making sure things don't get too samey.

But then again, that's why WUSHU exists....

 

I'm pretty sure he meant the ME video games 

[PoisonWar]

 

So I have been looking to get back into Pen and Paper Role playing games for a while now.

 

Anyone got a good group willing to accept an newbie?

 

We're willing.

 

In fact, we're the only group in this topic. And you're welcome to join us, for a small price, your Soul.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

In fact, we're the only group in this topic. And you're welcome to join us, for a small price, your Soul.

 

...said "God".

[PoisonWar]

 

In fact, we're the only group in this topic. And you're welcome to join us, for a small price, your Soul.

 

...said "God".

 

Hey, I live a stressful existence, everyone needs a hobby!

[Oner]

So Satan is actually God pursuing hobbies.

...That makes too much sense.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

So Satan is actually God pursuing hobbies.

 

That's what Satan would have you believe!

[PoisonWar]

 

So Satan is actually God pursuing hobbies.

 

That's what Satan would have you believe!

 

Or would he?

[aluminiumtrioxid]

So I promised to walk you through the remaining part of character creation.

 

Let's start with the Aspects!

 

As I mentioned earlier, the best Aspects can be used both to complicate your life and to assist you in some manner. Of course, as long as you have a fair balance of assets and hindrances, it doesn't necessarily matter whether any single Aspect can be used for both, but that's the dream. Let's review mine, to get a clearer picture.

 

High Concept: Disgraced Cabal Drop-Out - This describes the character pretty well, but it's also rather one-sided. It does the job of implying his biotic talent, but its uses are exclusively negative: it can be compelled on infiltrator-y stuff to autofail for those tasty, tasty Fate points, and maybe to autofail attempts to gain respect of people who look down on those who dropped out of Superspy School. On a second thought, I guess I could use it to boost rolls to appear harmless, but that a/ hinges on people being aware of my status as a cabal dropout, and b/ is a rather niche application anyway. (Also, being pretty damn harmless, having to roll to appear harmless seems counter-intuitive to me, but ah well.)

 

Trouble: Barefaced Coward - Another one-sided Aspect. It can be compelled to auto-fail social interactions relying on trust vs. turians or people well-versed in turian culture. I suppose I could also gain Fate by getting into trouble when behaving like a coward (not exactly a compel in the strictest sense, but roleplaying the heck out of your Aspects is also Fate-worthy as long as it hinders you in some way). Positive uses are rather scarce, but they exist: I think it's appropriate to invoke it on rolls to run away from threats, and to play Sidereal-esque mind games, ie. trying to bank on my reputation of untrustworthiness to get people to do the opposite of what I'm telling them to.

 

Background: Stricken from the Records of Parthia Colony - This is actually more nuanced than it looks like. Essentially, the social penalty, while more intense (also more localised), is not that different in effect from my Trouble Aspect's. On the other hand, being Stricken from the Records of Parthia Colony, figuring out my true identity's gotta be pretty hard for people who care about that sort of thing. So in a weird way, being an incredibly bad spy actually helped me to erase my digital footprint. Take that, superspy instructors!

 

Adventure 1: Mental Health Professional (work in progress) - This is where my problems start. First off, this Aspect doesn't actually reflect my character's contribution to the adventure. He demonstrated being horrible at playing psychiatrist! I guess I could rename it to Mental Health Semi-Professional, but that's also a horrible Aspect, since it implies it can be both invoked and compelled on the same sort of action. Which would be bad.

I suppose I could just go with making the Aspect about what the adventure revealed about my character. In this case, something like Utter Tool would be appropriate. But since I'm already loaded with negative (well, mostly negative) Aspects, doing so runs the risk of putting too heavy an emphasis on the downsides. While it's somewhat viable (you'll always be swimming in Fate points), if there are no counterbalances to ensure you also have opportunities to blow those Fate points off on stuff that's actually useful to you, your efficiency might take a hit. So we're not going down that road; hence, the Aspect needs to be something I can invoke positively. For this reason, I swap out Mental Health Professional to...

Adventure 1: You Need Professional Help! - which is an improvement in pretty much all respects. It reflects both the events of the adventure and the character's generally helpful attitude, shows shades of catchphrase potential (if Indiana Jones was a Fate character, I'm pretty sure This Belongs in a Museum! would be on his character sheet somewhere), and has both positive and negative uses - ie. it can be invoked on attempts to provide said professional help, and compelled to force the character to do so even when it's inconvenient. I'm pretty happy with it.

 

Adventure 2: Something To Do With Chemicals - this is pretty straightforward, basically a fully positive Aspect that establishes the character's proficiency on the field of (bio)chemistry. I normally don't do these, but with every other Aspect so far being ambiguous or mostly negative, its inclusion is warranted.

 

Adventure 3: [something biotic] (even "work in progress" would be overly charitable) - I will resist the temptation to call it Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue. (Were it the result of genetic engineering, I might even go with it.) Anyways, Adventure 3 was pretty late in the session, attention spans were dwindling, and frankly, I don't remember much of it. But since survivability is an issue, I'm pretty sure I want this to be a biotic-enhancing Aspect. So I'll figure something out if somebody will be kind enough to rehash the events of Adventure 3.

 

Next up: skills, stunts, powers and refresh! Or a subset of these, at the very least.

[Marky]

Background: Stricken from the Records of Parthia Colony - This is actually more nuanced than it looks like. Essentially, the social penalty, while more intense (also more localised), is not that different in effect from my Trouble Aspect's. On the other hand, being Stricken from the Records of Parthia Colony, figuring out my true identity's gotta be pretty hard for people who care about that sort of thing. So in a weird way, being an incredibly bad spy actually helped me to erase my digital footprint. Take that, superspy instructors!

That's pretty funny.

 

 

Adventure 3: [something biotic] (even "work in progress" would be overly charitable) - I will resist the temptation to call it Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue. (Were it the result of genetic engineering, I might even go with it.) Anyways, Adventure 3 was pretty late in the session, attention spans were dwindling, and frankly, I don't remember much of it. But since survivability is an issue, I'm pretty sure I want this to be a biotic-enhancing Aspect. So I'll figure something out if somebody will be kind enough to rehash the events of Adventure 3.

From what I remember, adventure three was an anti-climactic ending to adventure 2: As the gang was trying to escape, the krogan guy led us to stealing a ship, which he then piloted.

The ship eventually crashed, which may have had something to do with my character greedily strip-mining the ship before we even got around to landing it somewhere.

 

 

I've been reading through the Mass Effect book in detail and refining my character.

So, at the end of last session my character looked like this:

 

Zir'Jilan vas Tivo

I found out the name can't be "vas" (meaning crew of), that usually only happens when someone is done with their pilgrimage. For now, it has to be nar meaning "child of". I could maybe go with "vas whatever our ship's name is".

 

HIGH CONCEPT: Dyslexic quarian on a spiritual Pillage

This one is just awesome in my opinion. Thanks Oner!

 

TROUBLE: Ship Tivo is quarantined, everyone is sick and Zir'Jilan is looking for a cure

I didn't really understand aspects when I wrote this, so I'm going to change this to...

Homesick - Now it's a double entendre referring to how everyone on ship Tivo is sick, and Zir'Jilan misses his home.

 

BACKGROUND: Lonely Gunnery Officer

I want to change this one to reflect how Zir is haunted by misunderstandings wherever he goes, and doesn't get on well with other people. This would fit very well with his dyslexia and how Darius thought he was the survivor at that poor unfortunate colony. How about Misunderstood and Lonely Gunnery Officer looking for partner?

 

ADVENTURE ONE: Sniped Everyone at a Colony

I like how this one can be invoked for good sniping, or compelled for being wanted for mass murder. Zir'Jilan is already well one his way to becoming a pirate.

 

ADVENTURE TWO: Sneaky bastard

In the adventure, Zir was the first to break in, hack the systems and open the doors. Generally speaking, Zir is sneaky, and a bit of a bastard.

 

ADVENTURE THREE: Salvager

"Salvager" is too simple and uninteresting, so how about Greedy Strip-miner?

 

 

As for skills, What do you guys think of this?

+4: guns, stealth

+3: athletics, systems

+2: alertness, artillery, engineering

+1: pilot, security, deceit, academics, contacts

Edited April 17, 2015 by Marky

[Oner]

Adventure 3: [something biotic] (even "work in progress" would be overly charitable) - I will resist the temptation to call it Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue. (Were it the result of genetic engineering, I might even go with it.) Anyways, Adventure 3 was pretty late in the session, attention spans were dwindling, and frankly, I don't remember much of it. But since survivability is an issue, I'm pretty sure I want this to be a biotic-enhancing Aspect. So I'll figure something out if somebody will be kind enough to rehash the events of Adventure 3.

 

 

From what I remember, adventure three was an anti-climactic ending to adventure 2: As the gang was trying to escape, the krogan guy led us to stealing a ship, which he then piloted.

The ship eventually crashed, which may have had something to do with my character greedily strip-mining the ship before we even got around to landing it somewhere.

 

Pish-posh and balderdash good sir. It was my Vorcha minion who piloted and subsequently crashed our ship. (Also I wasn't aware that those adventures are supposed to be connected. :D)

[aluminiumtrioxid]

I wasn't aware that those adventures are supposed to be connected.

 

They totally aren't!

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

 

As for skills, What do you guys think of this?

+4: guns, stealth

+3: athletics, systems

+2: alertness, artillery, engineering

+1: pilot, security, deceit, academics, contacts

 

 

Oh yes, skills.

 

Since I imagine my guy to be a bit incompetent, I went with the "broad but weak" spread.

 

+3: Academics, Biotics, Empathy, Medicine

+2: Athletics, Contacts, Guns, Rapport

+1: Alertness, Deceit, Investigation, Resources, Stealth

 

I also get a +1 bonus to a physical skill of my choice for being turian, which I originally intended to apply to Fighting, but then I saw that you totally can use Biotics for SPEHHS PUNCHing people in the face, so I'll just use it to boost Athletics, making me really, really good at running away.

 

Re: your skill spread, personally, I'd swap out Academics for your choice between Endurance and Resolve, because that gives you an extra stress level, and unlike in regular games where diminishing returns set in and the more health you have, the less impressive the prospect of getting more seems, in Fate, the more stress boxes you have, the more individually impressive those boxes become.

 

 

In other news, I came up with my contribution for the last adventure! It's basically "I put up a barrier around us before we hit ground, and thanks to that, we're fine instead of being fine red paste". I'm gonna call the corresponding Aspect Biotic Protector or somesuch.

 

 

Now we only have to choose stunts and powers (we get two of each for free, and may lower starting refresh to get more). (Spoiler: I'll pick Barrier and Stasis.)

[PoisonWar]

Yeah guys, it looks like this week i'll be off unfortunately.

Got friends visiting for a short while and I gotta take the time and spend it with them while I can.

 

Next week things should be back to normal however.