(Just to start a thread)
<Aisutori> I like how it's going. I approve of the momentum toward keeping things moving, but I would like us to flesh out a little bit of social/real life play as well alongside it. I think it would add a lot to the overall tone.
Thanks.
Zeph, problems with the logs? I read the buffer last night and you said MIRC didn't log? Drac, if there aren't logs up tonight could you toss them up real quick?
I can make that happen, certainly.
Any luck with logs, Zeph?
I can fling up tonight if there's a problem. Looming Looms.
Please. Zeph's in Florida, it's probably a time and access issue.
*nods* will do.
Anyhow, I put off yammering. Laziness I suppose.
Current general vibe:
The simplicity is really cool, but I strongly miss having much variety in how I can affect the world with magic. Maybe it's just a feeling, but it doesn't seem like there's much difference. You mentioned to Zeph potentially fiddling out some details on magic and I wouldn't be much opposed to it.
I've been generally counting each 'spell' at a cost of 5, basically giving me 18 attacks max and recovering 2 per day. With the generic OCV, Odds are pretty good that I miss 2/3 attacks, so this ends up generally being about 15 per hit.
It's kind of an interesting switch from D&D where everyone is weighted toward hitting usually, sort of still feeling that bit out.
I would kind of like days (e.g. We're on monday, it's a holiday so not a school day, but hey there's a lot of folks who might be at the beach for the tidal wave : complex example), only really because it's hard not to treat every day like 'monster stomp' day when there's no clarity on whether it might interfere with other stuff. I dunno if I'm the only one though who desires that some social side alongside the monster stomping. if I am, I'll drop it and focus on more of a 'hey we're magical vigilante/heroes and let's handwave the rest asap'.
I liked that the cops both reacted to us as kids being in a weird place and quickly changed their tune when we acknowledged ourselves as supernatural specialists. It added to the vibe that the world believed in us, which is a thumbs up. :)
Overall good, but still feels a bit missing something.
Anyhow and there is random yammering!
I see the comments, been meaning to reply to them. I'll do that tonight or tomorrow, been busy prepping up a game and running a dungeon in another.
---
No Zeph tonight, he's on vacation and going to a party. Do you two wanna NPC him or wait a week?
No rush, I meant to try and make them earlier. Know ye got a busy week. Sadly, not much gossip going on here. :P
Cheers to Zeph for log handling :)
We're really quiet midweek.
Yeah, I'm running a few games during the week and usually do prep that Saturday. Balmuria's also been active as hell lately and I've been prepping up a new game with Laggy. Free time? What free time?
You're crazy Dune :)
Okay, Saturday nights have proven they don't work for this game. What nights can all of us make? I'd like to try something else after yet another headdesk worthy Saturday.
Pretty much any night except the night TS runs, I'm good for, and at about the same time is cool with me.
For reference, TS goes at 3:30 AM for me, and Looming usually runs at 6:30 AM for me. Either time, or anywhere in-between or after is fine. But please god, not any earlier.
Edit: Be aware, if it's later than the normal Looming time, I'll be at work, and subject to disappearing as said work demands.
Weekday evening (Planar time) have traditionally been doable for me. Sunday evening is already booked. A morning weekend thing might be doable (I haven't done one in a while).
Sundays are semibooked for me as well so those are out anyway, forgot to mention.
Not Friday.
I'm leaning towards Tuesday if possible, may as well use the old Planar spot if we can all make it. No decision immediately, waiting on Zeph to say something.
Also some questions for Iddy.
1. What's your new character like?
2. What's he do on a day to day basis?
3. Does he have any family? Friends? Responsibilities?
4. Could you describe him a little bit, so we start with an idea of what to expect?
Quote1. What's your new character like?
Hmm.. Typical kid, I suppose. Grew up in a fairly traditional family, but when his power revealed itself, the family simply viewed him as abnormal. While they didn't quite disown him, he quickly found himself living on his own in one of the smaller properties his family owns. While he can't ever quite escape his traditional upbringing, this has caused him to become a little irreverent of rules.
Quote2. What's he do on a day to day basis?
Typically goes to school during the day, but isn't part of any clubs. His extra time is spent exploring, teleporting to new and interesting places, and expanding the number of safe houses he has. He even has a few in other countries.
Quote3. Does he have any family? Friends? Responsibilities?
His family has separated themselves from him, though hasn't totally disowned him. His friends are few and far between, mostly polite acquaintances. His only responsibility is keeping his grades passing, and not to make a spectacle of himself, in an effort to avoid being totally disowned.
Quote4. Could you describe him a little bit, so we start with an idea of what to expect?
He's fairly respectful and obeys all common courtesies, but doesn't necessarily go out of his way to help anyone unless there's a reason for him to. He's not inherently selfish, but to avoid any more issues with his family, there needs to be a clear benefits for him. He's a fairly relaxed 'under the radar' type of guy, with no real sense of consequences, because he can typically do whatever he wants and teleport away before it becomes a problem.
Traditional Planar time is good for me as well. Saturdays have just been cursed for me. Since I'll be working a new job that doesn't require me to get to bed at 9 PM, pretty much anything is good. Morning weekends are doable as well.
Fantastic!
Can we all make this Tuesday then? If not we'll start next Tuesday after that, I can't fault people for not making a session with short notice.
I honestly couldn't tell you right now. I may or may not be doing one last week at Toyota before I start at ACS and if I do, there's no way I can survive on two hours of sleep. I'll let you know asap.
Okay, thanks.
I can make it, if it happens.
I will be able to make it. So...yeah. Awesome.
Read, understood.
7:00 or 7:30 on tuesday?
Either way I'll be there.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on April 03, 2011, 03:24:14 AMHmm.. Typical kid, I suppose. Grew up in a fairly traditional family, but when his power revealed itself, the family simply viewed him as abnormal. While they didn't quite disown him, he quickly found himself living on his own in one of the smaller properties his family owns. While he can't ever quite escape his traditional upbringing, this has caused him to become a little irreverent of rules.
Sounds a bit like a rich kid.
QuoteTypically goes to school during the day, but isn't part of any clubs. His extra time is spent exploring, teleporting to new and interesting places, and expanding the number of safe houses he has. He even has a few in other countries.
He sounds ike a real loner already, and reading the next answer confirms that. Is he isolated because of his personality and choices, or because of his powers?
QuoteHis family has separated themselves from him, though hasn't totally disowned him. His friends are few and far between, mostly polite acquaintances. His only responsibility is keeping his grades passing, and not to make a spectacle of himself, in an effort to avoid being totally disowned.
A public spectacle, I assume?
QuoteHe's fairly respectful and obeys all common courtesies, but doesn't necessarily go out of his way to help anyone unless there's a reason for him to. He's not inherently selfish, but to avoid any more issues with his family, there needs to be a clear benefits for him. He's a fairly relaxed 'under the radar' type of guy, with no real sense of consequences, because he can typically do whatever he wants and teleport away before it becomes a problem.
Sounds about right. Trouble doesn't stick when you can vanish halfway across the world if need be.
QuoteSounds a bit like a rich kid.
Not really. They're well enough off to be able to afford a few small properties, but not incredibly rich. They can afford to support him, but he doesn't get enough to really live in luxury.
Edit: Their ability to do so is pretty much dependent upon the other properties being rental properties.
QuoteHe sounds ike a real loner already, and reading the next answer confirms that. Is he isolated because of his personality and choices, or because of his powers?
It's less because of his powers, and more because he knows he's on thin ice with his family. In an effort to prevent any types of confrontations or problems, he's avoided standing out. He's still made a few friends, but they're more the polite 'at school' friends.
QuoteA public spectacle, I assume?
Yes, that's what he wants to avoid. If he either excels, or fails horribly, he'll get attention. While he doesn't necessarily like being in the position he's in, he's smart enough to know if he pushes his family, they'll cut him off. So in the mean time, he'll simply coast along and make as few waves as possible.
QuoteSounds about right. Trouble doesn't stick when you can vanish halfway across the world if need be.
Yep. When he *does* act out, or needs to really cut loose and vent or relax, he makes *damn sure* to do it far away from where anyone might link him back to his family and cause problems.
Mmm, Aisutori probably qualifies as rich kid, though it might never come up. It's a bit mentioned in her background.
Mmm, so how is Iddy joining us? I somewhat assume we're not retconning him in if he's historically been a loner (since how can you be a loner with a group of cheerful friends. We'll Usagi you~!)
Transfer student? Attack target for whatever reason (Something to motivate him)? I mean just being supernatural wouldn't be enough for us to say 'come along', since supernatural isn't exactly rare, assuming he didn't express that he wanted to come along (which would make things easier).
Hey, Hey...We got to play again. It's been forever, I hope Aisu-chan's fans haven't forgotten her! Today Jin was badass and took out a tank with a sword. He bled all over the place too, but he always seems to do that. Aisu-chan got all tired. Doesn't anyone know she can't keep casting ice all day long? Noriko-chan is a big trooper though, just like her mom. Getting kidnapped and then pulling the kidnapper to the lab and her eyes don't even twitch! She's tough!
Hey Aisutori scared Enro-san! I know it's not good to scare new friends, but grandma would totally be proud of me. That's right, we've got a new friend who's a bit of a coward, but I bet he's got some good points somewhere. We've really given the Crimson Wind a bloody nose though. They're probably going to step it up a notch now... Aisu-chan hopes she gets time to sing for all of you soon!
I hope you join us all for the next chapter of Aisu-chan and magical friends adventures...I mean LOOMING!
(May have felt like typing a Sailor Moon style'd self absorbed closer for last episode. Was glad to see us getting back into actually gaming, even dune powering through being sleepy. Looks forward to us getting more lively next week!)
Question:
Was just reading over our cool char sheets again and noticed Enro's flaw. Is...that really a reasonable/valid flaw in universe? I mean even given it is a truly unique evolutionary power and nobody else has teleport (really?)... contextually, it's not that special. We've got humanoid robots going to school and all sorts of strange mystic and technological type. I mean, someone going after 'research subjects that have supernatural/interesting abilities' would pretty much have good reason to be happy with kidnapping any of us (Maybe not jin). Wouldn't something more personal work better, even if its of a similar remoteness (Like Neglected/Socially abused by family)?
<Iddy> I didn't get a chance to read it.
<Iddy> I've got a bit of work to do. Once I clear it up, I'll check.
<Iddy> I know it might read a bit weird, but it's for a reason.
<Iddy> Actually, since the database just shit the bed, I'll read it now.
<Iddy> I kinda went with a twist on the x-gene type idea. Since it's a natural evolution, it can, logically, be engineered into anyone/thing that has human DNA (with sufficient science), which makes it valuable to certain types.
<Iddy> Governments and military mainly. But a group like CW.. As long as their agents have human DNA, it can be engineered into them. Teleporting tanks.
<Iddy> For example.
<Iddy> But, ultimately, Dune has call on it.
<Iddy> If he wants it changed, I'll change it.
<Kotono> Paste all this in the school gossip topic, I'll read/post about it tomorrow at some point.
Oh, Oh... I almost forgot! We've got those tickets to Kawazam's next show and that has to be like tonight. How are we going to get a ticket for Enro in time? It's gonna be exciting!
I can teleport. All I need is line of sight to an empty area.
I'm fine with it, I just figured teleportation was rare/non-existent in the world despite other powers being in play.
Just reminder/check: we're totally on for exciting antics on Tuesday right?
Yes, barring last minute mishaps.
I seem to be leaving the office a bit later than I had hoped. I will be there though!
Last two weeks logs up. We aren't getting behind.
Also new blog up.
Tonight was fun, though it easily could've been way more fun if dune had the energy to play back, but you can't have everything. Good to have some consecutive sessions going. Tuesday night as a time is really way easier for me since I'm usually lively after work.
I kind of would like to change the Singing trait to be Soul instead of Mind. It seems more reasonable. I originally made it mind because there was no guidance and I figured it'd be broken with me possibly rolling against a high soul all the time, but as the game has progressed, that's barely happened as soul rarely comes up and ACV is my primary roll target. That and it felt weird struggling to make song stuff happen tonight. It doesn't feel so bad that I take a few shots to nail folks with a high damage ice attack, but does when I struggled here.
We gonna add traits anytime? Aisutori wants recouperative cooking so she can make more downtime stuff :P *silly/sleepy*
Anyhow, After some yammer with Iddy over the last weeks, I'm playing up (hopefully subtly) that Aisutori was raised in at least nominal wealth. It shouldn't likely ever come up as a plot point or as an advantage, but tried to reflect it in not blinking at getting 200 dollar tickets to bring my new friend along to a show.
Aisutori is probably going to be too too excited about having been on such a big stage, maybe she'll forget noriko not understanding what a show is during it.
And my two cents on Iddy's move: This is too simple a game for moves that have low odds of killing the user. I think our current 0-10 low damage, 10-20 mid damage, 20-30 high damage is an idealish range for the moment and having non-crit stuff already up there and have a chance of wiping seems a bit extreme :)
but that teleporting hit was still awesome :)
*collapss asleep
Also I yammered a bit last night, but want to toss in an opinion on another thing:
We should probably have all things that affect enemies be ACV challenges. If spells should be otherwise outside of it, sure that could be soul, but battle is a terrible time for asking questions. I'd vote for the roll versus soul in battle thing to be a one off (Yes, I wouldn't mind hitting easier, but the simplicity of how we do it is one of the things that made it easier to be rattling off song lines and attacks yesterday). It's dune's call but this is largely how its played so far with a short exception anyhow.
Chirp.
So, last night was kinda a wash. Glad we got unhooked and moved on, but everyone was out of it including the DM. Sucky, happens. Afterwards there was some yammering and I figure I'll put it here:
It'd be good when possible to handle chore stuff on board. That whole session was 'Teleport out, rest, get powerup'. It could've been a handful of posts and we could've gotten it done during the last few weeks.
Basically: It's natural once in a while we'll end sessions where the next steps are both obvious and non-exciting. We shouldn't be afraid to use posts to cover these so that we can keep what sessions we do have to a good flow. There's been a couple periods where the start of the session is 'half team wait around while other half ask a couple of obvious questions'. We should try and optimize the group fun time cuz I know I feel guilty when I'm off doing myth stuff while everyone is waiting on me.
And now, non-meta style: What the heck is team Clear Skies doing next? Apparently we are hoping to just charge right in and find him again. I SERIOUSLY hope we can't. That would be lame. It'd be like last session was the half-time break before we bring our A game and michael jordon suddenly leads us to a dunking victory against the martians. We failed to get him. At the least he should pull out his half dozen minions of 'Fuck you, no more free tackle on the cthulhu'.
I see jin hasn't put his trait up. Jin, do that. Weirdly now Aisutori is the tankiest of the group right now. Kinda odd, but whatever. :)
At the very least, the first step is to Find where he is gonna be now. Noriko's got our lead there. He's had days to get out of our trap and get lost in the city. From there we get to see how hard it will be to give chase to him. For reference: Aisutori needs a week to get back up to full strength. Her pool might be a lot deeper than everyone's, but she doesn't fill it any faster and drains it much faster.
Noriko plans to pick up a rocket launcher. Cool.
Jin plans to pick up ???, something from his grandfather.
I thought I heard Enro was grabbing something. But it seems like he'd have the same problem with 'pull new shit from nowhere' that Aisutori has. Worse really, as he doesn't have background allies. Let him comment on his stuff.
Anyhow, answers from the others. Is our next objective 'More Firepower'?
What I was asking Ko about last night was if Aisutori goes for 'more firepower' she's kinda limited. She's got two options:
1)Ask mythic based allies for help. This is cool, and Aisutori would love to do it. Teamwork and tapping ancient alliances and all that and hey 'This is how we roll shits, get out of our territory now or we'll give you cement boots'. Problem? More NPCs generally doesn't improve things and Narratively, Aisutori is a new kid on the mythical demon block. Sure, they adore her and are glad to talk with her, but if they were to pitch in, they'd be pitching in as monsters that have way more experience than she does. If she knew a bunch of teenager mythical types, she'd probably have ended up forming a group with them rather than clear skies anyway. Sure, she could go follow her grandma's route and get an army of low class ice spirits to help her out with her 'chores' I suppose? That could work fun, but I think I'd rather have that be a little later thing? Going and recruiting Aisutori's gang of cute demons! Either way, that isn't who she'd go to for a fight like this. She'd go to People Who Would Win The Fight.
anyhow Issue there is that most NPCs she could tap would both be: Adding to character count and Too Strong. Dune is pretty much on the same wavelength here.
2)Go get training. She could go study under Grandma Tsurara or train the Fear of the Ice at the Tooni village in the mists. This would be lots of fun, but also a real time sink. If the others are doing 'yeah I'm ready in an hour' tasks, it doesn't match.
3)Thinking on it, there's no reason I couldn't go grab magic items, but Aisutori's supporting cast has been far more background so far than either Jin's. So this might be a bit out of the blue.
Anyhow, I dunno. I can definitely agree with a 'we should go get more firepower'. Aistori is extremely marginally more effective at the moment and the only difference would be she wouldn't be out of MP...but this guy can do MP drain as he showed, so that's not much of a notable. Pretty much the only offensive boon was Noriko's, but stat wise we're pretty identical across the board to what we were when we were getting pounded by him.
Randomness: Huh, in some provences of japan, Yuki onna steal souls. neat. They are ghosts of ice, wielding misdirection to take your life and your spirit.
I should do more cheerful blogs! :3
While having NPC backup is nice on occasion, I feel that it kind takes away the satisfaction one feels when downing an enemy yourself or with your fellow gamers. So, while I won't outright say not, I think that it would be best to not drag any NPCs into this fight unless absolutely necessary.
As for what Jin is going to do...there's only so much I could do. What I'm thinking is perhaps enlisting the aid of a family member who specializes in exorcism aka onmyodo (or whatever it's called, I'll get details later) and get him/her to load us up with buffs/AOEs/DOTs, etc., etc. Or maybe even some kind of barrier or spell that would weaken our enemy a bit before we fight? I dunno. I'm still thinking of ideas.
Yeah, again, everyone's on the same wavelength there. I would kinda vote Zero NPCs from anyone but yeah.
To me its obvious we should need more firepower. Noriko's route is very obvious. I dunno about the others.
So we've got logs to post? Zeph?
Anyhow, I'm trying to get some blog stuff going today :3 What I figured I'd also do is some myth takes on the rest of the cast. Aisutori is hunting for Noriko-chan, Jin-san, and Enro-san to interview. She's a very unreliable narrator though, so don't be surprised if she talks about how Noriko-chan is clearly the modern take on ancient puppet monsters and how that's totally awesome.
Aisutori has also had her grandma moved around a little more directly. It's been sorta happening anyway in several sessions, but basically giving more excuse why 'having superpowered relatives does not equal they are coming in to save the day when we're over our head'. Not really having it ruled out either, but it's not like they're right next door, just casually watching as we get our asses handed to us. A short train ride away isn't a big deal, but it also puts it out of 'wave hi on the way home from school'. Reachable, but not instant. Also helps explain why she goes to random demons that are in the area.
Jin's family has the weakest excuse for not being more omnipresent (Yo, big bro, we could kinda use another sword!). Pointing out not to jab at it, but to suggest it might be a fun imagination space for Jin to delve further into what else the Bunkou's are taking care of while he's doing the old family job of Neighborhood Safety. His old man could be unfirm or "Too Old for this Shit"...or a Badass Grandpa. His brother could be in town only so often and have a job out in tokyo handling major security stuff... His sister could be 'too young for the field'. Whatever, it could be totally ignored but just suggesting it might be a nice area to cover :3
Expanding further:
Noriko's folks are both present and involved so far. But they've also been clearly non-combatants. Leveragable for upgrades and supplies, not coming in with their own tanks.
Re: Board posting.
Do you guys want to add in an element of play-by-post to this game, to help soften the blow of missing weeks and general lagginess?
Yes.
Quote from: Zephyrus on May 12, 2011, 11:12:41 AM
While having NPC backup is nice on occasion, I feel that it kind takes away the satisfaction one feels when downing an enemy yourself or with your fellow gamers. So, while I won't outright say not, I think that it would be best to not drag any NPCs into this fight unless absolutely necessary.
As for what Jin is going to do...there's only so much I could do. What I'm thinking is perhaps enlisting the aid of a family member who specializes in exorcism aka onmyodo (or whatever it's called, I'll get details later) and get him/her to load us up with buffs/AOEs/DOTs, etc., etc. Or maybe even some kind of barrier or spell that would weaken our enemy a bit before we fight? I dunno. I'm still thinking of ideas.
I asked Grandma and she said something about the Onmyoji being terrible man stealing whores and then disconnected. I don't think we should invite them! Bidah!</silliness>
Aside:
Where are we? I might've screwed up on my last blog and put us near/in Osaka, mainly because the only in game ref has been Hyogo which is east of Kobe and Osaka. :P
I can go change that to tokyo easily enough.
That's fine.
Quote from: Dracos on May 12, 2011, 02:47:11 PM
So we've got logs to post? Zeph?
Anyhow, I'm trying to get some blog stuff going today :3 What I figured I'd also do is some myth takes on the rest of the cast. Aisutori is hunting for Noriko-chan, Jin-san, and Enro-san to interview. She's a very unreliable narrator though, so don't be surprised if she talks about how Noriko-chan is clearly the modern take on ancient puppet monsters and how that's totally awesome.
Aisutori has also had her grandma moved around a little more directly. It's been sorta happening anyway in several sessions, but basically giving more excuse why 'having superpowered relatives does not equal they are coming in to save the day when we're over our head'. Not really having it ruled out either, but it's not like they're right next door, just casually watching as we get our asses handed to us. A short train ride away isn't a big deal, but it also puts it out of 'wave hi on the way home from school'. Reachable, but not instant. Also helps explain why she goes to random demons that are in the area.
Jin's family has the weakest excuse for not being more omnipresent (Yo, big bro, we could kinda use another sword!). Pointing out not to jab at it, but to suggest it might be a fun imagination space for Jin to delve further into what else the Bunkou's are taking care of while he's doing the old family job of Neighborhood Safety. His old man could be unfirm or "Too Old for this Shit"...or a Badass Grandpa. His brother could be in town only so often and have a job out in tokyo handling major security stuff... His sister could be 'too young for the field'. Whatever, it could be totally ignored but just suggesting it might be a nice area to cover :3
Expanding further:
Noriko's folks are both present and involved so far. But they've also been clearly non-combatants. Leveragable for upgrades and supplies, not coming in with their own tanks.
Okay, couple things.
First, I sorta agree with the no NPCs thing. Running extra characters = extra work. However, I wouldn't rule out a familiar type NPC. Something basic that can be used to augment nominal abilities.
Second, Aisutori not being able to hit up grandma for training. Well, your train ride *used* to be a decent excuse. Until you made friends with a teleporter.
Third, the family being more present/tapped for upgrades. I like this, but I think it can be expanded further. Try *cross expanding.* Have Noriko's mom hook Jin up with some top line armor/gadgets ala Batman style. Jin, see if your family has any mystical ninja items Aisutori can use, or something that Noriko can use for a back-up power device or something similar.
As for Enro.. Well, he's fairly hoss when he hits, but he's not very tough. That's about all I can really think of for him.
Also, we need to figure out how to make our abilities work together. I mean, right now, we're just a group of people who fight in the same area, but individually. We need to consider how our abilities effect the world and how the others in our group can take advantage of it.
Like, Aisutori can freeze things. Doing so makes them brittle. Noriko can capitalize on this. Jin is a melee fighter, but I can help move him around the field for positioning and to act as interference. I can juggle forced teleports to act as crowd control and sow confusion.
Just a couple pennies.
Yay, chatter!
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on May 12, 2011, 03:59:02 PM
Okay, couple things.
First, I sorta agree with the no NPCs thing. Running extra characters = extra work. However, I wouldn't rule out a familiar type NPC. Something basic that can be used to augment nominal abilities.
Oh, I totally wouldn't rule that out. Getting minor youkai to help out with chores and stuff would be the sign of an advancing Yuki Onna~! :p But at the same time, while I like having relevant cast available, I wanted to avoid the obvious question "Why aren't you going and having the local big badasses that your backstory references handle this?"
Quote
Second, Aisutori not being able to hit up grandma for training. Well, your train ride *used* to be a decent excuse. Until you made friends with a teleporter.
Oh, the time for training was never travel time. It was "We are not DBZ monsters with time chambers, training with Grandma is a work of days to weeks at least. Not an hour walk to pick up my rocket launcher!" In other words, if it's heavily out of time matching with the other firepower tricks, it isn't very good for the moment.
Quote
Third, the family being more present/tapped for upgrades. I like this, but I think it can be expanded further. Try *cross expanding.* Have Noriko's mom hook Jin up with some top line armor/gadgets ala Batman style. Jin, see if your family has any mystical ninja items Aisutori can use, or something that Noriko can use for a back-up power device or something similar.
Heh, not a bad idea really tossed out there.
Quote
As for Enro.. Well, he's fairly hoss when he hits, but he's not very tough. That's about all I can really think of for him.
You're fragile in a lot of ways really. Aisutori out-staminas you on both magic and hp fronts. Everyone else heavily out-hps you. Pretty much if I had your build, I wouldn't be looking for teleport to melee it up, but teleport "I throw ranged stuff and teleport it so it appears at high velocity right in front of their eye". You're the smartest in the party, so really being a party strategist seems a sensible role?
Quote
Also, we need to figure out how to make our abilities work together. I mean, right now, we're just a group of people who fight in the same area, but individually. We need to consider how our abilities effect the world and how the others in our group can take advantage of it.
Like, Aisutori can freeze things. Doing so makes them brittle. Noriko can capitalize on this. Jin is a melee fighter, but I can help move him around the field for positioning and to act as interference. I can juggle forced teleports to act as crowd control and sow confusion.
Just a couple pennies.
Well, this is a 'how complex does dune want things to go?' So far it's been 'not much'. Which is fine.
Quote from: Iron Dragoon on May 12, 2011, 03:59:02 PMThird, the family being more present/tapped for upgrades. I like this, but I think it can be expanded further. Try *cross expanding.* Have Noriko's mom hook Jin up with some top line armor/gadgets ala Batman style. Jin, see if your family has any mystical ninja items Aisutori can use, or something that Noriko can use for a back-up power device or something similar.
That's not a bad idea, you guys could look into this. Nice cross pollination.
QuoteAlso, we need to figure out how to make our abilities work together. I mean, right now, we're just a group of people who fight in the same area, but individually. We need to consider how our abilities effect the world and how the others in our group can take advantage of it.
This. Work on synergy, ways to use your powers together, things like that. Make shit up, by all means.
Like I totally hear that we're on in another 26 hours. Has Enro gotten out of bed yet?
Also, the general lack of ever seeing chatter from either Jin or Noriko makes a solid mark against us being able to do light board play to deal with slow sections. It can work really nicely but if we're holding a 'we only think about looming for 4 hours a week tops' then it won't really be any different than it is now.
To be fair I keep meaning to club them and forgetting. Still yeah, it's not a good sign.
It saddens the Dracos, as it seriously makes mid-week banter hard. But anyhow, see everyone tonight :)
I just find myself without a lot to add right now, really. Missed sessions always throw me off.
Reminder, we are on tonight as usual? This is what I heard last night, but I'm kinda doing what I can to help encourage us getting back on the rails.
Assuming nothing happens afoul, we're on.
Hey, sorry about not being around. I got sent out travelling, but was supposed to still be able to be online for gaming.
Unfortunately, the flight got delayed twice, cancelled once, changed once, and held on the runway. Then, we couldn't even land where we were supposed to and wound up, quite literally, on the opposite side of Afghanistan because of weather.
Sorry all.
Sounds like the curse struck again!
...yeah, that blows. Sorry man.
The curse has made a powerful enemy today.
Gaming is tomorrow for awesome fun having?
It is indeed would be a terrible tuesday to have a curse.
So now we're back to four. How is Nozumu joining us? :3
*votes for call from Grandma to look after the precocious girl transferring in two grade levels above* :P
Anyhow, cool, so Noriko, Aisutori, Nozumu, and Enro shall band together and crush evil.
Dune I was thinking of reorganizing the character sheets thread to move current char sheets to the top. Any thoughts?
Go for it.
Wasn't as clean as I hoped but I was at least able to split off a char sheets thread that's just the sheets.
shit, I am running late. Will be there ASAP.
Hello, Hello, This is Aisu-chan. Last night we had a new friend join us, Kanae-chan and it was very fun. She even brought her own tea and fake glasses! Anyhow, it's been a while since we've been running at full strength. Aisu-chan was worried she wasn't going to be able to get the band back together. Silly Aisutori.
Anyhow, I'll get up logs soon. Good to come in for a night of everyone being on board and in a good mood. :3 Also was a stunning sight on the advantages of web gaming. There were no less than 10 'leave the table' moments over the session from everyone and the DM. And the game did not stop or stutter from it. On a face to face game, one person pulling that would be a pausing issue.
Also, Iddy needs to not forget our DM :P Not me.
So logs are totally posted. Apparently we average 8.5 pages a session, for whimsy commentary. Observationally, our worst sessions are ones right after our epic ones since there is usually a stuttering on 'what to do'.
we've got 5 more days until next session...so what's our plan? What are we going to do next session? It looks like they're just doing a general blast on average humanity so far, not going after targets beyond that. Kawazam..somehow is wounded enough to hide? I totally don't buy that given his last leap...but I also would argue that he could STILL kick all of our asses.
Problems/Enounters of Aisutori interest:
1)Hey school's gonna start up soon again? We've leveled up in idol and Aisutori has to check on her bandmates sometime. I better write some new song! Also blog some :P
2)There are these weird kind of obnoxious dimensional distortions going around. What are they doing? Weakening the fabric of existance to make it more vulnerable to attack, for suuure...well, maybe not. But I think we should tap the police here. They would have the visual network to keep tabs on how many are out there, as well as the expertise to get folks out of the way. That way we can get a heads up and what (if anything) is going on. Also we should let them know anyway to keep civilians safe.
3)I don't think Kanae got any input on Kawazam last time? Was I wrong? If not, hey, can we get that pre-session for some strategizing?
4)So, we need to find poooowers. Cuz we still are likely to be owned. Also Kanae is kinda short on powers compared to the rest of us?
5)??? We should set up a new meeting spot. We have the Makai temple which works, or we can use Aisutori's old home (Butler, get us something to eat.) Either way, Jin's house is kinda off. Also we should totally go hang out for a bit and gel as a team, outside of it. We've gotten two new recruits in the last few days narratively, so we should try out and practice our group tactics.
Temple or your place will work, really. I like the temple, personally, but the monks are largely apathetic. (that whole 'harmony' thing)
Maybe practice more than new powers. ;)
Also, we've forgotten but we have more rivals than just Kawazam. I mean someone paid the Crimson Sand to put out a hit on us all. Major contract and such. Sure we've given them a bloody nose, but they've got to still be out there. We did just vanish for a week, but we came out this time very publically, so they could know to target Aisutori and Noriko.
Oh noes, Kanae will have to save us!
Other idea randomness: Man we've had it easy. Not a single bank robber with superpowers or monster of the week in the mix. If it was this peaceful all the time, Clear Skies would be out of a job? :3
Anyhow, just thoughts aloud, since those aren't actions we can take but challenges Dune can throw in our way.
Still, it seems Beach Trip is an important future plan. Still Aisutori wishes for magical cooking of recoveriness. :P
Ah back to work, work work work work work...
On the Enro side..
I'm interested in 'safe housing' the group members so I can teleport directly to them. Makes retrieval easier and tactics.. I need to get into a fight and try out Dead Drop and Death From Above to see how it works out in-combat. I haven't really used either.
As for powers, dunno. Can't think of any that fit with Enro's theme.
Nonsense, you are the man who is Everywhere and Nowhere. So be where Kawazam is. Then be back where we are~! :3
:P
*ignores the reality and real limitations of Enro's abilities*
QuoteSo logs are totally posted. Apparently we average 8.5 pages a session, for whimsy commentary. Observationally, our worst sessions are ones right after our epic ones since there is usually a stuttering on 'what to do'.
I've noted this as well. Usually it goes for you guys to lick your wounds and figure out what to do next, since your enemy isn't always screamingly obvious.
Opinionated bullshit below:
I'd vote again that having some non-combat considerations to deal with would help that. mmm, though maybe I'm the only one pushing that.
Currently it seems we are dealing with one source of issues (Leviathan and his hired/owned bad guys). Because of this we end up with a sort of square wave of things to deal with: Either there is a leviathan related problem to deal with or there is not. And obviously when we deal with one, we're instantly moved to the is not.
We also technically have sometimes overlapping that checking in with our various allies for power ups and the brief checks for 'what are the bad guys doing next'. But these don't provide a whole lot to focus on, so we end up sputtering a lot when that happens.
It seems to be the answer here would be: More RP responsibilities/goals/issues. The easiest (most combaty) is we really do still have to patrol and deal with the fallout of the fact that Leviathan isn't the only trouble maker in the city. We're not Sailor Moon, and we deal with multiple troubles, from the drunk tanuki in the Little America backstreets to the mechanized evil genius bank robbers.
Personally, I'd be down if we had some sense of real time passing, rushing back for Kanae to do blessings, Aisutori practicing with her band, all of us having to do school stuff, yadda yadda. Things of lesser priority that are normally pushed aside by the big bads, that when we go on Passive Radar for Trouble we have sitting in the wing to be dealt with as RP tasks and goals.
I think it'd do wonders for our momentum not to have 1 session in 3 be 'well the visible bad guys are dead, so uh, how do we find more bad guys to stop?' Because RP-wise I wouldn't think that would necessarily always be our highest priority (We're school-kids moonlighting as superheroes, not soldiers fighting a war).
I dunno, am I off my rocker :3
No, you've got a fair point. We haven't been RPing much. Just jumping from one introduction to a fight to the next. The issue with it is, no one really has anything to RP outside of the group, so far. The closest is Aisutori with her grandmother and the band, and Noriko with her mom.
Though, that leaves nothing but opportunity for expansion.
Well yeah, I've been focusing on the main plot. If you guys have things you'd like to try and do in the meantime or explore, by all means.
Well, just exploring this:
One thing of course is having hobbies and obligations for some of the others (as well as things that they can drag people along to).
Aisutori has: Clear Skies, avoiding home, playing with the band and building up her Idol status, dragging clear skies to kareoke~ :P
Kanae has: Temple Duties, playing go (Finger of God!), and OldPeopleHobbies (Prunes!).
Noriko has: School, Mom, going on 2chan?
Enro has: ??? Uh, Enro is kind of a Cipher at the moment. Enro should change that.
What I'm meek on is how much you want us to create events with this stuff from whole cloth in the game.
Habitually, I lean more towards providing a set of hooks and was assuming at some point they'd be tapped when you wanted them in the game. I've been slowly pushing more on that, but I don't want to just charge over it being your game.
I suppose what I mean by this is:
The Clear Skies group can be interested in going on patrol, but if there are no random strange non-leviathan encounters available, then we can't really go deal with them. We could create them from no-where, but that's just yanking game control from you (which is wrong).
Aisutori can go spend time with the band, but if there's no events, it becomes an all NPC scene (and undefined NPCs at that). She could go declare events are going on, but then that's like suddenly scribing scenes in the middle of your sessions, and I instinctively don't feel comfortable there.
We could collectively just run things as a group during the quiet times (like right now), sorta in a fashion like side-stories were. But again, not sure where the appropriate spot is there.
To me it seems like the sweet spot would be in the middle: us giving you more material and reacting to events that would be of interest for folks (Go tournaments, NPCs that play along with hobby/areas, Shopkeepers to save from random mischief, etc).
It could be taken further along, and Aisutori is definitely willing to lead the group places for various scenework, but basically I'm unsure and yammery :)
For tonight, hm...
So like, Aisutori totally invites everyone over to her house since its quiet and school's not on for at least one more day. Butler Frederic probably won't bother too much. From there we can call the cops to get an eye on the roving dimensional rips. Kanae can check about Kawazam and Noriko can hack away for any signs of him. Then we can head to the beach for a bit (Boo hot weather) and see if there's any messages from our mysterious helper.
Then when that's done, we can go Kareoke to induct our two new members. Noriko-chan, how did we let Enro join without forcing him to sing?
Last time we talked with the cops, but this time we should... well, Aisutori still wants to throw a welcome to the team party for the two new members and we should check out the beach for more gems, especially as both Kanae and Enro are behind in that.
Sounds like a plan! Anyone else interested with that?
Quote from: Dracos on June 14, 2011, 06:16:43 PM
For tonight, hm...
So like, Aisutori totally invites everyone over to her house since its quiet and school's not on for at least one more day. Butler Frederic probably won't bother too much. From there we can call the cops to get an eye on the roving dimensional rips. Kanae can check about Kawazam and Noriko can hack away for any signs of him. Then we can head to the beach for a bit (Boo hot weather) and see if there's any messages from our mysterious helper.
Then when that's done, we can go Kareoke to induct our two new members. Noriko-chan, how did we let Enro join without forcing him to sing?
Because Enro played Bass in a Rock Battle. I think that outweighs singing.
As for the party and pearls, that's fine with me.
That's true. Enro proved he can bring the thunder. Also take it.
Kanae, there is a high badass bar for this group. We need to make sure you can knock it around with your pinky.
I'll get logs up soon. I think last session was pretty good :3
Pros:
The new characters got to catch up with the neat stuff that the folks playing the whole time already had. Kanae even got a really neat power.
Everyone was there.
Dune introduced lots of hooks.
Dune introduced some Youkai as normal people in town. Yay, I'm glad the writeups are going used and cheer for more of that. Enro was being shocked, but I really think one of the hallmarks of the setting is that monsters and sci-fi people aren't strange to the setting. Robot girls do go to school, Yuki-onna sing in bands, etc. They aren't everywhere, but they we're exotic creatures are not-exotic to the setting. They're the people you pass every day.
We left off with 'something to start' next session with.
We played so long dune lost track of time. :3
Cons:
Noriko-chan needed a recharge cycle. Thanks for hanging in there Noriko-chan.
We kind of got stalled a bit on the power up stuff.
Aisu-chan needs to write more blogs. They're so far behind~!
Robert Sasaki isn't even listed in the NPC thread. Poor Robert-san.
Basically, I talk too much, but want to give dune a thumbs up for that last session.
I had a great deal of fun! I got power ups AND managed to bring the needless Aisutori/Enro shipping in character!
Nice, glad you enjoyed it! What about Enro and Noriko?
I suspect Cid was mostly asleep for much of the session. Cid, let me know if this is getting too much for you lately. You've felt half asleep the last several sessions.
Quote from: Anastasia on June 22, 2011, 03:33:52 PM
Nice, glad you enjoyed it! What about Enro and Noriko?
Yeah, I think I'll stick with shipping Ai/Enro. Teleporter/robot girl doesn't have the same appeal.
I dunno. Can you imagine it? Enro teleports Noriko into hotspots, allowing ROBOJUSTICE to smite on demand. It would be like a pizza delivery service, except instead of pizza it's beating the hell out of evil.
NPC thread updated :)
HEY LISTEN!
Nice job, Dracos! Good work!
Thanks Yulia!
Are you going to cameo in looming? :3
Oh yes. I mean, naturally, Yulia is Leviathan.
I totally did not expect that. I mean she doesn't even have a water affinity. The surprise factor was total.
No one expects the courre inquisition?
Enro-san has no physical description. Aisutori-chan is sad since now she's going all by atmosphere. Guess he loses his chance to play the hunk. Kanae-chan and Noriko-chan are both pretty vague, but his is non-existant.
Game tomorrow/today right? I yammer since its easy to miss after a holiday that throws off people's 'what day of the week' it is.
We'll see. I may have trouble getting online -- I updated my OS and the new version isn't cooperating with me getting onto the interwebs. :x
With luck, I'll be online in time for game....
Okay, fair enough. I'm still flip-flopping on the sickmobile, so I may not run tonight anyway. If we miss tonight, can we do a make up date later in the week, people? I'd hate to miss two sessions in a row.
I'm down for that as long as it is selected quickly and agreed on. As is usual: I can arrange to be home almost any day of the week for it, but I don't like/can't be home every day of the week for it.
Possibly, but I'm spoken for Friday and would vastly prefer it not be Thursday because late gaming two nights in a row followed by waking up for early gaming Saturday = arghlefuck.
Is it possible we could get a verdict on today before my usual naptime rolls around?
I can do Wednesday. What about everyone else?
Quote from: El Cideon on July 05, 2011, 05:14:22 PMIs it possible we could get a verdict on today before my usual naptime rolls around?
Bleah. Alright -- I can find a way to get online tonight.
Beautiful confusion.
I'll be home tuesday and wednesday at game time.
Heya everyone~! So we finally have a name for our Season 1 Nemesis: Cthulu horrors from the deep! With Jadeite being played by Nyarlathotep. Aisu-chan is really upset though that her party for Kanae and Enro got ruined. Fuu! We'll have to put all the blame on Nyarlathotep and light him on fire next time, repeatedly! Wait, how did we end up with this being the plan? Noooo~! Wait, we're going with blessed ice spears instead? Kanae-chan is my new best friend!
Well, we've seen already that they've been putting a campaign of fear out. Aisutori is very familiar with that, because that's how monsters fight! They're challenging us on our home turf though, and they're going to find that Clear Skies reigns over the Osaka skyline! We're the scarier monsters, right Mami-san? They're just sushi. This is Japan, we eat giant fishman for breakfast, also lunch and dinner!
Next session, we're probably going to call it a night because it's late. And get back to school? Is Kanae going to transfer in and be an adorable annoying classroom kid? Aisutori and Noriko have to let Sachiko know that Jin won't be able to make his date. Enro is going to get date attacked by Aisutori's surprise romantic rival (Wait what? Kanae, stop that!). Anyhow, while we're at school, Noriko's mom can be working on her anti-monster flamethrower. Enro can set up a battleground that we can yank Nyarletop to if we need to pull him into our own trap space (I think Hawaii remains a perfectly fine escape space). We might not use it, but it's totally good to have one, or even two places that are set up for us to drag enemies to. Aisutori and Kanae can work out Holy Ice Spears combination technique or something at her shrine.
And then we can go on Television. They're not the only ones who can play this game~! What? Aisu-chan isn't a nationally syndicated super-heroine with easy broadcasting rights? So saaad~!
(Anyhow, there's ideas for next session. I enjoyed what was revealed last session and what it implies for the universe, though I picked up on it earlier even if it wasn't significant to to the character yet. I kind of disliked the 'one way to open this door' bit of getting information from HP Lovecraft, but hey it's done with and thanks for running even though you weren't feeling well)
I'm down for doing some battlefield prep work. Maybe a bit of school stuff, just for pure RP stuff. Though in my case, that could be done separately since I'm in a completely different class.
As for Kanae being a student with everyone else.. Eh, don't see why not. Though with everyone going to the same school, I can easily imagine it becoming a target. After all, lots and lots of innocents that bad guys don't care about become hindrances for good guys.
I still say we need to look into seeing if Noriko's mom has any power ups for the rest of the group, or Aisutori's grandma.
Well, we also gotta pace our power ups :P If we tap all of our narrative upgrades in the beginning of season one, we'll have to resort to Bullshit no Jutsu to find upgrades in Season 2, when we face the darkstalkers of Makai.
Eh, it doesn't really need to be a power-up type thing. We may just be using our powers completely ineffectively (I'm a case of this since I haven't really used all of mine, so I'm still not sure how they actually function in use), which is what is giving us a hard time.
Noriko's mom is a scientist. They analyze things. Dune may be able to use this as a plot device to throw us a bone in this regard.
(Meant to edit this in before, just tossing it down)
Personally, I'd be down for fewer but more meaningful updates and a little less of us treating Noriko's mom like a 'Pull, get a new weapon'. Sure, here it makes sense for us to get some flame stuff, but she's handed out quite a cool arsenal to Noriko, and a lot of it has barely been used. Several new powers just entered the team. They should at least get used before we go hungry for new stuff.
I'll vote as well, it might be a fun spot soon to get a non-cthulu monster of the week type show up, but bad guys go where bad guys will go.
Truth. She's not the bubble gum dispenser for power-up. But like I said, I think there's some issues with how we (I) use powers. I was just saying Dune could use her to make suggestions, maybe.
Or we could do after school combat training.
Perhaps Noriko's mom will withhold new toys on account of the fact that we've not really been actively testing them and reporting their effectiveness to her?
I could imagine some sort of training scenario/fetch quest to justify the use of our existing powers and acquire something to pay for past upgrades. Might be a fun little mini-adventure. :p
In Game, Matsumoto-san has complete reason to help us as much as she's able without regard to scientific inquiry. Her greatest invention is directly in danger from the bad guys and they've shown no compunction against attacks on both her person and her mind.
I think it'd be more awkward if we were to encounter reasons outside of 'need new tools' or 'need time' for her producing things. It's easier if we treat it like we say...got a rocket launcher less than 72 hours ago from her. Instead of forcing her to explain.
(Obsessive Compulsive powerup behavior above this line, can be ignored)
Anyhow, seems like we have a lot of fun ideas. Some involve us splitting up, some staying together. I'd be down for a split up session personally as I suggested above, but I am also down for Team Antics. We'd just go slower at achieving things (We can't both trap and do training and do talking with noriko's mom and go encounter a monster. We'd be too slow).
It's been a while...folks should read where we were so we don't stumble on start :)
*nosily busy-bodies*
Ow, Ow, Ow...
I've got such a horrible sunburn. I'm going to get up the logs later today. Then talk with Ko-san about kimonos! No, no, Miniskirts. It's summer after all! Or is it? I dunno!
Aisutori is going to go hang out at Kanae's temple tonight to continue getting the 'Extra Sessions' thing going. She still has plans to corner Noriko for talking about MONSTERS. Does anyone else have side/extra session stuff they'd like to do? She's not a horrible busy-body, really!
Oooh, we never told Sachiko about Jin-san! She's going to think he totally stood her up! Sorry, Jin-san. I just got caught up in all the classroom praise.
(Self reminder: Go add Reika to the cast list)
This was talked over after the end of last session. Are you guys interested in some PC driven chat? DMless, just you guys roleplaying together and having fun, learning the characters? If so, say so. Someone's going to need to take initiative and be the driving force here to make it happen, too. Any takers?
I'm interested in doing it. If I need to be the starter for it, it'll have to wait, though. For about a week at least, since I'm packing and bouncing around.
Edit: I think a good location for it to happen, at the start at least, might be either right after school ends or at the kitsune bar or whatever it was.
Sure. I've done it before. I was gonna do some earlier, but I had trouble catching up with ye first.
I'd love doing a scene over at the Nine Tails Cafe. Bad Singing all around :P
If folks are around tonight, we'll get something going. :) Just letting people know if they were thinking of showing.
We're on this week, right?
Assuming no funeral disasters on my end or problems with you guys.
I should be gud.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, I should be there.
The ice diva is cometh.