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Post by zipp on Jan 9, 2009 0:07:07 GMT
Particularly considering that we know that Magnamund uses British English spellings Well even if they were American they'd spell it Axle... unless they were an English Major like me ^_^ Feel free to insert your character into the inn at this point, if you wish. You'd be knocking on the downstairs door around the time the Innkeep passed, so he would let you in (once he saw your letter), and you could follow him upstairs to the commotion. By the way, the upstairs hallway is like this: 1_2_3_5_6_7 A_B_C_D_E_F The rooms are as follows: A: the room with the scream C: The mercenary's room 5: Gregor's room 6: Meldorac's room 7: Bonnie's room D: Owain's room
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Post by Bonnie Sommer on Jan 9, 2009 0:17:53 GMT
Two queries.
What happened to room 4?
Is the stairs at A-1 or at F-7?
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Post by Michael of Eshnar on Jan 9, 2009 0:23:46 GMT
It's clearly an Oriental-inspired inn, where the number four was skipped over during room design. Maybe, room 4 did exist but the occupant died of the plague and the door has been locked and hidden behind a tapestry!
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Post by zipp on Jan 9, 2009 0:51:53 GMT
Two queries. What happened to room 4? See Michael's post. F-7. I had that on there, but it kept bumping the lines all over the place, so I removed it. I'm no ASCII expert.
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Post by Michael of Eshnar on Jan 9, 2009 2:05:25 GMT
Rats. I think I've just inspired the GM! My players do that to me constantly, despite knowing and dreading it, so doing it myself is only fair
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Post by Bonnie Sommer on Jan 9, 2009 21:36:52 GMT
OOC:ish.
Were there rolls made for the insanity in the thread? The scream and death would not cause my character any pause or worry. Any character who has endured Zagara siege in Sommerlund less than one year ago would not flinch at this. Call my character hardened if you want.
Player Request: Up the Horror level for taking insanity and do so significantly.
Someone she doesn't know screaming and being found dead is since one year back a far too common event.
I do not ask you to scare the players, but events that would cause Stress/Insanity in our characters should be far from common to them. With the recent events in Sommerlund this means you have a tough job as a GM.
* Ducks from thrown fruits *
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Post by zipp on Jan 9, 2009 22:10:59 GMT
It's funny, I debated for a long time on this one. I'm fairly certain once you get into Oasis you'll find the ante upped considerably.
At the same time, you do have to realize that not everyone in the group is all that hardened (you're probably the most hardened, actually). Also, everyone's senses are a little heightened due to Ishir's Foulness, so everyone's more on edge than usual and feeling less comfortable.
Essentially, my answer is this: I had my reasons for giving a point of insanity at this time. I can promise you, though, that you won't be getting a point each time you hear a scream or see a big scary spider or run into a gaggle of giaks.
Insanity will grow steadily throughout the game, though. It's one of the things the characters are fighting against. Once you enter Oasis, you'll be receiving an automatic insanity point at the end of each scene.
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Post by Bonnie Sommer on Jan 9, 2009 23:20:58 GMT
Once you enter Oasis, you'll be receiving an automatic insanity point at the end of each scene. Well, this is pretty much my complaint. Penalities like this should never be automatic. Where is my chance to keep my calm ? I do not argue that some people may get an increased stress from the merchant's scream and death, nor that there is a chance that it could happen to my character. I do argue that there was no way to resist it, since an increased insanity level pretty much dictates a (poor) reaction from my character. Insanity/Stress is a very personal thing so DC's should be personal as well. The scream and death my character can shrug off easily, but she will have problems with other things and the other characters may be able to easily ignore those. Anyway, that's my 2 coppers.
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Post by zipp on Jan 9, 2009 23:42:26 GMT
Once you enter Oasis, you'll be receiving an automatic insanity point at the end of each scene. Well, this is pretty much my complaint. Penalities like this should never be automatic. Where is my chance to keep my calm ? I do not argue that some people may get an increased stress from the merchant's scream and death, nor that there is a chance that it could happen to my character. I do argue that there was no way to resist it, since an increased insanity level pretty much dictates a (poor) reaction from my character. Insanity/Stress is a very personal thing so DC's should be personal as well. The scream and death my character can shrug off easily, but she will have problems with other things and the other characters may be able to easily ignore those. Anyway, that's my 2 coppers. Insanity can be decreased through EXP. Think of insanity and infection as game mechanics that keep your character moving towards demise. This isn't a particularly friendly game. Just because you take a point of insanity doesn't mean your character goes bat shit crazy. It simply means that they are slowly losing a resistance to going bat shit crazy. As far as in game explanations, the very atmosphere of Oasis is infested with evil. Like how being in the Darkland gives you points of taint, being in Oasis will taint your sanity. It doesn't matter how hardened or sound of mind you are, it's like a disease. As far as not allowing insanity to be resisted, I tried that in an earlier pre-test of these rules, and what I found was that it made insanity pointless. Inevitably, characters would resist enough insanity that they would be at The Calm until the end of the game. When we switched it so that spending EXP lowered your insanity, we found it provided a much more strategical mechanic for players to think about. It also made insanity a little more frightening, as it possed a potential drain on EXP points. Mental DOES help you mitigate the effects of insanity, as well as provide you more time to remain sane.
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Post by Brother Owain on Jan 10, 2009 4:12:25 GMT
It stands to reason that a healer would also able to cope with things like blood, shit and dead bodies better than most people (most real-life doctors manage to survive without going bonkers), but if there are sound gameplay reasons for taking an insanity point here so be it.
FAO Zipp:
Obviously insanity increases one level when you have more trauma points than your MENTAL stat. But what about subsequent increases?
Also, asking us to record Insanity scores in our sigs contradicts what you said in the rules thread about monitoring it secretly. Change of plan?
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Post by zipp on Jan 10, 2009 6:27:51 GMT
It stands to reason that a healer would also able to cope with things like blood, shit and dead bodies better than most people (most real-life doctors manage to survive without going bonkers), but if there are sound gameplay reasons for taking an insanity point here so be it. Like I said, I debated long and hard on this one, because I knew it would seem silly. But yes, there were sound gameplay reasons for it. Once the level increases, the trauma points are reset to 0, and then it starts the process over. Does that make sense? Hm. I had good reasons for both ways. Let me ponder this, and I'll provide a definite answer on the morrow.
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Post by Dirac Sil on Jan 10, 2009 6:50:02 GMT
Obviously points scores dictate your character, they always have. If your character had a high mental score, this would be the justification for them being mentally hardy in resisting the paranoia that goes with this mission. As your score is the same as mine, then we are more suggestible to paranoia in this setting than some. In my case, my score reflects that although Meldorac is supposed to be a scholar, he is also a little naive, hence his mental score on average is less. In this game mechanic, I would assume as a border ranger bonnie's training would not be to shrug off anything odd she finds in the wildnerness. She finds a body of a deer by some water, she doens't shrug it off, she starts looking for evidence it might be poisoned by a giak troop. Given the fact it's only been a year since sommerlund has been invaded, I would have thought a trained soldier's instinct would have been to still assume something aweful could be going to happen, since it already has once after many years of peace. I don't think the insanity point has to mean fear to start with, it just has to mean that we aren't complacent - whether it manifests as paranoia, hightened tension, or heightened distrust, I have no problem assuming someone screaming in horror and dying in the very place we've all met for a secret mission about a plague should all put us on a hightened alert of some description The mechanism for that at this lower level is, of course, up to us right now
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Post by Gregor on Jan 10, 2009 6:51:08 GMT
Just to change tac, I think Zipp wanted to call the place The Golden Axe, but couldny really justify calling the inkeep Death=Adder. Therefore, he added an 'L'. I know we're meant to be paranoid in this game, and that possibly could have sent us over the edge!
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Post by Brother Owain on Jan 10, 2009 11:24:16 GMT
Well, keeping the name would have had a few plus points too. Instead of simply being given food, if we wanted dinner we'd have to boot a midget up the arse.
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Post by Bonnie Sommer on Jan 10, 2009 14:56:36 GMT
In this game mechanic, I would assume as a border ranger bonnie's training would not be to shrug off anything odd she finds in the wildnerness. She finds a body of a deer by some water, she doens't shrug it off, she starts looking for evidence it might be poisoned by a giak troop. Given the fact it's only been a year since sommerlund has been invaded, I would have thought a trained soldier's instinct would have been to still assume something aweful could be going to happen, since it already has once after many years of peace. People can shrug of events they are familiar with. They have experienced them before and know how to handle them. The more common an event is to a character the better they can handle it and the less stressed they become. A ranger can shrug off dead animals. Someone who has lived through the Siege of Holmgard and seen literally people scream and die in their hundreds from Zagarna's siege catapult and firebombs can shrug off a scream. A doctor and healer can handle corpses, and handle the sight of the dead much better than others could. It becomes different if the character has a personal relation or emotions for the dead animal or human. Shrug off == They can cope with the situation and will handle it rationally. It doesn't mean inactivaty. A border ranger who finds a trapped animal will get angry and will try to find however is responsible for placing the trap. The will use their wit and tracking skills to find the culprit rather than to descend into madess.
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