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Topic: X-COM Monday Nights Campaign (Read 4486 times) |
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Lazybones
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So with mannedoc still a no-show I'm going to have to replace him. I have a few people who have expressed interest and I will notify all of you once I have lined up a new recruit to join your team.
LB
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TheBaldMan
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As the data streams came in and out of his now modified X-phone Buzz only half listened to the conversation. If he had missed anything important he would search through the simple text files that converted the phone's recording in to his customized script code. But his mind was focused on hacking through the script that operated the X-phone.
He had to admit the script was layered in an ingenious fashion that most hackers would not find easy to decipher, let alone message in to something useful. Buzz was not an average hacker and all but the faintest smirk revealed the success he had in hacking the phone. I wonder how much Vasily would pay to call Russia on this baby, he thought.
He looked around more pleased with himself than his situation. Seems the women are in charge, he puzzled, not had much luck with that. "Might be research on lasers is good for offense and defense...that assumes the research works...it does at times fall flat." He stuck his nose back into his phone thinking, I wonder what else I can get this to do? Outside calls are nice but who do I have to call anyway?
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 29, 2008, 12:56AM » |
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Lazybones
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Since we're still short-handed tonight it's 450xp for the full-party IC posting.
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Jenniza
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Jane tried to find time alone with Catalina, "You did well today, Catalina. I thought I should point something that was mentioned the first day of the briefing here that we are a classified organization in many ways. We need to keep a low profile when possible. We simply could have replied to 'Homeland Security or something' with a nod or 'or something' instead of full disclosure. Anyway, I think the point is made."
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vanya mia
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Pausing while straightening her hair in a mirror Catalina listened to Jane's little speech. Right, like that is it. She knew very well what one woman catching another woman away from a group of men they both had dealings with meant, and then there was that whole reinforcement followed by chastisement approach. Without a flicker in her expression she answered.
"Thank you for that, I'll take your advice on how to handle the local populace." Catalina's tone was full of earnest sincerity, and she smiled pleasantly. "The credulous response is new to me; you can tell the British what you like as they simply don't believe you anyway." She turned and finished adjusting the mane of hair as she spoke. "In fact, I'd appreciate it if you could keep an eye on what I'm doing tell me anything you think I'm doing incorrectly immediately. I really need to learn."
Hair finished she smoothed her shirt and adjusted the neckline juuuuust so, then turned and smiled sweetly at Jane again. "Right now though, I'm going to learn how they hold them in Texas." She opened the door and walked out. "Who wants to teach a real beginner how to play, boys?" She let the door swing shut behind her. The point is definately made but, after all, two can play at that game.
((OOC - I swore at myself this side of the screen after I typed that! There's already a mental note to be more inventive next time.  ))
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 29, 2008, 7:50AM » |
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Jenniza
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Jane joined the others, "I'd like to join as well. Would you mind teaching another?" The initial invitation seemed inclusive, so when they acknowledged, she pulled up a chair. She looked to Buzz, "How you doing? Can I get you anything? or anyone else?"
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Lazybones
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Hey all. I'll submit the next story post in a moment, but I wanted to raise the OOC issue of the campaign's death penalty.
Those of you who have played in my campaigns in the past know I like to incorporate a significant but not crippling effect from character death. Usually it's a fraction of a level for raise dead or resurrection spells. In this campaign there's no such magic, of course, and you've already seen how deadly d20M can be, so I don't want to have a serious penalty that will have you all at 1st level by the end of session 5.  But on the other hand, I think it adds something when death (or in our case, "near-death" has serious consequences.
I've already implemented a "Near Death Experience" ring that folks will have to wear when they have made an unscheduled visit to Dr. White's operating table; it provides a 2 point penalty to one's physical stats, and will generally be required to be worn for one session following the surgery. My thought was that additional "deaths" after the first, especially when one has already had the NDE ring equipped, will result in more stringent effects, such as the loss of a few thousand XP. I won't impose level loss this time around, however.
Your medical technology will improve significantly as the campaign goes forward, and the heavier X-COM armors will likewise cause your survivability to take leaps and bounds forward (by the end of Mulu's campaign, I was feeling almost cavalier about taking on the weaker aliens). I may implement an Advanced Surgical Kit (requiring research and manufacturing, of course) that will allow a Field Medic character to "raise" a recently fallen comrade back to life.
Since a campaign is a collaborative process, I thought I'd toss these ideas out and see what you all think.
Also, a quick note on the mission reports/psych interviews: those were intended to a prompt for IC posting in the forum thread during the week between missions. They are just a suggestion and are not required; I'll still give the forum XP for the regular "this is what my character is thinking/doing" posts.
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Lazybones
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Four days pass, and while things are relatively quiet for Alpha Team, the same cannot be said for X-COM headquarters. There is an almost constant flurry of activity, as personnel and equipment are shuttled into the base. The surgical nurses whose absence nearly cost Buzz his life finally arrive, along with a half-dozen new scientists and engineers. Dr. Baron arrives as well, belatedly, and is assigned a bunk in the barracks with Alpha Team; apparently he will be joining the primary strike unit.
Workstations and diagnostic units are installed in a new extension to the South Wing to improve X-COM's research capacity. Dr. Wagner is pleased, but you overhear Base Commander Hallorand expressing concern to Director Garret about the base's lack of defenses.
After his initial, almost miraculous recovery, Buzz spends the next few days convalescing. Occasionally someone sees him pause, leaning against a doorjam or the back of a chair, clutching his chest. It takes a while for his full color to return, and there is a hint of something haunted in his eyes when he speaks.
On the fourth day after your mission to Utah your communicators chime, indicating another e-mail has arrived.
FROM: Kimberly Wagner, X-COM Research Chief
TO: Alpha Team
CC: Michael Garret, Jean Beauvois
RE: Project Update
I hope you have had time to rest over the last few days. I suspect we're going to need you at full strength before too long.
Per your suggestions we have been expanding our research capabilities. The new lab in the South Wing is almost finished, and while Dr. White has been complaining about having to share his medical facilities with our scientific staff, we have been able to make some progress.
We have set up a program for the research of laser weapons technology. Dr. Sandesh has been given clearance to continue work on his prototype motion sensor, but priority has been given to the laser project. After consulting with Director Garret I assigned several of our biological and genetic scientists to studying the samples you brought back from the Utah mission. You heard about the unusual medical properties in the alien substance you recovered. The research team feels that this knowledge can greatly advance our medical technology, and eventually will lead to significant applications for our field teams.
At the moment our resources are fully engaged in current projects, so I do not have a list of new priorities for you this week. However, once we finish getting the new lab up and running, I will send you another report with more information. |
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Jenniza
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FROM: Jane Swift, X-COM Field Agent
TO: Michael Garret, X-COM UN Envoy
RE: Mission Report – Incident at Ranger Station in Utah
Please forward to the appropriate department.
We shuttled in, while discussing emails on weapon technologies and base capabilities priorities. The first one we arrived at a consensus quicker than the second; but, we felt it was important to get the ball rolling on both before the start of the mission. We sent the emails as we arrived and went to interview the ranger at his station. Agent De Farrago identified herself to the ranger and conducted the interview for the most part.
The ranger reported something in the sky to the northwest of his location, about 100-1000 feet above the ground. He went to investigate as there is a nice guy up that way, a hermit who is a hunter, with a permit to live on Federal grounds. The ranger was concerned about Mr. Jackson. Instead, the ranger was attacked by a wolf… man… not rabid. He ranger shot it or him in self-defense between the eyes, he claimed and left.
The ranger claimed that the wolf… man… was dead or whatever and probably eaten by wolves up there. In retrospect, I’m now speculating that what he saw was Mr. Jackson somehow; but, the wolves that ate his corpse suffered a similar madness as Mr. Jackson. More on all that later…
The ranger reported that there are wolves and bears up there in the mountains; but, the bears don’t normally come down that far…
But, we found a bear that did and was shot by … burn marks, for lack of a better term, laser fire. Tracks of a three-toed-small-humanoid led north of that and it was presumably Jackson’s cabin with the wooden furniture in ruins… his hunting rifle discarded inside. It’s in quarantine. While I was inside, “insane” wolves attacked… about 4 of them… critically wounding Agent Olloff, seriously wounding Dr. Allen and wounding Agent De Farrago and I. Dr. Allen treated us. Agent Kasprjak got a broken up message from the Skyranger that they were unable to retrieve us directly. We checked if everyone was able to proceed and everyone agreed.
My instinct said search for another option. In hindsight… I think that option should have been return to the Skyranger for a little bit of medical treatment for Buzz and Dr. Allen at the very least, before proceeding.
Tracks led northwest to a small pond and I heard a faint humming sound. There was a small egg-like substance with a tiny tingle to it when I picked it up with he gloves from the X-COM uniform and carefully put it away for quarantine later. Perhaps, better measures could exist in the future… tongs and boxes for example. We still don’t seem to have anyone able to check for triggering devices. I’m studying it, I think a few of are.
There was a moment of confusion and then a mini-flying saucer attacked us from behind about 20-30 feet away. Buzz was down almost immediately, and it was practically on top of us firing rapidly. It did quite a lot of damage on a couple of the group before we dropped it. Dr. Allen was tending to Buzz’s wounds immediately, while Catalina and I scooped up the saucer’s remains. By then, Buzz was ready for transport. Vasily and Dr. Allen carried him, while I ran interference in case there was any more trouble on the way back to the Skyranger. Vasily comm’ed the sitrep, I believe as we approached. Catalina stayed in the field and scouted for the few minutes it took to get them back to the Skyranger. As soon as they were back, I rejoined Catalina and made sure she was safe and checked on her progress. She had nothing additional to report of significance. I checked back in with Vasily several times, until he said time to go. We high-tailed it out and doubled-timed it back or better.
I tried to keep the tone of this report formal… it’s hard. I think in the future I’d rather keep it informal, unless there’s a requirement.
Anyway, as to speculations: the pond was greenish tint. It had at its edge the egg-like alien substance. I’m dubbing it alien; because it just seemed eerie and everything about the ranger’s description and our observations and the labs’ analysis seem to point to the egg-like substance being extraterrestrial and it changing the water and probably anyone who had significant contact with the water like bathing, swimming or drinking. I’m guessing that’s the connection between the egg-like substance, the water, the ‘wolf-man’, Mr. Jackson, the wolves, and your new med-kits.
The saucer was probably responsible for the bear’s demise as well as our attack. It was probably a guardian for the egg-like substance we have. It seemed a drone launched by the 3-toed sloth-like alien who is probably long gone now.
I will try to have photos in the future.
Of this, I am certain: Mr. Jackson was missing; the bear was dead by similar burn marks to Buzz; Buzz's burn marks as were ours came from a mini flying saucer-like craft that shot laser-like shots at us rapidly in combat and took sustained gunfire to bring it down at extremely close range in boad daylight in direct line of fire of the entire Alpha Team; the wolves that attacked us fought until death even under gunfire, not something that is typical of wolves to my understanding.
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 30, 2008, 1:14AM » |
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TheBaldMan
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on Apr 30, 2008, 12:06 AM, Lazybones wrote:Hey all. I'll submit the next story post in a moment, but I wanted to raise the OOC issue of the campaign's death penalty.
Those of you who have played in my campaigns in the past know I like to incorporate a significant but not crippling effect from character death. Usually it's a fraction of a level for raise dead or resurrection spells. In this campaign there's no such magic, of course, and you've already seen how deadly d20M can be, so I don't want to have a serious penalty that will have you all at 1st level by the end of session 5. But on the other hand, I think it adds something when death (or in our case, "near-death" has serious consequences.
I've already implemented a "Near Death Experience" ring that folks will have to wear when they have made an unscheduled visit to Dr. White's operating table; it provides a 2 point penalty to one's physical stats, and will generally be required to be worn for one session following the surgery. My thought was that additional "deaths" after the first, especially when one has already had the NDE ring equipped, will result in more stringent effects, such as the loss of a few thousand XP. I won't impose level loss this time around, however.
Your medical technology will improve significantly as the campaign goes forward, and the heavier X-COM armors will likewise cause your survivability to take leaps and bounds forward (by the end of Mulu's campaign, I was feeling almost cavalier about taking on the weaker aliens). I may implement an Advanced Surgical Kit (requiring research and manufacturing, of course) that will allow a Field Medic character to "raise" a recently fallen comrade back to life.
Since a campaign is a collaborative process, I thought I'd toss these ideas out and see what you all think. |
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Sounds like good ideas to me. To be honest I did not know if I was going to have to come up with a new character bio - so an even if you want to do an xp deduct out of fairness to all, that's okay with me.
I do have some questions about armor that you or maybe Jenn can answer: Is the heavy duty armor clothing or is it considered like leather and plate? How does that impact dexterity bonuses for ac? Buzz has high dex so I am wondering the pros and cons.
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TheBaldMan
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on Apr 29, 2008, 4:30 PM, Jenniza wrote:| She looked to Buzz, "How you doing? Can I get you anything? or anyone else?" |
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Buzz smiled weakly,"Thanks, but I'm fine. I think I'll try a shower now. Enjoy your cards. I have to get this medical stink off of me." He tried to laugh as he got to his feet to hide the grimace of pain. He could do nothing to hide the loss of color in his face. He slowly made his way to the shower.
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 30, 2008, 1:27AM » |
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Jenniza
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on Apr 30, 2008, 1:18 AM, TheBaldMan wrote:on Apr 30, 2008, 12:06 AM, Lazybones wrote:Hey all. I'll submit the next story post in a moment, but I wanted to raise the OOC issue of the campaign's death penalty.
Those of you who have played in my campaigns in the past know I like to incorporate a significant but not crippling effect from character death. Usually it's a fraction of a level for raise dead or resurrection spells. In this campaign there's no such magic, of course, and you've already seen how deadly d20M can be, so I don't want to have a serious penalty that will have you all at 1st level by the end of session 5. But on the other hand, I think it adds something when death (or in our case, "near-death" has serious consequences.
I've already implemented a "Near Death Experience" ring that folks will have to wear when they have made an unscheduled visit to Dr. White's operating table; it provides a 2 point penalty to one's physical stats, and will generally be required to be worn for one session following the surgery. My thought was that additional "deaths" after the first, especially when one has already had the NDE ring equipped, will result in more stringent effects, such as the loss of a few thousand XP. I won't impose level loss this time around, however.
Your medical technology will improve significantly as the campaign goes forward, and the heavier X-COM armors will likewise cause your survivability to take leaps and bounds forward (by the end of Mulu's campaign, I was feeling almost cavalier about taking on the weaker aliens). I may implement an Advanced Surgical Kit (requiring research and manufacturing, of course) that will allow a Field Medic character to "raise" a recently fallen comrade back to life.
Since a campaign is a collaborative process, I thought I'd toss these ideas out and see what you all think. |
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Sounds like good ideas to me. To be honest I did not know if I was going to have to come up with a new character bio - so an even if you want to do an xp deduct out of fairness to all, that's okay with me.
I do have some questions about armor that you or maybe Jenn can answer: Is the heavy duty armor clothing or is it considered like leather and plate? How does that impact dexterity bonuses for ac? Buzz has high dex so I am wondering the pros and cons. |
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Well... I can't speak for LB... but, there are the 3 classes of feats in D20 that are prerequisites , one leading to the next.
For example, I took exotic weapons at level 3, so I'm not eligible for light armor until level 6, and medium armor until level 9, heavy armor until level 12. These would have all the NWN penalities as normal. I'd be at LB & Mulu's mercy as module designers to incorporae very nice bonuses into the various armors to compensate accordingly.
For example, X-COM Scout Armor for $1500+ is AC0 with +4 AC and +4 stealth (of some sort, I think hide or move silently, only one of the two). Since my character is super specialized in stealth anyway, it made sense.
So, as one hits "leather" that may cap a few things; but, it may come with things 21st century alien technology that will more than make up for dex, especially when one starts getting into "chain" level armos with alien techs that who knows might allow you to be hit by anti-tank weapons or worse and shrug it off.
Never know what life will be like by 6th or 9th or 12th level in this campaign.
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Gulfwulf
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on Apr 30, 2008, 1:18 AM, TheBaldMan wrote:| I do have some questions about armor that you or maybe Jenn can answer: Is the heavy duty armor clothing or is it considered like leather and plate? How does that impact dexterity bonuses for ac? Buzz has high dex so I am wondering the pros and cons. |
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The armor system is similiar to regular NWN: each armor type will have a penalty to dexterity, so the heavy armor will have a DEX penalty.
On the subject of death: I tried to implement a bleeding system, but it appears that it's not firing properly. Did you guys have an instance the first session where you bled? If so, that might explain why the system didn't fire.
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Lazybones
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Regarding armor:
The current armor choices include basic uniforms (clothing, +4 AC), and a heavy armor (requiring all the armor feats) that Musa sells that offers +6 AC, 5 piercing resistance, and a -7 Armor penalty.
The advanced armors (requiring research) include a light suit that offers decent protection (and no armor penalty), and a medium suit that offers excellent protection (-2 armor penalty). There's also a heavy experimental suit that will be available at the end of the campaign. More on those as your research develops.
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Jenniza
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on Apr 30, 2008, 1:51 AM, Gulfwulf wrote:on Apr 30, 2008, 1:18 AM, TheBaldMan wrote:| I do have some questions about armor that you or maybe Jenn can answer: Is the heavy duty armor clothing or is it considered like leather and plate? How does that impact dexterity bonuses for ac? Buzz has high dex so I am wondering the pros and cons. |
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The armor system is similiar to regular NWN: each armor type will have a penalty to dexterity, so the heavy armor will have a DEX penalty.
On the subject of death: I tried to implement a bleeding system, but it appears that it's not firing properly. Did you guys have an instance the first session where you bled? If so, that might explain why the system didn't fire. |
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The bleeding system did not fire , if you are refering to HABD. If there is another system in place, I am not aware of any bleeding system. In the 3-5 econds it took me to finish typing my sentence in answer to Buzz's question of the description of the alien egg, he was dead before I even knew there was a mini saucer firing on us or any sign of combat. He was dead before the before the combat sounds or combat music even kicked in on my speakers. It happened THAT fast.
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vanya mia
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Nope no bleeding last session, like Jen I was focused on the egg and thought "Eeep", or words to that effect, when I heard firing. We did get into a bleeding situation in the first session, and I'm pretty sure it worked then, but we definately got smacked around, so if you'd built in some system to limit as to how often they can 'bleed' there's a good chance they hit the limit.
As for armour, Catalina's also a stealth build so I'd not even consider taking beyond the light armour feat her profession gives her, those penalties a sod, but boy was I glad to take that extra point of dex at level 4! 
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 30, 2008, 7:19AM » |
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Lazybones
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X-COM has a custom bleed system created by Gulfwulf. It worked fine in Mulu's original campaign, but I have asked him about it in the version I used to build our campaign. I believe that d20 Modern will kill you directly in certain circumstances, for example if you fail a massive damage check. I do seem to recall several people bleeding down in the first session, and I have made no changes since then.
We can run some tests next time, if necessary.
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Jenniza
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I do recall that Forrestwolf explained to us that D20 has something called "Massive critical" or "blowthrough" or something like that... if you take way too much damage in one hit, you can outright die in D20... something we were all scared of to death (pardon the pun) and had a massive respect of combat for accordingly.
That is to say, you can have your 190hps, it doesn't matter, if you take too much in one hit, you can outright die. It's loosely base on your CON, maybe 2-3x your CON, I honestly don't know. I'd have to really really dig deep into the scripts or simply ask Forrestwolf tomorrow night.
Something to rethink before one poopoos cover and running away and the heaviest of armors.
A sobering thought, isn't it?
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 30, 2008, 6:41PM » |
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Gulfwulf
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Let me know what FW says, Jenn, because that may have been what happened.
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