Hi All,
To get to 1632 East Irving Place, Appartment #25, the best way for me to describe it is:
From campus, head south along Maryland Avenue(Route 30 bus, Downer or Maryland, since they converge south of North Avenue) til Maryland becomes Farwell, head south along Farwell til Irving Place, and the building on the corner of Irving and Farwell is my building, ring Buzzer #25, hopefully Dom is there to let you in, or I will be arriving home from Chicago shortly.
Otherwise, here's a map of the surrounding area
View Larger Map
Friday, May 23, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Adventure 3
Ghent who had been minding his, his, and her own business, begins screaming, Thursday morning, such that he, he, and she passes out, nearly overwhelmed by an electromagnetic fusion based power amplification linked to a neuronic magic.
Victor, perceiving the screaming as of course only he would, does the only logical thing in his opinion: Contacts a battalion of guards and informs them of a "mass murder."
Fenton, one of the more apt to respond guards quickly takes sector seven's battalion of guards to investigate the "crime scene" in case the murderer should still be about, and be the kind that needs more than mere detectives to defeat.
Naknuk, Lia, and Victor all perceive a drastic high wind sweeping through the city to the Southeast.
Naknuk attempts a bit of divination in his own right, first to find out whether a wall of gum could stave off the wind, and secondly after that attempt failed, whether it would be of more prudence to follow the wind, or find its source.
Mercutio is busy in his lab as the wind strikes up, and suddenly the compound he's attempting to create becomes unstable far greater than his calculations would have allowed for, and his experiment blows up, in his face, near literally, stunning him and dropping him to the floor, in a bloody lab-coated heap, smearing his windows with a blue crystalline sap that is slowly hardening.
Ghent is slowly drawing his, his, and herself back together, waking up one dispersed entity at a time. The guards at the scene, find this mildly disturbing, and are unable to make much sense of the screaming, though they trust Victor's judgement, and are legally obliged to perform customary rudimentary investigation to ascertain that there is no threat to the populace about, they are relatively unprepared and underpaid for dealing with Ghent Ghent and Ghent. Also, their stammering mentioning a Victor Stonewell(?) as the cause for the investigation of the screaming perplexes Ghent to a great degree, what does a music teacher know of mass murder screamings or multiple homicides?
Naknuk finds himself nearly unable to proceed towards his intended destination, his own willpower failing him, barely makes it to Mercutio's place and witnessed the dark blue sap and scratches in the windows, as well as the blood visible from outside, after ringing the clockwork doorbell(or whatever it was) Mercutio takes a while, but answers eventually, clad with extra towel-age about his head and face. This leads to the exchange:
(Mercutio and Naknuk could fill you in, as this omnipresent observer was... not present for the exchange.)
Shortly afterwards, a musical air overcomes the city, and everyone begins dancing slightly, it's a rather perfect rhythm something along the lines of... "pissing the day away... pissing the day away..." without the lyrics, so really, just some spoons tapping giving everyone the need to dance.
Lia takes absolute offense to being made to add a little wiggle to her steps, and takes out after the source of the disturbance, as does the rest of the cast, but hers is the more mentionable desire to hunt, as it involved some bloodcurdling hatred.
As the group finally wends its way together, and is able to confront the spoony bard, and the accompanying aphroditic... uh, priest. We find ourselves about here in the time stream... a threat reduced Elan the Spoony Bard's songplay to nothing for the nonce, and a brief interlude with Naknuk and the aphroditic priest allowed the party some knowledge of a great event to the Northwest...
Victor, perceiving the screaming as of course only he would, does the only logical thing in his opinion: Contacts a battalion of guards and informs them of a "mass murder."
Fenton, one of the more apt to respond guards quickly takes sector seven's battalion of guards to investigate the "crime scene" in case the murderer should still be about, and be the kind that needs more than mere detectives to defeat.
Naknuk, Lia, and Victor all perceive a drastic high wind sweeping through the city to the Southeast.
Naknuk attempts a bit of divination in his own right, first to find out whether a wall of gum could stave off the wind, and secondly after that attempt failed, whether it would be of more prudence to follow the wind, or find its source.
Mercutio is busy in his lab as the wind strikes up, and suddenly the compound he's attempting to create becomes unstable far greater than his calculations would have allowed for, and his experiment blows up, in his face, near literally, stunning him and dropping him to the floor, in a bloody lab-coated heap, smearing his windows with a blue crystalline sap that is slowly hardening.
Ghent is slowly drawing his, his, and herself back together, waking up one dispersed entity at a time. The guards at the scene, find this mildly disturbing, and are unable to make much sense of the screaming, though they trust Victor's judgement, and are legally obliged to perform customary rudimentary investigation to ascertain that there is no threat to the populace about, they are relatively unprepared and underpaid for dealing with Ghent Ghent and Ghent. Also, their stammering mentioning a Victor Stonewell(?) as the cause for the investigation of the screaming perplexes Ghent to a great degree, what does a music teacher know of mass murder screamings or multiple homicides?
Naknuk finds himself nearly unable to proceed towards his intended destination, his own willpower failing him, barely makes it to Mercutio's place and witnessed the dark blue sap and scratches in the windows, as well as the blood visible from outside, after ringing the clockwork doorbell(or whatever it was) Mercutio takes a while, but answers eventually, clad with extra towel-age about his head and face. This leads to the exchange:
(Mercutio and Naknuk could fill you in, as this omnipresent observer was... not present for the exchange.)
Shortly afterwards, a musical air overcomes the city, and everyone begins dancing slightly, it's a rather perfect rhythm something along the lines of... "pissing the day away... pissing the day away..." without the lyrics, so really, just some spoons tapping giving everyone the need to dance.
Lia takes absolute offense to being made to add a little wiggle to her steps, and takes out after the source of the disturbance, as does the rest of the cast, but hers is the more mentionable desire to hunt, as it involved some bloodcurdling hatred.
As the group finally wends its way together, and is able to confront the spoony bard, and the accompanying aphroditic... uh, priest. We find ourselves about here in the time stream... a threat reduced Elan the Spoony Bard's songplay to nothing for the nonce, and a brief interlude with Naknuk and the aphroditic priest allowed the party some knowledge of a great event to the Northwest...
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Ramiel's Random Romp
On this episode of Tenochtitlan TV (transport vision), we find traffic backed up around the Northwestern end of town. The rumors circulating state that...
Fsssssttt errrrrr crunch crack boom.
hssssttt...
That's not the sound that healing makes!
Fwakoom!
Hmm, sorry about that my intrepid adventurers, we've had some technical difficulties here in godland, and we'll return to your regularly scheduled adventure shortly, but until then, we hope to tide you over with news of Ramiel's recent outing and rousting of a small cadre of clockwork criminal creeps he comes close to conceiving the creative connivance of his chore.
Ramiel sent to assignment by Detective Dick (Don't laugh at his name,) makes contact with Miss Parker, and gains information on some possibly perturbant clockworks conspiring to run rampant in Tenochtitlan, and takes it upon himself to retrieve the part that was erroneously handed to a false messenger in place of Ramiel, that was taken who knows where.
A deserted office at the far northern end of LIGHTUP (Learnings Institute of Gnometek Higher Technologies Univeristy Plaza) had been home to a few clockwork minions, for no real reason other than no one felt like asking them to leave, leaving it up to someone such as Ramiel to be asked to clear them out in search of useful information on just why they're inhabiting spaces with no signs of a master.
Ramiel's zealousness, and penchant for shoot first, ask questions later, had him do exactly that. He blew the hell out of the clockwork minions in no time flat, and then was left asking, "What among these scrapheaps would be useful evidence?"
Needless to say, all he managed to find was a badly burnt half scrap of paper, with some formulae on it, and figured he needed to head to the other 'den of evil' Miss Parker had pointed out, in the Industrial Sector, where clockworks had been seen skulking about an out of use duplex warehouse/factory unit.
Ramiel's prowess was so great such that he was able to tear through the packs of clockwork minions interspersed throughout the warehouse, collect a servicable part from one of their mangled scrapheap bodies, and even waylay a slightly tougher minion, the size of himself, armed with a larger electric-energy rifle arm. The puddles of molten scrap heap, or charred areas left where disintegratatory explosions took place were the only evidence of Ramiel's short mission in the empty factor, to his knowledge...
Detective Dick thanked Ramiel for his vigilance and commended him on his aptitude as a field operative, when he returned to the agency. Dick handed Ramiel three Gnometek Clockwork Explosion bullet-tips, built for his gun, an experimental weapon, meant to learn whether or not the theory of electromagnetic fusion based power amplification will disrupt what seems to be neuronic magic that seems to keep the clockwork animate. Or if at least the explosion caps will make a cool sounding boom from inside the clockwork craniums.
Dick then set Ramiel to hunt down at least five renegade clockwork and return to him afterwards...
Fsssssttt errrrrr crunch crack boom.
hssssttt...
That's not the sound that healing makes!
Fwakoom!
Hmm, sorry about that my intrepid adventurers, we've had some technical difficulties here in godland, and we'll return to your regularly scheduled adventure shortly, but until then, we hope to tide you over with news of Ramiel's recent outing and rousting of a small cadre of clockwork criminal creeps he comes close to conceiving the creative connivance of his chore.
Ramiel sent to assignment by Detective Dick (Don't laugh at his name,) makes contact with Miss Parker, and gains information on some possibly perturbant clockworks conspiring to run rampant in Tenochtitlan, and takes it upon himself to retrieve the part that was erroneously handed to a false messenger in place of Ramiel, that was taken who knows where.
A deserted office at the far northern end of LIGHTUP (Learnings Institute of Gnometek Higher Technologies Univeristy Plaza) had been home to a few clockwork minions, for no real reason other than no one felt like asking them to leave, leaving it up to someone such as Ramiel to be asked to clear them out in search of useful information on just why they're inhabiting spaces with no signs of a master.
Ramiel's zealousness, and penchant for shoot first, ask questions later, had him do exactly that. He blew the hell out of the clockwork minions in no time flat, and then was left asking, "What among these scrapheaps would be useful evidence?"
Needless to say, all he managed to find was a badly burnt half scrap of paper, with some formulae on it, and figured he needed to head to the other 'den of evil' Miss Parker had pointed out, in the Industrial Sector, where clockworks had been seen skulking about an out of use duplex warehouse/factory unit.
Ramiel's prowess was so great such that he was able to tear through the packs of clockwork minions interspersed throughout the warehouse, collect a servicable part from one of their mangled scrapheap bodies, and even waylay a slightly tougher minion, the size of himself, armed with a larger electric-energy rifle arm. The puddles of molten scrap heap, or charred areas left where disintegratatory explosions took place were the only evidence of Ramiel's short mission in the empty factor, to his knowledge...
Detective Dick thanked Ramiel for his vigilance and commended him on his aptitude as a field operative, when he returned to the agency. Dick handed Ramiel three Gnometek Clockwork Explosion bullet-tips, built for his gun, an experimental weapon, meant to learn whether or not the theory of electromagnetic fusion based power amplification will disrupt what seems to be neuronic magic that seems to keep the clockwork animate. Or if at least the explosion caps will make a cool sounding boom from inside the clockwork craniums.
Dick then set Ramiel to hunt down at least five renegade clockwork and return to him afterwards...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Adventure 2
In preparation for the feast, a priest of Tiamat while finishing praying at his own dais and meandering about the temple of all gods, came upon Naknuk being woken by his altar worshipers, to bop a giant badger upon the head, each time the beast seemed to be rousing.
Sighing sadly, the priest of Tiamat went to the cubby in his altar, and procured the one vial of animal compulsion mixture he had been granted after two months of toil, and offered it to Naknuk if only he would use it on the beast to quell its rage for the next forty eight hour period and then let the badger go. Naknuk accepted and unstoppered the vial, not hesitating to tilt the badger's head back and drain the entire contents into its open gullet.
Mercutio and Victor awake in the early morning and head towards the LIGHT, and arrive without any unusual events taking place, the oil smears on the windows send dazzling plays of light into the street, though neither appreciate this common occurance, one due to blindness, the other due to well, he's Mercutio.
Given that Mercutio lectures on some decently advanced scientific topics, thermodynamics and theory, applied physics, and demonstrative engineering, he managed to only drive one student over the edge this day. Victor's perfectionism (understandably so) drove young miss Parker to wailing tears, once again.
The preparations for the feast went off without a hitch for Naknuk, many of the temple hands helping to set tables of food up about the path from the temple to the lift, on the lift itself, and near the Tenochtitlian stables. Barney was once again recalled from the stables and allowed to traverse the small streets of Tenochtitlan, with minimal property damage, to allow for hauling of the greatly revered, nearly incapacitated, badger. The city allowed for one contingent of guards as well as the temporary use of one of the anti-dino ballistae.
As the city came together to act as celebrants of the feast of the badger, the lift being a key point of bottleneck, as it could only take down a few celebrants or guards or massive animals or weapons at a time, what happened next was pure inconvenience in the least, and absolute malevolence at the worst.
Victor perceives an annoying ticking noise similar to that of Mercutio's clockwork bodypart to the Northwest of the lift, but pays it little mind. That is, until the source of the noise also produces a noise similar to that of turning a very powerful valve to the off position, and a snippety snip noise.
The lift gets stuck halfway to the bottom level of Tenochtitlan, and as there are only two levels, both thousands of meters apart, this is very inconvenient. The problem assessed by Mercutio was that the fuel line had been turned off, and that the spark generation device had no power. Excellent deduction, and absolutely true Mercutio, which he of course relayed to Victor, whom while able to perceive the situation, was unable to inform those stuck on the lift of their impending doom, or salvation, whichever the case were to be.
Victor realizing the likely cause of the fuel disturbance to be the recently shut off valve, heads to check out the situation.
Unable to perceive by sight, Victor asks the ticking menace, what exactly the problem is, and if he may attempt to repair the fuel line. Without getting an answer, Victor is unable to do anything save assume the being is unable to communicate, and expresses his wishes to help, and attempts to rectify the situation.
Victor promptly receives a metal fist to the face, and realizes he has to engage in combat with something with mechanical bodyparts, and no desire to help whatsoever. The combat is rather unrousing of suspicion as it happens in an alleyway with a service duct in a wall that few citizens traverse down(and fewer guards.)
Victor scores with a crossbow bolt, dodges past the being towards the maintenance hatch, and turns about to score with another crossbow bolt, when he hears the mechanisms wind down, and the thing cease to move.
Victor splices and caps the electrical wire running to the ignition system on the lift, and loosens the fuel valve to fully open. A whirring and chopping noise irritates Victor as he works, and upon finishing he attempts to pursue it further northwest.
Onboard the lift we hear... "clickclickclickclickclick" "fffffffffffffffffffft"
"FWAKOOOM Boom Boom Boom ChugChug"
Victor able to perceive the explosive operation of the lift engine back in order goes to ascertain the safety of those on the lift and to get back to the party and free food.
The party once again heads underway, and proceeds smoothly for a few hours, until Simple Simon The Pieman spots Mercutio, and attempts to force him to taste his "pretty pies."
Mercutio manages to dodge about, and attempts to reason with the psychotic pieman, which is all for naught, as they play ring around the Mastodon. Naknuk is alerted when his friend, steed, and companion, and all around trustworthy fella, Barney, trumpets in annoyance at the two pests chasing about beneath his torso and flinging goopy stuff that isn't Gum everywhere.
Naknuk intervenes and glues Simon to the spot with a simple spell, while also attempting to reason with him, offering to plant a pielauncher with Mercutio's help in the back of Simon's shop, and to sell the pretty pies with a new delivery method, which delights Simon to no end, and Simon trips in his own entanglement when he reaches to shake hands with the helpful priest and his "friendly rival" Mercutio. Naknuk frees the silly Simon by cutting away the strands of Gum sticking him to the ground, and they all shake on a deal, Simon stops interrupting festivities, and later they work on a new pie delivery method, and help Simon to get out of his predicament... Mercutio had welded the current pielauncher to be unremovable from Simon's body, as a form of "Structural Integrity Enhancement" to reduce the recoil on a missile delivery weapon that can launch pies many kilometers.
The festivities seemed to be finishing up smoothly, when a pteranodon swooped swiftly in and began prancing about tables, knocking platters and bowls askew, scooping up the warmest of entrees with its sharp beak.
In an instant, Simon was flinging a pretty pie at the beast, and of course missing miserably, by a kilometer or so. Naknuk acted next, squirting the beast with Gum, incurably entangling the creature, after which, a few bonks knocked the thing hopelessly unconscious.
As the festivities wound down for the night, still to continue, Mercutio and Victor headed back to their respective lectures, driving their students towards perfection, though perhaps achieving none. Naknuk wrapped up, freed the badger as the ending of the ceremony, and people quickly shuffled inside, and up the lift, before any larger dinosaurs were brought about, the guards were happy not to have had to use the ballista, and all in all, the day ended without a great deal of incident.
All in the norm for Tenochtitlan, almost surprised that no new mad scientist popped up today, or no great menace to society went rampaging about... though at the soon to open kitchen, the construction workers were gabbing that there was that one rumor about the...
Sighing sadly, the priest of Tiamat went to the cubby in his altar, and procured the one vial of animal compulsion mixture he had been granted after two months of toil, and offered it to Naknuk if only he would use it on the beast to quell its rage for the next forty eight hour period and then let the badger go. Naknuk accepted and unstoppered the vial, not hesitating to tilt the badger's head back and drain the entire contents into its open gullet.
Mercutio and Victor awake in the early morning and head towards the LIGHT, and arrive without any unusual events taking place, the oil smears on the windows send dazzling plays of light into the street, though neither appreciate this common occurance, one due to blindness, the other due to well, he's Mercutio.
Given that Mercutio lectures on some decently advanced scientific topics, thermodynamics and theory, applied physics, and demonstrative engineering, he managed to only drive one student over the edge this day. Victor's perfectionism (understandably so) drove young miss Parker to wailing tears, once again.
The preparations for the feast went off without a hitch for Naknuk, many of the temple hands helping to set tables of food up about the path from the temple to the lift, on the lift itself, and near the Tenochtitlian stables. Barney was once again recalled from the stables and allowed to traverse the small streets of Tenochtitlan, with minimal property damage, to allow for hauling of the greatly revered, nearly incapacitated, badger. The city allowed for one contingent of guards as well as the temporary use of one of the anti-dino ballistae.
As the city came together to act as celebrants of the feast of the badger, the lift being a key point of bottleneck, as it could only take down a few celebrants or guards or massive animals or weapons at a time, what happened next was pure inconvenience in the least, and absolute malevolence at the worst.
Victor perceives an annoying ticking noise similar to that of Mercutio's clockwork bodypart to the Northwest of the lift, but pays it little mind. That is, until the source of the noise also produces a noise similar to that of turning a very powerful valve to the off position, and a snippety snip noise.
The lift gets stuck halfway to the bottom level of Tenochtitlan, and as there are only two levels, both thousands of meters apart, this is very inconvenient. The problem assessed by Mercutio was that the fuel line had been turned off, and that the spark generation device had no power. Excellent deduction, and absolutely true Mercutio, which he of course relayed to Victor, whom while able to perceive the situation, was unable to inform those stuck on the lift of their impending doom, or salvation, whichever the case were to be.
Victor realizing the likely cause of the fuel disturbance to be the recently shut off valve, heads to check out the situation.
Unable to perceive by sight, Victor asks the ticking menace, what exactly the problem is, and if he may attempt to repair the fuel line. Without getting an answer, Victor is unable to do anything save assume the being is unable to communicate, and expresses his wishes to help, and attempts to rectify the situation.
Victor promptly receives a metal fist to the face, and realizes he has to engage in combat with something with mechanical bodyparts, and no desire to help whatsoever. The combat is rather unrousing of suspicion as it happens in an alleyway with a service duct in a wall that few citizens traverse down(and fewer guards.)
Victor scores with a crossbow bolt, dodges past the being towards the maintenance hatch, and turns about to score with another crossbow bolt, when he hears the mechanisms wind down, and the thing cease to move.
Victor splices and caps the electrical wire running to the ignition system on the lift, and loosens the fuel valve to fully open. A whirring and chopping noise irritates Victor as he works, and upon finishing he attempts to pursue it further northwest.
Onboard the lift we hear... "clickclickclickclickclick" "fffffffffffffffffffft"
"FWAKOOOM Boom Boom Boom ChugChug"
Victor able to perceive the explosive operation of the lift engine back in order goes to ascertain the safety of those on the lift and to get back to the party and free food.
The party once again heads underway, and proceeds smoothly for a few hours, until Simple Simon The Pieman spots Mercutio, and attempts to force him to taste his "pretty pies."
Mercutio manages to dodge about, and attempts to reason with the psychotic pieman, which is all for naught, as they play ring around the Mastodon. Naknuk is alerted when his friend, steed, and companion, and all around trustworthy fella, Barney, trumpets in annoyance at the two pests chasing about beneath his torso and flinging goopy stuff that isn't Gum everywhere.
Naknuk intervenes and glues Simon to the spot with a simple spell, while also attempting to reason with him, offering to plant a pielauncher with Mercutio's help in the back of Simon's shop, and to sell the pretty pies with a new delivery method, which delights Simon to no end, and Simon trips in his own entanglement when he reaches to shake hands with the helpful priest and his "friendly rival" Mercutio. Naknuk frees the silly Simon by cutting away the strands of Gum sticking him to the ground, and they all shake on a deal, Simon stops interrupting festivities, and later they work on a new pie delivery method, and help Simon to get out of his predicament... Mercutio had welded the current pielauncher to be unremovable from Simon's body, as a form of "Structural Integrity Enhancement" to reduce the recoil on a missile delivery weapon that can launch pies many kilometers.
The festivities seemed to be finishing up smoothly, when a pteranodon swooped swiftly in and began prancing about tables, knocking platters and bowls askew, scooping up the warmest of entrees with its sharp beak.
In an instant, Simon was flinging a pretty pie at the beast, and of course missing miserably, by a kilometer or so. Naknuk acted next, squirting the beast with Gum, incurably entangling the creature, after which, a few bonks knocked the thing hopelessly unconscious.
As the festivities wound down for the night, still to continue, Mercutio and Victor headed back to their respective lectures, driving their students towards perfection, though perhaps achieving none. Naknuk wrapped up, freed the badger as the ending of the ceremony, and people quickly shuffled inside, and up the lift, before any larger dinosaurs were brought about, the guards were happy not to have had to use the ballista, and all in all, the day ended without a great deal of incident.
All in the norm for Tenochtitlan, almost surprised that no new mad scientist popped up today, or no great menace to society went rampaging about... though at the soon to open kitchen, the construction workers were gabbing that there was that one rumor about the...
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Adventure(hah)1:
It begins with the late night arrival of Lia in the stables beneath Tenochtitlan, Naknuk a priest of Gum has recently enrolled a Mastodon into the care of the stablemasters. Mercutio and Victor both have upcoming dealings with the Learnings Institute of Gnometek Higher Technologies
A dream of cosmic proportions happened to be shared by Lia, Naknuk, Mercutio, and Victor, a vision of the cosmos flying by, slowly centering on the blue globe often known as Earth, white stripes bandied about the earth seemed to be centered on a point to the east... Awakening.
Victor goes to work as usual, Mercutio heads to the textiles merchant to pick up his replacement lab coat, and Naknuk travels to the stables where Lia is skulking about, to pay the stablemaster, and pay him a visit. The office read "will return shortly" for a time, and Naknuk was able to perceive that the stablemaster and his wife were having a dispute, the wife wished to travel outside of Tenochtitlan, while the Stablemaster insisted it was pure lunacy, which it sort of is, due to the rampant dinosaur problem of ... y'know, the whole planet. However, being a priest, offering marital counseling is one of Naknuks duties to his deity, and thus he knocked upon the door and gained entrance, as well as was able to "invite" the stablemaster's wife, on his next excursion, in which he was most assured to once again see the beasts with the six... I mean sixteen, inch teeth. Needless to say, she's rethinking her desires to travel.
Lia decided to flee the stables before being caught, and snuck aboard the lift to upper Tenochtitlan with Naknuk. It happened to be the day of the mass religious procession of "Celebrate all holidays day" and after exiting the lift, they were swept along to the west, to the merchants sector, passing the university, and happening to see an escape route, that led Lia crash bang on her butt right into Mercutio. Mercutio being a gentleman, and Naknuk being a priest, both offered aid to the fallen lady, before getting swept up in a conversation comparing their staves. After a brief conversation, Naknuk decided to agree to a feast of the Badger, after slightly spilling his "odd dream" in his own revolutionary terms. Victor... being god of sound in mortal form(heh) was able to hear and deduce this dialogue, as well as track the ticking of Mercutio's arm to Naknuk's home on the upper Residential Quad.
Deciding to offer a free meal to Lia and Mercutio, Naknuk buys a chicken... a very large chicken, and heads home to prepare a meal, barely making it in time to cut ahead of the procession as it wends its way back to the temple south of the Residential Quad.
Victor sensing his chance to ask about the peculiar dream mentioned by Naknuk, arrives while Naknuk discusses the feast of the Badger with the others. The ragtag group has various conversation, as well as lining up a job for Mercutio, Naknuk is on the way to determining he needs a Badger to revere for the feast.
Synopsis of the following events:
Picked up Barney the Mastodon, arranged special lift to get him to the top of the plate, and onto an open air cargo car on the train, and took it to the North, to the "Giant Aqueduct/Pipe structure that feeds water to the city from miles and miles away" Traipse down the mountain to the south slowly, flee from imminent encounter to the northeast, head to the southwest to a pool of water, pass up a chance to explore water, head north by northwest to cave, hey it happens to be a giant badger cave, of all things. Party "captures" Badger(polar bear0.o), and returns home.
Naknuk and Lia in the Temple with the Badger, Mercutio and Victor at home(s?).
(Note, work done in the industrial sector is done late third shift, so that goods are deliverable to their vending points/merchants just as the merchants are arriving for work, keeping the level of 'yucky air' to a minimum for all, especially those nearest the industrial sector(the Merchant Sector))
A dream of cosmic proportions happened to be shared by Lia, Naknuk, Mercutio, and Victor, a vision of the cosmos flying by, slowly centering on the blue globe often known as Earth, white stripes bandied about the earth seemed to be centered on a point to the east... Awakening.
Victor goes to work as usual, Mercutio heads to the textiles merchant to pick up his replacement lab coat, and Naknuk travels to the stables where Lia is skulking about, to pay the stablemaster, and pay him a visit. The office read "will return shortly" for a time, and Naknuk was able to perceive that the stablemaster and his wife were having a dispute, the wife wished to travel outside of Tenochtitlan, while the Stablemaster insisted it was pure lunacy, which it sort of is, due to the rampant dinosaur problem of ... y'know, the whole planet. However, being a priest, offering marital counseling is one of Naknuks duties to his deity, and thus he knocked upon the door and gained entrance, as well as was able to "invite" the stablemaster's wife, on his next excursion, in which he was most assured to once again see the beasts with the six... I mean sixteen, inch teeth. Needless to say, she's rethinking her desires to travel.
Lia decided to flee the stables before being caught, and snuck aboard the lift to upper Tenochtitlan with Naknuk. It happened to be the day of the mass religious procession of "Celebrate all holidays day" and after exiting the lift, they were swept along to the west, to the merchants sector, passing the university, and happening to see an escape route, that led Lia crash bang on her butt right into Mercutio. Mercutio being a gentleman, and Naknuk being a priest, both offered aid to the fallen lady, before getting swept up in a conversation comparing their staves. After a brief conversation, Naknuk decided to agree to a feast of the Badger, after slightly spilling his "odd dream" in his own revolutionary terms. Victor... being god of sound in mortal form(heh) was able to hear and deduce this dialogue, as well as track the ticking of Mercutio's arm to Naknuk's home on the upper Residential Quad.
Deciding to offer a free meal to Lia and Mercutio, Naknuk buys a chicken... a very large chicken, and heads home to prepare a meal, barely making it in time to cut ahead of the procession as it wends its way back to the temple south of the Residential Quad.
Victor sensing his chance to ask about the peculiar dream mentioned by Naknuk, arrives while Naknuk discusses the feast of the Badger with the others. The ragtag group has various conversation, as well as lining up a job for Mercutio, Naknuk is on the way to determining he needs a Badger to revere for the feast.
Synopsis of the following events:
Picked up Barney the Mastodon, arranged special lift to get him to the top of the plate, and onto an open air cargo car on the train, and took it to the North, to the "Giant Aqueduct/Pipe structure that feeds water to the city from miles and miles away" Traipse down the mountain to the south slowly, flee from imminent encounter to the northeast, head to the southwest to a pool of water, pass up a chance to explore water, head north by northwest to cave, hey it happens to be a giant badger cave, of all things. Party "captures" Badger(polar bear0.o), and returns home.
Naknuk and Lia in the Temple with the Badger, Mercutio and Victor at home(s?).
(Note, work done in the industrial sector is done late third shift, so that goods are deliverable to their vending points/merchants just as the merchants are arriving for work, keeping the level of 'yucky air' to a minimum for all, especially those nearest the industrial sector(the Merchant Sector))
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Consolidating Power Frameworks Rules:
So the current house rules for power frameworks go like this:
EC are normal,
VPP and MP allow a person to build with the real cost of the powers in the pool in mind, instead of active cost. Powers that resemble spells or even technomagic, should have a one point talent, and five point skill behind them, for magical aptitude, and run on a mana pool, with the current exception of technomagic that is made by someone other than your character (Charges, bought hard to recover.)
Hopefully this doesn't make everyone want to redo their characters, if everyone wants to do that however, the ideal house rules would be "base cost" rather than active or real cost, for VPPs and Multipowers.
Describing the situation:
Power Frameworks: Normally you must buy a base point total of your framework to equal the highest active point total of the powers inside said framework. Multipower and VPP that is, whereas Elemental Control is the lowest cost.
I am going to consolidate exactly what I hope the rules to be in the future(Another game, same game if the characters die/need to be rerolled, etcetera):
Buy the necessary multipower or VPP cost for the base cost of the highest base cost ability in the power pool. I know I've set the house rule as real cost right now, which is much cheaper due to limitations, but real cost of a power varies from character to character due to the thematic ability limitations sometimes take on, whereas base costs are a completely balanced point total, generally run on the 5 10 or 15 points for 1d6 of effectiveness mindset. Which is a strictly numbers balancing issue.
I still want the magic cap to be 45, technomagic cap to be 60, and strict science cap to be 90, purely based on the characters we've already started. Until we either start character building any powers in frameworks from scratch, to build a balanced 60 point cap game, or move temporarily to another system for this campaign, but I highly favor sticking with hero since we've all devoted a deal of time to getting everything worked out for this one... and I like the HERO system better than most I've ever known, so I'm biased to sticking with it. Personally the imbalance of magic technomagic and science will be worked out over the campaign even if we don't all start with the same active point cap. I'ld rather see people fleshing out characters and interacting and having fun this Sunday, rather than worrying about the GM having to balance encounters and taking another week to finish off characters, I'm just expressing my ideal setting, I know this is stuff I should have had figured out before asking my players to make characters, but such is the way things go when I do my research for a system I only mildly know during my work hours, and that's why I put it forth here in the blog, anyone who sends me their email address will be added as an author, and we can flesh out the rules of the settings together, and anyone can call me on a "Hey, you're overcomplicating things," or a "Hey, you're really screwing over my character concept that you already agreed to," or a "Wow, you probably just unbalanced the game."
If there are no problems with "Things may change as we go... a lot," I've got no problem with focusing on story and plot right now, and doing a little bit of breaking my own ideal rules to roll up balanced encounters.
EC are normal,
VPP and MP allow a person to build with the real cost of the powers in the pool in mind, instead of active cost. Powers that resemble spells or even technomagic, should have a one point talent, and five point skill behind them, for magical aptitude, and run on a mana pool, with the current exception of technomagic that is made by someone other than your character (Charges, bought hard to recover.)
Hopefully this doesn't make everyone want to redo their characters, if everyone wants to do that however, the ideal house rules would be "base cost" rather than active or real cost, for VPPs and Multipowers.
Describing the situation:
Power Frameworks: Normally you must buy a base point total of your framework to equal the highest active point total of the powers inside said framework. Multipower and VPP that is, whereas Elemental Control is the lowest cost.
I am going to consolidate exactly what I hope the rules to be in the future(Another game, same game if the characters die/need to be rerolled, etcetera):
Buy the necessary multipower or VPP cost for the base cost of the highest base cost ability in the power pool. I know I've set the house rule as real cost right now, which is much cheaper due to limitations, but real cost of a power varies from character to character due to the thematic ability limitations sometimes take on, whereas base costs are a completely balanced point total, generally run on the 5 10 or 15 points for 1d6 of effectiveness mindset. Which is a strictly numbers balancing issue.
I still want the magic cap to be 45, technomagic cap to be 60, and strict science cap to be 90, purely based on the characters we've already started. Until we either start character building any powers in frameworks from scratch, to build a balanced 60 point cap game, or move temporarily to another system for this campaign, but I highly favor sticking with hero since we've all devoted a deal of time to getting everything worked out for this one... and I like the HERO system better than most I've ever known, so I'm biased to sticking with it. Personally the imbalance of magic technomagic and science will be worked out over the campaign even if we don't all start with the same active point cap. I'ld rather see people fleshing out characters and interacting and having fun this Sunday, rather than worrying about the GM having to balance encounters and taking another week to finish off characters, I'm just expressing my ideal setting, I know this is stuff I should have had figured out before asking my players to make characters, but such is the way things go when I do my research for a system I only mildly know during my work hours, and that's why I put it forth here in the blog, anyone who sends me their email address will be added as an author, and we can flesh out the rules of the settings together, and anyone can call me on a "Hey, you're overcomplicating things," or a "Hey, you're really screwing over my character concept that you already agreed to," or a "Wow, you probably just unbalanced the game."
If there are no problems with "Things may change as we go... a lot," I've got no problem with focusing on story and plot right now, and doing a little bit of breaking my own ideal rules to roll up balanced encounters.
Some additional Campaign and House Rules:
Hi All:
Quote: "Q: Should we change Multipower and VPP so that it's the Real
Points that have to fit into the Framework's reserve/pool?
Steve's Thoughts: I'm a little leery of this idea, but at least willing to consider it. I played in many games that used this as a house rule for years and never had much trouble with it, but there is obvious potential for imbalancing a game. The upside is that currently you can't build a "nova blast," or similar really-powerful-but-highly-restricted powers, in a Framework, and with this rules change you could. And if we institute this change, perhaps a similar change could be recommended for campaigns with point ceilings, where again no matter how Limited a power is it can't exceed a certain Active Point threshold." End Quote
In my game, the cap will continue to be 45 active points for powers in a pool that contain effects generally discernible as spells, 90 for "achievable" scientific powers. That 90 will stay in place longer than the 45, as magic "grows" in the world, and is easier to make leaps and bounds with, than technology, eventually they will even out. Also, 60 active points for "Techno Magic"
(Either that, or I'll have to design some sort of balancing bonus for those of the party who took part in the magic system which tends to be very restrictive and require more investment than the technology system.)
This being said, I also move that the power aid, cost only 5 points per 1d6 of aid, and we discuss the ramifications of any advantages or limitations on it, but that it only exist in magical capacity, or technomagical capacity.
I also move that we call magical gadgeteers, Technomagical Adepts for now, unless something else is arrived upon by consensus in Sunday's game or before.
Another house Rule, please note, my interpretation will be below the paraphrased quote:
"Shtick!
Shtick is a stop sign talent and requires GM approval. The scope of the shtick is defined by defining a word or phrase punctuated with an exclamation point. It must have an exclamation point. Mechanically, it doesn't work without an exclamation point!
That said, Shtick! replaces all skills that fall under its defined (agreed upon) purview. Shtick! has three categories:
1. Expertise Shtick!
2. Competence Shtick!
3. Combat Shtick! (Not allowed)
Expertise Shtick!
Expertise oriented shtick represents a character whose shtick normally rests in what the hero system currently defines as background skills. They may make use of a small number or regular skills such as Research, Instruction, or Inventor, but in general, the character generally leverages background skills with it. Some examples would be Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Dr. Destroyer, and their like. They seem able to analyse just about anything. The Shtick! could be defined as Science! or Weird Science! or Amazing Inventions! or whatnot. Another would be a fantasy character with Bookworm! or Sage! Or, a Hoshi Sato from Enterprise might be built as Linguist!
Competence Shtick!
Competence Shtick! represents a character whose shtick primarily leverages adventuring skills, but is occassionally supported by background skills. For instance, this could be "Creepy Bald Death Brother Dude!" or "Vamp!" or "Thief!"
Shtick! Cost
Shtick! costs 20 points for an 11- roll.
--Expertise oriented Shtick! costs 3 points per +1 to the base roll.
--Competence oriented Shtick! costs 4 points per +1 to the base roll.
--Combat Shtick! costs 5 points per +1 to the base roll. (Not allowed)
Alternate Cost Schema:
Another way to cost it is to have skills use the 9+(Characteristic/5) formula and charge for each +1 to whatever base skill roll comes up. This, however, tends to make Shtick! cheaper. In of itself that is neither good nor bad. Its something you have to guage for the game and points available.
Skill Maxima:
Ordinarily Shtick! should not be subject to Skill Maxima. However, I think it would be prudent for characters with more than one Shtick! (if you were to allow that at all) to only have one Shtick! ignore the maxima. You could, of course, impose the maxima on shtick as well (this would break the combat shtick schema unless you use a skill driven combat system - just so you know)." End Quote
I have an imposed skill maxima which I have not yet disclosed, but nothing can be bought to 17- or better, in our campaign, there needs to be at least one point of fail, and one point of epic fail. IE:
Buying things to 16- is fine... a little incredible, but fine. that allows a person to fail when rolling at 17, and to critically fumble at 18.
Right now humans will be the only race allowed to buy Shtick, and they will only be able to buy it with acquired experience points. I've been rolling around the idea in my head, of how I'm going to distribute "loot and xp" for adventuring.
I may distribute points that are usable only to increase skill potency of skills that were used during the adventure/characteristics that sufered heavy burden and exercise during the adventure. Of course, that might be how I balance the magical system, whereas technology
will have a maxima that will grow slowly, Magic will meet, but not exceed that maxima, in time, and perhaps an adventurer who spends all their time learning/studying during an adventure, will get points to spend on their magic pool and spellbook(Imagine how much learning a character that can hear everything does...)
I think a "You exercised it, it might gain experience" for things that make sense to either get better with practice, or grow due to use (magical capacity if one runs out of 'mana' repeatedly using all their powers, health after being beaten to death and recovering repeatedly, strength after going to the gym for a month...) policy will be the best way to go to keep this campaign balanced for a long time, and that's why I see Shtick as a way to help with that.
If a character chooses to save up "xp only spendable on skills/talents" over the course of 5-20 adventures, and buy a shtick roll that allows them competence at everything their character "should" be good at, and eventually buys enough points for their character to be an expert/the best at their own shtick, that makes perfect sense to me, and of course, I may require a character at that point to buy a reputation as a dogooder, or a thief, or the world's
best gadgeteer, or the world's most destructive force...
Multiple Power Attacks, Combat Maneuvers, Rapid Fire (Autofire) Sweep Attacks, etc:
These will impose a -2 OCV penalty for each additional power in the attack, as well as take the full phase (no movement allowed) and halve the caster's DCV until their next phase in which they do not perform another multiple power attack.
So while there may be giant Mecha that can launch a Macross Missile Massacre, there will be penalties... uh, if the PCs would survive such a thing anyway.
I'm going to ask for some help to create a movement power, something along the lines of unimpeded velocity... Basically if something the size of a fortress is rolling over a jungle smashing down trees, it shouldn't have to stop each phase, so there will be maybe a movement power of 1-5 inches buyable as continuous, limitation on turn radius(can only use it to move forward) etcetera.
Therefore, anyone relegated to melee range when beating on a giant mechanized monster may want to y'know, stand to the side, or back of the creature, or immediately be knocked prone "between segments" and stuck underneath the treads of the giant tank or whatnot. Under said giant monstrosity, they will take gravity based crushing damage.
I'll be adding campaign rules, unique powers, house rules, setting enhancements, limits, and such here as I can remember them and as I create them.
Also, anyone who has mapping utilities, large tagboard that erasable markers work nicely on... anything, would be appreciated, for now I'll be looking on ebay for something like tile sets or a soft hex map or use transparencies, or whatever I can think of.
Please feel free to comment on any post, especially the settings post with any ideas for the world settings, and DEFINITELY post anything we've spoken about in person regarding the setting, that I have not declared here in text, so that I remember it, and we don't need to have some sort of argument during a game session about whether or not invisible pink unicorns exist or not.
Quote: "Q: Should we change Multipower and VPP so that it's the Real
Points that have to fit into the Framework's reserve/pool?
Steve's Thoughts: I'm a little leery of this idea, but at least willing to consider it. I played in many games that used this as a house rule for years and never had much trouble with it, but there is obvious potential for imbalancing a game. The upside is that currently you can't build a "nova blast," or similar really-powerful-but-highly-restricted powers, in a Framework, and with this rules change you could. And if we institute this change, perhaps a similar change could be recommended for campaigns with point ceilings, where again no matter how Limited a power is it can't exceed a certain Active Point threshold." End Quote
In my game, the cap will continue to be 45 active points for powers in a pool that contain effects generally discernible as spells, 90 for "achievable" scientific powers. That 90 will stay in place longer than the 45, as magic "grows" in the world, and is easier to make leaps and bounds with, than technology, eventually they will even out. Also, 60 active points for "Techno Magic"
(Either that, or I'll have to design some sort of balancing bonus for those of the party who took part in the magic system which tends to be very restrictive and require more investment than the technology system.)
This being said, I also move that the power aid, cost only 5 points per 1d6 of aid, and we discuss the ramifications of any advantages or limitations on it, but that it only exist in magical capacity, or technomagical capacity.
I also move that we call magical gadgeteers, Technomagical Adepts for now, unless something else is arrived upon by consensus in Sunday's game or before.
Another house Rule, please note, my interpretation will be below the paraphrased quote:
"Shtick!
Shtick is a stop sign talent and requires GM approval. The scope of the shtick is defined by defining a word or phrase punctuated with an exclamation point. It must have an exclamation point. Mechanically, it doesn't work without an exclamation point!
That said, Shtick! replaces all skills that fall under its defined (agreed upon) purview. Shtick! has three categories:
1. Expertise Shtick!
2. Competence Shtick!
3. Combat Shtick! (Not allowed)
Expertise Shtick!
Expertise oriented shtick represents a character whose shtick normally rests in what the hero system currently defines as background skills. They may make use of a small number or regular skills such as Research, Instruction, or Inventor, but in general, the character generally leverages background skills with it. Some examples would be Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Dr. Destroyer, and their like. They seem able to analyse just about anything. The Shtick! could be defined as Science! or Weird Science! or Amazing Inventions! or whatnot. Another would be a fantasy character with Bookworm! or Sage! Or, a Hoshi Sato from Enterprise might be built as Linguist!
Competence Shtick!
Competence Shtick! represents a character whose shtick primarily leverages adventuring skills, but is occassionally supported by background skills. For instance, this could be "Creepy Bald Death Brother Dude!" or "Vamp!" or "Thief!"
Shtick! Cost
Shtick! costs 20 points for an 11- roll.
--Expertise oriented Shtick! costs 3 points per +1 to the base roll.
--Competence oriented Shtick! costs 4 points per +1 to the base roll.
--Combat Shtick! costs 5 points per +1 to the base roll. (Not allowed)
Alternate Cost Schema:
Another way to cost it is to have skills use the 9+(Characteristic/5) formula and charge for each +1 to whatever base skill roll comes up. This, however, tends to make Shtick! cheaper. In of itself that is neither good nor bad. Its something you have to guage for the game and points available.
Skill Maxima:
Ordinarily Shtick! should not be subject to Skill Maxima. However, I think it would be prudent for characters with more than one Shtick! (if you were to allow that at all) to only have one Shtick! ignore the maxima. You could, of course, impose the maxima on shtick as well (this would break the combat shtick schema unless you use a skill driven combat system - just so you know)." End Quote
I have an imposed skill maxima which I have not yet disclosed, but nothing can be bought to 17- or better, in our campaign, there needs to be at least one point of fail, and one point of epic fail. IE:
Buying things to 16- is fine... a little incredible, but fine. that allows a person to fail when rolling at 17, and to critically fumble at 18.
Right now humans will be the only race allowed to buy Shtick, and they will only be able to buy it with acquired experience points. I've been rolling around the idea in my head, of how I'm going to distribute "loot and xp" for adventuring.
I may distribute points that are usable only to increase skill potency of skills that were used during the adventure/characteristics that sufered heavy burden and exercise during the adventure. Of course, that might be how I balance the magical system, whereas technology
will have a maxima that will grow slowly, Magic will meet, but not exceed that maxima, in time, and perhaps an adventurer who spends all their time learning/studying during an adventure, will get points to spend on their magic pool and spellbook(Imagine how much learning a character that can hear everything does...)
I think a "You exercised it, it might gain experience" for things that make sense to either get better with practice, or grow due to use (magical capacity if one runs out of 'mana' repeatedly using all their powers, health after being beaten to death and recovering repeatedly, strength after going to the gym for a month...) policy will be the best way to go to keep this campaign balanced for a long time, and that's why I see Shtick as a way to help with that.
If a character chooses to save up "xp only spendable on skills/talents" over the course of 5-20 adventures, and buy a shtick roll that allows them competence at everything their character "should" be good at, and eventually buys enough points for their character to be an expert/the best at their own shtick, that makes perfect sense to me, and of course, I may require a character at that point to buy a reputation as a dogooder, or a thief, or the world's
best gadgeteer, or the world's most destructive force...
Multiple Power Attacks, Combat Maneuvers, Rapid Fire (Autofire) Sweep Attacks, etc:
These will impose a -2 OCV penalty for each additional power in the attack, as well as take the full phase (no movement allowed) and halve the caster's DCV until their next phase in which they do not perform another multiple power attack.
So while there may be giant Mecha that can launch a Macross Missile Massacre, there will be penalties... uh, if the PCs would survive such a thing anyway.
I'm going to ask for some help to create a movement power, something along the lines of unimpeded velocity... Basically if something the size of a fortress is rolling over a jungle smashing down trees, it shouldn't have to stop each phase, so there will be maybe a movement power of 1-5 inches buyable as continuous, limitation on turn radius(can only use it to move forward) etcetera.
Therefore, anyone relegated to melee range when beating on a giant mechanized monster may want to y'know, stand to the side, or back of the creature, or immediately be knocked prone "between segments" and stuck underneath the treads of the giant tank or whatnot. Under said giant monstrosity, they will take gravity based crushing damage.
I'll be adding campaign rules, unique powers, house rules, setting enhancements, limits, and such here as I can remember them and as I create them.
Also, anyone who has mapping utilities, large tagboard that erasable markers work nicely on... anything, would be appreciated, for now I'll be looking on ebay for something like tile sets or a soft hex map or use transparencies, or whatever I can think of.
Please feel free to comment on any post, especially the settings post with any ideas for the world settings, and DEFINITELY post anything we've spoken about in person regarding the setting, that I have not declared here in text, so that I remember it, and we don't need to have some sort of argument during a game session about whether or not invisible pink unicorns exist or not.
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