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Session 06 response

hungryj 1188353186|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Hidden / Per page discussions » Decapitating the Mitos

I really enjoyed this session, even if there were entirely too many dice needed in the heat of that boarding action. You guys did a really good job and I hope it was fun.

As I was writing this up though, I had to shed a single tear for Bakinu who got fried so mercilessly. The negotiations would have gone so differently if he'd been alive and talking while Kitolakita was trying to sink the ship. Selah.

Didn't know where to put this

tank tursel 1187331413|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Logistics / Tools » Didn't know where to put this

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/17/npirate117.xml

Check out the above link - it's got some interesting tidbits about pirates… I, personally, would like to invoke the prisoner handling technique of tying them up to the mast and pelting them with broken bottles - perhaps after we cut through skin we'd be able to see things like EMERALD BONES.

Re: rewarding ourselves

tank tursel 1187331338|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Characters » Access to NPC's

I think that's a great idea… moonstone cowboys (new name for our roving band of misfits and boy-fuckers).

rewarding ourselves

TC Uki 1187290592|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Characters » Access to NPC's

I was thinking of celebrating our first succesful mission ( as our last session shows this kind of success might be few and far between) What I was thinking was taking 6 moonstones and make it into jewelery for each of us. Things like necklaces, signet rings or even cockrings, what ever is your fancy. As moonstone seems to enhance certain spells or something of the sort we could eventually get runes carved into them for some kind of advantage to the wearer. If you guys like that idea we can work on it at the next session while everyone is healing. If not I will try to get one for myself.

Re: Access to NPC's

tank tursel 1187036732|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Characters » Access to NPC's

Quick Check:
1) Is taking a shit in the Sister's convent's kitchen a social faux pas?
a) yes b) no c) is it a linoleum floor d) all of the above

Re: Access to NPC's

hungryj 1187032467|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Characters » Access to NPC's

Fair enough. You'll probably want to start increasing your Graces skill as part of that long term plan. It'd help you not make horrible social faux pas with powerful people.

Re: Access to NPC's

tank tursel 1187030064|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Characters » Access to NPC's

Well then, I want to make a long-term goal of T.T. to make friends with as many councillors as possible so that when it's time to appoint a new captain to the privateer's seat - I get it. For your planning Justin, I'd like to talk with Nathan about what he knows about the members and their doings… eventually. If the goal of our campaign is to grow our empire, political power like this would certainly help… and I'd think that it'd be in Nathan's best interest to have his friends on the council with him. If you could rough-sketch a story arc for that, it might be something I'd be interested in!

Re: Access to NPC's

hungryj 1187028706|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Characters » Access to NPC's

You don't have much access to other Councillors at all. To the rest of them you guys are just another band of questionable shippers, and the city's full of those. The council sessions aren't open to the public. Councillors are nominated and appointed by the rest of the Council when an opening comes up. Grymes basically bought his way in a few years ago. They deal with how taxes are spent and collected and all that jazz. When the Council votes on an issue, the Sea Lord's vote counts twice and breaks ties. So she only needs 5 councillors on her side to push something through.

They're appointed for life (except for the Privateer seat, which is a three year term and you need to be an active ship captain to hold it), and it's very hard to get kicked out. They're corrupt and everyone knows it. It's a respected institution among the elites, but since it doesn't give much of a damn about the rabble they don't have a lot of respect for them. Smaller groups/religions/criminal organizations have more direct dealing with the lower classes and tend to have more popular support/terror.

Lots of powerful people would like to be Councillors so their murder rate is higher than might be expected for their status. Even more would like to be the Sea Lord, whose word is law and cannot ever be removed from office.

Access to NPC's

tank tursel 1187025115|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Characters » Access to NPC's

Seeing as how my patron is a new member to the captain's council, how much access do we have to other council members? In that, if we were to run a recon mission to Port Strike to gather ship building information - could we first have a sit down with Marcus Roberts (the spymaster) for tips? Or is Nathan so new to the council that using him for his connections right away wouldn't fly? Are the council sessions open to the public? What role does the council play? Is the council (institution, not present cabinet) respected, or are there rival institutions vying for political sway? How many opponents (council members, not the institution) are there trying to gain access to those seats? Are all the positions appointed, if so - what's the process? If you want us to ask these (and other) questions in gameplay, that's cool - but if you have time…

playing to your strengths

hungryj 1186765930|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Characters » playing to your strengths

Sean and I were talking last night about how the party (and at this point I still haven't heard from Chris so I don't know if he's playing anymore) doesn't have huge fighting skills. Just so you guys know, if you want combat that's fine, but my natural tendencies are towards less combat and more talking to people and figuring stuff out. If you want to roleplay more of the sneaking around and getting info from people, we can make your Company's Might work for you. Something like you guys figure out who needs pounding and then send your Soldiers after them. Or vice versa.

I might send out an email about what kind of play styles people would like now that the first adventure is over.

where the ironbones are

hungryj 1186765584|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Setting » where the ironbones are

I've made a couple of minor tweaks to some of the setting info on here (stuff that hasn't come up yet) since I finally found out where the Ironbone Theocracy actually is. It's very near where you guys are, a bit south of Port Strike. Probably doesn't make much of a difference but that means it's the closest major nation to Freeport. If you want to go in and foment rebellion or some such.

Re: Ideas for Missions

hungryj 1186728057|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Rules » Missions Duties and Cravings

Here you go.

Influence
1 self-absorbed and unknown
2 might stumble on a fact now and then
3 can make its opinions known directly and learns of major events in a timely fashion
4 well-informed of current events in a decent sized area
5 array of sources to check against each other for accuracy, legions of advisors/blackmailers
6 the walls have ears and when you whisper generals shout (and soldiers scream)

Might
1 Poorly trained spearmen
2 Adequate soldiers with poor weapons
3 typical large city guard, small corps elite soldiers
4 good troops with excellent leadership or vice versa
5 well-honed confident superbly balanced fighting force
6 Tough experienced veterans well organized with plenty of magical backup

Sovereignty
1 Barely suppressed hatred and rage
2 grudging obedience with more resentment than initiative
3 typical loyalty including griping but banding together when outsiders make remarks
4 unusual dedication
5 commoners take actual pleasure in promoting the Company, feel pride in doing civic duty
6 total cultural cohesion to the point of xenophobia/condescending snobbery

Territory
1 A single large ship with crew
2 a town, modest duchy, broad but shallow national conspiracy
3 very small country, very large independent city, national merchant empire
4 large region in a large nation, medium sized nation
5 large country
6 vast varied nation with proud history and highly developed culture

Treasure
1 Visibly pitiful, bad haircuts
2 struggling, little in the way of fiscal safety net
3 small tightly run enterprise or large shabby one
4 prosperous organization
5 deep reserves and strong record of success
6 radiates casual opulence

You can improve qualities by 1) Combining with other companies to form bigger companies 2) Conquering your enemies (reduce two of their qualities to 0 in the same month - one must be either Territory or Sovereignty) 3) spending experience (10XP times the new level) 4) Sovereignty, Influence and Might can all be raised through Company rolls (Improve the Culture [Territory+Treasure], Rise in Stature [Sovereignty+Treasure] and Train/Levy Troops [Sovereignty+Territory] respectively). You can roleplay something to try and give bonuses to those rolls. Also, Wealth converts to Treasure at a 3:1 rating so if you loot enough temple complexes you can get some fantastic booty.

Since you've already reduced the Mitos' Treasure to 0 this month, if you attacked them again targeting their Territory you might be able to destroy them and boost your Territory. What with looted ships and ports and such.

Re: Ideas for Missions

TC Uki 1186720708|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Rules » Missions Duties and Cravings

Justin, I don't suppose you would be able to post what the different levels of sovereignty, territory, treasure, influence and might do for the company. I know you quickly explained when we were setting up our company. If I could have it down in writing it would help me remember better.

Re: Ideas for Missions

hungryj 1186715315|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Rules » Missions Duties and Cravings

Well, one thing you guys could try is taking over the Mitos territory (as Territory in your company's case translates most easily into Ships running routes). Once you've got a Territory of 2 that's a small fleet of merchant ships. Bumping up that Territory can come in a few ways.

Say you want to completely wipe out the Mitos. To do that, we can do Company rolls (with you guys doing something to try and give it a bonus. One thing I was thinking is that we might try covering a couple of months in the next session. Do a bunch of Company rolls to beef up your Might before attacking the Mitos. Send out spies to find out… Well, that's something else.

One thing I was thinking is you guys might be asked to do something very difficult but you'd be given 6 months to do it. You could do a bunch of Company rolls to muster troops, try annihilating the Mitos to beef up your Territory and then go in on a Mission Impossible (fantasystyle) Op to get your bonuses to the Espionage roll. Or something along those lines.

I also found a pretty decent temple raid scenario that you guys might want to do if Treasure is more your game. That would take a few sessions though, whereas we could zip through 6 months in maybe 2 sessions.

Ideas for Missions

TC Uki 1186697668|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Rules » Missions Duties and Cravings

It appears that I am getting my mission and duty mixed up.
Now I understand this is short notice for the GM but we need some ideas for what we want to do for our next mission.
Personally I want more territory. I'm not saying whole islands or anything, but more like getting a bit of land that might be used for farming or mining or even a corner for whores whom will provide a little extra income as we come by to tax them or some thing like that. I also feel we could use another ship that can be running routes or help us with raids n'stuff. People who are gone for long periods of time (Like Hassie or Chris) could be assumed to be working on the other ship. Anyways these are some ideas. Now to see if other people are using the forum.

Re: Missions Duties and Cravings

TC Uki 1186556129|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Rules » Missions Duties and Cravings

I spent an hour getting all this figured out, noticed a problem in preview, tried to change it and lost what I had written. Fuck it, I signed up I will try this again in the morning.

Missions Duties and Cravings

hungryj 1186507409|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Rules » Missions Duties and Cravings

Just to go over it one more time:

Missions: Accomplishable goals for the short term. "Deliver the cargo safely back to Freeport" is good. "Make war on terror" is too nebulous. If/When you achieve your mission you get 1XP.

Duty: Here's the nebulous stuff and overarching goals. "Oppose Tyranny" is great.

Craving: This is your weakness. It will often be better to act against it, but then you'll be taking a -1d penalty. "Getting drunk and starting fights" is a good craving. "Piles of riches" is also good. "Meticulous plans" would be good too.

You get a +1d bonus when acting in concert with these facets of your personality, and -1d when acting against them.

Co-operating

hungryj 1186506694|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Rules » Co-operating

Okay guys, the co-operating rules we were using in Session 03 are now not usable in combat. It's fine for things like planning routes, but when timing is an issue and you don't have time to hash everything out and coordinate everything to such an extent. If everyone's doing the same thing, that's fine, but as a group you'll be using the highest individual result (not the widest because working together is slower).

Not that I'm displeased you talked down a mutiny, but you're not a hive mind. You're individuals who sometimes have to think and act for yourselves.

Re: Maps

hungryj 1185484703|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Setting » Maps

It's not going to be as simple as "I wanna go that way" and you do, but I'm also not plotting out everything in huge detail. Basically the Ob-Lobs are the ones who dominate the safest/fastest shipping lanes, leaving trickier slower routes to the rest of the seafaring peoples. There's a general North to South wind along the continents while between them is a tricky morass of conflicting currents.

This afternoon I started working out a naval combat system to help figure out if/when the Mitos might catch up with the Spirit and lay into her with ballistas and such. I hope you guys can make it back to Freeport with all that moonstone.

Re: Maps

tank tursel 1185473965|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion In-Gameishness / Setting » Maps

Interesting… how about trade winds and sea currents? Are there certain trade routes ultimately quicker (and thusly more populated) - or is as simple as "I wanna go that way" - and you do?