I've been sick for a while, but I last threw up over 12 hours ago, so I hope tomorrow I can do something that takes thought/

Alright, Atropos, you managed to go all of December without an IC post. Don't let January go by too!

Hmmm... January is now gone, too. Is this going to be up to Jake and Stogie alone!?!?!

Wow, I thought for sure I posted something just last week. I remember reading your post and even writing one up, but I guess I never posted it. I have a bad habit of leaving a tab open, planning on adding to it, and then forgetting about it entirely. That's my fault entirely and I shall attempt to be more punctual.

Looks like it's been a month since I posted, so I guess it's my turn. I'll get something up soon, likely this weekend.

Separately, my Dumpshock is being very annoying and instead of the normal forum view (say 25 posts on a page) it's showing just one post plus an outline-format list of the others. It means I can only see one post at a time. I've tried to turn it off several times but can't figure out how. Does anyone know what setting this is and/or how to get there via the Dumpshock menus?

Scratch that last question. Jack VII kindly pointed out the subtle "Options" drop-down menu in the upper-right hand corner.

New post is up. Check it out!

Woo hoo! Action at last!

Oh... which could lead to death for us all....

I'm interested to see how the Sisters handle the intruders. If they're as powerful as they seem then we might not get much action.

So is the plan to stand back and let the Sisters go to work? Give me an approach of your general strategy (e.g. let the Sisters fireball the guys and I'll snipe any of them that don't explode, or I'll aim for kneecaps, or I'll have a nice cup of tea) and I'll adjudicate the first steps accordingly.

Once we get a warning of imminent attack from Smohalla/spirits/wolves/whatever, Stogie will stash Jake, Boost AGI and REA, and take appropriate cover with his Enfield AS7 ready.

Ellesar will stay as far back as possible without losing visibility of his targets and attempt to take a few down without being noticed. He'll target the chest, but will switch to legs if he notices any armor vests.

I put a new IC post up. I decided not to start the fireworks yet to give you a chance to do what you wanted or to choose some other approach.

Some points of clarification:

1) The river is going north-south at this point. The ork is on the west side of the river, the troll and Ellie are on the east side of the river. You will have to decide which one you follow, or if you're going your own way. They seem to be planning a simultaneous strike from multiple directions.

2) The women are about 150 meters away from the targets. Pbangarth, this is the outer edge of extreme range for a shotgun firing slugs. If you want to get closer you'll have to split off. Roll Infiltration if you do. Atropos, this is only Medium range for your Remington 750.

3) Stogie, go ahead and put down what, if anything, Jake is doing, or if you left him back at camp.

4) I rolled perception your behalf, making it a teamwork test with Stogie as the lead. Stogie completely whiffed - 0 hits on 13 dice. (Odds of that happening were 1 in 200.) Ellesar added 1 hit via his teamwork test. Pb, you can Edge if you want but I didn't want to spend it on your behalf since you might be needing it in the near future.

Did I forget anything? Let me know if you have any clarifying questions. Post something ICly once you're ready.

I firmly believe that knowing what is going on is half the battle. So, go head and Edge the shit out of that pathetic roll!

Uh, better this time. 9 hits. (Odds of that, about 1 in 113. So the Wheel turns.) With Ellesar's 1 that makes 10. I've got a got a couple busy days ahead of me - a report is due on Wednesday - but I'll try to get some clarifying details up before long.

Feel free to roll dice as needed. I was doing it for the original Perception roll to save the delay of the back-and-forth.

It occurs to me that with Phlapjack's absence we are now down to our North American contingent of GM and players. Originally, 30 months ago, we elected to do a play-by-post to accommodate players in Germany (Faranji), China (Phlapjack), and the UK (Aerospider, who didn't actually start the game). Now that we're all within three hours of each other, it would be possible to speed things up with live action rather than play-by-post. Any interest? Let me know what you think.

By live action do you mean something like Skype?

Or you could fly out to me. But, yes, Skype would be the most traditional. I'm open to suggestions if others have preferences or good experiences with other tools.

I've been going through outprocessing hassles with my job for the past week. I won't be very available until I get my internet setup at my training site, which could take up to a couple weeks. After that my schedule should be more weekday oriented so if you want to setup something faster one weekends I wouldn't have any quarrels.

My best opportunity would be the second half of March. My wife is traveling for two weeks so I'll have more opportunities to game without interfering with home life. That seems like it would fit with Atropos' schedule reasonably well.

In the meantime, keep posting!

Oh wait, I said I would post again to add new info based off Stogie's Edge roll. In my head I already did but appears that reality hasn't caught up to that yet. I'll do that soon.

OK, I'll wait. I assume our summoned spirits are nearby in the astral? Can we assume that Ellesar and Stogie split to have firearms in each group? That would make communicating the presence of Gunny to all the women easier. As well as aid tactics.

A few things:

1) Both of you toss out some Infiltration rolls when you get a chance.

2) You can assume that the summoned spirits are nearby on the astral, but you don't know what the Sisters will command them to do once the festivities begin.

3) I am not assuming that Ellesar and Stogie split up, but that's entirely acceptable if that's what you want to do.

4) Pbangarth, if there are more details you want to know, go ahead and post what you're looking for. We'll let Stogie coast on his 9-hit roll for a while.

Cool description of the scene!

I'll post something later when I get home, to place Stogie and Jake and to try to inform at least the Sister(s) with Stogie about the others he has noticed.

I'll also try to think of some questions to milk that roll for all it's worth!

OK, Tecumseh, if you've ever said in IC which one is Hester and which one is Selene, I can't find it.

So, Ellie went with 'the troll'... but is that Hester or Selene?

I've been waiting two years for someone to ask! The answer: ICly, you don't know!

They've never been separated until now and Ellie hasn't addressed her companion by name yet, so Stogie is still in the dark. This was meant to replicate the social awkwardness of finding yourself paired with someone whose name you should know but, either through omission or memory lapse, you don't.

Oh, we could have soooo much fun with this, eg. Stogie gets blown away by the troll because he called her the wrong name.

I'm certainly all for splitting up, no assumption needed. Ellesar will go with the ork if Stogie is sticking with the other two.

Infiltration: AGI (4) + Infiltration (4) = 8 Dice >>> 3 Hits

Boost AGI and REA for Stogie:

AGI first, then REA : 8 dice each ==> 3 hits, 2 hits

So, AGI is 6 for 6 combat rounds, REA is 5 for 4 combat rounds, giving an Initiative of 10 (1 IP).

I'm heads-down on a global product launch that's happening next week so I likely won't get a new post up until the weekend.

Any more thoughts on finishing this off in real-time? I should be free the next two weekends, plus some weekdays next week.

I like the idea of a real-time interaction. In the near future, however, I have weekdays taken up by work and weekends taken up by time with my wife, with whom I have rebuilt a relationship after some tough times. We will move back together this June, after which, time together on the weekends will not be so precious, as we will have time together daily.

So, for now I am not likely to take a few hours stretch on a weekend away from being with her.

But later, I would be way up for it.

PS. Can we get an IC post up before our IC thread disappears from the forum? Mine was the last one, so I would rather not add an immediate second post.

Thanks for the input, pbangarth.

I'll get an IC post up soon. My big product launch is happening right now (http://www.htc.com/us/smartphones/htc-one-m8/) so I should be able to come up for air soon.

Good to see that things are going well for everyone. My weekends are pretty open for the next month so I'm still down for some quick RP.

In regards to your product launch, Tec, I hope that all goes smoothly. Both my current phone and the one I had previously are HTC products and I have no qualms.

New post is up!

FYI, even if you're out of commlink range to the rest of civilization, I always figured that commlinks were sufficiently advanced enough to have direct-connection capabilities, like walkie talkies. So I'll say that Stogie and Ellesar can communicate via their commlinks even if they don't have a signal to the rest of the world.

Oh! I thought of asking that, but feared I was pushing things. Lesson learned. Never hurts to ask.

Jake's plan is to stay out of contact and be a sensor for Stogie. He has Perception 2, INT 4 and Enhanced Sense (smell).

I'll leave Perception rolls to you, T. Here's a few others that might be useful:

Hunting 3 + INT 5 = 8 dice ==> 0 Hits! Fuck! I can't keep doing this. I need the Edge for shooting! OK, another Edge re-roll. 8 dice ==> 4 Hits!

That's better. 2 Edge left.

Infiltration 2 + (wilderness) 2 + AGI 6 (for now) = 10 dice ==> 5 Hits!

I'm away from my books at the moment, and think this should be asked of the GM, anyway.

As I recall, spellcasting can be detected as it happens, using a formula based on the Force of the spell. Can the use of adept powers be also detected in your game, Tecumseh? I want to know so I can decide whether/when Stogie might choose to activate a power here in the woods.

Hmm, an interesting question. Spellcasting can be detected with a Perception roll against a threshold of (6 - Force), so high-Force spells are readily apparent. I never thought about it for adept powers, mostly since they lack Force ratings.

I'm going to say that adept powers are not immediately obvious on the physical plane (although jacking up your Body or Strength via an Attribute Boost might make your pecs visibly pop), but that someone astrally perceiving would have a decent chance to notice the shifting mana.

OK. Stogie will be careful during this hunt, then. Though in the middle of all this life, the detection might be a little more difficult.

Ellesar will be posting up in a spot where he can get a clear line of site on at least two of the men. He'll also let Stogie know to make the first move so that the elf doesn't ruin his chance of getting up close and personal with the mage.

I had quite a few errands to run today but I'll get an IC post up tomorrow after work along with any necessary rolls.

Alright! I get to be the babe who drops the scarf.

I can honestly say I've never heard that saying before.

Innumerable old movies in which the young studs race against each other, and the race is started by the beautiful young thing who waves a handkerchief, or scarf, or her arms to start them off. I was thinking of Rebel Without a Cause, but I just looked up the scene and she just uses her arms. Can't think of another title off the top of my head.

Pb's making stuff up. Roll your Con skill!

I'll try to get an IC post up tomorrow or, if not then, this weekend.

Oh geez, is it Monday already? What happened to Friday? or the weekend? Well it's my mother's birthday so I spent most of yesterday with her, so that's what happened to Sunday. I hate being the hang-up so I'll get a post up today!

Ruh, roh, Shaggy, Jake doesn't have the Infiltration skill!

In a gesture of extreme benevolence, I'll give Jake a couple dice to match his Tracking pool. Result = 1 hit. Well that didn't help much.

The hunted's perception roll = ??? hits. I suppose I can stop obfuscating the results now that Phlapjack isn't here. 2 hits.

Pb, you're about 50 meters away from the man right now. That's long range for slugs, extreme range for shot. I presume you're packing slugs but correct me if I'm wrong.

He's just looking at Jake right now, a bit confused. You can continue to approach, although he's been alerted now and is no longer distracted. If you fire from here he'll have some cover bonuses from the trees.

Yeah, I hoped you would figure out how to deal with the Infiltration thing for Jake, and that it would help that he was separated widely from Stogie. It did for Stogie, but not so much for Jake.

Not for this encounter, as I had not in any way prepared or RPed for this idea beforehand, and in fact just thought of it now, but Tecumseh please give some thought for the future about the Edge that critters have. Dogs are listed as having EDG of 3. Had I thought of it, Stogie might have mentally impressed upon Jake the need to stay unnoticed lest he die, and Jake might have tried really hard to do so, ie. use Edge.

I suspect by now the Attribute Boosts have worn off, so I should roll for Drain Resistance. Each of the two Boosts give a Drain of 1S.

Drain resistance: WIL 4 + BOD 4 = 8 dice ==> 4 HITS, 2 HITS so no Drain.

Alright, I'm going to have to act quickly, else Jake is toast and the mage, if he's smart, will twig to what is happening. Especially if Gunny or the punks we sent packing spoke about Stogie and Jake. I'm going to shoot at the mage, yes with slugs. Birdshot won't do shit to an armoured man. Question is, two shots with no setup, or one shot with a better chance to hit. Firing from cover is -2 dice, long range is -3. Fuck. Well, the cover will work for protecting me, too. And while the mage is busy blowing Stogie away, the rest can deal with the main party.

So, that is, 3d6 for the first shot and 2d6 for the second, with fewer hits but two chances to get lucky, or one shot with AGI boosted again (likely to get more extra dice than one Aim action). Let's say another 2 dice to make it ~5d6. I could also use one of my last two Edge dice for either way (saving the last one to keep my brains from frying), so 7d6 (exploding sixes) and 2d6, or ~9d6 (exploding sixes). Not a primary shooter, Stogie. Sure wish I had gotten closer.

I'll go for the Boost and a single shot.

Attribute Boost AGI: MAG 7 + Boost (AGI) 1 = 8 dice ==> 3 HITS that last for 6 combat rounds. This makes his AGI 6.

EDIT: I have to redo all this. I forgot to take away the minuses. Serves me right for doing this after a long day.

Hmmm. That goes over the tipping point for choosing when to use Edge of 4. I'll save the Edge to reroll misses.

Shot at the mage: AGI 6 + Longarms (shotgun) 5 = 11 dice ==> 4 HITS

Use Edge to reroll misses = 7 dice ==> 3 HITS

Total 7 hits. Base DV ... aww shit. Looking that up I forgot the Enfield has a laser sight! OK, I will roll another 1d6 to see if it counts. I'll roll it twice but only count the first if it is a hit (Edge would allow a reroll of the miss).
==> no hits

OK, so 7 hits, DV is 7P, AP -1.

So, AGI 6 + Longarms (shotgun) 5 - shooting from cover 2 - long range 3 + edge 4 = 10 dice (exploding sixes) ==> 5 HITS

5 hits, DV is 7P, AP -1.

Well, that's it guys. I just opened a can of whupass. Just don't know on whom.

Alright, this is where things grind into slow motion as the GM stops to consider what a dozen different NPCs are thinking and doing independently when they hear a shotgun blast in the woods.

Pb and Atropos, please roll Initiative when you get the chance.

This will be my first 4E combat in several months. I've been running 5E since it came out, so if I suddenly lapse between editions on the rules please gently correct me and I'll do my best to recover.

As for critters and Edge, I generally consider critters (and spirits) to be NPCs with their Edge use subject to the GM. Stogie has a special relation with Jake and has more control over his actions than your average NPC, so he can strongly request/suggest that Jake put some extra effort into it but the GM gets final say.

For you optimizers out there, a bit of a primer on the best way to apply Edge:

Multiply your Edge value by 18/7. This is the cutoff point between whether you should add Edge prior to your roll and get the additional dice plus the exploding 6s, or after your roll to see how you fare and to reroll non-successes.

Ellesar, Edge 1: Add pre-roll for dice pools of 2 or less; for pools of 3 or more, save it to reroll non-successes.
Stogie, Edge 4: Add pre-roll for dice pools of 10 or less; for pools of 11 or more, save it to reroll non-successes.

I'm going to say no dodge for the mage, given that Stogie's infiltration beat his perception roll.

Damage stages to 12P, -1 AP. Soak roll = 4 hits. Final damage is 8P with knockdown, so he's flat on his face eating dirt.

Next steps will come after initiative rolls.

Yeah, years ago a bunch of us here on DS arrived at 2.5 as being the turning point multiplier. That is close enough for your fraction.

Absolutely so for Jake's Edge. But, d'oh, I have to actually think of it to suggest it to him.

Woohoo! Eatin' dirt!

Initiative for Stogie: 8 dice ==> Six '4's, but no Hits!

So, Stogie is really impressed with his shot and stands there, amazed: Initiative 8.

Initiative for Jake: 8 dice ==> 5 HIts!

Jake on the other hand is a typical border collie, and reacts like greased lightning: Initiative 13.