Low Estate/MUDchat2
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:33 Rob says, "oh look, turn 7"
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:38 Rob says, "hm, what to search for and/or how to relax"
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:48 lpsmith says, "Wait, if we all unlock five techniques with our act 1 fate points, that seems to me like a massive power boost for our characters."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:49 Jota says, "Clearly we are levelling up after this encounter."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:50 Jota says (to lps), "But more seriously, it seems like it is potentially weird either way: if we just lost the fate points, then those of us who already unlocked techniques get an unfair advantage over those who haven't."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:50 lpsmith says, "Yeah, that's basically it. Except adding 5 stunts to a FATE character is a lot."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:51 maga says, "I thought unlocking techniques only worked until refresh"
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:51 lpsmith says, "This is why I imagined FATE points spent on unlocking a technique were held in abeyance, and weren't subject to refresh, as they were still being used to unlock that technique."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:51 Jota says (to maga), "It's until the end of the adventure."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:51 lpsmith says, "(or alternatively, that they'd be re-used right away to re-unlock that technique)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:51 lpsmith says, "(if you wished)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:52 Jota says (to lps), "I don't see any motivation to do that."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:52 Rob says, "I have no clue what techniques I'd unlock right now if I had to pick something"
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:52 Jota says, "Since you could always unlock them later with no penalty."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:52 lpsmith says, "No, you're right."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:52 lpsmith says, "Exactly."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:53 lpsmith says, "(Although I might want to unlock my last 'elemental communication' right away if I wanted to cart around a djinn with me.)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:53 Jota says, "Heh."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:53 lpsmith says (to Rob), "Unlocking advanced successes for your high skills seems like a reasonable choice."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:54 lpsmith says, "Nice and generic."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:54 Rob says, "hmm"
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:55 Jota asks, "Is there anything that you think Lazer's primary aspects should give him a bonus to doing?"
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:59 Jota says, "E.g., you could say that he gets a bonus to Fingersmithery whenever he's making or repairing something."
[LowEstate]|Fri 13:59 Rob says, "oh ah hmm mm"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:00 inky says, "in theory this shouldn't be a huge powerup because 1) techniques are supposed to be less powerful than stunts and 2) they're only unlocked until the end of the adventure"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:00 Jota says, "Or that he can use Resolve instead of Social when he chooses to stare somebody down, because of the haunting look in his eyes (from Man Out of Time)."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:00 inky says, "but I'm not really sure how this works yet"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:01 Jota says (to inky), "I guess this is a useful experiment."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:01 lpsmith says, "Really? They seemed pretty identical to me (techniques and stunts)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:01 Rob says, "the freaky stare, that sounds plausible"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:01 lpsmith says, "Many stunts are explicitly 'use X instead of Y in Z situations'."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:02 Jota says (to lps), "Mmm. Actually, I do recall inky's system doc specifically saying that a lot of stunts would work as techniques..."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:02 Rob says, "the Steve Jobs bio mentions that he perfected this unblinking stare he'd use to wither away the resolve of opponents in negotations"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:02 lpsmith says, "(I should add that they are less powerful than the stunts in #lprpg, because we increased the power of stunts there)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:05 Rob says, "hrm"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:05 Rob says, "I don't know what stunts are, it occurs to me while trying to follow this"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:07 Rob | plenty of stunts from the standard FATE rules qualify
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:07 lpsmith says, "They are from Spirit of the Century (aka FATE)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:07 Rob says, "is the only mention in inky's doc of the word stunt"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:07 inky says, "yeah, I guess my thought is that stunts vary in power considerably"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:07 Jota says, "Basically, they are a mechanic from a different RPG that was one of inky's inspirations when creating his rules."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:08 Rob says, "this is reminding me of when I skipped trigonometry to take calculus, which was a bad idea because a lot of it was built on trigonometry"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:08 inky says, "like IIRC there's a "special weapon" stunt that effectively gives you a permanent +1 to weapons roll plus some other bonus"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:08 lpsmith | http://www.faterpg.com/dl/sotc-srd.html#id12
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:08 inky says, "which is much better than a technique"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:08 Rob says, "thanks"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:08 inky says, "but the stunt that's like "+2 to resist interrogation" or something would make a fine technique"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:09 lpsmith says, "The more powerful stunts tend to have prerequisite stunts."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:10 inky says, "true"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:11 lpsmith says, "At any rate, if you are OK with giving us an extra 5 techniques each, I will take 'em ;-)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:12 inky says, "it's not actually an extra five, it's an extra 5 - however many you have left, but yeah"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:13 Rob says, "man this reminds me of looking up courses in college, and all the cool one have all these chains of prerequisites"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:14 lpsmith asks, "Also, now that we're past the crisis, I can ask what seems reasonable to do for the remainder of the adventure about this djinn. Like, it would make sense for me to try to talk to this guy again in more subdued circumstances, but is that going to be too weird/powerful?"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:15 lpsmith says (to inky), "(right, but the total is still 5, given that we'll also have all our fate points)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:15 inky asks, "you mean, the total number of techniques you will have accumulated during act 1 is 5?"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:15 lpsmith says, "Right. Well, I guess not if we spent 'em to up a roll."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:16 inky says, "yeah"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:16 inky says, "but yeah, I'm not too worried (yet)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:16 inky says, "I may be worried if you guys keep rolling so high"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:16 Rob says, "heh"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:16 lpsmith exclaims, "I know!"
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:16 Rob says, "where's the fun in that, mopes the GM"
[LowEstate]/Fri 14:58 Jota says, "I just realized something a bit sad."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:59 Jota says, "Even if we succeed, at the end of all this, most of the party will still be orphans."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:59 lpsmith says, "Yeah, but we can then become singing pirates."
[LowEstate]|Fri 14:59 Jota says, "Yeah, that's true."
[LowEstate]/Fri 18:29 lpsmith asks, "Hey, how far from the ocean are we?"
[LowEstate]|Fri 18:29 lpsmith says, "(and can we be close-ish?)"
[LowEstate]|Fri 18:32 inky says, "it's basically a puget sound setup"
[LowEstate]|Fri 18:32 inky says, "the city is on the banks of a big sheltered harbor which eventually goes out into the ocean at large"
[LowEstate]|Fri 18:35 Roger says, "Sewage goes in, just sticks around"
[LowEstate]/Fri 19:06 lpsmith says (to inky), "OK, tell me if my additions are unreasonable."
[LowEstate]|Fri 19:20 lpsmith says, "(also my description of 'Elemental Rapport')"
[LowEstate]|Fri 19:27 inky says, "yeah, that seems pretty reasonable"
[LowEstate]|Fri 19:28 lpsmith says, "Excellent."
[LowEstate]/Fri 19:59 Jota says, "I wonder if we ought to explain everything that's happened to Sister Marianne at some point."
[LowEstate]/Sat 03:14 Rob updates Lazer Turn 6 at 2am
[LowEstate]/01:08 Rob says, "was that a weird thing to post? or is it just part of 'make inky's life more difficult' theme, we'll roll with it"
[LowEstate]|01:09 inky says, "oh I'm sure it'll be fine"
[LowEstate]|01:09 Rob says, "ok"
[LowEstate]|01:10 inky says, "also speaking of your character in this game, we should probably normalize your skill list"
[LowEstate]|01:10 inky says, "so you should choose one of your great skills to lower to good, and add one more average skill"
[LowEstate]|01:11 Rob asks, "oh ok, I can do that. what is the rationale?"
[LowEstate]|01:11 inky says, "basically for game balance/spotlight reasons you are limited in how many great skills you can have"
[LowEstate]|01:11 Rob says, "ok, that sounds reasonable"
[LowEstate]|01:12 Rob asks, "do you have a baseline recommendation for which to lower and which to raise, that I can completely ignore as is Lazer Dennis's wont?"
[LowEstate]|01:12 inky says, "ha ha"
[LowEstate]|01:12 inky says, "for that matter if you want to juggle stuff around a little more that would be fine"
[LowEstate]|01:12 Rob says, "yeah, but I still kind of need a crutch"
[LowEstate]|01:13 inky says, "I think based on what you've done so far, I would probably make science and fingersmithery your great skills"
[LowEstate]|01:14 Rob says, "ok got it"
[LowEstate]|01:14 inky says, "and I would maybe add in a Weapons skill in there somewhere"
[LowEstate]|01:14 inky says, "just on the principle that you might at some point have to punch a dude"
[LowEstate]|01:14 Rob says, "also I'm starting a second page of #lowestate MUD buffer captures"
[LowEstate]|01:14 Rob says, "I think I would like in the future to really punch a dude"
[LowEstate]|01:14 inky says, "hee hee"
[LowEstate]|01:15 Rob says, "so I'll take that under heavy advisement"
[LowEstate]|01:15 inky says, "well, let's see what happens this act!"
[LowEstate]|01:15 Rob says, "I am all in"
[LowEstate]|01:16 Rob says, "also curious what Lazer may have realized in his first dark night of the soul"
[LowEstate]|01:23 Rob says, "I'm going to try to figure out some story way of narrating whatever change in stats happens for Lazer, when I figure out what rebalancing happens"
[LowEstate]|01:23 Rob says, "and either post it to the end of turn 7 or.. no, I guess I will probably post it there"
[LowEstate]|01:25 inky says, "I'm going to have turn 8 up in the next hour or so, so you might have to post it there instead!"
[LowEstate]|01:25 Rob says, "that was the dot dot dot I didn't finish"
[LowEstate]|01:26 Rob says, "I'm chalking all this in for tomorrow's fresh-head-work schedule but I'll be looking out for Turn 8"
[LowEstate]|01:26 Rob says, "and real glad you were on just now so I could run all this by you"
[LowEstate]/19:21 Jota says, "I wonder whether Lady Bellaire's research is really what Mad Whathisface is after, or if it's something else entirely."
[LowEstate]|19:22 Jota says, "If it's her research, then I suspect he won't be happy with a painting and a pile of papers, and if he sees that we've opened the lab, will probably conclude that we took the full-sized device (which, AFAIK, doesn't exist) and may decide to kill us for it."
[LowEstate]|19:22 Jota says, "If it's something else... then I wonder what it might be, and how we might find it."
[LowEstate]|19:23 Jota says, "Buried treasure, maybe? I guess someone might go around trying to find places on the property that look like they might have been dug up at some point..."
[LowEstate]|19:23 Jota says, "I suppose that we might ask Sister Marianne."
[LowEstate]|19:26 Jota asks, "Was there an time frame on the initial demand?"
[LowEstate]|19:29 josh_g says, "also seems weird that an especially thuggish gangster would be interested in magicky research stuff, even if it does involve power"
[LowEstate]|19:30 josh_g asks, "like, even if he had the device, would he or anyone working for him even have the faintest clue what the heck to do with it?"
[LowEstate]|19:30 josh_g says, "(also, yay reminder, hadn't looked and seen turn 8 yet)"
[LowEstate]|19:42 lpsmith says, "Yeah, it seems like act 2 should probably focus on figuring out why he wants it."
[LowEstate]|19:42 Jota says, "It seems like that's what Act I focused on attempting, but I'm not sure how successful we were."
[LowEstate]|19:42 josh_g says, "hrm"
[LowEstate]|19:43 josh_g says, "I have a half-baked plot formulated"
[LowEstate]|19:43 lpsmith says, "Also, my trick so far has been to hit 'watch' for each turn as it appears, then set up the settings on my account to send me emails when watched pages are updated."
[LowEstate]|19:43 josh_g says, "but it sort of hinges on whether Boudin would be able to make an introduction to Maldejerk and his people"
[LowEstate]|19:43 lpsmith says (to Jota), "Yeah, we started on a variety of fronts, and then honed in on 'what's up with the orphanage'."
[LowEstate]|19:44 josh_g says, "vaguely thinking, have Boudin try to do some half-hearted smooth talking, while Antheunis and I (and anyone else I haven't noticed has a high Stealth) follow and find somewhere to sneak into position"
[LowEstate]|19:44 josh_g says, "and then eavesdrop the hell out of them afterwards"
[LowEstate]|19:46 lpsmith says, "That sounds plausible."
[LowEstate]|19:46 josh_g says, "maybe Willem could come along with Boudin, in case they need to be intimidated or tricked with some magicks"
[LowEstate]|19:47 josh_g says, "Lazer could follow along just to confuse everyone"
[LowEstate]|19:47 josh_g says, "(or either/both could hunt down some alternate path)"
[LowEstate]|19:49 josh_g says, "maybe I'll just c&p that to the discussion page for now"
[LowEstate]|19:49 Jota says, "Or I could try to magic you some extra hidiness."
[LowEstate]|19:49 Roger says, "Or extra hideousness"
[LowEstate]|19:50 josh_g says, "yep"
[LowEstate]|19:51 josh_g says, "(hrm, is there a "code" formatting option for the wiki?)"
[LowEstate]|19:51 Jota says, "I think there's a Help link in the sidebar."
[LowEstate]|19:53 josh_g says, "meh, just added line breaks"
