Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Afternoon, Day Two


[First, let's welcome two new players from FA: zenfidelity (playing Reginald, who happens to have his own character blog) and Ferronic (playing Ferron). They're not going to be immediately joining up with the main party because I was rather impressed with the blog entry zenfidelity made; so currently they are located at position "v" on the map (the entrance).]

[Second, and somewhat associated with the first, is that we're starting to get to the point where the number of people playing is becoming a little too large for one group; both in the practicality of the game world, and in the real world (particularly when dealing with creating balanced combat scenarios, and gathering people online at the same time for "live" sessions). It might be an idea to split the party into two groups of five, acting in tandem to cover more ground, and converging occasionally to mix and match equipment and party members. On the other hand, this will mean more substantial updates, which means that I may have to change the update schedule to three times a fortnight rather than twice a week. And there are some gameplay disadvantages to this approach as well. That's why I'm leaving it up to you guys.]

[Third, I'm hopefully going to have the C++ code for the combat encounters done tomorrow; this ought to speed up combat a bit. Although it will need a bit of tinkering if you decide to split the party.]

[Fourth, I need to know how Cubist and Xandre intend on spending their Level Points, so I can update your character sheets.]

The party travels down the corridor, hoping to avoid any more combat encounters for the present. In a small alcove, where a large root has broken through the wall, the party discover a strange panel in the wall. This panel has an elaborate painted image on it [note: the word "elaborate" is used rather loosely in this case]. There appear to be some rather odd pieces missing from the image, and slots carved into the wall behind them to fit different pieces..


[There are six "missing pieces" in the image. There are numerous things which may fit into each spot, though only one correct set. The general type of object that fits into each slot is:
(1) A staff.
(2) A small shield.
(3) A large shield.
(4) A sword.
(5) A sphere or a ball.
(6) A book.
Also sorry that my drawing skill sucks.]

Meanwhile, a pair of men enter the dungeons through the entrance, to be greeted by the disturbing sight of two dead centaurs and a mass of evidence that someone - or something - has been here before...

Saturday, September 26, 2009

TFDC IM RP Session Has Begun


If you're wondering, it's on now. Come along if and when you can.

My AIM account is automatawriter, IM me and I'll invite you into the RP.

EDIT: It's finished: 7 hours of (hopefully) rather interesting encounters and adventures.

A brief summary of events: After Mephis got turned into a canary, the party learned of a couple of possible methods to cure him of his current condition. They then came across what, at first, seemed like a priest in a chapel, which later turned out to be an illusion over an ogre; the resounding epic battle very nearly cost Gauronne his life. They then discovered an area of magical darkness - light source unknown; and upon trying to discover if there was more to the message DON'T TURN ON THE LIGHT! they had discovered earlier, they had an encounter with a werewolf, before deciding to head down the passage (to the south of #3) after discovering that those coming off of 5 both lead to potential hazards.

This doesn't nearly do justice to the amount of RPing that went on; I'll upload the transcripts to my scraps in FA for those who missed it and anyone else interested in reviewing them.

Here it is.

Will Mephis be restored? Is Sarah's brother in the magical darkness? Will William ever get transformed? Did Gauronne pick up a spirit from being so close to death? How did Kit get amnesia? How far can Leremy push his luck? Where's James' buddy? And did Musashidan catch lycanthropy? And what's the mysterious thing south of 3? What's with all the unanswered questions? Is this Lost or something?

Well, I guess you'll have to wait until Tuesday to find out...

Friday, September 25, 2009

Late Morning, Day 2 - Part 2

[The party is a bit staggered, so the "@" is roughly in the center of the party; it's also Mephis' current location.]

With the rest of the party get held up somewhat by explaining the slowly decaying corpses of the centaurs, Sarah continues along down the corner, while Mephis follows behind her by a few footsteps.

Suddenly...

[And yes, I've now got that meme out of my system.]

A strange shimmering pulse envelops Mephis as he steps on to a stone in the floor. After a bright flash of light, and a few moments of blindness, the party are confronted with the fact that where Mephis had once been, there is now a small, yellow canary and a pile of Mephis' clothing and equipment.

[Yes, I'm aware it's a bit of a lacklustre TF, but I'm trying to save up my creative energy for tomorrow: as a reminder, I'm going to be online from 4PM to 11PM EDT (1 to 8 PM PDT, 2 to 9 PM MDT, 10PM to 5AM CEST (e.g. Spain), 8AM to 3PM NZST, and if anyone else needs the time for them, then just ask) for a "live" RP session. Note that you all don't need to be on for the whole time, or at all. Just make it if you can, and hopefully we can get some good stuff out of it. I may use some of the time to flesh out character details for the "Day One" story, or to help with some background stuff for interested parties, depending on who turns up when. Anyway, I'm hoping there's some kind of overlap between you guys so you get to enjoy it. If you look on my FA page (user automata, surprise, surprise) then you can get my AIM; IIRC that's the IM service most people already have access to. Anyway, hope to hear from at least a few of you tomorrow!]

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Late Morning, Day 2


[The party is currently positioned at the location marked with the "V", for reference.]

The now augmented party trudge around the corridor for a moment, until they come across some familiar territory: two dead centaurs, footprints heading to the east, and a slight fresh breeze from the south suggesting along with their map that they are currently at the position they entered the dungeon.

From Sarah's map, they appear to have mostly skirted this level of the dungeon; they don't appear to have encountered sort of stairway or other method for heading upwards, and aside from the denoted points of interest and the random encounters they've defeated, they haven't seemed to have uncovered much.

[Unless otherwise instructed, I'll take the party down the northern tunnel.]

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Live TFDC Session Saturday 26 September

This Saturday, starting at 4PM EST (1PM PST) and continuing until 11PM EST (8PM PST) - possibly longer, depending on interest - I'll be running a "live" session of TFDC on AIM, as it appears most of you are on that service already.

You don't have to be on all of the time, or at all; I'm starting it a bit earlier than I was intending to accommodate some people from some non-American time zones. Just pop on and off when it's convenient to you and give me a buzz when you're ready to go and I'll invite you on to the chat.

Sorry I couldn't give earlier notice, but I only just learned I'd have that day free.

Anyway, I'll keep you informed if the situation develops (i.e. I have to cancel or postpone things.)

Friday, September 18, 2009

Morning, Day 2 - Part 2

[It's just going to be a quick update for today, partially because of the additional "update" yesterday, partially because I ended up roped into doing other things and so I've become a little exhausted, and partially because I need to rearrange a few things for TFDC and get started on the combat system coding. The door is still "available" for use as a lockable door - unlike the other one - so I've denoted that square with "8". I'll add a legend to the next map update.]

Sarah unlocks the door, and the party steps through into an intersection; where the path branches to the north, east and south.

[For Fyger and Musashidan: The party decided early on that taking the right-most turn was going to be the "assume unless otherwise stated" plan of progression through the dungeon. Therefore, unless there's profound disagreement with this next move, the next update will carry on down the southern corridor to the next intersection.]

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Rule Modifications, Story-Telling & Live RP

After some discussion with Musashidan, I may be making a few additions/alterations to the combat rules, and the rules in general. And although it's relatively late in the game to be making these additions, I don't want to discourage people from sharing their ideas. On the other hand, since there's now so many players it becomes a little more unruly to make certain rule changes.

Therefore, since we have some new people who've joined us since the start, and since a new day has dawned, I'm opening the floor for rule changes: if you think something could be better, or think something isn't working, then let me now in response to this post.

If it won't take much to alter, like an additional inventory item or combat rule alteration (I'm going to be revamping the combat spreadsheet this weekend, or maybe writing a quick-and-dirty C/C++ program to do it), then I'll probably accept the change, as long as it doesn't make things too elaborate (I'm not trying to make a TF-version of D&D here). Spells, I'll consider, although I think we've got a pretty reasonable selection of them anyway. Character skills, item enchantments, etc., unless you're *incredibly* persuasive - in other words, your personal Geniality attribute isn't a dump stat! XD - I'll probably have to refuse, as that means making alterations to 9 spreadsheet files, which is very fiddly and annoying if it's not for a face-palming "Why didn't I think of that myself?" idea.

Current ideas:
* Trinket = Basically, you can carry one small character thing. In-game, it'll be completely useless; but it's free and doesn't count towards an inventory item. It's basically a RPing aid; some people have it already, but it's been unofficial. [Xandre, Kit: I can't remember who asked first]
* Power Attack = A one-a-day special attack: for melee weapons, a percentage increase in the damage done; for ranged weapons, it's a "free hit", ignoring a percentage of the defender's defense. [Musashidan]
* More to follow...



Additionally, I should probably start writing up the "story" for this game. I think I mentioned it in the rule book, but I can't really be bothered checking at the moment. Essentially, I'm going to take my narration, and your reactions and interactions, and turn it into a proper story.

Of course, this is assuming that nobody has any objections to this. If there are, please let me know before I spend time on it.

If everyone's cool with it, then I'll write a "first draft", which I'll submit to my scraps for your perusal. If you disagree with any characterizations I make of your character and what they say, then tell me. Additional RPing, quotes, character musings, etc., would be greatly appreciated, as the less thinking I need to do the faster I can get it done.



Finally, I'm still keen on the live RP thing, and haven't forgotten it. However, it's a little tricky. Most of us are in the Americas, however a few - including me - are not. This makes time balancing rather difficult; getting nine or so people online at once is hard enough, even if they live in the same house!

So, just to let you know I'm still trying to find a good time - preferably "Saturday", so that fits into everyone's weekend, though I'm willing to aim for "Sunday" - to do it, and I'll let you know a couple of weeks in advance so things can be planned out.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Morning, Day 2

Mephis reaches up to rub around the hard, fuzz-covered base of the antlers.

The rest of the evening passes without incident; and soon the party feels refreshed and restored. Journeying along the slightly slimy corridor, they pass by what looks to be a sealed doorway. The Arcana carved into the doorway's stone arch frame denote this as an "exit only" portal gate; an entrance portal - such as a trap, or entrance to a prison, or perhaps an emergency exit - is set up in one or more places and directed, via the runes, to the "address" of this exit portal. Anyone or anything passing through it will immediately appear in this chamber.

Further along the corridor, the party runs into another locked door; similar to the one they encountered earlier.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Near Midnight, Day Two - Part 2

[As you see there are a few alterations to the map. The shaded area represents the passage explored (in the current area, at least) by the two new characters; I will remove the shading if/when the "main" party travels down that way. There have also been numbers added to each intersection as well as to places of note to make it easier to navigate, should backtracking be desired at some point. Location #7 indicates the place where the two new characters entered the currently known game world.]

[Gauronne casts Probe at Musashidan and James at 1 MP each]

From the probe cast at James, Gauronne learns that, at least from James' point of view, he is being as honest and forthright as he can be; if he is an agent of some kind of malevolence, he doesn't seem to be aware of it, and if it exists at all it is very well hidden.

From Musashidan, Gauronne notes that it appears that his current condition is due to being surprised by the same magical slime creature that attacked the party earlier; however, Musashidan appears to have suffered a worse fate of actually having ended up somehow inside the creature. Therefore, his transformations seem more severe than those of the rest of the party; alongside having the head and fur of a husky, his arms and legs appear to have been transformed as well, and a heavily furred tail pokes out and curls out of the bottom of the futuristic vest. Though he can walk bipedally, it is a little awkward, though he seems to be able to move around on all fours with less difficulty.

[When engaging in actions requiring him to stand, Musashidan will suffer a -2 Penalty to Nimbleness; however, when there are low ceilings and other tight spaces requiring crawling or otherwise, he will not suffer any penalty that the party would otherwise endure.]

[AUTOMATA: I will be adding other bonuses/penalties later, after verifying some things with Musashidan first regarding his character.]

As for his personality, Gauronne learns that, although he appears to be somewhat of an arrogant jerk who probably wouldn't be the best ally to rely upon, he appears to bear no deliberate malice to the group.

Time slowly passes by, as late at night starts to become early morning.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Near Midnight, Day Two

[Finally, after three months, we have arrived at Day 2! This is probably as good a time as any to start working on turning the previous adventures into a story, though as I'm already working on a couple that may take some time. When I do, I'll do most of the story, although I will probably ask you at some point for some character stuff.]

[Also, we have two new players joining us; their characters are Musashidan and James, and I will be introducing them in this update. We might need to tweak the marching order again as well.]

[Additionally, the original 6 characters gain 100 XP from their encounter with the transforming slime thing.]

While the party continues to deal with the outcome of their encounter with the transforming slime, they begin to hear a furious scratching from the other side of the door. There is a sound of a weapon firing, and a large thump and a flash of light burst the already unlocked door off of its hinges. Before the party is a malamute husky, dressed in a light blue plastic vest, appearing as though from the future: with two small robotic arms at each side: one holding a strange type of gun, that looks to have been recently fired; the other a small blue plastic shield shimmering with magic. Oddly enough, the dog appears to be wearing a pair of silvery, shimmering glasses that occasionally emit a strange whistle of electricity. A long red scarf trails along the ground behind the oddly-dressed animal. A small, futuristic and well-slimed magnetized pack sits in the corner behind the broken door, slightly dented as though it got knocked off in some kind of a struggle. The animal appears slightly confused about its current predicament.

Behind the husky stumbles a dazed, young man with a vaguely studentish air about him, for the rumpled and dented backpack he is carrying is unzipped in places, revealing a lot of binders, papers, and a laptop. He quickly pulls the latter out and turns it on; thankfully, it appears to have suffered no serious damage from whatever has caused him to be in such a state.

[The update is a little shorter than I intended, mainly due to having to prepare character sheets and whatnot.]

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Post-Transformation Analysis

With the transformations from the slime suddenly coming to a halt, the party takes some time to examine the results of the changes.

Gauronne's SLG stone appears to still be functional, so he uses it to document the transformations they have undergone after he has sufficiently recovered from the magical effects he has undergone.

Although his voice occasionally sounds a little odd, he (and anyone else transformed by the slime) seems to be able to speak properly after a few moments of practice and retraining himself (or herself); his hands, though skinned a little oddly, seem to be almost fully functional [basically, I'll make clear any pertinent changes, so if I don't mention something, you can assume that things operate within the range of normality] ; and his mind appears to be operating in the same way, so he deduces that there is probably no reason not to attempt to use his magic.

[Gauronne casts Probe at a cost of 1 MP on each of the transformed party members, at a total cost of 4MP]

Through his analysis, magical and otherwise, Gauronne learns the following:
  • Aside from the mostly cosmetic changes, and the few small, but more fundamental physiological and anatomical changes, the bodies and minds of the slimed party members seem to be normal. [Therefore, all Humanity scores are at normal levels, at least for the time being.]
  • Magical tattoos appear to be functioning as normal; as for any hair/wool/fur/feathers out of the area, they do not appear to have any particular magical properties. [Since the dye is in the underlying skin, rather than what grows out of it.]
  • For the time being at least, the transformations seem to have stabilized. However, being as they are in a transformed state, slimed party members will be more susceptible to being transformed in the future (in that any ; any future transformations while still in the state will have the effect of increasing the amount of transformation done to the body, or making the current transformations permanent, or something along those lines.
  • [As for the horn penalty; Gauronne is aware that he can perform the attack, and that it might addle his brains for a bit, but isn't aware of the exact nature of the effect on his Arcane level.]
  • [Similarly, the others are "aware" that they may be capable of something new, but the precise nature of the advantages/disadvantages of each probably aren't known.]
It is still late - or early, depending on how you look at it, and the party haven't had that much sleep. On the other hand, it might be prudent to ensure that they are safe from any more transforming slimes or other dangerous hazards by exploring what's beyond the door before they settle down again.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Combat Resolution

[Cubist, etc: Yeah, "per round" actually means for as long as the time period lasts; e.g. all of "Late Afternoon" is one "round".]

[As for the live RP, that's going to have to be delayed a little; work's rapidly leaped from "casual irritant" to "all-consuming time tyrant" recently.]

Both Kit's bolt and Sarah's missile just sink into the slime; it doesn't appear that any of the party's physical attacks harm the slime in any way. However, the magical Siphoning do cause the creature harm; it's almost as if it were a living, somewhat sentient form of magic. The combination of the two Siphons seems to utterly destroy all of the slime, though not before the tentacles reach out towards the party members, and some members of the party get slimed. This causes these party members to become wracked with pain as their transformations begin...

As Mephis writhes in agony, his body begins to prickle and itch as hairs begin to sprout out, beginning from the spot where the slime hit him and spreading outwards across the surface of his skin; down his front these slightly thick, bestial hairs are a creamy white, while the rest of him is covered in light-to-medium brown. From the rear side of his pants, he can feel a strange twitching and pressure as a small, nob-like tail sprouts out of his body; it thickens, then raises up instinctively, becoming a white beacon of warning. Two hard nubs burst out of his forehead, releasing a few drops of blood, while the horny protrusions grow and then branch out to sharp, spiky ends, their hard base being covered by a fine fuzzy layer of velvet. His face alters: his expanding jaw slowly fills with flatter, herbivorous teeth - the tearing canines and others altering to suit a plant-eater - while the skin on his nose blackens, flattening at the top and realigning so the nostrils face forward. His expanding ears begin to flicker beside his antlers, becoming more suitable for the deer-like creature the slime has caused him to become. The muscles in his legs tingle, and they seem to have a feeling of potential springiness.

[For the duration of this transformation, Mephis gains +2 to his Danger Sense - Living Skill, but will suffer a 20% penalty for combat encounters (instinctively prefering to flee rather than fight). He can use his antlers as alternate weapons (i.e. as a replacement for, rather than in addition to, his swords), but they will make travelling down some of the tighter corridors rather difficult, so any combat encounters in these areas will have an additional 20% penalty (I'll let you know when this will have an effect); however, in compensation, in larger chambers with high ceilings he will be able to leap higher than he would otherwise.]

As Sarah is comforted by Kit, her body begins to prickle with a new thick covering of fur, in patches of browns varying from almost-white to almost chocolate, with the darker areas centered about the limbs, neck, face (particularly a mask-like marking around the eyes) and hands. Soon both notice a strange, snake-like thing twisting in her pants, and a quick examination shows that there is a long, furry tail, as long as her legs; the pair quickly arrange for a small hole in her pants to allow her some comfort in wearing them. A muzzle begins to form: the lower part of the face slowly expands outwards, with long whiskers bristling out on either side of the darkening nose, which becomes less pointed and more squarish like an animal. Her teeth become sharper in general: a dozen small teeth at the front between four large canines, with a dozen premolars and six molars in total. Her ears become rounded and much larger, growing up the sides of her face just before the skull becomes more horizontal. Once these changes seem to come to a halt, it becomes somewhat simpler to identify her changed features as those of a ferret. The last thing is the small claws which form at the end of her fingers and toes, which require her to remove her shoes.

[For the duration of this transformation, Sarah will gain a fatigue penalty much sooner that the remainder of the party, (so will be Fatigued much sooner), but will gain a +1 bonus to Coordination and Nimbleness when properly rested. She will also not be allowed to wear footwear of any kind due to the claws, and will not be able to use ranged weapons, but can use her claws as weapons, and is able to perform a special "weasel war dance" maneuver, which will allow her to hop sideways a few times (increasing her Nimbleness by +1, but decreasing her Coordination by 1 at the time).]

Gauronne, meanwhile, begins to grow what look at first to be short, off-white hairs out of his skin, but as they lengthen and curl a little, and the smell of lanolin becomes more prominent, it becomes much more apparent that it is wool. The wool covers almost his entire body, apart from his face and around his ears, hands and feet, where the skin becomes whiter (apart from on the golden hand, where the underlying flesh is still the same metallic yellow color), with pink flesh poking through from inside the ears, around the eyes and on the nose. Two horns begin to spiral out from either side of his head, growing in thickness as they wend their way out of his skull. A short woollen tail begins to grow, while his face alters to gain more of an ovine shape: the ears grow large and flat, and press against the two spiralled horns; the mandible and maxilla expand outwards, teeth flattening to suit eating grass and leaves; the nose flattens into the forming snout, with widening nostrils and moist pink skin; and the forehead pushing back somewhat to give a more sheep-like appearance.

[Gauronne can use his horns as weapons, should he so desire; although for the rest of that turn he will suffer a temporary penalty of 1 point to his Arcane Attribute for each strike. Gauronne will also have a hard time swimming and will suffer a fatigue-like penalty in hotter areas, but will be spared any negative effects encountered in colder areas (unless he is shorn, in which case he gains enough wool that can be turned into one large item of clothing, but loses the advantages of having a full fleece, and will probably suffer some small amount of HP damage unless the party stumble across a competent shearer.)]

The strangest change of all seems to have been reserved for Leremy, whose body begins to sprout an array of short hairs in a variety of brownish hues; these hairs then expand, harden and grow what appear to be small hairs off the sides as his body is covered with the feathers of a sparrow. Large feathers droop down from beneath each arm, after the fingers of his hands have disappeared and reformed to support his new wings; and a tuft of big feathers begin to sprout out of his pants, pushing them down a little as they fan out. His teeth grow and merge together, then become angled to a point poking out of his receding lips; his new beak continues to grow and shape itself from his jaw as his nose and ears shrink down. More mutations to his face and head occur, until he has a bird-like expression; although he still retains his human eyes. Finally, the muscles in his legs thin out as his lower limbs begin to grow a hard covering over the skin; the toes lengthen and thin as the rest of the feet seem to retract into some mysterious internal vortex.

[Obviously, the main ability gained from this transformation is the ability to fly (under certain conditions; just attempt to fly when you like and I'll determine if it's feasible); however, Leremy can't weild any weapons or handle any items while this transformation is in effect. The other thing is clothing; due to the rather drastic transformation that has taken place, Leremy can't wear socks or shoes, and can't equip any armor. He also loses the ability to wear his earring; although he can tie it on a string and wear it as a necklace for a "half-effect" (i.e. +1 to Arcane in every other round.) However, he gains a +1 to Arcane due to the frequent use of avians as magical familiars.]

[Where it is desired, the transformation can be undone by magical means (i.e. by Gauronne and Leremy, assuming they are willing and able of course). The transformation effects are going to be randomly selected from a list I've prepared; so if you reply before your transformation has been written, to speed things along give either a list of "do not want" transformations, or a list of "want to keep" transformations. Obviously if you post after you can say whether you want to keep this transformation or not.]

[Oh, and the Siphon spells didn't do any "vampiric" damage.]

[Numbers]

Round 1

Mephis suffers 0 HP damage from Big Oozey Thing. Mephis is Slimed!
Sarah suffers 0 HP damage from Big Oozey Thing. Sarah is Slimed!
William suffers 0 HP damage from Big Oozey Thing.
Gauronne suffers 0 HP damage from Big Oozey Thing. Gauronne is Slimed!
Kit suffers 0 HP damage from Big Oozey Thing.
Leremy suffers 0 HP damage from Big Oozey Thing. Leremy is Slimed!

Big Oozey Thing suffers 0 HP damage from Mephis.
Big Oozey Thing suffers 0 HP damage from Sarah.
Big Oozey Thing suffers 0 HP damage from William.
Gauronne casts Siphon. Big Oozey Thing suffers 28 HP damage from Gauronne.
Big Oozey Thing suffers 0 HP damage from Kit.
Gauronne casts Siphon. Big Oozey Thing suffers 27 HP damage from Leremy.
Big Oozey Thing is killed by party.
100 XP earned per party member.