Author Topic: Miami; the Makeshift Mermaid and other Yarns  (Read 90008 times)

Offline Malkyne

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 23
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #240 on: January 25, 2011, 01:54:00 AM »
I couldn't believe how self conscience i felt when Ian said, its 5.30 am on a Sunday and your phone rings (i can remember thinking is great, frying pan, fire and why the hell am i first)...


I thought you did great, under the circumstances!

Quote
I have a 3 presence so i figured i would be able to use that assist my rapport, empathy and intimidation (yeah i know its on the sheet and i forgot to use it), which are 1's or 2s. Was i wrong in this assumption? I've read the rule books section covering and it implies you can but when?

That's an interesting question.  I like the idea that your character is more presence-based, and mine is more rapport-based.  That fits really well with their respective roles.

Quote
Tess, how about Love 'em hate 'em my family all the same.

Hmm.  That works really well for explaining why she puts up with Orfeo, but I would probably need to change her current relationship with her parents, to reflect a stronger family loyalty.  (She correctly blames them for her reversal of fortune, when she ended up living with Aunt Marisa, and it's a sore spot with her.)

Quote
Thank all i had a great time. But i kinda felt bad for the rest of the group because Steve the Bald and I hogged a lot of the "air time."  

Don't sweat it.  We're still feeling out the group dynamic (and where everyone fits in), so a bit of that is going to happen at first, I think.

Tess (Gloria)

Offline PirateGhost

  • Lurker
  • Posts: 6
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #241 on: January 25, 2011, 02:13:29 AM »
Quote from: Malkyne
I think that a good Trouble aspect for her would be something related to her lower-class upbringing, during her teens, since that dogs her in multiple ways, now that she is moving in more sophisticated circles.

Now, I just need a pithy (or at least concise) name for my Trouble.  Hmmm...
From this, I'm picturing Eliza Doolittle (Shaw's "Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts" or the "My Fair Lady" musical/film)

As for my character, right now he's feeling a little bit like the guy who brings his fists to a gun fight.  Of course, most of his fighting experience involves either hockey or close-combat on a boat.

Also, now that I've had time to read up more on the skills and stunts, I think I'd prefer to swap Lore (currently at +2) with Intimdation (currently at +1), as they make more sense in that order.  I view his lore skill as mostly occult information he's picked up during his adventures with assorted wizards and other supernatural creatures, and from his ghost, where Intimdation would be something he's had long practice at from his time as a hockey player.  I was looking at the "Infuriate" and "No Pain No Gain" stunts as well, based on his background.

Quote from: Ren
- Tess and Jason, if you all like we can either get together or talk via mail etc about what your characters will be doing while you all are gone this weekend and maybe during the following week get together and play out what you did so you will be caught up. I'll plan to do the same for others that miss sessions as well.
Sure.  We can either meet up somewhere or do it over email.  My schedule is pretty flexible.


Real Name                Character Name                   Character Description.
Jason Maltzen                Mike LaFleur                        Curse of the pirate's ghost.

Offline Ren

  • Seriously?
  • ***
  • Posts: 14240
  • AKA: Renmonster The Horgymeister
    • View Profile
    • The Forbidden Dojo 3-D Art
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #242 on: January 25, 2011, 03:19:24 AM »
Armor with tooth-marks is just natures way of telling you that you are still alive...8)

Yes now is the time to swap skills around and even some aspects a bit.

Bear; Blog will work as long as she has some Journalistic credentials that allow her into SOME places.

Overall I think the group as a whole is going to end up gelling fairly well though there will be a certain amount of roughness around the edges just due to character-types, but then again its a dirty world we live in.

Z, I apologize if I put you on the spot, but you really were the best character to start of the story and that particular scene was designed to set the tone for the entire campaign; just how serious and weird shit is going to get...and as you all know by now you've jumped right down into it...8)
"Brain Makes My Math Hurt" - me

"Eeyore is my Totem Animal" - me

"Pants are overrated!" - me

Offline BumblingBear

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2123
  • Rawr.
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #243 on: January 25, 2011, 03:22:24 AM »



I was looking at clothes my character could wear, and then I saw my character


Utterly awesome/hilarious.


That's an interesting question.  I like the idea that your character is more presence-based, and mine is more rapport-based.  That fits really well with their respective roles.

I agree.  I think they work pretty well as intended.  We just need to progress through the story and "level up" we we can all be a little more varied with our skill sets. :)  The way the skills work in this game, one really has to be.

Quote
Hmm.  That works really well for explaining why she puts up with Orfeo, but I would probably need to change her current relationship with her parents, to reflect a stronger family loyalty.  (She correctly blames them for her reversal of fortune, when she ended up living with Aunt Marisa, and it's a sore spot with her.)

How about...
From lame to limos
Driving away from my past
Pip has nothing on me
Fish out of water
What's a salad fork actually for?


Or my personal favorite:

My family sucks

Also i didn't think i did a good job role playing my character. Hes a nicer guy then i am.
Maybe so, but your RL knowledge of legalities and law enforcement really lends a ton of credibility to your character.  I think since you've established your character, it would not be too hard to steer his character development where you want it to go.

Quote
I also think i may need to relook at my social skills, I purposely designed my character to be more skilled (I took the GM fiat) then stunt driven. I have a 3 presence so i figured i would be able to use that assist my rapport, empathy and intimidation (yeah i know its on the sheet and i forgot to use it), which are 1's or 2s. Was i wrong in this assumption? I've read the rule books section covering and it implies you can but when?
I think that is up to the GM.

What would be more appropriate would be to make a maneuver using your presence, then use the free tag from that to mod your following skill roll by +2.

We're all new to this system and I get the feeling we are not using aspects to their full effect.


As for my character, right now he's feeling a little bit like the guy who brings his fists to a gun fight.  Of course, most of his fighting experience involves either hockey or close-combat on a boat.

It would be cool if your character starts developing his guns skill more since he's hanging out with so many long distance types.  In fact, it would be really cool if he had a brace of black powder derringers that he left primed but not loaded.  Then before a fight, he could just load whatever type of ball is appropriate (silver, iron, lead, garlic, etc) and let fly. :)

This could be part of his character development in the future.  I'm sure that Brian would be able to procure some interesting weapons.

And yes, cannons are legal.  A cannon or two on the boat would be /awesome/.

Myself: If I were in her(Murphy's) position, I would have studied my ass off on the supernatural and rigged up special weapons to deal with them.  Murphy on the other hand just plans to overpower bad guys with the angst of her short woman's syndrome and blame all resulting failures on Harry.

Offline zegion

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 418
  • *Taps* -Bugle Call
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #244 on: January 25, 2011, 03:49:29 AM »
Pirate,

Like Ian said were still early in this. I wouldn't worry about the fists to a gun fight.  At some point, i think we are going to be put in a position to use fists and quite frankly, your the man for that (ive got a 2 in it). Guns are only appropriate when there is no one to come and arrest you for them. At some point we are going to be in Miami, in a crowded place, with innocent bystanders where guns will NOT be appropriate. We as a group though are mostly mortal, we kinda are all like glass cannons. We hit hard, but we take a hit like France fights wars, badly. Heck Steve the Coiffed and Bear didn't even really get to any magic. Bear did get almost eaten by alligators though, which was entertaining.

Also there are alot of specialists in our group, so when its your time to shine you will do well, i think you are the only one with fists that high. Then Steve the bald and i purposely designed our charters as jack of all trades masters of looking good in a suit. So we have a lot of skills but most of mine are 1 ors 2. With stunts to augment the ones i deemed important.

Hell look at things from my characters point of view: 5:30 Am on a sunday he has a dead half shark half socialite on his hands, who has sewed HERSELF into that shark skin. Not to mention shes the daughter of the most powerful man in town. His best friend in Miami and the most knowledgeable man I know on the spooky side (steve the coiffed) has no clue what the hell is going on, and hes the Mage. The man who he would love to drag in on charges but none would stick, and who he acknowledges as an equal (steve the bald) added his own spin on it when he showed up the the prints and gun of the brother of the most powerful crime syndicate in Miami. An "associate" of said most powerful man in Miami has sent his driver "tess" to keep tabs on him (i think).  My crime scene photographer (ashley) happens to know the location of one of the few significant clues we have to date (that photo).  The club hes about to go ask question in, is under the sway of merfolk, and he knows it, and apparently this is tied to them somehow.  He knows The Redneck from previous run ins with steve the coiffed, but has yet to meet the pirate or Pele's simpleton.  And this has all happed BEFORE 1600 on Sunday.  

Special Agent Ian Fabian  (Z  Clued in well dressed FBI agent with a family history)
« Last Edit: January 25, 2011, 03:51:57 AM by zegion »
-They fought for their lives But most of them died

-The angels were crying, As they carried his brothers away. With the fire raining down And the Hell all around
There were few men left standing that day.


Big & Rich 8th of November.

Offline fantazero

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1217
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #245 on: January 25, 2011, 04:07:02 AM »

Special Agent Ian Fabian  (Z  Clued in well dressed FBI agent with a family history)

I'm sorry all I heard was



I know you dont watch TV, but that's Special FBI Agent Booth (Descendant of John Wilkes Booth) frm the show Bones.  Also Booth was an Army Ranger Sniper.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2011, 04:35:22 AM by fantazero »

Offline BumblingBear

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2123
  • Rawr.
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #246 on: January 25, 2011, 04:14:28 AM »
or Pele's simpleton.  

Hey!  I resemble that remark!



Josh Acker                         -                Warrior/Simpleton of Pele
Myself: If I were in her(Murphy's) position, I would have studied my ass off on the supernatural and rigged up special weapons to deal with them.  Murphy on the other hand just plans to overpower bad guys with the angst of her short woman's syndrome and blame all resulting failures on Harry.

Offline fantazero

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1217
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #247 on: January 25, 2011, 04:34:24 AM »
He knows The Redneck from previous run ins with steve the coiffed, but has yet to meet the pirate or Pele's simpleton.  And this has all happed BEFORE 1600 on Sunday.  

*In Character*
Brian Moman dont like talking to no Gub'ment man with his fancy badges and unconstitutional FBI patriot act nonsense. Police power is for the states not the Feds, this aint Russia comrade!
*spits tobacco*

Offline BumblingBear

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2123
  • Rawr.
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #248 on: January 25, 2011, 07:14:16 AM »
Armor with tooth-marks is just natures way of telling you that you are still alive...8)

True enough lol


Quote
Bear; Blog will work as long as she has some Journalistic credentials that allow her into SOME places.
She was thinking it might give her the motivation to do investigating of her own.  It might also give her the motivation to call a certain living-out-of-his truck someone to back her up for security.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2011, 09:24:38 PM by BumblingBear »
Myself: If I were in her(Murphy's) position, I would have studied my ass off on the supernatural and rigged up special weapons to deal with them.  Murphy on the other hand just plans to overpower bad guys with the angst of her short woman's syndrome and blame all resulting failures on Harry.

Offline Funge

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 40
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #249 on: January 25, 2011, 01:25:08 PM »
Hey, guys.  Steve M. here, or Bald Steve or whatever you prefer.  (I try to keep last name and most personal info the hell away from the internet.)  Noticed how much conversation was happening over here and figured I'd register.

Sunday was awesome.  The game was hours of investigation and story and jokes and frantic combat and character development and aspect suggestions.  Monday I played in my regular D&D game, and it was literally a single four hour combat that didn't really matter story-wise.  Guess which one of those I loved and which one was kind of dreary.  Working my schedule, it's incredibly difficult to find a regular game, so I'm really delighted by what we have going here.  I hope everybody else had fun too, but especially newbies Ashley and Mark.  This hobby can be kind of a lot to take in if you're jumping in the deep end.

Although we have some kinks to work out, it seemed to go pretty smoothly.  I apologize for, in retrospect, being a bit of a spotlight hog.  With this many players in the group, I definitely like the idea of players making their way to the sidelines when necessary while they RP out conversations.  Also, Ian, since a lot of what Marty does involves contacting potentially helpful people, would I be able to make some rolls for that in between games or before the game officially starts or something so as not to take up actual game time by, f'rinstance, seeing if I can reach the were-gator swamp folk?

It seems like we need to work on incorporating our aspects more into the game.  They're a new concept for me, at least in practice.  I've got to try to find more opportunities for compels, especially.  Did we manage to compel at all?  My PC definitely seems the type to get into lots and lots of trouble (compels) and who then needs to really struggle to get out of it (spending fate points).  And, as others have stated, we've got to integrate some of the PCs more thoroughly into the plotline(s).  Love the idea of Ashley's photographer being a clued-in CSI, but then again she's not my character.

Anybody else feel the need for some serious central-repository-type database?  Whether through Google Docs or Obsidian Portal, I think an investigation-heavy game like this with as many PCs and NPCs and locations as this has could really use it.  I like the formatting of Obsidian Portal, but don't really know what Google Docs might have going for it, not having used it before.  What are the high points of using Docs?  To that end, though, I've got a fillable forms character sheet 90% filled out that I'd upload to G-Docs if I could figure out how.  Tess?  Little help?

I'd like to cast a vote for Obsidian Portal, though.  I think Ian would have to open the campaign page itself, but after that I believe everyone else would be able to take it from there.  The "wiki" section isn't the only one accessible by all.  We could set up a listing under NPCs for Marcy Railsback, to give a limited example, and list everything we know or suspect about her (unfortunate mermaid princess of the sea, pint-sized speedy bugger running from her apartment, etc.), put in links to known associates/relations (Martin Railsback, Marius Vulpas), and we already have a picture of her, ah, demise.  Also, we can more readily access what one group of players learns while the others are chatting on the sidelines.  Mark could put up the newfound (and wonderful) picture of his PC as part of Brian Moman's page, I can throw up a character sheet, background questions and some investigative notes, Tess can throw up her business card and pictures of her swanky car, and Ashley can post a blog entry or two.  Any takers?  We don't need participation from everyone, and it needn't take hours and hours; I know we've got busy lives.  But I'm willing to put in some time, and think we could really use something like this.  The link from my original email to the New Orleans campaign is here.  (I'm still willing to be sold on Google Docs, though, despite some obvious bias.)

I've got more I'd like to say, but it's way past bedtime for me.  I'll get back here later on.

-Steve
AKA Marty Holbrook, Miami's premier clued-in fixer and smart-ass.

Offline Ren

  • Seriously?
  • ***
  • Posts: 14240
  • AKA: Renmonster The Horgymeister
    • View Profile
    • The Forbidden Dojo 3-D Art
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #250 on: January 25, 2011, 02:41:47 PM »
Tess already opened a Google Docs thingy for us to use, I think there's an email around somewhere if not it can be forwarded.
I'll take a look at Obsidian Portal, I still have the link you sent me but I haven't gotten around to checking it out.


And in other news, I found this little gen on the web...I want a setup like this!
http://gizmodo.com/5741712/this-must-be-the-craziest-computer-den-in-america
"Brain Makes My Math Hurt" - me

"Eeyore is my Totem Animal" - me

"Pants are overrated!" - me

Offline quizboy

  • Lurker
  • Posts: 9
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #251 on: January 25, 2011, 05:56:18 PM »
  I had a good time as well; I'm glad you guys thought so as well.

  One thing that really stood out to me was the way that there were so many "side role play" things going on.  This is something that I've only rarely seen in the past, and indidates good players.  In my opinion, it's a good habit to get into, and will help Ian (GM, not PC) when he is working with a different group of players.
  We probably need to work on the best way to do handle the side conversations, but it'll help out the game when we can do it well. :)

It would be cool if your character starts developing his guns skill more since he's hanging out with so many long distance types.  In fact, it would be really cool if he had a brace of black powder derringers that he left primed but not loaded.  Then before a fight, he could just load whatever type of ball is appropriate (silver, iron, lead, garlic, etc) and let fly. :)

  You guys may already know this, but my understanding is that pirates kept braces of loaded pistols on strands of rope; this was a primitive way of getting a repeating shot (shoot one pistol, drop, shoot next pistol, repeat).
  This would work great if you decided to load the pistols with different types of ammo:  mundane dangers would all be damaged by silver, iron, or lead.  For supernatural dangers, you'd just have to pick the correct pistol.

Lastly, there have been a couple of discussions regarding aspects and the way we are using them.  What I've seen from the previous games I've played, we aren't using them enough.  They are supposed to be one of the most powerful and unique parts of the system.

The aspect and fate point systems leads to an economy of points going back and forth around the table as bad things happen, and we use fate points to get out of tight spots.  We seemed to use the "free tags" from the maneuvers that were done, but that was about it.

I have one suggestion to try to help this:  how about we all list our aspects for Ian to put into a table/spreadsheet/bookmark?  That way, when we're in the middle of something, he can just glance down at it to compel us.

I'm not certain on the details of how aspects work, so maybe some talk about them will help.
  I'm uncertain if/when players can tag other players aspects.
  Are other players aspects private or public? 
  Does the GM tag positive aspects as well?  (give a player a fate point for playing up an aspect)
    I think the GM does, but players need to point it out when this happens.

Later.

--Steven (aka Gavin, aka the coiffed, aka the LoreMaster)







Offline fantazero

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1217
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #252 on: January 25, 2011, 06:21:18 PM »
O don't see why the pirate hockey guy can't have acannon on his boat.  Make those weresharks think twice my character could hook him up

Offline Ren

  • Seriously?
  • ***
  • Posts: 14240
  • AKA: Renmonster The Horgymeister
    • View Profile
    • The Forbidden Dojo 3-D Art
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #253 on: January 25, 2011, 06:31:58 PM »
I actually Have a list ready to fill up with everyone's aspects once I have them all. In the same document with the list of aspects and compels we started working up.
I do agree we need to use aspects more, I tend to prefer a more storytelling approach to things and keeping dice to a minimum and using aspects would certainly heighten that for us. We just need to get sued to how they are and are not used.
"Brain Makes My Math Hurt" - me

"Eeyore is my Totem Animal" - me

"Pants are overrated!" - me

Offline Funge

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 40
    • View Profile
Re: Miami Game; Blood in the Water (was LFG ATX)
« Reply #254 on: January 25, 2011, 08:38:12 PM »
Tess already opened a Google Docs thingy for us to use, I think there's an email around somewhere if not it can be forwarded.
I'll take a look at Obsidian Portal, I still have the link you sent me but I haven't gotten around to checking it out.


Yeah, that's why I was asking Tess for help on how to use it.  I think I'm finally figuring it out somewhat, though.  I have my character sheet .pdf uploaded, theoretically.  I think Mark's working on doing the same, but is experiencing technical difficulties.  Can somebody verify that my character sheet uploaded successfully over there?  There should be a folder for Marty with the sheet in it here.