Me, Maw-self, and I OOC

[Albinobrow]

I've been wanting to play a cyphers superhero style game for a while now. However, due to schedule conflicts as well as most of my RPGing friends not being familiar with the Cypher System, I've decided I am going to try and run a solo game using a GM emulator. Now there are 2 emulators out there that seem like they'd be useful for what I'm looking for: the Chaos Cypher System GM Emulator and the Mythic GM Emulator. I'm going to try out both here and see which I like best. I'm already seeing things in both that I think I'd like to combine but I am playing it by ear.

All that being said, I'm intending to use THIS forum as a way to take notes as well as behind the scene rolls that help with the development of the story, NPCs, etc. I will be making an IC thread for the actual story once I'm ready. This is intended to be a solo run for myself to try out and document my thoughts/feelings/discoveries/experiments. However, once I'm used to it, I'm hoping these emulators or some combination of the two will help facilitate more games that will allow more players involved over time.

As mentioned, this is going to be a superhero style Cypher System game. I am taking elements from Claim the Sky, The Origin, as well as Numenera Destiny and of course the Cypher System Core book. This character is based of a different PBPrpg game I played years ago that I was very sad never completed. So I've translated the concept here and hope to run him this way. The basic premise is he is a relatively average dude, except for his lower jaw open up to expand waay more than it should. It looks like a cross between a humpback whale's mouth and the Predator. Inside are rows and rows of teeth similar to a lamprey allowing him to eat pretty much anything. Not only can he eat anything, he is able to store the nutrients and bolster himself allowing for greater feats of strength and durability, as well as healing. Hope you like MAW:

[Albinobrow]

Maxwell Turnblad -- Maw
Incredible Explorer who Breaks Down Walls

Tier 1

Might 18 -- Edge 2
Speed 10 -- Edge 1
Intellect 10 -- Edge 0

Effort - 2

Power Shifts (Only 3 since this is an Origin story)
1. Power: Store Energy - This is the power that allows him to store energy from what he has eaten. Basically it's a 4th pool that holds up to 3 points based on how far down the damage track something is destroyed (eaten), and can be used later on as needed.
2. Strength - affects all things strength, including damage, doesn't affect accuracy
3. Strength again

Special Abilities:
Breaker - I eat everything!
Hard as Synthsteel - My body adapts automatically so that I can eat everything!
Store Energy - See above, 3pt in Siphon pool
Improved Edge (Speed) - Speed things cost less
Trained W/O Armor - Trained in speed defense
Amazing Leap - I can jump real far! Like the Hulk!
Incredible Action - I can automatically succeed at something once a day at most, but at a price...

Training:
Trained Speed Defense
Trained Jumping
Specialized Breaking Things (Again eating specifically, but can just as easily break things with his fists)
Inability Social Interaction

11/29/22 - Advanced Might edge +1
4/11/23 - Advanced effort to 2

[Albinobrow]

Let's set up the first scene. For the sake of ease and time I'll be rolling most OOC things IRL.

It's the modern world plus superheroes akin to the MCU (sorry for any DC fans out there :P). Max, 21 year old, is on the run, out in the woods just outside of town. He wears a dark green hooded jacket that zips and obscures the lower half of his face over a navy blue v-neck shirt, dark jeans, and some simple black high tip converse shoes. . Nothing outlandish. But he's running through the woods from... (Using the Book of Random Tables Modern) Department of Homeland Security. Which makes sense, again superheroes are not like that of MCU in that they are new. Not common, and currently not governed in any way.

While he's running... (Superhero random encounters using the Book of Random Tables Modern) Rolled a 55 which is Lost Child. As he is running, he leaps behind a small rock formation ducking down to try and catch his breath. But as he lays there listening for any footsteps he here's a faint sound of crying. (Odds it's a boy evens it's a girl, random name) A young boy, Steven, has run away from home. (Using UNE let's learn more about Steven) He is an Insensitive beggar his motivation is publicize the government. So maybe not a young boy, but a teenager. He lives on the streets and begs for a living but is also protesting unequal living conditions and the situation he's in.

I think this situation is Unstable (The Chaos GM emulator sets unstable as 12.) Consulting the GM Roll 2 adds a developer. The developer is NPC inhibitor, something is detrimental to the NPC goal. Currently only 2 NPCs: Steven(odd) and DOH(even). Odd. Detrimental to Steven. I think that the reason we hear Steven crying is because he fell and is trapped under a heavy log. He was trying to hide up in a tree and the bottom branch broke and fell on top of him.

Cool! So scene is set up. We are Unstable, running from the DOH, and come across Steven who's leg is trapped underneath a heavy branch.

[Albinobrow]

Jump check (1d20)[15] 4 free levels of effort, trained. running start asset = eased 6 steps. Lvl 11 success

Breaker vs tree branch (Lvl 2 +1 for hardness) on Steven's legs (1d20)[4] Specialized, 2 free levels of effort from Strength = eased 4 steps. Lvl 5 success, two damage down the object damage track. Tree branch has major damage. 2 points added to Devour Pool.

[Albinobrow]

What are the odds that Maw finds the boy without being found by the suits?

I will say it is likely. Target 9 (1d20)[15] He does find him with out being seen.

[Albinobrow]

What are the odds that Steven passes out after seeing the MAW?

Im gonna say that it is likely Lvl 2 challenge (1d20)[19] Oh yeah, he passes out.

[Albinobrow]

Another bite out of the tree lvl 2 [roll]1d20[/roll] eased 4 steps

[Albinobrow]

take 2

Another bite out of the tree lvl 2 (1d20)[18] eased 4 steps

[Albinobrow]

In Character Thread

[Albinobrow]

Alrighty, so we have this kid.. Now what? He is a hero of course so he's gonna want to protect him. The question is where does he go from here? Does Max keep running deeper into the woods hoping to find something there? Or does he turn and make his way back into town and risk running into the suits again?

I think it's likely that he goes back into town. Max is a good guy and doesn't want to get tangled with the suits, but he really doesn't want anything bad to happen to the kid, and more importantly, he doesn't have any sort of medical knowledge himself. So 6 or better on the roll and he turns back towards town. (1d20+6)[26] (Any modifiers to this result? (1d20)[3] vs Unstable (4) adventure status)

[Albinobrow]

Not sure why I added 6 to the first die roll but either way, it's and extreme YES. Max takes the kid to the city AND we add a developer. Let's roll for the developer and see how/if that affects our extreme yes. (1d20)[15]

[Albinobrow]

15 results in a PC Enabler! So not only does he decide to make his way back into the city, he does make it there with no problems whatsoever. He doesn't run into the suits. The kid doesn't give him any grief, in fact does the kid wake up at all before he gets to the city. I believe Max would take him to the ER so that he can get looked at and taken care of. But does he wake up before then? I dunno, let's roll! I say it's average. Now in the Chaos system it leans just slightly towards a yes by aiming for a 9 or better, but I'm gonna call it true 50/50 so 11 or better equals yes and below equals a no.

(1d20)[15]
Roll modifier vs Unstable 4 (1d20)[1]

[Albinobrow]

Yes he does wake up and it's modified once more. But how? (1d20)[16]

[Albinobrow]

Another PC Enabler? I think what this means is that not only does the kid (Forgot his name was Steven even though Max doesn't know it yet) wake up before we get to the hospital, but he is going to pay back Max for rescuing him from under the tree branch. My first thought is shelter. A place to hunker down for now at least.

Alrighty, so Max is going to make his way back into town (need to figure out the name of the town..), Steven will wake up and offer a place to hide out for a bit. Will post the resulting store part another time.

[Albinobrow]

Does Max succesfully remove the scarf and kid from his back before he comes to? I think it's unlikely. He isn't graceful or great in social situations in general.

(1d20)[5] That's a no. haha

[Albinobrow]

I think that's a good conclusion to the scene here.

Max escapes from the DOH.
He makes an acquaintance in Steven.
They are in the town of Eastbridge, heading to a location where Steven can get looked at and Max can hunker down for a bit.

I'm gonna give Max 1XP for making the acquaintance. We will see how the rest plays out as to if he will get any more upon arriving to their destination.

I'm also going to leave the situation as unstable. I'm not sure where the suits are with regards to looking for him and even though Max is mostly in control, he is looking after Steven with his injury while they make their way through town. So still unstable. For now.b

Current character arc is going to be "Aid a Friend" for obvious reasons. As the story develops and we learn more about the world and the people in it, we can add another character arc to explore. But that'll be it for now.

Next time I want to learn more about Eastbridge and the location we're heading to hunker down, as any significant NPCs involved there. I have some thoughts, but we will see how the dice play out.

[Albinobrow]

Looking at the community rules in Numenera Destiny, it makes sense to me to look at Eastbridge as a collection of communities within a major community of Eastbridge.

That being said, this location that Steven is taking Max to is a housing project community as a level 1 community. Not much available outside of basic needs covered, food, shelter, first aid, etc. But also not gonna be a big area of interest for any groups currently looking for Max. Maybe Steven too? Remember when we created him, we found he's a beggar who protests unequal living conditions. Is that why he was in the woods? Maybe running from someone because of his protests? 5 on the d20 says no. hmmm... Instead he was just running from a regular fight. Maybe some other classmates picking on him foooorrrrrr him being poor? 17 on d20 says yes. So I don't think this housing project is going to be able to really protect Steven from the kids, they'll know where he lives that's why he is picked on. I'm thinking Steven isn't a bad guy. Insensitive, maybe a little crass, but that's just how he responded to the way life made him.

Motivation for leader of this housing project was "Antagonise Weapons" which makes sense as this is meant to be a safe haven for youth with out homes. Maybe those classmates were in a gang and this leader is very anti violence, anti gang. I think its very likely. 16 on d20 says yes. Now who is the leader? Leader is male. Named Earl. I picture Earl as a tall wirey man, salt and pepper hair that's thinning out because of stress. Clearly worn out but puts on a good face for those he's in charge of. His establishment is called Arbor Apartments. Only 15ish residents at a time at most. And even then it's not the best because the funding isn't there necessarily.

I like it! It's a good first look into where Max and Steven are headed. Next I'll make some rolls for the journey into town to get there and if there are any complications there.

[Albinobrow]

Now I'm envisioning that the forest they are leaving hugs right up to the city on the east side of east bridge. (Is there a river on the East going through the forest, where perhaps the main road in crosses over a bridge?? I think so, in fact I'm not gonna roll. The town is called Eastbridge after all lol)

But with no more than 50ft of clear area between where the forest truly begins and the city begins, just a short distance in cypher system terms. The question is, how far into the city do they haver to go to get to Arbor Apartments? Is it less than a 30 minute walk from the forest's edge? Considering that Steven got out into the forest on foot, I'd say that's likely. 6 on the d20 says yes within a 30 minute walk. No here's the kicker. The current situation is still unstable, only Steven knows where to go and is injured, so Max has to help him along so long as Steven lets him. But that 6 on the die also adds a developer. (I haven't been adding developer for things with world building, but now that we're getting back into the story and action, let's see what this means.) 8 on the d20 says a decrease in the next task difficulty by 1. So that's cool! I'll need to remember that but no big deal if I forget it.

No the main question I have now that they are back in the city and making their way to Arbor Apartments, does the DOH catch up with them? I think it's an Average chance, so 9 or better on the d20 is a yes. 3!! No the DOH does not catch up to them. Interesting.. Does anybody else stop them along the way? Again average, and again NO! Ok so 30 minutes in and they get to the housing project with no issues from anyone. Interesting indeed.

Well, that's just the way things go! In A-A-A-Albe.. Nevermind.

So then, they are going to go there and meet up with Earl. I'm gonna try out the Chaos NPC generator to generate how this first interaction with Earl goes. How this works is you roll 4d100s. The first is for the emotional tone of the NPC, the second and third are describing words on what the topic of conversation will be about. (Depending on the result, we may be pretty loose on the interpretation based on what we know of Earl already. ... Wait, I never generated an actual descriptor for him! Only his name! Ok that first then the rest of this.) the fourth d100 describes the focus of conversation.

Earl is a a dignified hitman?!?! Oh man, that's a curve I wasn't expecting but this is a superhero game so it tracks! His personal motivation in general is indulge academia. Educating his charges. So maybe it's not common knowledge of his being a hitman. Maybe he has left that business and is instead taking care of inner city youth. I'd say that's likely, and 14 on the die agrees. Cool! So ex hitman, that we the players don't know about but wanting it inform those he is in charge of and keep them safe. I am gonna change the idea of him, while stressed out he is dignified, so he acts properly at all times. As an example I'm sure.

And now the interaction emulator. 4d100 results are: 38 46 43 44. Stupid Unsure Secrets Day. Hmm gonna have to think about that some. Some type of discourse from Earl where his emotional tone is "stupid", the conversation topic is about "unsure secrets", and the focus is "day." It's very interesting that his personal motivation is to indulge in academia but the conversation is about secrets. Ah well. Hopefully, I can get to actually writing out what happens next time on Dragonball Z!

[Albinobrow]

Does Max listen and stay? I say it's 50/50. He wants a safe place to hide out, but he also really doesn't want to endanger these people.

(1d20)[16]

Yes, he stays.

[Albinobrow]

Has Steven told Earl about Max's maw?? I think it's actually pretty likely considering he's insensitive and stuff.

So 6 or higher is a yes. Also should've rolled to see if there's any modifier last time so I will now for this one. I'm actually gonna move the situation to Average. A lot of things have gone right so it's heading towards "stable" status.

(1d20)[2]

[Albinobrow]

Oh wow! He actually hasn't told Earl about Max's abilities, BUT there is a developer we need to add and that developer is...

(1d20)[11] Automatic Success! Wow! This is great for Max and terrible for the drama of the story. haha

So I think what that means is however this conversation goes, it's an automatic success that Max will stay here for at least a little bit based on the automatic success there.

[Albinobrow]

Does steven or Earl notice Max being uneasy about eating dinner? I think it's unlikely (12+) for Steven and likely (6+) for Earl. Remember status is now "Average"

Steven (1d20)[1] Modifier? (1d20)[19] Steven is completely clueless, in fact I think that he ran in as soon as Earl mentioned dinner. No modifier.

Earl (1d20)[15] Modifier? (1d20)[19] Earl does notice, and I think he is dignified enough to offer a solution. Again No modifier.

[Albinobrow]

Alright! So that covers the modifier of automatically succeeding in finding a place to stay. He's successfully aided a friend with really no trouble at all from anywhere.. Which story wise was a little disappointing but that happens sometimes. The question is, now what?

Well to close out this part of the story, I'm gonna change the Adventure status once more to Stable because again, nothing crazy happened. I'm going to grant Max 1 XP for finding a place to stay and another 1 XP for successfully aiding a friend. He now has 3 XP total. In cypher system those XP can be used for rerolls or short or long term benefits as well as advancing a character. Obviously there hasn't been much rolling needed to even consider rerolling so we're in good shape so far.

Next time we will create the scene of what happens after they sleep and/or wake up.

[Albinobrow]

Does what I think happen actually happen? I think it's extremely likely so 3+ on the d20

(1d20)[17] Yup! Ok, time to come up with a super villian! I might take one out of Claim the Sky if there's an apt one there. But I'll look at that later.

[Albinobrow]

Alrighty! So basically the thought I had was that the DOH never actually lost track of Max. Instead they saw him leave the forest with Steven and have sent a solo agent to go and retrieve him from Arbor Apartments. looking through Claim the Sky, I've decided on sending Entropy a level 5 villain that can transform matter. So let's see what happens!

First question is this, Does Max hear him enter the room? I think it's very unlikely so 15 or better means he does here. also a modifier roll against stable (6).

Does he hear? (1d20)[12] He doesn't hear
Modifier roll (1d20)[13] And the story continues unmodified.

Let's get into it!

[Albinobrow]

Does Max wake before Entropy starts moving the bed? Unlikely (12) (1d20)[5]

[Albinobrow]

Time to break things! Now basically the situation is Entropy has snuck in to the room, pulled the bedsheet over Max's mouth and then transformed it to iron. So they don't flow or move anymore and have him pinned. He then transformed the bottom bunk to a separate bed on wheels so that he can push it.

So Max won't be eating it, but he's a strong boy! He's going to try and just break through. Now the material is very thin. A sheet would normally be a level 1 hardness and now that it is transformed to metal it's +2 levels. So level 3 (9 on d20) to damage it at all. Max's ability to break things is specialized and eased 2 steps due to his strength power shifts (this equals a +12 on the roll essentially). So he will basically add 12 to his roll. Meaning he will definitely begin to break through, but by how much? (1d20+12)[17] That's actually a pretty low roll. So it'll only give minor damage which lowers the level of the blanket by 1.

The issue now, is Entropy almost definitely is aware now that Max is awake.

[Albinobrow]

I think it's very likely that Entropy heard Max's attempt to break through the sheet. 3+ is a yes.
(1d20)[1] He does NOT hear Max!!! WOW! In fact that, critical no tells me he doesn't even know that Max is awake and will be surprised when max breaks out!
Modifier vs 6 (1d20)[2] And there's a developer added to the scene. IRL roll says that it's a 7 which increases the next difficulty by 1 basically negating the benefit of the metal sheet being damaged. It is still damaged but doesn't take the -1 to level.

[Albinobrow]

(hopefully) One more push through to break out of the sheet. LVL 3 (1d20+12)[15] Aw man! Still only 1 more level. I'm rolling very poorly.. However Major damage says it's broken and and no longer functions, which says to me that it is no longer restraining him. But can theoretically be repaired.

[Albinobrow]

Let's take a blow at the man! Again, he is surprised so this attack will be eased because of it, essentially giving a +3. Punching is considered a light weapon giving another +3. BUT that's the only benefit to attack cause Max isn't trained to be a fighter. But when he hits (IF he hits), he hits HARD! 8 points of damage thanks to his superhuman strength. So let's see if he hits! Entropy is a lvl 5 enemy.

(1d20+6)[11] Aw man! Swing and a miss?! So with Cypher System there is an option to reroll by spending 1 XP. I reeeeaaally want this first trike to hit. So I'm gonna spend the XP to reroll, AND choose to apply effort spending 2 of my might pool to east the attack again.