World of Warcraft - Interbellum (OOC Thread)

[BananaPhone]

Just so there's no confusion, Marion is suggesting to help with the Horde with the centaur, the Horde being the local "Big Dog".

[Plaids]

Sorry for the misunderstanding I primed myself for Marion wanting to help the Tinkerer's Unio given her interest in business and technology. So, the praise for the local goblins was weighted more heavily in my head.

[BananaPhone]

No worries, I probably should have been more clear.

But basically she see's that they already have decent standing with the locals and the Cenarion Hold. So they'll get the most gain with the Horde and gain a little indebtedness from them by helping out. Out of three options, that has the biggest gain in rewards, so to speak.

[MrAbdiel]

No excuse for my delay! I'll post first thing tomorrow morning.

Sounds like no one's keen on the Samophlange, and there's divided interest in Centaur bustin' and Cavern crawlin'. I'll make a suggestion IC as Moonshadow and let you guys make your verdict.

[BananaPhone]

Posting tomorrow.

[Plaids]

Just made a post. The summary being over a complimentary meal Jakk'ari offering a chance for the other applicants to stay in touch with guild in case more help is needed. The motives being the desire to be polite and being on good terms with these people. As well as Jakk'ari having a backup group of adventurers because he is afraid the other party members will get content with their new positions and soon their goals won't align with Jakkari's.

I don't expect anyone to abandon the quest, Jakk'ari is just being a bit paranoid, and I prefer games to not have any OOC secrets between players.

[MrAbdiel]

Sounds good to me, Plaids.

Alright, so it looks like the compromise-consensus is to personally act on the Wailing Caverns, dispatch Aleeana to scope out the Kolkar situation so that you have that info for a later date when you interrogate the Crossroads orcs about their dealings with the Kolkar, and for the other staffers, especially Seraphis and Aglet, to try to get ahold of that manual for the samophlange so when you all return from the Caverns, you can determine if this is just corporate espionage or if it's something actually worth your time.

If that sounds about right, I'll prepare some round up posts and we'll get underway for the investigation. Speak now or forever hold your peace! Since you have alchemists AND an alchemy lab now AND a herb garden, I'll permit the group to begin any given adventure with a total of three potions from each potion-maker, of kinds that can be accomplished with routine checks, distributed throughout the group as you see fit. I'm pretty flexible but if you want a particularly weird potion power run it by me first. Crafting professions that are not presently supported by tower infrastructure can have one such device/inscription/enchantment of similar limitations.

[Feathersnow]

Request-
1 each healing, intellect, and water breathing

[JoyWonderLove]

I feel this is where I discover if I need to rework things totally.

Can I bring rations that help the group (Cooking 15)?

Can I Well Informed (20+) my way into knowing what threats the cave might have? Or the area they disappeared in?

I feel like from there, I can probably make an Inscription (20+) that fits the specific task (druid...homing....sword?) or more likely, make an Inscription that's good to do damage (my concern is making sure I'm useful in and out of a fight, but with Investigation already high....guess it depends how bad the terrain is, and how long ago they disappeared).

Sidenote, I'll probably ask someone magical or big on ship travel about the doodad. It's doubtful it's purely mundane.

[Plaids]

I assuming effect, protection, and restoration are the three potion types we can choose from. I'm considering the option listed here. https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Potion

Haste potion, potion of curing (anti-venom), dreamless sleep potion; essentially a healing potion that causes people to fall asleep.

Potions confer powers for some time when ingested.
Haste potion: Quickness//Probably just speed 1 to keep it balanced.
Curing: Immunity (poison)
Sleep potion: Affliction (sleep)

[BananaPhone]

If potions are being handed out, Marion will take a couple of healing pots. Other than that, can't think of anything she'd need.

[MrAbdiel]

I feel this is where I discover if I need to rework things totally.

Can I bring rations that help the group (Cooking 15)?

Yes you can. I'd say you'd be building it as a multi-target power with some kind of fortitude boost, perhaps. Do you want me to mock up an example and propose it, or are you comfortable and content building this ration 'gadget'? Perhaps something like Enhanced Trait: Fortitude. For potions and other craftables, I'm willing to be flexible in regard to the PL cap. I don't mind if a short term buff potion kicks a stat up over the cap by one, or if, in this case, special spiced rations give a Fort tweak that, strictly speaking, breaks the defence cap.

Can I Well Informed (20+) my way into knowing what threats the cave might have? Or the area they disappeared in?

Spoiler: What you know:

Show

The Caverns are, of course, subterranean; but their primary entrance is in the fertile area known as the Lushwater Oasis. One of many oases in the Barrens, it is an important water source for a great deal of the Barrens wildlife in the area, and also many of the Kolkar centaur. But aside from the wailing, steamy discharge of the caverns, you've no reason to believe it should feature more than typical area-specific fauna - maybe some skulking raptors and wind serpents; perhaps some spiders. But if that were all there was to fear, you doubt the druids would be having trouble!

I feel like from there, I can probably make an Inscription (20+) that fits the specific task (druid...homing....sword?) or more likely, make an Inscription that's good to do damage (my concern is making sure I'm useful in and out of a fight, but with Investigation already high....guess it depends how bad the terrain is, and how long ago they disappeared).

Sounds like and activatable power that permits you to sense residual druid magic! Same offer as for the ration-build applies, if you want help!

Sidenote, I'll probably ask someone magical or big on ship travel about the doodad. It's doubtful it's purely mundane.

Which doodad? The Samophlange?

Request-
1 each healing, intellect, and water breathing

All work for me, and all pretty easy to build, adjustable to your alchemy skill. A healing power, an Enhanced Trait: Intelligence elixir (traditionally, it would have a 2hr duration and, perhaps, a +1 Int bonus past the stat cap), and immunity: breathing! Let me know if you want me to help building those!

I assuming effect, protection, and restoration are the three potion types we can choose from. I'm considering the option listed here. https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Potion

Haste potion, potion of curing (anti-venom), dreamless sleep potion; essentially a healing potion that causes people to fall asleep.

Those are a good place to start for inspiration, but my commitment to the WOW theme is not so granular I require a perfect mapping of powers to potions at that level! But all of those would work for sure.

If potions are being handed out, Marion will take a couple of healing pots. Other than that, can't think of anything she'd need.

She's entitled to make a gadget with her engineering, don't forget!

Edit: Also, if anyone was planning on following up on the Insight check embedded in the first post in this last scene, let me know; otherwise, no worries.

Spoiler: Also, Windstruck!:

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Hey! I remember you spending a point to speak Orcish, but because a certain amount of multilingualism is necessary for this game, I intend to give everyone Orcish if they don't have it for free. So you can either hold off on that spend and use the point elsewhere, or I'll just refund you the point when everyone gets their certificate of Orcish competence.

Additionally, I've been thinking about your magic complication. We talked about it during the last mission as seeming more onerous than it ought to be, and I think you might be clear to toss out the 'must stand still to cast' thing. Basically, I think I've allowed my desire to mirror game mechanicms for the joy of it to intrude upon what is practical within M&M3 and fun for the players. That's not what Complications are meant to do, and if I'd thought about it more at the time, I ought to have steered you away and saved some trouble. We'll assume there's a certain amount of pausing mid stride to cast that's just factored into your spells. If you want to juice more value out of your powers, you can build them with modifiers that require movement restrictions and so forth at your leisure; otherwise, I'll make no demands of you just because you're casting magic. I will, however, still call on the Complication - it just means that I'll periodically offer you a Victory Point to stand your ground and cast rather than run and cast over your shoulder as you go. Sound good?

[BananaPhone]

She's entitled to make a gadget with her engineering, don't forget!

It's tempting, but I don't want to "cheapen" her engineering by just making up new gadgets left right and centre. It kinda loses its special lustre if she does so, know what I mean?

[MrAbdiel]

Well, alright!

Though a gadget that unfolds into a workbench on which to work on gadgets in the field might be neat... Hmm...

But hey, you're the mad-scientist-demonology-princess; and I am just a barefoot teller of tales. :)

[BananaPhone]

Besides, Necessity is the Mother of All Inventions, so I'm sure she'll return from the Wailing Caverns with several new ideas for marvellous products.

[MrAbdiel]

Urge to make a WoW female gnome engineer called "Necessity" ... rising.

[WindStruck]

Maybe her full name can be something like Nesabella "Ness" S. Attey.

Though I admit, it's very contrived. Probably an urge you should ignore.

[MrAbdiel]

Too late!

Spoiler: And I went Goblin instead of Gnome.

Show

[BananaPhone]

Should've made her a druid in bear form or a panda...

[JoyWonderLove]

@MrAbdiel, yeah, any and all help with mechanics would be fantastic, honestly!

[MrAbdiel]

Jakk'ari: Trail markers work for me. They'll give you a bonus to navigate when you are backtracking under most conditions. As for talking to the elements... make me a persuasion test. With a +2 bonus because you are a shaman, and these are your people.

[Plaids]

I forgot to roll. Here goes.
(1d20+8)[17]

[WindStruck]

You know, Isaera would automatically pass her insight check that something was wrong with Felix, though I guess I forgot to specifically state anything about that...

And sorry for running late. Two of my days were eaten up babysitting a sick child, and then of course.. I get that sickness.

Also I'm having trouble finding this.. do we have eight PP to work with for improvement?

Or was it technically only 8 skill points?

[MrAbdiel]

You know, Isaera would automatically pass her insight check that something was wrong with Felix, though I guess I forgot to specifically state anything about that...

And sorry for running late. Two of my days were eaten up babysitting a sick child, and then of course.. I get that sickness.

Also I'm having trouble finding this.. do we have eight PP to work with for improvement?

Or was it technically only 8 skill points?

Current XP dispensations have been:

2PP awarded after The Rumble of Raptor Road.
2PP awarded after The Fracas in Brackenwall
4PP awarded after The Stonemaul Demon-Dragon Jamboree
4PP awarded after Patch 1.0.1 where I smoothed the enchanting rules and gave people PP to compensate for stuff.

That last 4PP might be what you were clicking on, as the value of 8 skill points.

And delays are perfectly acceptable; I've had no few of my own. My plan is tomorrow night to have crunched out your potions (we'll keep their stats on file as a kind of brewing catalogue), and the next night to reply to alllll that you guys have posted, and then to try to get snappier and more frequent with my posting.

[WindStruck]

Excellent, excellent! So I have finally decided on the upgrade and changed Isaera's sheet. She officially has the Feather Fall spell, and Frost Armor!

[MrAbdiel]

Excellent, excellent! So I have finally decided on the upgrade and changed Isaera's sheet. She officially has the Feather Fall spell, and Frost Armor!

Excellent. I'll make sure to include some perilous falls, in future! :D

Alright gang, here's the spread of potions as I've crunched them out. Some of them don't use your full 'budget' of capacity; which means someone with their iron grip on the rules and a hunger for juicing them of all capacity would feel the need to pack in some more linked powers and modifiers to 'fill out out'. In those cases, assume that the extra ability was used shortening the design and creation time periods. For example, Mor'Lag and Isaera have both made water breathing potions. But Isaera has 7 more ranks worth of Alchemy. We'll assume Isaera whipped hers up in an evening, attenting the bunsen burner every twenty minutes just to check on it. While Mor'Lag went through a more careful labor, and produced a similar result with considerably more effort and direct time investment.

Emilia's Deal-ia

You have inscribed the lens with a Magehound inscription, circling the rim of the glass with tiny golden script you can remove later, and adding a modifier so the inscription targets Life magic. Functionally, the power is: Senses, with ranks in Awareness (Life Magic, 1 Rank), Tracking (2 Ranks, meaning you can track without slowing your normal speed), Acute (1 Rank, so you can distinguish between different trails), and Counters Illusion (2 Ranks) because that seemed wise for your intention. I also threw in 4 Ranks for Precognition, but that's going to manifest less as lucid visions of the past, and more as the ability to look a a bunch of traces and make some logical jumps about what happened there, specifically in regard to Life magic.

You also have prepared a very fine meal to give the group a break from the travel rations. It's a Kalimdor Seafood Hotpot, featuring cuts of Rainbow Fin Albacore, Bristlewhisker Catfish, and Rainbow Smallfish, courtesy of your capering gardener/fishfinder-general. Its fragrant and flavoursome payload promises a meal that will delight tastebuds and at the price of a little sweat, as a result of the spices; but it certainly gets the blood flowing, and ready to discharge heat! Functionally, the power is a linked set: Enhanced Trait (Resistance, 2 Ranks); and Immunity (Environmental Heat). Possibly useful, descending into the steamy cave. The effects will last on anyone who takes the time to sit down and eat the meal as you've prepared it for one nebulous adventure period - if you come out of the cave to sleep and go in again the next day, you'll need to fork out a Victory point to use it again if you want. It has a handful of modifiers (Affects others, Permenant, Innate, Subtle) but that's just to establish that this is food someone is digesting, not a magical effect that can be countered; and that you don't glow bright orange or anything.

Mor'Lag's Swag Bag

A much simpler arrangement!

Healing Potion. I'll let you decide. If you pour your ranks into making it Healing Rank 3, the user will make a healing check (that is to say, 1d20+3) at a DC 10 to recover a condition, with each degree (5 pts over the DC) removing an additional one. If you want a slightly more potent brew, you could take the modifier (Side Effect) and end up with 7 ranks on Healing, so that test would be 1d20+7 - much less likely to crap out. But if it does crap out, there will be a hilarious side effect I'll decide at the time.

Intellect Potion. Enhanced Trait (Intellect, 3 Ranks) for a +3 bump to intellect.

Water Breathing Potion. Immunity (Suffocation Underwater), and a linked Swim power with 2 ranks thrown in as a kicker. That means the imbiber can breathe water normally, and swim at a speed of 0, which is Normal speed for a human operating on land.

Isaera's Medicina

First two easy, last one odd.

Water Breathing Potion. Immunity (Suffocation Underwater), and a linked Swim power with 2 ranks thrown in as a kicker. That means the imbiber can breathe water normally, and swim at a speed of 0, which is Normal speed for a human operating on land.

Lesser Troll-Blood Potion. No actual trolls are harmed in the making of this 'weak' but impressive regenerative tonic. In game terms, it's Regeneration with 10 ranks. Which means for one minute (10 rounds), you recover one condition (starting with toughness penalties) per round. Since a person with 10 toughness penalties should look like an old banana that went through the dryer, that's pretty impressive.

Mana Potion. The simplest request, but the most difficult to accomodate in the system because of the way it handles (or doesn't handle) mana. But my best offer is that it acts, effectively, like a rank of Luck Control, usable only to tell me to go jump off a bridge if I try to activate your Mana related complications at an inconvenient time. In previous times, I've posed my Complication moments as offers (If you go do this dumb thing, I will give you 1 VP); but I will indeed start imposing unilateral disasters, and this will be useful if you want to be able to opt out!


Also, I'm going to go ahead and start using what I'll call a Buff Cap.

Nothing too complex, but the Buff Cap is how much I'm willing to allow people to augment abilities with potions and consumables past the normal Power Level caps of the game. It's +2. +2 is the Buff cap.

Example:

Mor'Lag drinks her Intellect Potion. For the duration, Mor and Lag receive a +3 bonus to their binary intellect score! This is useful, because their intellect isn't shabby, but has room for improvement, and many skills that rely on intellect have room between where they are, and the Power Level's imposed cap of 10+PL (a total of 14.)

Isaera drinks Mor'Lag's Intellect Potion. In addition to making Mor'Lag flush with pride, Isaera receives a bonus to her Intellect of +3! Useful for many endevours, increasing her already powerful mind to insufferable levels. However, in some areas, she's already pretty supreme. With a Expertise: Arcane Magic Skill at 14, she can only benefit from 2 points of the 3 point intellect bonus up to a 16. At 16, she hits the buff cap, and the last point of potential bonus is lost for that purpose.

It's a way, I hope, of keeping these items useful; but also not raising the Power Level and thus permitting, indeed obligating, the raising of scores to the new maximum. There has to be a limit on how good you can be at things; but you should always be better than that limit when you are on the right drugs.

Notably, this means that Emilia's food buff, the +2 Resistance part, is still useful to everyone. Since the Power Level rules state you can't have more than PL*2 points in Resistance and Will combined, the Buff Cap means even with flush defences, you can stack a little buff on top.

The Buff Cap is only accessible to consumable items, with all the limitations those entail. Makes sense, I hope.

IC post tomorrow! :D

[Feathersnow]

Will definitely take the more powerful version with a down sude!

[Plaids]

Should I provide more details for the potions I mentioned?
I don't see them in the prepared items post.

[MrAbdiel]

Sidescenes replied!

And time has crept up on me, on account of family visitation I hadn't expected; so the main scene resolution will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon for me. :(

Should I provide more details for the potions I mentioned?
I don't see them in the prepared items post.

Plaids! Sorry buddy, I could have been clearer. The potion makers are Isaera and Mor'Lag, who both have Artificer: Alchemy, and the Alchemy skill to support it. I keep thinking there are three potion makers because of ol' Zachary, but he's not on deck right now!

The effect of having Jakk'ari around, with his Herbalism skill, is that with the garden on hand, all the potion makers get to make an extra potion because Jakk'ari's giving them the goods. So each alchemist makes 1 potion (for being an alchemist), 1 potion (for having a potion lab room, in the stronghold), and 1 potion (for having a herb garden and someone who knows how to get the most out of it), for a total of three potions each. The group can dispense the potions throughout the group how you guys like.

Aside from that passive boon, I'm seeking to make sure Jakk'ari's herbalism knowledge gets its value; but as far as mission prep goes, it's biggest boon is supporting the alchemists.

[MrAbdiel]

With despair I must report I won't be able to post tonight. No sympathetic reason; a game I was playing in ran wildly overtime because we Ravenloft TPK'd us and we had to do a post mortem about it. :( I have not forgotten. I just have to work tomorrow. Sorry.