Out of Character Thread

Keep in touch! Speak your mind!

Hey! Thanks for having me, Cel! Mecha Mecha High Mecha Hiney Ho!

Nothing like 10cm of durasteel between you and the cold embrace of vacuum to make you feel alive. :)

Egads. The first time I went through this book, I didn't realize quite how much my preexisting knowledge was filling in the gaps with this game. I'm gathering up the oddities in a list to send the writer, hopefully that'll smooth things out for future players. So, if you see anything weird, feel free to speak up.

Ironmonger, thanks for being here, since it made me read with a somewhat more critical eye after the first time.

It was mostly confusion. I am very familiar with monster of the week, but I just couldn't figure out how you get points in skin, steel, and soul, so I assumed that's what strive was talking about when it said it was part of those.

There are a couple of games that nicely summarize FitD mechanics on a page or two… feels like C&S is really missing that.

Looking at it again, they do mention one time how to know how many dice to roll for attributes, but it is easy to miss.

Sorry for the slow down, got called in for an unexpected job interview, I'm catching up now.

Good luck with the job application!

I hope you get the job and it's what you are looking for.

Got the job, freaking out.

Good for you! Happy for you!

Yahoo!

Put out expanded descriptions for the CASPR and ARES Crews, since those seem to be getting most of the attention. I intend to get to the rest as I have more time.

What is the main thing we need to get started? Do we need a high level of a mission so we can start preparing and heading out? It might be good to start with a very simple short mission so we can get our feet wet with the system

Sorry, the onboarding for the new job is a little more intensive than I expected. I don't even start 'til the 16th, I wasn't expecting them to issue me homework. Hopefully I get everything wrapped up tomorrow and I can get back on track.

All good, we just don't want a reasonably involved chargen process to stall us out.

Okay, finally got all those pesky responsibilities out of the way.

I think we're just about done, honestly. Should have an IC thread tonight or tomorrow, depending.

Sorry to keep you waiting, took me a little more time to pivot to a new opener than I thought.

Life, what a pain... :P

No worries, and woohoo!

All good, let's go! :)

Starting the new job this week, there might be a bit of a slowdown as I adapt to the new schedule. I'm not expecting any trouble though.

How are things going?

It's more of a mental load than I was expecting, but I am adapting. I've got the route down now, at least, now it's mostly about coping with the wild inconsistency of college town addresses. A shocking number of these places have three or more valid addresses, which makes sorting things a bit of a nightmare. Especially since people are dragging their feet on getting me the stuff I need (security passes, log-ins for the machines, a friggin' uniform...).

Oh, right, and I lost my house key somewhere out there today, so I had to go and make a copy off of one of the roomies. I've been poking at a post for a bit, but I'm not sure I'm going to get it ready to go before I sleep.

All good, just wanted to make sure there was no ghosting at play

I'm excited to play, but if this will not work out please tell me

Still working. Sitting down to polish up the post now. Initial attempt forgot to include the mechanical hooks.

Okay, we're back in business. I think I'll be able to get back to my 3/week schedule from here.

No worries and no pressure. We knew you were busy with the new job. Just didn't want you to forget about us. :)

Realizing that you guys are waiting on me because I failed to make something explicit.

I'm assuming that Seth's recon attempt ate up his 5-7 minute head start, allowing the rest of the squad to catch up with him.

This is a good time to select a Mission Plan so we can move towards getting this mission rolling.

Selecting a Mission Plan... remind us what that consists of? Is that a mechanic in the game?

Also, do the CASEs have designations, or do we have handles or code names?

How are things going with everyone?

Did I miss a head up of any kind, or is this potentially not going to work out? Excited to keep going but wondering based on lack of chatter

Still bangin' around.

Ditto

Sorry for the gap. One of those occasions where I keep telling myself "I'm going to post tonight, no need for a heads up.", then I realized it'd been three weeks.

Got waylaid by RL, the SO's got health problems, and their brother (my best friend) is caught up in a court battle. I figured that since I wasn't directly involved it'd be fine, but those've been cutting into my freetime.

Student move-in begins next week, so I'm about to get about two solid weeks of overtime thrown at me, but I'll try to get my act together.

Hey, life is crazy. You don't need to "get your act together", now might just be a bad time. If you want to focus on real life for a while, I'm okay with putting the game on suspended animation

Yep. Take care of yourself and yours first, Cel.

Totally, this is a hobby, not a responsibility. :) When you have time, we'll be here.

Alright, thank everyone for their patience. I just need to clear up a little old news before we can get moving forward again. Fortunately, that involves answering a few questions:

So Mission Plan is addressed in the CASE & SOUL book on page 24. Generally you want to establish it before you're at the battlefield, but I decided to blur a few lines so that Seth could get eyes on the situation (given that the enemy is dug in, it seemed safe). The Mission Plan helps establish the facts for the Engagement Roll, which determines how well things are going when the rubber hits the road.

I had suggested Assault to cover just going in guns blazing, and Stealth to try and bypass surveillance and try for more of an assassination strategy. That said, for the Mission Plan, everyone should agree on a Plan -- if two out of three of the crew want to Assault it's probably best to call the plan an Assault rather than a Stealth Op where half the crew's gone rogue.

Do CASE's have Designations/Handles/Codenames: Generally in CASPR, CASE's are referred to by their model designation, or a mission-specific tag (probably Alpha-1, 2, or 3 for this squad). The pilot's Callsign is also valid. "Unknown" units are usually provided a code name (generally taken from the radio chatter of the first group to engage that unit, or applied by the assigned intelligence officer based on their debrief). ARES is more likely to name a CASE and refer to pilot and machine by that name.

Designing & Coordinating Complex Battle Tactics: I don't mind taking the die roll, but it's a bit premature (haven't had the Engagement Roll yet). A Fox's Battleplans are a great way to improving the Position of those who are following them. That said, I will generally ask for a Goal for the plan "Flush the enemy out of hiding and kill it in the open" "Approach unseen and kill it in it's den", "Cover each other and fall back", "Suppress the creature and evacuate the workers", that kind of thing.

Did I miss any other questions?

I may need to reread some stuff, but my understanding is the following. There is an alien monster in a dam that seems to evolve after a fight so tactics rarely work twice. We have an eye on something in the distance. We need to go in and kill the alien after we know what tactics will work, which will require either engaging with it or testing tactics from a distance (like luring some of it out and trying something). At the moment, we are ready to go in, but the system says "don't plan too much just go in and use stress to say 'oh I prepared for this and get ready to adapt"

That is largely accurate. I'll add a few more points:

The regeneration effect is common among the invaders, to the point of being the default expectation.

There is a great deal of interference as one approaches the dam. So far, it's only gone so far as interfering with comms (Seth has adjusted his sensors accordingly).

There are a number of thin, whispy tendrils growing out of the ground. Their purpose is not yet known.

Maybe this will help a bit:


The players are approaching from the South.

The "X" marks visible damage in the dam that the target has used to enter the superstructure.

The greenery to the West is a young forest that's taken advantage of the fertile soil left when the basin was drained. It provides visual cover for most of the run-up, but is seeded with the odd tendrils.

On the East there's a switchback road that comes goes from the riverbed up to to the top of the Dam wall. It has been damaged, preventing tracked or wheeled vehicles from making the approach, though a CASE could still make it. It is more exposed, of course.

Seth can factor in as part of the Assault, working as a flanking element. Currently he's managed to adjust his radio to work through the interference. With him out of sight in the trees, it does limit the ways that you can Assist or Defend him, but one could argue that it puts him in a better position to Assist you with the element of surprise.

That said, since he Resisted the consequence that would've imperiled his Position, he can regroup with your team without cost or concern, if he should so choose.

Cel's Soundtrack, for those who're curious: While Bullets Keep Missing - Aleon Raven

Engagement Roll tends to be its own things determined by circumstances rather than skill. That said, I'll weigh Isaac being there as a positive factor.

So, with a Mission Plan, you generally provide the Detail, the element that the plan hinges on. In the case of an Assault, you sort out the Vulnerability, the soft-point that you intend to leverage for success. On this particular occasion, I'm going to suggest "It's Just One Target", since the general tract of things seems to be splitting up to hit him from multiple angles.

So, the Die Pool:
+1d6 for Luck
-1d6 the target is dug into a defensive position with valuable infrastructure
+1d6 you outnumber him 3 to 1
-1d6 he's a higher Tier than you
+1d6 Isaac's solid tactical planning

So, for the Engagement Roll, I need one of you to roll 1d6. I'm pretty flexible on who, it can be Isaac since he put the plan together, or it can be whoever is taking the lead on the assault. We basically skip over the planning, positioning, and coordinating to get straight to when things pop off.

Sorry to be a little slow with this set-up post. I was taking care of my SO, and then caught what she had. Covid is kinda baking my noodle, but hopefully the fever breaks soon.

If you need time take it. I am running my own D&D game and playing in 3 other games so I am excited whenever we make progress but not waiting on just this one game

Look after yourself, Cel!

Taking a minute to touch base. I'm healthy again (okay, some residual cough). The SO is going in for surgery tomorrow, if everything goes well they'll be in recovery for eight weeks. Not sure how much attention and help they'll need through it though.

Best wishes for your SO -- hope the surgery and recovery all goes well.

I'll be praying for safety and a quick recovery. God bless