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 Post subject: Re: My First Time as an Editor in Chief!
PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 12:34 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2013 5:44 pm
Posts: 148
Location: Cajun Country
I just want to say that I've been listening to the podcast and it has gotten my interest in Rotted Capes going again. The role play is really nice and it seems you guys got a handle on the rules when you took over running. I think some of these things are still incorrect, but you guys are making the right call in taking a little time to try and get it right but not derailing the game in a 3 hour search for the rule.

BTW what was your idea for where the elevator went?


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 Post subject: Re: My First Time as an Editor in Chief!
PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2016 12:01 pm 

Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:41 pm
Posts: 59
Sam in our comment section wrote this:

(This turned into a very long answer to a very short question but seeing everyone else comments made me want to post my answer as well)

When Alya Najar was a kid she wanted to grow up to be a superhero; unfortunately the only power she ever seemed to have was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When she was 6 that meant that she got blamed when her brother accidentally broke the TV.

When she was 12 that meant that she was the one holding the bag when her friends got caught shoplifting.

When she was 19 that meant that she was in the army recruitment office when the apocalypse started.

When she was 24 that meant that she had just stepped into the elevator with a few other soldiers when the Patrition arrived and started slaughtering people.

The ground shook below them and there was screaming and gunfire above them. There was not a man nor woman in that elevator who was prepared for the juggernaut that would doubtlessly rain down death and destruction upon them. A few soldiers kept their guns trained on the ceiling in some futile hope to defend themselves, more just stood mortified at the thought of being bitten and turned. One soldier was even eyeing the barrel of their gun, presumably to get it over with.

Alya on the other hand, did the only things she could; she closed her eyes and cursed her terrible, horrid luck. She took a deep breath and felt a surge go through her. She was weightless and timeless for a moment then it all came crashing down. There was a flash and the ground shifted under her. The elevator dropped to the ground, but only a few feet, landing in a thud on soft dirt ground. There was silence broken by a soft “Ding” of the doors opening. It was night out now. Looking out the door they could see the base as a spec in the distance, with smoke rising from fires that had long since burned themselves out.

In the stunned confusion of the soldiers all Alya could think that was after all these years she really should have known; the only power she ever had was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.


I added more to it with THIS (which is now canon) :

Alya Najar pressed herself against the corner of the elevator, her arms wrapped around her knees. It was cold in the elevator – the door was open and she didn’t know how far they were up in the air. At one point, they had been flown through a minor rain storm which drenched the inside of the elevator and the occupants huddled inside.

The elevator had started with six people – including herself. Five soldiers who at first aimed their rifles up towards the ceiling as the elevator grew higher and higher. In the last two hours of the flight, that number had dropped. One soldier had opted to press the muzzle of his pistol against the side of his head and pull the trigger – too bad a slight jostle from wind screwed up his aim and it didn’t kill him. Alya had tried her best to stop the bleeding, and when that didn’t matter, she just tried to be there for the boy wailing for his mother. That had been a horrible ten minutes – one of the soldiers opting to rid himself of the noise and fear by jumping from the open doorway.

When the boy finally succumbed to his head wound, the remaining three soldiers pushed his body out of the elevator and Alya just found her corner. The soldiers each found their own corner. And they all sat there, awaiting their death.

The Patrician had devoured the world. He had taken on the Guardian League and turned them into something twisted and… wrong. Alya had the worst luck of being stuck away from her family when the End came. She had followed a friend to a recruitment drive for the army and from there, she had been conscripted. Field Tech – whatever that meant. She hadn’t had to leave the base since they were brought there – not with the Metas that had been leashed by the General.

Alya felt a twinge of guilt try to knot its way into her stomach.

Alya never liked how they treated the Metas. She remembered seeing Blackout once when Alya had been tasked with reinforcing the mesh wiring in front of the lights in the woman’s cell. The girl looked… well, she looked like someone Alya would have gone to the mall with and complained about boys too. She looked like someone she would have gotten along with before Z-Day. Or maybe she did before the General locked her away. The girl was… broken. Counting. Steps, breaths, heartbeats. She had been stuck in the cell for god knows how long with only the buzzing of the lights and the deep bright…

And Alya had gone along with it because at least she could hide away from the monsters above ground. Away from the dead, away from the death, and away from the Patrician.

Alya wasn’t a bad person. She knew this. But she also knew she deserved to be here in this elevator for what she ignored in that base.

The elevator’s ceiling squealed as a hand punched through it. Strong. Powerful. Rotted. Decayed. Fingers coiled around the metal above them before giving a hard yank, ripping the elevator open as if it was the top of a sardine can. Alya heard screaming – and then realized it was coming from her. The soldiers were standing at their feet, rifles aimed as they fired through the newly created hole.

Alya used to have a poster of the Patrician – he had been her schoolgirl crush. She had fallen for his refined features and strong jawline the instance she saw him on the News fighting the Terror Twins when she was eight. She had secretly even written fanfiction about the two of them meeting, falling in love, and making passionate love on top of Century Tower in Arrant City .

This was not the man who was the star of her fanfiction. His skin was stretched taut over his cheeks, his teeth clicking in excitement as he stared down at the trapped occupants with cold, dead eyes. The bullets striking him did nothing – he didn’t even seem to notice them. Instead, he bore his gaze down through the hole, stripping away every hope and dream that Alya had that maybe there was still good in the man.

Alya had always been a magnet for bad luck. If there was going to be a bone broken on the playground, it would be her’s. If a car was going to run out of gas or a person was going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, it was always, always, ALWAYS her. Alya was a creature that attracted bad luck. She was a magnet and she attracted it like bees to pollen. And when the Patrician dropped the elevator and it came crashing down on some random building, Alya body felt like it was swarming with every possible bad outcome in the entire city. Every stray bullet wanted to go to her. Every missed zombie yearned to sneak up on her. Every crumbling infrastructure wanted to bury her alive…

The Patrician crashed down in front of the elevator door.

And then Alya didn’t feel unlucky anymore. Her fear – her soul crushing fear of death – suddenly pushed all that bad luck away. Every future mistake, every karmic realignment was off her shoulders. And she… she willed it towards the Super Z in front of her.

The Patrician opened his mouth – maybe to gloat, maybe to monologue – but he never got to start nor finish it. Instead, the Patrician just had what the world would call ‘bad luck’. The moment when he was stepping towards the elevator with his lips parting to speak, bad luck struck at that infinitesimal moment when his weight wasn’t one hundred percent ‘locked’. The nearby pigeon coup hadn’t been disturbed in years, and with the sudden appearance of a living monster, the birds all opted to find new living arrangements. A flock of pigeons took off and slammed into the side of the Patrician at possibly the only millisecond where it would have altered his step. He stumbled to the side, smashing a generator off the side of the building. And as he turned back towards the cowering occupants of the elevator, he only had time to utter the very beginning of her threat when suddenly a cord snapped around his ankle.

A cord that had probably been connected to the generator that was plummeting to the ground currently.

The Patrician was strong – hell, probably the strongest – but even he could be surprised. One minute he was standing there, ready to bath in their blood, and the next – he was crying out in surprise as he was dragged over the ledge, plummeting down to the street below.

The soldiers and Ayla stared in confused silence for a second before one reached out, grabbed her shoulder, and screamed for everyone to run.

This was the moment Ayla would remember when people would ask her what her origin story was. This was the moment she realized she actually had powers. This was the moment where Ayla was reborn as Miss Hap.


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 Post subject: Re: My First Time as an Editor in Chief!
PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2016 1:00 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2013 5:44 pm
Posts: 148
Location: Cajun Country
That is pretty good. I like how it got tied into the other game. I hope that you guys have another session soon. I've listened to all of the published episodes and want to know more about what the characters will face next.


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 Post subject: Re: My First Time as an Editor in Chief!
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2017 2:03 pm 

Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2016 1:41 pm
Posts: 59
I was able to run a game for my group once more. Sadly, it didn't go as well as the other games.

The first thing I needed to do is introduce a new character since we had a new player. The PCs ended up finding 'New Ironsides', a former boxer turned mob enforcer when it was revealed he could turn his skin into metal. They found him on the road, in front of a wreck. It wasn't the most amazing introduction but I brought him in and then did a time jump by a month or two.

The group of heroes were travelling a crossed the Rockies in Idaho. Carl Hanks, former member of the Guardian League, was driving the semi while Exclusive sat shotgun, trying to navigate via a road map. Byte was in the back working on repairing weapons while Blackout sat in the perch, keeping an eye out for any signs of Super Zs. New Ironsides (or Tony, as I preferred to be called) just slept in the back of the trailer trying to sleep.

Carl Hanks was mid-argument with Exclusive as he rounded a turn on a mountain road when he spotted two people on horseback slowly dragging someone on a sleigh. The people waved down the truck to for help. The group hopped out of the semi and approached the two figures... who ended up being barely over eighteen years old. Apparently, the three of them were scavenging for supplies at an old water park in the valley when one of their people fell into one of the disgusting pools. They fished him out but he swallowed a lot of bad water and was pretty sick.

Carl Hanks had Exclusive look over the kid and Exclusive (with his one point in Medicine) was able to figure out he might have swallowed some harmful materials and was suffering from a mild poisoning. Carl Hanks offered to drive the three of them back to their village. One of the riders and the sick person took them up on the offer while the other rider said he'd followed behind on the horses.

Once the patient was loaded up, Carl Hanks was navigated to what looked to be an old summer camp called 'Camp Crystal Peak'. There they were brought to meet the 'Elder' called Kora. Kora ended up being a 22 year old former camp councilor. As I described her, she looked to be a perfect victim in a camp slasher film. Apparently, two years ago when Z-day hit, a lot of the adults abandoned their posts. Those that stayed ended up dying along the way leaving the teenage camp counselors to watch over the 50 children that were at the camp during the time. At this point, they were down to 35 children, 8 camp counselors, and 5 teenagers that have aged up enough to be given responsibilities.

Pretty much, the 'adults' were hardly adults and they were out numbered by children. However, for the last two years, they made it work. Carl Hanks was inspired by the former councilors and asked if they needed any supplies. Kora stated they did need medical supplies now that one of her people were sick. She brought up that there was a vet clinic. It was too far by horse back but she bet they could make it down to it and back before sun fall. Carl Hanks agreed they'd head out in the morning.

That night, Blackout and Carl talked about his time in the Guardian League. He admitted he hated not being able to fight like he used to and how much he missed his Symbios suit. The others opted to spend their time watching old VHS tapes of camp slasher movies.

In the morning they made it down the mountain to the vet. The vet was a pretty standard adventure. A few zombies ambushes but nothing too much. They found a decent hault and brought it back. When they returned back to the camp, they were greeted with an impromptu celebration by the kids. During the festivities, Exclusive was asked to head out to check in on the sick patient.

As Exclusive was putting in the IV, the guy started to seize before dying. The guy's girlfriend started weeping when the boy's eyes open. Suddenly, his necked stretched out several feet and sunk its mouth into the girl's neck. The dead boy was strapped to the table so at first he couldn't move but then his legs and arms stretched out until they touched the floor. The creature then began spider walking as new tendrils erupted from its body to attack Exclusive.

The others heard the fighting and came in. After a short battle, the creature was killed but not before Carl Hanks came into the room. The dying creature spotted Carl and hissed 'CARL HANKS! WE FOUND YOU'. And then it died.

Carl Hanks was freaked out. He admitted that while he was Symbios, he had an ability he never used which allowed him to put a bit of Symbios into a person's body to control them. The problem was that Symbios didn't understand biological limitation so the person's body would be sort of manhandled poorly which is why he never did it. However, Carl Hanks believed that Z-Infected Symbios was sending out little bits of itself to look for him.

He also said it had a limited telepathic range. Most likely, the node that was controlling this bit of Symbios was nearby. The real Symbios wouldn't know that Carl Hanks was at this summer camp until it came into contact with the node. This sent the PCs scrambling in trying to figure out where the node was.

They finally realized it was probably at the old water park that boy got sick at. They group packed up and headed out to destroy the node before Symbios could 'download' the information from it. As they drove, they asked Carl why Symbios was after him. He brought up that he was the first person Symbios ever linked too thus it required him or someone with his DNA in order to survive. Symbios could survive for a little while using 'temporary' hosts, but until it had him, it would be slowly dying the entire time.

As the group got to the water park, Carl asked Exclusive to stay behind for a moment. Carl told him to make sure the Node didn't connect to Black Out. Exclusive kept prodding until Carl Hanks revealed that he had a very short affair with the original Black Out about 20 years ago before she asked him to never contact her again. Seeing that Black Out junior was 20, he was worried that she might share his DNA. Exclusive promised him not to tell Black Out and to keep her safe.

The crew (after a comedy of errors) finally snuck through the water park and found a 'Node'. It was a creature built of decayed flesh from several zombies. They fought it, it took awhile, and it finally died.

The crew returned to the summer camp. Kora was very happy to hear that the Symbios wasn't going to come to the camp looking for Carl Hanks. She also then said that in the morning, they need to leave since apparently Carl was a 'wanted man' by a Super Z. They agreed.

I did a short time jump into the future. Symbios - wearing a heavily decaying body - found the destroyed node at the water park. He began humming until a slither of the node squirmed to life. It snaked its way into the creature's body. Symbios shivered before muttering, "They nearly destroyed everything. But you saved a memory... Carl Hanks... has a daughter?"

So that was the final adventure.

The problem I really ran into is... too many debuffs. I think it was just a bad design by me. I gave the creature 'Poison'. I also gave him a weakness to Fire. So, people were getting stamina damage every couple demanding actions and the fire was doing damage every demanding action so... just a lot of math. In the end, my players didn't seem to enjoy the fight with the Symbios node. Again, they loved the setting but I think they're getting more and more frustrated with the rules.

I'm sort of worried because I'm going to be running Rotted Capes at a con in a few weeks (I'm basically running the first part of this adventure where the PCs are enslaved by the Government). Hopefully, I can make this run more smoother.


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 Post subject: Re: My First Time as an Editor in Chief!
PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2017 11:47 pm 
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Hi TheMindfulFool,

I've caught up on your podcasts and think I've identified a few of the problems you are having.

1. Target Numbers / Defences
All die rolls are 'equal to or greater than' and not 'greater than' the TN or Defence. The only exception is Dynamic Action Rolls (opposed rolls) which have its own tie-breaker mechanic on Pg.24.
Makes a big difference at the top of the bell curve.

Also, Rounding is always down (pg.24)

Wound penalties don't affect Defences or Passives. They only affect Action Rolls (2d10+stat die+x)

2. Damage vs non-Z's

Non-Z's take both Stamina damage AND roll for Massive Damage where applicable.

Non-Z's should generally be Vanquished by Stamina a lot more frequently than Wounds (as in-combat healing is very un-common in Rotted Capes compared to a fantasy setting like Arcanis RPG).

In the battle against Banshee, he should probably have been Vanquished by Stamina (in addition to all the wounds caused) much sooner. At which point the Editor spends a Plot Die to soliloquize and leap into the zombies as you had happen anyway. :-)

If none of the Heroes have the Heal power and you find combat more dangerous for a small number of players, adding a (house rules) item something like:
Stimulant Injector; (Re), Heal 1, Range (Touch), Single Use [Tech heroes can create this using the rules on Pg.41 with a higher Power Rank]
or allow Medicine Ranks to be used as a Demanding (Interruptible) action with TN:20 to heal Power Die (Vi) [based on Medicine Ranks].

3. Team Attack.

The way you have been running it has generated high damage totals but hitting a problem of 'so much damage yet only does one wound?' and house-ruling.

Here's an example of how I believe it works (Warning: Rules-Lawyer hat). Each Team attack only uses the damage of the previous hit (not all eligible hits).

Example: Four heroes attack and hit a Super-Z with Fortitude 21 and Armour 2.
Tick 1: Blackout hits with a Devastating Attack (Darkness/Energy Blast) for 23 damage; Z takes Massive Damage (21 stamina) and makes a Vigor Action Roll TN 21.
Tick 2: Exclusive hits with Team Attack (Medium Pistol) for 10 damage; Z takes Massive Damage (21 from Blackout + 8 from Exclusive +4 Impact) and makes a Vigor Action Roll TN 29.
Tick 3: Ironside hits with Team Attack (Enhanced Attack) for 16 damage; Z takes Massive Damage (8 from Exclusive + 14 from Ironside) and makes a Vigor Action Roll TN 22. The Z is also Crippled as it is a Melee or Kinetic/Force attack (instead of Knocked Back).
Tick 4: Carl hits with Team Attack (medium pistol) for 5 damage; Z barely takes Massive Damage (14 from Ironside + 3 from Carl +4 Impact) and makes a Vigor Action Roll TN 17.

That is 4 potential wounds in 4 ticks (not counting Critical Hits).

3. Yes, it looks like the Continuous Damage rules (pg.96) were giving you some problems. Unless immune to the damage type, intelligent foes and heroes should be taking the time to extinguish the flames (Complex Action). Esp as Continuous Damage uses the same effect as Team Attack above (except it is cumulative until extinguished).
Example (1d10 fire)
Tick 1: Catch fire; take 5 stamina
Tick 7: takes 7 stamina ( cumulative 12 vs Fortitude)
Tick 1: takes 3 stamina (cumulative 15 vs Fortitude)
Tick 7: takes 10 stamina (cumulative 25 vs Fortitude; likely to be Massive Damage roll)
Tick 1: takes 4 stamina (cumulative 29 vs Fortitude; another Massive Damage roll)
etc

As noted in the book, once you set fire to deadhead zombies, you just retreat and let the flames kill them.

Poison is both nastier and safer at the same time. It attacks faster (Complex/4 ticks) but expires faster (Passive Modifier in attacks or a failed attack) and is not cumulative like Continuous Fire damage.

Example: Poison 8 (Vigor 8, Touch) vs Fort 18

Tick 1: 2d10(Pr)+Melee vs Avoidance to hit. Poison then attacks as 2d10(Vi)+12 (Power Ranks + 4 bonus for Touch modification) vs Fort. It succeeds and the target takes 1d10 Stamina (Power die; non-exploding) [3 remaining]
Tick 5: 2d10(Vi)+8 (pPower+pVi) vs Fort 18; hits for 1d10 Stamina (Power die) [2 remaining]
Tick 7: Super'Z attacks again; 2d10(Pr)+Melee vs Avoidance to hit. Poison then attacks as 2d10(V)+9 (Power Ranks + 1 for second application) vs Fort. It succeeds and resets Poison count to 4 remaining (does not do any damage at this Tick)
Tick 9: 2d10(Vi)+9 (pPower+pVi+1 for second application) vs Fort 18; fails. The Poison stops even though it has more attacks available.

With Poisonous Attack variation, the target takes the melee damage before the Poison attacks as 2d10(Vi)+8 at Tick 1 above. Continues on the same from there.

Hope they are helpful examples for next time you get to play.

_________________
LARG; Astra Tonsoria Ursula val¤Dellanov, Martial Former Tribune, Centurion Sword Sage II, T3.4
LA:5E; Magdelene of Ostermann, Dark-kin Courtesan Rog3(Bard)/HC2 (future twilight warrior)
LRC:OP; Seraphina "Flowerchild" Amakiir, Skill Hero


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