Gizmo

Well, doy. Why d'you think I picked Broan in the first place? Sky, assuming Physicus responds appropriately to our tusked buddies, he gets an extra HP right off the bat. If you guys want to post arriving at the clearing, feel free. We're just waiting for Atlas to actually start combat.

Erik raised an eyebrow. "Wait, she one of those Colbys? Damn, Lynn, when you get a contact on the force you don't mess around, huh?" The name was a familiar one to the acrobat, who'd grown up on stories from the FCPD. The Colbys had a long history of proud service, but Eric hadn't made the connection until his diminutive friend mentioned the West End. "Well, if she's in the 'End... we could just walk."

IN SPAAAAACE! IC IN SPAAAAACE! OOC

Despite the weather, Jack of all Blades had been patrolling the northeast edge of the West End when the fantastic vessels appeared overhead. Even as the first ship began its descent, the swordsman was leaping from rooftop to rooftop towards the site of its inevitable collision. He reached the clearing just in time to watch one of a good dozen massive, hunched creatures with russet hides and protruding tusks and wielding dangerous looking staffs dispatch a man with deep, aquamarine skin and defiant red eyes. The smaller alien collapsed to the ground, joining a handful of others around the boarding ramp to the felled craft. It’s sole remaining defender, a bright blue woman with long, shock white hair and small antennae, cried out in anguish and unleashed a blast of the potent electricity rippling across her upper torso. Jack didn’t have the first hint of an idea what was going on, but on his planet, twelve to one odds was no way to treat a lady. Forming a lightning blade from the ample static in the stormy air, he charged forward with a raucous laugh.

The skies above Freedom roiled with dark grey clouds, distant thunder rumbling ominously. As the city's residents listened below, the booming grew louder and more distinct, and flashes of light appeared just above the stormy curtain. Suddenly, a sleek form burst through the clouds, the roar of engines and the ozone smell of heavy laser fire filtering down to the city streets. Long and narrow, with broad fins jutting from the rear at ninety degree angles, the gleaming vessel was soon joined by a second craft, made of darker materials and bristling with weapons. The pursuing spaceship fired, white-blue light arcing out from multiple points to strike the smaller ship. It shuddered, electricity surging across its surface, then began to plummet with dangerous speed. The ground shook as it crash landed just outside of Parkside, near Lantern Hill. It’s attack followed, hovering above its victim.

Roll initiative! Tempestian Lady - Initiative (1d20+5=25) Jack of all Blades - Initiative (1d20+9=13) Broan Soldiers - Initiative (1d20+1=13) I'm going to say Jack goes before the Broans, just for simplicity's sake.

Maybe if Jack's threads pick up! I need points! Wargh!

Hearing the rain stop, Jack looked over his shoulder to see the youth with the headphones returning to the scene of the break in. The swashbuckler hadn't been paying the kid much mind, but he'd noticed him displaying a startling array of abilities. Curiosity aroused, Jack focused his energy awareness on the young hero. He picked up guitars and maracas, which didn't tell him much, though he was mildly surprised to find the usual synthesia of his metahuman sense translating solely as audio for once. Shaking his head as he turned back to the hole in the warehouse wall, Jack muttered under his breath. "Teenagers with powers..."

So, I've spent some time looking around at a few different starship/vehicle combat rules, and I'm not exactly in love with any of them. But since Ecal's worried I'll hurt Ben Grimm's feelings or something, I'm going to crib a bit more from the Saga Edition rules, and say that the pilot can make a DC 20 check as a standard action to basically use Defensive Attack, giving the ship +5 to Defense and imposing -5 to Attack on all the gunners. Flying the ship in general takes a move action each turn. I'd get fancier than that, but like I said, it kinda seems like a waste when then one doing the piloting in an NPC, and it's only gotta work this one time anyway. Beyond that, I guess I'll say that you can Aid with a DC 10 Computers or Knowledge (tactics) check, since, doy, that's the DC for Aiding. Opposed Bluff or Intimidate checks will allow for the usual slew of Feinting, Demoralizing and so on; it's space pirates, so that sort of thing should be prominent, I think, and I'll make sure the opposing captains are suitably prepared for such. Okay, so, they're quick and dirty but I think those should serve our purposes pretty well. Most of the combat will be up close and personal anyway.

Alright, cool, Geez. Let me know if you want to use this as an opportunity to reveal anything in that vein, or not. For the time being, I'll assume nobody makes the connection immediately. 'Size modifiers', Ecal? Pshaw! That sounds way too much like more numbers to me! But, for the sake of argument, where are you finding those rules? The write-up for Pilot in the core rulebook is basically, "Harder maneuvers have a higher DC! Durr." Oh Saga Edition, voiding all my source books. Grr, argh. Grr, argh indeed. The original version of WotC's Star Wars RPG was where I cut my teeth stating characters from scratch and learning the ins and outs of the d20 system. Admittedly, the starship combat rules there were sort of a pain; it's not hard to imagine the Saga Edition improving on them. The pilot is stated out, just need to fill in some fluff for her, then work up a few bad guys to have ready. Anybody have a link to an example of running a fight with minions? I get the idea, but I'd feel better if I had something to base it on.

It just strikes me that Jester turns a regular superhero thread into something hilarious, but if the story's already got a specific spin on it... Well, I'd go with Atlas, anyway. I might by biased 'cause I think Atlas is freakin' awesome, but there you go. Speaking of which, what's the current deal with Atlas's 'Grue-ness'? Is it something he knows about, or something that's apparent to people familiar with the Grue, or is it still under wraps?

What, they're both royalty! It works! Anyway, a ship will be provided (I'm not sure whether or not Physicus's ship would need to be properly paid for with Equipment or Device to be used in-story). I've been working up an NPC pilot, and some quick-and-easy starship combat rules. How does this strike you guys: Pilot check DC 25 to use the pilot's Defense for the ship for one turn. Ranged attack to use the ship's weapons. Computers check DC 20 to Aid an attack or confer an equal bonus to the ships shields (read: Toughness) for one turn. Bluff, Intimidate or Knowledge (tactics) check opposed by the enemy captain to Aid an attack or confer an equal bonus to the ship's Defense for one turn. Craft (mechanical) jury-rigging check DC 20 to remove 'Bruised' conditions from the ship. I think that should give everybody something meaningful to do, and simulate a classic 'bridge crew' situation.

Aw, I'm just giving you a hard time, man. I agree, it'd be pretty weird for him not to go after her, especially since the Doktor and Grim have the old man taken care of, and 'Star would have the easiest time getting up and over the alley walls. If he gives Jack a lift, it even saves me a turn of running and jumping to catch up to her.

That'd by Dark Star. *sigh* I gotta say, 'Star could have reasonably taken out the thugs, healed the old guy and caught the mysterious woman all on his own, without any need for the rest of us to be here. Kinda makes you wonder why we bother. Well, if he's going after her, could he at least pick Jack up along the way and give him a lift?

Erik shrugged, smirking broadly. "Jack's not; 'Erik' is," he explained enigmatically, his emphasis clearly placing quotation marks around the name he'd chosen to go by in public. The remaining Interceptors were left with a reminder of just how much their swashbuckling teammate kept hidden even from them. "Tomorrow night's fine; I'd just as soon get this over with." Erik rubbed the bridge of his nose, willing a nagging weariness away.

I think I'm going to go for an Abin Sur Special on this one, with shades of R2-D2's recorded message, Doc, but I'll keep it in mind. So, post-chat it looks like we're looking at: Jack of all Blades Gossamer Jester Physicus Arrowhawk Geez, how determined are you to have Jester in this? I only ask because I can see his whimsical insanity clashing a bit with the genre conventions we're going for here. I'm not heavily opposed to him or anything, but it seemed worth bringing up. If Atlas was interested, we could always use a Ch'od stand-in. (Hmm, Jack as Corsair, Gossamer as Hepzibah, Arrowhawk as Raza Longknife, Physicus as... Lilandra?) There's some time to think about it, since I have to work up the NPCs and refine the plot a bit first. I'll let you guys know when things are ready to get rolling.

It's pretty much ridiculous that Jack and Gecks haven't met up yet, so absolutely. I think five people should be a good, round number; I'm thinking there will be an NPC to provide exposition and a ship. I'll start nailing down some things now that I know there's interest. Heritage, you mentioned in chat that you were thinking about swapping out Grim for Gossamer - come to a decision?

Brushing debris from the warehouse wall off of his coat, Jack cracked his neck painfully. Noting the fallen forms of Strong Man and Burn, he clucked his tongue in annoyance. "I guess two out of tour isn't bad, but it's a little embarrassing," he remarked. It irked the swordsman that his dance partner had been evacuated by Dash; speedsters were always tough to handle without a similar power set. Not much to be done about it now, he reflected with an annoyed sigh. Sauntering over to the whole in the wall, he peered inside. "Anybody have any idea what they were after?" he called to the variety of heroes who'd turned out. "'Cause if they were storing a top secret death ray or something here, I'm just gonna be ticked."

It came up in chat that Jack of all Blades has some tendencies which are not un-pirate-like. A nautical, swashbuckling adventure seemed inevitable. Also: awesome. But then I remembered! Everything is Better IN SPACE! It's not just true, it's science. With that in mind, the scintillating swordsman is looking to save some alien princesses and fight some evil emperors! The idea is for a thread in the vein of The Starjammers or Flash Gordon, presumably featuring Captain Kraken. Jack needs a few hearty rogues to serve as a crew ready to sail the solar winds to high adventure, so if you're cosmic and/or swashbuckling by nature, it's time to get your space legs! If a ref is willing to give me a hand with this too, that'd be excellent. I suspect more than a couple of rules questions will come up over the course of things.

I'm planning on putting 5 more PP into Jack's Strike to give it Autofire 2, at which point I'd like to start giving him some APs to reflect specific energy blade effects. If you get a chance, do you have any thoughts or advice for me? I'll be working with a pool of 23 PP. I was thinking about some obvious stuff like a Stunning electrical sword or a more general visual Dazzle effect, maybe a fire sword with a burning Secondary Effect. I guess I'm asking what's worth picking up and how to assign the small pool of points in the most economical manner.

24 -- Dark Star -- 5 HP -- Unharmed 21 -- Jester -- 3 HP -- Unharmed 19 -- Colt -- 7 HP -- Unharmed 18 -- Jack of all Blades -- 4 HP -- Unharmed 16 -- Doktor Archeville -- 4 HP -- Unharmed 15 -- Grimalkin -- 3 HP -- Unharmed 11 -- Woman on roof 2 -- Thugs ...I believe. For the sake of argument, Jack's going to chase the woman across the rooftops on his turn. How far did she get, Sand?

Erik snorted lightly at the shapeshifter's comic rictus as he sat down. He was silent for a long moment as he composed his thoughts into words. "I think it's a bad idea," he began frankly. "Don't get me wrong, I think you're right about the us being able to put that kinda money to good use, but if that's what we were about, the Doc coulda just set up a charity or something instead of funding the Underground and everything." Privately the admitted rogue suspected Archeville had his own reasons for forming the Interceptors; the scientist had a reputation as a manipulator and meddler. The thought didn’t bother Erik terribly. Archeville was incalculably smarter than he, and the fencer would simply have to trust the Doktor’s intentions were benign. "More than that, though, all of the sudden we’d have a ‘business side of things’, see?" he continued. "You get into rights to names and likenesses, which isn’t exactly easy with a secret identity. I don’t want to find out in a couple of years that somebody’s found a loophole in the contract and is charging me to wear my own mask." Erik ran a finger along the rim of his glass absently. "The biggest issue is trust. None of us exactly come off as the ‘shining armor’ type at first glance, and we’re nowhere near well known enough that we don’t have to take that into account. Who’s gonna trust ‘those guys who sell the action figures’ to handle something big or delicate? Hell, to handle anything? Our business is saving lives and stopping bad guys. I say we need to become the best there is at that before we even think about anything else."

Argh, okay so I spaced and accidentally equated PL 12 to Gold Status. Because it only takes 10pp to upgrade to PL 11, however, it turns out I still need 4pp before I can officially activate Midnight. *sigh* Talk about antici....

Alright, first I'm going to need Jack of all Blades bumped up to PL 12 to reflect his current PP total. I'm also going to shift his trade-offs back to +5 Attack/-5 Damage. Let's meet some caps! A third rank of Attack Specialization (sword) - 1pp A third rank of Equipment - 1 pp A seventh rank of Dodge Focus - 1pp I'll spend the 5ep to upgrade his coat and (finally) buy a grappling hook. I'll save the remaining 2pp for later. DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN EDIT: Just bookkeeping, but the actual stats on his sheet haven't been increased to reflect the effects on the new feats. His Attack with swords needs to be brought up to +17, as does his Defense, and his Toughness (with his greatcoat, naturally) is +7. The italics are a little wonky in his Equipment section, if someone has time to fix that, and I guess the title of the thread needs to be changed so that he's listed as PL 12. DONE BY SHAENTHEBRAIN

Jack shook off his disorientation with a grimace that melted into a snarl. Blind rage gripped his mind as the the deep blue hellfire blade in his hand flared with malicious glee. Focusing all of his willpower, the swordsman slowed his haggard breathing, shutting his eyes tightly as he forced himself to calm down. Stiff, aching fingers unclenched as the flickering energy construct was released to dissipate into the ether. When his eyes opened again, the pupils had receded to their normal size and Jack's thoughts were clear. Looking around him, he tried to take stock of the situation he had been largely oblivious to while his attention was on Force.