Planning: Not Just for Real Life
Wherein the Party Fails to Think Things Through
Bryce : hihabnabitmkiii : Hi.
Bryce : Well, we had the game today. Pretty fun. The party went to a station that was supposedly occupied by weapons smugglers. Why? To kill them and take their things. (Naturally)
The station seems to be abandoned at first, but it soon becomes clear that this is not actually the case - there are bad guys lying in wait. But, thanks to Space Gnome, they detect the ambush, and mostly foil it.
However, the captain, Biptetk, had a serious stupid moment during the battle. The bad guy throws an explosive device - a grenade type thing - into the midst of the party.
It gets to be Biptetk's turn. So he goes over there and asks if it is motion-triggered.
GM: "Well, probably not..."
Space Gnome: "It's probably time triggered--"
Biptetk: "I pick it up!"
GM: "Uh.... okay...."
GM: "As you bend over to pick it up, it explodes. You are wounded everywhere and knocked unconscious." (He was wearing heavy armor)
Biptetk was somewhat surprised. He said his game was off because his dog died, which was, sadly, true.
habnabitmkiii : Ah, that's no good.
Bryce : Yeah, she was a good dog.
I think that this incident was the first of several in which the party failed to think things through, however. In retrospect, it seems that they had a theme going today.
So, Josh (his new name is Claudio. A much better name than "Link" because if it came from a game it's not one I've played) decides to contact the party, because he's in another part of the station.
His new character started with a psitronic device imprinted with "Quantum Query", a psionic that allows you to ask one yes or no question that is objectively answerable about the game world to the GM, to be answered truthfully. It has two uses - after that it can't do it again.
So, in trying to use the device (which is also a portable computer) as a radio, he finds the menu option for activating the quantum query input. He confirms and activates its quantum query psionic effect. The device glows white, shoots ethereal beams from it, and surrounds him with a golden glow.
A voice from the machine booms: Ask Your Question!
Claudio: "Uh... what's going on in the other room?"
GM: "That's not a yes-or-no question." (And a pretty stupid waste of a quantum query when you can just ask someone using your communicator, obviously.)
Quantum Query Oracle Machine: "Invalid question. Ask again!"
Josh struggles to think of something. He rephrases the first question a couple times before realizing why it won't work. He seems to think that the device is becoming impatient with him.
Claudio: "Can you wait?"
Quantum Query Oracle Machine: "The Answer is: Yes." *Poof!*
habnabitmkiii : ... Hahahaha.
Bryce : And there you have Poorly Thought-Out Action number two. The worst thing is that he doesn't even know with certainty if it will wait, since he asked "can you wait." But it's true for "will you wait" as well, luckily for him.
So. It prompted him: "Again? (Y/N)", but he wisely deferred using it again until he's put some thought (I assume) into the question.
Sage (10-year-old who draws decapitated wookies, you recall) made a new character, a Space Parrot Bright.
During character creation, Josh bothered her continuously about her species choice, because he now has (for some reason) an irrational hatred of Space Parrots. However, I think that after the events of today's game, he will not be bothering her... because she put most of her starting XP into...
FLAMING DEATH
habnabitmkiii : Oooh.
Bryce : So, her otherwise meek and unassuming character has the ability to create huge fireballs that are impressive even to Space Gnome.
habnabitmkiii : Very impressive.
Bryce : Indeed. And it brings us to Poorly Thought-Out Action number three:
She has it at such a high level that, when she applied it indoors, it produced a shock-wave of hot air that injured player characters standing at a considerable distance, reduced bulkheads to flying molten slag, and incinerated the enemies to such an extent that they were nothing but black patches of carbon (with no lootable objects.)
When helping her with character creation, after seeing 20 levels go into flaming death, I declined to point out the usefulness of Enhanced Psionics (allows you to get more psi points), so she can "only" do it twice a day.
habnabitmkiii : Hah. How wide is its area of effect?
Bryce : 3m radius, but in her case it is so powerful that it produces a blast from the superheated air that is somewhat damaging even at a distance of 10m or more, in a confined space.
habnabitmkiii : 3m really isn't big at all.
Bryce : True, it's not huge, but it's pretty respectable. It is a sphere of 3m radius, after all. It's supposed to be a mid-level psionic effect.
Hmm, you know, come to think of it I need to check the rules. Maybe it's bigger.
Bryce : Heh... opps. The party should be dead... It's a 5m radius circle, so instead of being caught in the blast from her flaming death, they should have been inside it.
habnabitmkiii : Whoops!
Bryce : Indeed. Well, fortunately for them we have a rule "Rules challenges are limited to the current turn," so they're safe. (That is, what's done is done.)
I suppose that this mistake was my contribution to the evening's odyssey of incompetence. Well, this being a good comedy of errors, two wrongs made a right.
Anyhow, the party miraculously survived that brush with death, and defeated their enemies.
The one survivor quickly surrendered: "Please don't kill me, I want to live!"
They let him live... for now, anyway.
You may wonder: What was Space Gnome doing during this?
Space Gnome was looking at a shiny object.
She had bought several daggers that are imprinted to be mysteriously interesting to gnomes. In the battle, she decided to get one out: Poorly Thought-Out action number four. She pulled out one of the daggers, and she had to roll for not becoming fixated on it. Rolled a 2, and got occupied with it for the rest of her turn.
habnabitmkiii : Hahaha!
Bryce : Next turn, she got a 1 and was compelled to stare at it for the rest of the battle. "Ooooh... it's shiny! Nevermind all the other stuff... this is much more interesting..."
After the battle, of course, her friends helped her snap out of it. She put the dagger away. So, the players had a meeting. It turned out to be an interesting illumination of the fundamental problem that the mistakes were indicative of.
"Calling all player characters!" (Actual line used over the intercom in game.)
habnabitmkiii : How did the NPCs respond?
Bryce : By not coming :) Except for the ones that were already there, of course. Well, after they loot this station (if they survive the fiendish traps guarding the items), they are going to probably rob some farmers to get fertilizer to make explosives for the war they are planning to fight against the Pan-galactic Imperium.
One of the players (I'd say Josh but I'm not sure and there is plenty of funny things I can attribute to him without doubt) complained that they were having to do "all this" [reality: one ten-minute meeting] planning before landing on Dramidia and helping the Resistance throw off the yoke of Imperial oppression.
A PC: "Why don't we just go there and kill everyone?"
NPC Vulpinian: "Um... you realize that we don't want to kill all the people living on my homeworld, right?"
A PC: "Er, right, I mean just kill the resistance."
Different PC: "Um... we're the resistance."
A PC: "Oh, right, right. I mean kill the Imperials. Just go there and kill the Imperials."
NPC Vulpinian: "Well, our army tried to do that, and it didn't work out so well."
(The point was conceded, planning has its place.)
habnabitmkiii : Hahah.
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