Interface Zero: Upgrade in Progress

[God45]

I would suggest we meet on thursday anyways, regardless of Dave being able to be there or not... even if he isn't, we could help out Tobias in refining his new character (has any1 heard from him?) and refine our own characters and discuss the previous 2-3 pages in this thread... I haven't weighed in much yet, as I share the idea that this is a discussion that is better suited for a face to face meeting rather then on a written medium...

Doing that without Dave who is the game master seems like a bad idea. If we can`t play Thursday I think that it is better to wait until next time and talk then.

[nDervish]

I'm certainly up for trying more than one. It helps with the money issue, builds credibility more quickly, and generally makes sense from both an in and out of game perspective.

Keep in mind that in-game and out-of-game time aren't entirely synced up. Even if you can do three missions in a single in-game night, there's still a good chance that they'll take up three real-world play sessions. This is perfectly fine with me, since it means that I don't have to do the work of advancing general world events and making up new mission offers as often, and you still benefit from claiming more job payouts per game-month, but it could also mean that characters are coming and going at odd times if their players aren't able to make all three of those sessions.

Also remember the risk factor. If you take on three jobs, then go to do the first one and have to abort because of some ganger getting a lucky shot in, then there's a strong chance you'll blow the other two as well.

Haven't looked at the mission list yet, will do that soon. Is the list on obsidian portal, or do I need to find here on the forum?

Obsidian Portal. From the front page, click "Chicago Free Press" and the newest issue (including the current list of available jobs) will be at the top of the list.

Have we agreed for the next meeting / session?
May I suggest posting this info somewhere where it can be easily found by those of us who don't read the forum all that thoroughly? Obsidian portal perhaps?

Good idea! It's getting close to time to leave for Lund, but I'll add the next session time to the top of the Obsidian Portal front page later tonight.

Should I also start running monthly doodles for what nights people are available (which would also be linked from the OP front page), so that we can see when upcoming sessions are likely to be, even before they're officially scheduled?

We're hoping for Thursday, but Dave is travelling and won't know for sure until Wednesday.

We're on for tomorrow. I might be a little tired still, but there should be no problems aside from that.

[nDervish]

Oh, and I forgot about this one:

If we can`t play Thursday I think that it is better to wait until next time and talk then.

Unless there's anything that someone thinks is particularly urgent, I think we might be better off waiting for that discussion until a time (Monday the 14th?) when everyone can be there.

[jeronimooo]

I'll be there tomorrow...

[Willard]

Keep in mind that in-game and out-of-game time aren't entirely synced up. Even if you can do three missions in a single in-game night, there's still a good chance that they'll take up three real-world play sessions. This is perfectly fine with me, since it means that I don't have to do the work of advancing general world events and making up new mission offers as often, and you still benefit from claiming more job payouts per game-month, but it could also mean that characters are coming and going at odd times if their players aren't able to make all three of those sessions.

Also remember the risk factor. If you take on three jobs, then go to do the first one and have to abort because of some ganger getting a lucky shot in, then there's a strong chance you'll blow the other two as well.

I was actually thinking about doing more than one at an actual session, but you're right that it's probably better to spread them out over multiple sessions.

The risk is certainly a factor, and last time it wouldn't have worked so well. To some extent we should handle that by avoiding unnecessary combat and not being stupid. If things still go poorly we could call on backup characters.

That said, what mission(s) do you all want go for? I think Dave would like at least a little time to prepare.

[nDervish]

I was actually thinking about doing more than one at an actual session, but you're right that it's probably better to spread them out over multiple sessions.

Yep, I understood that. My point was that if Mission A involves three scenes and Mission B also involves three scenes and we play out three scenes in an average session, then it's going to take two sessions to complete both missions, regardless of whether you order the scenes as AAA-BBB, ABB-ABA, or in any other permutation.

You might be able to save a little time if the missions overlap sufficiently that you can arrange for one scene to apply to both missions (e.g., if they both involve searches of the same area), but I doubt that would be common enough to have a major impact.

[Rekreativc]

Great, see you tomorrow night! At 18:00 right?

[God45]

I have had a thing come up tomorrow, sorry but I can`t play

See you guys next time, good luck tomorrow.

[nDervish]

Latest news from the developer (both versions should be identical content, but the kickstarter link has better formatting):

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/821 ... sts/623715
https://plus.google.com/105973495535280 ... JVJbaSzCTz

• Looks like skill specializations will be out, or at least relegated to an optional rule
• Since specializations will be going, Hacking will be redone again, although I have a feeling the "redo" will just be splitting Hacking into multiple skills while leaving the actual mechanics unchanged
• The core book will probably end up with only a very basic treatment of golemmechs, including a small number of standard models, with the full golemmech rules appearing in a later supplement

[Willard]

A quick but productive session, I posted an adventure log on OP. Also added some details behind Englewood's recent surge, with some hooks/ambitions that we may or may not decide to follow up on.

Hopefully we can all make it on Monday, looking forward to it.

[God45]

See you all Monday

[bladerunner_35]

I have to double-check with Karen but I should be able to make monday.

Edit: I should also mention that I am busy planning my Edge of the Empire campaign and that's one of the reasons why I've gone quiet. Not to worry though, I fully intend to continue with our campaign.

[God45]

The reason that I have missed a couple of sessions is because of sickness and some re-scheduling with my internship. I am still fully committed to this campaign

[jeronimooo]

If we are all present on monday, I think we should try to do both allmighty's personal contract (unless he goes at it alone trough dramatic rolls like Mal's mission) and theis mission: 2090-04-29: Lockport gangers shot my sister. Help me teach them a lesson. 4,000 Cr. Contact Marguerite Vaughn.
the latter one being one that would really suit with us being whitehats trying to do the right thing...

We could also try our hand at some of the bountylistings...

[Willard]

While I want Almighty to do his personal mission (perhaps through bennie-boosted dramatic rolls), and that other mission sounds interesting and relatively well paid, we should seize the opportunity to do something bigger when we're all there. One of the 8k bounties, perhaps, or even the mech? Since the pay is split in so many parts we need something juicy.

I know doing two missions almost takes us up to the same level (and that I advocated this some time back), we'd have to rush through them in a way that doesn't feel quite right. A bounty run should also be more challenging, and let us utilize everyone's skills.

Since Almighty is arrogant and wants that power armor he's voting for the big guy, but I understand if we settle for one of the 8's.

(About the power armor/mech I've plotted through the next bunch of advances, and it's going to be a while until I'm ready to actually use it. Part of that time could be spent repairing the suit from the damage we'll probably have to cause it. Having research as a motivation tinkering with it for a while wouldn't be so bad, and acquiring the mech is a good reason (and method) to start skilling up in that direction.)

[bladerunner_35]

we'd have to rush through them in a way that doesn't feel quite right.

Agreed.

I've always said that I enjoy tactical combat but just rushing through one mission to the next almost exclusively focusing on the "pivotal points" holds little appeal to me. It feels a little like we're grinding xp and money in an MMO.

What is the real reason why we/you are playing?

Ingame Ryder is becoming desperate enough for money to want to risk doing missions well above our pay-grade.

[nDervish]

If we are all present on monday, I think we should try to do both allmighty's personal contract (unless he goes at it alone trough dramatic rolls like Mal's mission)

Two things there:

1) The dramatic rolls option on Mal's mission is there because it's his day job, so there needs to be an option to handle it without taking up play time. I would leave it entirely in the background like everyone else's day jobs, but the nature of your current mission affects what the response will be to your attempts to requisition equipment. ("You're going undercover to infiltrate a street gang. How is a tank going to help with that?") Plus I wanted to give you the option of getting the others to help with any Stopwatch missions that look interesting.

2) Thursday's mission was a short one because it wasn't what I'd expected you to do (my impression from previous forum discussion was that you'd probably to Almighty's), it was fundamentally very simple, and I hadn't bothered to make any notes when I first wrote the hook for it. In contrast, I've been thinking about Almighty's mission for almost two weeks now and there are a lot more ways to complicate "search this neighborhood for a missing racer" than there are to complicate "drive down the freeway with a box"... It's not going to be a particularly quick one to complete.

Since the pay is split in so many parts we need something juicy.

Speaking of which, I had been meaning to go back and increase the pay on all of the public job listings (not personal missions or bounties) by 50% after the earlier discussion of what seemed like reasonable pay, but kept forgetting to. In future postings, pay for generic Novice-level missions will continue to be increased by half.

we'd have to rush through them in a way that doesn't feel quite right.

Agreed. I prefer to generally keep it to one per session instead of rushing things, although some of the simpler (and lower-paying) Novice jobs could end up being naturally quicker to complete.

A bounty run should also be more challenging, and let us utilize everyone's skills.

I don't remember whether I've mentioned it here before but bounty targets are automatically wild cards, which ups the difficulty right there, even if nothing else is any different.

It feels a little like we're grinding xp and money in an MMO.

I hadn't made that connection, but, yes, very good analogy.

What is the real reason why we/you are playing?

...and that may be something else to talk about on Monday.

A few topics have come up here in the last couple weeks that people have said are better discussed in person, so I was assuming we'd have those conversations the next time we've got everyone together in one place. Which is to say, on Monday.

If people want to just play on Monday, that's great (and it may actually be a better idea, since some of you have only actually played in a single session so far), but there's no way we're going to have time to discuss the direction of the campaign, game-mechanical issues, expectations, etc. and then complete two missions all in the same evening, no matter how much you might try to rush the missions.

[bladerunner_35]

Personally I want to make sure we're all on the same page in regards to the campaign theme, grittieness and all that before playing.

[Willard]

I'm in favor of playing. The first hour is usually spent mostly talking anyway, and we can always stop and talk some more as things come up. Having a grand re-evaluation of the campaign's rules and atmosphere that extends beyond that seems premature.

[Willard]

I've always said that I enjoy tactical combat but just rushing through one mission to the next almost exclusively focusing on the "pivotal points" holds little appeal to me. It feels a little like we're grinding xp and money in an MMO.

I agree totally with this, and would like to add that it's also mechanically unsound:

In Savage Worlds XP is awarded per session, not per mission, so grinding just doesn't work. And at this level the pay is simply too low to be significant, hardly enough to even cover the risk of injury and/or death (I don't have a problem with this, just saying).

2) Thursday's mission was a short one because it wasn't what I'd expected you to do (my impression from previous forum discussion was that you'd probably to Almighty's), it was fundamentally very simple, and I hadn't bothered to make any notes when I first wrote the hook for it. In contrast, I've been thinking about Almighty's mission for almost two weeks now and there are a lot more ways to complicate "search this neighborhood for a missing racer" than there are to complicate "drive down the freeway with a box"... It's not going to be a particularly quick one to complete.

Yeah, sorry about that. As I've said before: I want to do it, but we probably don't all need to be there.

I think the session worked out pretty well, finishing early seemed appropriate.

What is the real reason why we/you are playing?

This is a very good question, which we all should consider both in and out of game.