What Went Wrong With Maria Vendelez

Ok, the second session of play with Maria just kind of fell flat. It wasn't enjoyable, and I wasn't able to really engage. We got caught up in a beuracratic mess that didn't really accomplish anything. And when we got to the next adventure, it didn't seem to be any better. The system isn't really generating good adventures for Maria.

What Did We Hope Maria Would be Doing?

Why isn't Maria's set of adventures living up to what we hoped? I actually intended for this to be a pivotal part of the game: the interaction at headquarters between Centrum, Infinity, and PRC forces. So what was I imagining maria doing?

• I wanted a big picture view of the war. In fact, I wanted to direct the war in ways like choosing when its time to launch the all out attack, and in devising strategies. I wanted to decide to steal entire factories, recruit junkrats from japan to help with hacking, decide whether to risk sticking any satellites in space and how to best put boots on the ground. I wanted to fight a war, not just battles, and I wanted to be creative about it.
• I imagined intrigue where both sides try to pull crap on each other to gain an advantage, and where both sides make honest overtures of peace and friendship. Every person, be they on your side or not, would be a potential friend and a potential danger.
• Plots should be much longer than those of folks on the ground. Treason should effect long running relationships, not short ones. Foiling a plot by someone shouldn't end in their dismissal, but in long running tensions, increased resources, and political ammunition.

What does that Mean for the Game?

Maria should spend a lot of 'adventures' deciding what needs to happen in other parts of the game. She should be free to sit down and pour over successes, struggles, and failures of the other threads.
Maria needs hard numbers for the war. We have hard numbers for other parts of this game, so we need stats for morale back home, tension between opposing forces, resources coming in, and so forth.
Maria needs a supporting cast. A strong supporting cast. People to oppose plans, suggest ideas, and participate in cloak and dagger. She will spend a lot of time talking, not fighting, and her cast should be fairly static.

Action in Maria's sphere shouldn't be forced. It should flow naturally out of actions by the other groups, and occasionally by serious, high profile threats. Which means mechanism for introducing intrigue is needed. The intrigue should always be high stakes -- Stakes that effect the grand situation between Infinity, Centrum, Homeline Governments, and steel.

I'm not entirely sure that Maria is the right character. So far she's come off as a paper-pusher, not a general. Making her story line work do what I want may do a good deal of damage to the character. So I'm going to need to create a new character that will do what I want: someone with a lot of organizational power -- they'll be reporting to their equals in other organizations and higher ups who are off world and possibly civilians.

So I'm going to do a lot of world building, and quite soon: We'll need a true leader of the infinity effort. We'll need a way to keep track of the political situation, and we'll need to pull out actual numbers for what's going through Ceasefire.

Aylo Session 2: Potents in Dark Alleys

Aylo has the previously hostile soldier rooted in place. Winds whip around them both, and he demands what the soldier knows about Gilrun and Elsena. The soldiers calls out what he knows--

We know Elsena has been seen -- has Gilrun? No.
When was Elsena last seens (does he know)? Yes, and ... she was last seen 10 days ago, just before she should have headed back.
Was she picked up because she used combat?  No
Item of interest investigating: bloodline

"I... She was last seen 10 days ago. We haven't seen her since. She was seen in the palace. That's all I know! don't kill me!"

Aylo isn't sure of how to best deal with this, but hisses at the soldier "Run!" The elf scurries away, and Aylo walks away with only a slight breeze at his back. Hirbrit returns to Aylo's side "That was less subtle than I was hoping for."

Aylo: "When they catch you in disguise, subtly isn't an option."
Hirbrit: "Where are we planning to go now?"
Aylo: "They saw her here on the last day. That means that whatever happened, it happened here. I should check a few more family contacts. Its possible that they found new friends, but on the schedule they were on, I doubt it."

Aylo checks with more contacts.

Does he find any folks that seem to have had contact? Yes
And the folks still there? (+1 to solo6) Yes, but... there's a complication
Is it a complication related to his parents staying there? (+1 to solo6) Yes, and... oh dear
What's behind the complication? Local Authorities (2), Hostile Potents (2), or Other (2) ? Hostile Potents. obviously not there, but still interfereing
How are they interfering? Left Troops (1), Injuries/ Property Damage (2), Hostile Spell (2), or something else (2)?  Injuries/Property Damage
Are these physical or mystical in nature? Mystical
Which of the following? Property damage predominates (2), Injuries Predominate (2), A mix of Both (3)? Both
Is the damage Local Magic (alternative Potent Magic)? No, and... They've seen the potent.
Group Size: Partnership
Are they still alive? Yes, but.. one is dying
Are they family (alternative business partners, solo+1). Yes
Exact Relationship (Spouses, Parent/Child, Siblings, Grandparent/child, Uncle/Aunt/Nephew, farther)? Spouses.
Race? (Goblin, Waspfolk, Elves)? Waspfolk
Which gender is injured worse? Male

Eyldan (Husband) Magic, At Work, Awkward, Auburn Red Hair, Frowns, Suprisingly talented at something trivial, Hope/Fear:Sex

Kala (Wife) Physically Active, Leggy, Golden Blonde Hair, Brushes Hair back, Richer than they seem, Hope/Fear:Family

Initial Loyalty:  6+4 (good treatment, general loyalty and these folks are in an old relationship)

Fire and Water Blaster / Summoner. Foreign, Staring into Space, Wrinkled, Reedy Voice, Frowns
World Magic Type:  Slow Healing, Wither Limb, complex illusion -- body control and illusion
Is reason for attack obvious?  No, But... its obviously related to Gilrun and Elsena

Wow that's an info dump!

As Aylo and Hirbrit approach Eyldan and Kala's home, its immediately obvious something has happened here. The wasp-mage's home is charred and blackened, having been burned to the ground. Only blackened poles stand in the place where it stood. Aylo has been there several times before. He knew something was up, but this is something of a shock. He enters a nearby shop for more information. The owner looks up? "Yes?"

  Elf, Glowing, Freindly Face, Head tilted back
  Sveigrior (wasp), Very Attractive body, Inappropriate Clothes, Frowns

Aylo: "I was looking for Eyldan and Kala's shop -- it isn't the one that burned down is it?"

Shopkeeper: "I'm sorry to say that it is. You'll need to (good vs bad -- good) check in at the paper monger, seven shops down. Sveigrior knows those two from way back, and they're staying with him at the moment."

Aylo: "What happened?"
Reaction Roll: 6
Shopkeeper: "I don't want anything to do with that mess. Ask someone else. I don't want my shop burned down"

Aylo mulls over his next step. This is quite likely related to his parents disappearance. Eyldan and Kala are still alive, but they've never been more than business acquaintances -- they are as likely to be hostile as this shopkeeper -- or more so. But they also have vital details about what happened. Not getting that information from them is not an option. He could try sneaking around and listening in on what they say, but that would take too much time and not be precise enough. And he's not particularly good at that sort of thing.

Loyalty Roll: 10 (Base Loyalty) - 4 (lost shop is worth more than a year's income) -1 (unexpected danger) vs 12 -- failure by 7.

Aylo walks up to the papermaker and looks for Eyldan. He sees only Kala, who reacts by jumping up and rushing up the stairs into the privacy of her host's living space. Aylo doesn't have much in the way of money on him, but he buys a few sheathes of paper anyways.
"Could I talk to Eyldan and Kala?"
Sveigrior : "It appears that you can't. At least not until you talk to me."

Alyo :" I'm a long term business contact looking for information about colleagues of mine I believe your friends saw. In this case my parents."

Sveigrior : "And this has nothing to do with the attempted murder of Eyldan?"

Aylo: "I don't know. Its quite possible that it does. In which case I have as much cause for concern as they do, if not more."

Diplomacy 12 vs 11

Sveigrior pauses, and his antennae and mandibles tilt down and away in a very frown-like expression. "And what if you're the only reason they were attacked?"

Aylo grimaces: "Then I owe them and I can at least apologize."

Sveigrior goes up the stairs are returns with Kala. Kala doesn't wait to get down the stairs before launching into a tirade about how Aylo and his family ruined her life, that they had no right to bring this down on her head, that Eyldan was going to die and it would be completely his fault. She hoped he fell off a mountain and was eaten alive by vultures on the way down.

Aylo listens to the tirade, then says "I'm sorry. What happened?"

Kala: "We were attacked! Attacked by a strange --- I don't know what he was. Like a wrinkly goblin with an elves skin and round ears. He dressed in black and red and he burned our house down and -- You brought this man, didn't you! This monster raining fire and death. You owe us. It will take months for Eyldan to heal. If he even survives!"

Aylo: "Yes, I owe you. We will pay you back. And your husband's best hope of recovery is for me to find Elsena."

Kala: "What does finding the witch have anything to do with anything else?"

Aylo: "She's a healer without parallel. The greatest in the world. If anyone can heal him, Its my mother."

Kala: "Your scourge bringing mother left just before we were attacked. Odd timing I'd say!"

Aylo: "Yes, strange timing. Did your monster give a name?"

Kala: "No, he just showed up and started throwing fire around."

Aylo takes out his money pouch, counts out $20 of coins, and gives the rest to Kala: "You need this more than I do."

Kala:" This is a drop in the bucket of the pain you've caused me."

Aylo: "No, that's me helping someone who just lost their home. When I decide to repair the damage, you'll know it. But first I have to find Elsena."

Kala: "Thanks for nothing!"

Aylo leaves, and Hirbrit follows. "Was that a potent that attacked?" The goblin asks? Hirbrit knows a lot about politics and people, but Aylo's training in the lore of Potents came from his parents. Hidden Lore 12 vs 12 -- success! Aylo recognizes the attacker as a potent.

Aylo: "Yes, that's a potent. We've entered a war. And by we I mean me and my parents. Nations can be used as pawns in these things. You're a good teacher, but I don't want to get you killed. Do you want to stay here or on your home world?"

It should be pointed out at this time that Hirbrit is a Hirling, not an ally. A highly trusted hireling, but he does have a loyalty score and make loyalty rolls. We're going to assign Hirbrit a loyalty of 15 (though its normally higher via circumstance modifiers). This roll is at -4 -- he was never expected to help in a war. 11 vs 10 -- his loyalty prevails! Perhaps this has to do that part of his 'pay' is companionship and protection.

Hirbrit: "I'm staying with you to make sure you don't get over your head."

Aylo: "That's... thank you Hirbrit. I will appreciate your expertise." He sighs. "There are no potents here anymore. I don't know that I'll be tracking down my parents."

Hirbrit: "I think we'll mostly be tracking down weapons for you to use. And staying ahead of this potent."

Aylo: "If they both hid, it was more than one."

Hirbrit: "Then we'll stay ahead of all of them."

And that feels like a good place to stop.  In fact, this feels like the end of the adventure. And a very lucky experience roll gives Aylo 2 experience points -- which he will save towards buying hirbrit as a proper ally.

Session 1: Aylo's Search

Aylo and Hirbrit are on a hunting trip over the ocean when the trigger for adventure calls

Does Aylo sense an unidentified Potent? No, but...
Does a warning from his parents come through? No, but...

Gilrun and Elsena said they'd be back in five days. Its been 15. The two are roasting a large fish over a fire on a cliff overlooking the sea.

Aylo: "They've been late before, but never this late, on this short of a trip. I'm beginning to get worried."

Hirbrit: "There are many reasons such a delay could happen, both those of opportunity and those of inconvenience."

Aylo: "Does opportunity explain this? Three times the stay has already passed, and the time given was very precise. This would be an occasion of inconvenience."

Hirbrit: "Then we shall be inconvenienced. Probably less so than your esteemed parents."

Aylo: "Perhaps I should look in on them."

Hirbrit: "That is a bold decision. Explain your thoughts."

Aylo: "This isn't one of your carefully thought out puzzles! Its a feeling. I ought to go and ... do something."

Hirbrit: "I do not give you puzzles to entertain myself. This puzzle is all the more important in that I did not create it out of thin air. Explain your reasoning."

Aylo scowls and prepares his thoughts. Or rather fabricates the reasons he should go. "I should use the high oratory style then?"

Hirbrit: "You audience is myself and yourself. You could try demeaning us with demagoguery."

Aylo: "Oh, lets see -- Five nights ago, the esteemed and mighty Gilrun and Elsena left to perform a task. A simple task. One so simple that though it would take over a hundred hours, they gave an exact time of return. They have not returned. Either of them. Nor have they sent message. Let us consider why they would do such a thing."

Hirbrit: "Now perhaps we will consider more that just this point."

Aylo : " Stop heckling. Where was I? oh yes. Perhaps they found an opportunity. An item of power they can bind to themselves. But would that not requires merely one of them? And if it required two of them, and took an extreme amount of time, would they not have sent a message? perhaps not leaving all of the way to our location, but surely they would send some message. Thus we can conclude that this is not an opportunity, as they would have left some message--"

Hirbrit: "You're leaving out a possibility, Aylo."

Aylo: "Really? if it was a short opportunity, they'd be back by now. If it was a long one, they'd have sent a message."

Hirbrit: "You disappoint me."

Aylo: "You leave me flabbergasted. This is not a lesson. This is a serious matter about the well-being of my parents, and you want me to wade through this sea-scum you call logic."

Hirbrit: "Logic is for serious matters, young master. It is only sea-scum when you fail to apply it properly. In what case would your parents take a long opportunity and yet not send a message?"

Aylo: "If...If.. I can't think!  blast you goblin! I'm worried and you want me to answer some hypothetical. Yes, yes, I know. The hypothetical has great bearing on the matter troubling me. Or something like that. Umm... because they didn't care enough to send a message? They didn't realize they'd be gone so long? They're all ridiculous!

Hirbrit: "Take your thoughts seriously Alyo, and they will guide you well."

Aylo. "They didn't realized they'd be gone so long, or they didn't care. They obviously care. They may care about the mission more, but... they'd find way. They are very resourceful. Though it may only have gotten partially here, which means a message would be waiting somewhere."

Hirbrit: "And what about your other thought?"

Aylo: "If they didn't realize how long they'd be gone then ... Then I supposed they'd still be there. But that is a small chance. If we wave away everything based on that, then we may as well sit here eating fish on a cliff until I grow a beard and you die of old age."

Hirbrit: "The High Oratory style, remember?"

Aylo: "Logic may be useful here, but high oratory? its just you and me! we're trying to figure out what's going on with my parents and. Correction. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with my parents and you're worried that I'm not using high Oratory."

Hirbrit: "You're not even using proper demagoguery."

Aylo: "Fine. But even should they have sent no message, even if unexpected forces have conspired to force them into disguise and a concealment of their powers for a full 15 days -- acting upon their absence will not hurt their cause. To confirm that they are in disguise is simple, and all parties are accomplished at disguise. In most cases merely identifying their presence from afar will be sufficient. But let us examine the other case -- the alternative, that they have been delayed by what we have lightly deemed 'inconvenience' "

Hirbrit mutters something about "Demagoguery."

Aylo: "And you complained I wasn't using it before. But this is a weightier matter. What manner of inconvenience could hold back an experienced Potent like Elsena Goodwitch for 10 days. Particularly when she was with in the company of Gilrun Stonemaker? At a surface, the possible reasons are myriad. But we can dismiss most out of hand. This is not a delay caused by weather. It is in fact, caused by danger to something external they care for, or by danger to themselves. A Potent is always mobile, unless faced by something sufficient to endanger them."

"Thus either they are pinned down trying to save something or someone, or they are of themselves, in danger. Should they be pinned down saving something in such a way they cannot spare the magic or minutes to send a message, my aid will be most welcome. Should they be in danger, is it not better for us to know now, rather than wait for the danger to come seeking us?"

Hirbrit: "That is sufficient for now. I will critique your form on our way to find them."

Aylo: "You're not going to argue?"

Hirbrit: "I was convinced for a while now. But it was important that you come to this conclusion yourself, and that you think it through properly."

Aylo: "Some day I'm going to hit you with a lightning bolt on purpose."

Hirbrit groans and gets slowly to his feet "only after my heart stops." He leans heavily on his walking stick. "Lets go."

Which world are his parents on?
Mountains and Clouds
what inhabits this world? roll normally
What races are on that world? Classic Races TL 2
Elves (Feudal  Beastfolk (waspfolk) Goblins
How many cultures (1d3):  1
Feudal Multipolar
Name: Gontolan
Do the mountains float? Yes. Oh good.
What's the clime? Temperate+Coastal
Does one race dominate? Yes, but... there are exceptions
Does it dominate through numbers (alternative military might) Yes.
Goblins dominate

Aylo takes to the sky, and Hirbrit follows. He gathers his power, and storm cloulds gather around him, lightning flashes, and all at once, he is gone. Gone to a different world. Gone to Gontolan.

Gontolan is a land of floating mountains and soaring clouds -- one of Aylo's favorite. They arrive in the midst of a storm cloud, and fly out of it. As Aylo has been to this world before, he's within a few miles of where he wants to be -- the city his parents started from. Aylo stretches out his senses to try and sense his parents: 12 vs 9 -- success by 3. By 8 if he takes his time, which he does. This lets him sense Potents within 1,000 miles of him.

Does he sense his parents? No, and...
Does he sense another Potent? No.
Name of the City? Estabranth
Major Race: Mixed City

"I can't sense them anywhere. Where are they?"

Hirbrit: "We could try searching the city to find out if anyone has seen them. I don't know if they were trying to disguise themselves or not."

Aylo: "But why would they gone? Their business was in Estabranth, and they gave an exact estimation of how long things would take. That means they aren't on a wild dragon chase off through the worlds."

Hirbrit: "We walked through this before..."

Aylo: "They weren't planning to go on a wild dragon chase through the worlds. Ok, we have more information, lets think where they are. They aren't in Estabranth. They could either be on a different world, or they could be somewhere else on this world. Or ... I suppose they could be in some magical effect that disguises their presence. That last one is rare. If they are on a different world, I can only assume that'd it be due to other potents. If they didn't let me know first its likely the potents are present. That's a scary thought. If they are still on this world, but far enough away from their starting point that I can't sense them, they're in disguise in the midst of some crazy crusade that started here. I don't know which one is more likely."

Hirbrit: "Then we take precautions for both. Are there any things you should do if they are under cover for a long period of time?"

Aylo: "Stay... Stay out of their way. I can be helpful, but not when I know this little about what's going on."

Hirbrit: "And if they're dealing with potents?"

Aylo pales "Then I lie low and avoid them."

Hirbrit: "Exactly."

Aylo: "Not to sound rebellious, but that's not what I want to do. I want to know what's going on, and I want to help. I'm going to track them down at least to the point where they go undercover. Any Potents currently around aren't here right now. We can find out more information quite simply."

Hirbrit looks like he's going to say something, then waves the hand not on his stick: "As you wish".

Aylo and Hirbrit approach Estabranth on foot. Aylo brings up his hood to disguise his face... he'll be taken for an elf in this city if they can't see his ears clearly. The city buzzes with activity.

Why does the city exist (trade, trade, politics, industry, trade/politics, trade/industry)? Politics. Its a local capital
Have his parents stopped by any of their normal contacts in the city (Solo6 skewed for success) Yes, and... Ok, multiples.
NPC: Agriculture, Gloomy or Sad, Smooth, Wheedling Voice, Looks rapidly from person to person, Makes terrible life decisions, Hope/Fear:Sex, Waspfolk, female, Name: MiLok.
Are wasp folk hive structured? No, but ... they tend to live in bigger groups than other species.
What did they talk to MiLok about? A brewing War
A war with who? Rastior, to the north. Goblins
Rastior government: Dictatorship (Bipoloar)
Estabranth government: Different -- feudal empire with satalites
Stage of Conflict: Trying to back down.
Is it be coming more likely (alternative less likely) 

Alyo stops by MiLok, a waspling that his mother is fond of and with an ear for gossip. MiLok is surprized to see Aylo, but invites him in. She reports she did see his parents.

MiLok: "Elsena and Gilrun visited me what, thirteen days ago? They wanted to know about the trouble with the goblins up north. The buggers waylaid another caravan. The governor ought to show those filth a lesson! Merchants can't be safe until Rastior stops protecting them. I think Elsena saw what I was saying. They were certainly interested in the whole thing."

Hirbrit: "Did they head up north?" (does she know? No).

MiLok: "I don't know. I never  know where you people are headed off to."

Aylo: "Thank you very much. You saw them last 13 days ago? Thank you."

As they leave, Aylo wonders if his parents headed to Riastor or to higher contacts in Estabranth. Or even if they went to try and settle things with the raiders.

Do they have contacts in the local government? No, and... They're really not all that fond of the government here, and their classical personas are known to feel that way.

Aylo decides to see if the guard has had any run-ins with his parents. MiLok hasn't heard of anything that matches their description (rolled 13 on current affairs) so Aylo decides to try asking the guard itself. He rolls vs acting to pass himself off as someone in the know, and demands if they've made any progress on finding Gilrun or Elsena. He... rolls 16 on the acting roll. Oh dear.

Is he recognized? No, but... they're pretty sure he's not friendly.

And public speaking -2 to see if he get the information anyways... vs 11 is a bare success!
Aylo: "I need a report on Gilrun Stonemaker. His activities recently have us quite worried."

Soldier: "On Gilrun... Surely you mean Elsena? What has Gilrun to do with? Who sent you?"

Aylo: "The captain of the third company. He needs to coordinate with everyone else."

Soldier: "oh, the third company. If you want to know, you'll need to talk to our commander himself. We've made good progress though. " (Streetwise fails by two. Tactics succeeds by one).

Are the soldiers all the same race? Yes, but... that's just happenstance
What's the race? Elves. not what I expected.

Aylo recognizes the soldiers are moving into position to strike at him. So he strikes first. Lightning arcs out away from him towards 4 of the 5 soldiers. In an area attack like this, its an automatic hit for each, but they get a defense -- but must make an IQ roll to react in time. Only one of them makes the IQ roll, though he makes the dodge, leaping out of the way (and is now prone). 3d burning arcs through each of the three unfortunate warriors. doing 6,14, and 9 points of damage. the second two fail knockdown checks. The third is stunned by the bolt passing through his chest.

Hirbrit is off to the street side, watching Aylo display his power. The front-most soldier drives a spear towards Aylo's chest (potential hit). Aylo leap/flies backwards away from the tip. (successful dodge). He whips up winds around himself, forming a shield of violent air, and causing his hair and clothing to flap dramatically. The elf soldier who had dodged the lightening is up and near his squad leader. They attempt to attack Aylo at the same time, one from each side. Aylo brings up his hands and a wall of wind crashes into the soldiers. The leader takes 24 knockback, and is thrown back 3 yards, but being an elf (with perfect balance), he keeps his feet. The other elf takes much less of a hit, only 10 knockback. The effect isn't temporary -- its a permanent gust of wind protecting him. The two elves look at Aylo in something akin to fear, then turn tail to run. Their comrades are still recovering.

They're still in range. Alyo launches another wave of electric strikes. Both dodges fail and the bolts strike true. Volts of energy do 13 and 14 damage each. Both elves fall to the ground. Aylo looks at the last elf, the one he stunned, and growls: "Don't run. I need to talk to you." He doesn't have intimidation, but the threat of force just given was pretty impressive. 12 (will) - 5 (default) +4 (show of force) vs 9 is a success. The elf doesn't move, but just watches in terror as a potent displaying his power floats up next to him.

And we'll end the session there.

Infinite Steel, Mission 2: Maria Vendez

Our second adventure will involve a new character, this time from Infinity Unlimited: Maria Vendez, an infinity grand strategist from the US.

Central Plot at Stake
Peril starts at 1

Protect A valuable object at +1 peril for reward only for Low Rates With Gratitude with No particular Rush thats Its Here! (1d6-2 Hours, 1 hour tick)

From: Internal Conflict, agent is soldier or thug

Maria will spend almost all of her time on ceasefire. Protecting an object is strange until we remember she's dealing with intrigue. And in this case its a more martial foe she's up against. Lets consult the dice for more details 

Is the object intrinsically valuable (as opposed to sensitive)?  Yes, but ... its also sensitive

Is the object in her possession? No, But... it appears like she has it

Is the object involved in something criminal? No, but folks aren't quite being ethical

Who will get hurt if the object is lost (rolling vs faction): Local Criminal Organizer

Ahh, The plot thickens... is this a military object? Yes. but... not exactly a weapon.

Is this extra-world tech? No, but it still shouldn't be transferred under standard rules

Is this a SQUID? No
Oh wow, is this an advanced robot brain? Yes
Is Maria responsible for this mess? Yes, but ... It was a matter of timing.
Is the Criminal Organizer on Steel? No

The AI brain of a centurion robot (high level overseer) has been captured. Maria is currently in the custody battle for possession of it -- but she has already sent it to be analyzed by an expert that's kind of in cahoots with infinity on Quantum 6 -- he does a lot of extra-world computers analyzing for them.

Trying to get a hold of the AI core is:

Jonathan Huling: Dislike, Lanky, Quiet Voice, Winks, Very limited social circle, Of the United States (new york)

Jonathan is trying to get authorization take the core out to the open rock of the far side of ceasefire, power it up, and observe its reactions.

Maria gets a roll to see if she gets wind of this before the decision to move the robot is made. She has profession skill (patrol) and administration, both at 13. Administration will be complementary, Peril is 2. Both are critical successes! Maria is present when Jonathan presents his request to the guy with the actual power to make the relocation. He doesn't know that the person requesting the data is her.

The request is made to...

Zorin Ilyich: Staccato, Puffy Face, Big Open Gestures, Local, born and bred, Russian, male, 45-50

A portly Russian man who's never worked outside of logistics on lifeless rocks. Maria bides her time: she doesn't want Huling to know who exactly objects so strongly to the request. She heads back to the office and considers her options.

• She can argue against the request directly
• She can try and get Huling more work so that he is pulled off of this job
• She can try and stall for as long as possible while she gets the centurion back!
• She can make a case for why her use of the core is already legitimate

In the end, gathering more information seems to be the best option. She is going to try and hit up Zorin for more information. Lets see what the relationship between the two is -- 5+1=6. Oh wow, that's a terrible roll. Zorin and Maria have a longstanding bad relationship. She does not want Zorin to realize he'd be taking the thing from her, or he's likely to more the AI core out of spite.

Maria instead decides to chat up an underling who might know about the request. -- we've transitioned to a 'convince!' adventure (and noted so we can apply the appropriate plot twist). Maria tries to identify the appropriate underling (roll vs administration supported by saviore faire and professional skill). She know the right position, and some well placed chit chat with others identifies that Emma Mathews is the girl to talk to.

Emma Mathews : Reading, Thin, Friendly Face, Rests Chin in Palm, Clever than thy appear, British, 40 to 44

Emma puts down her book. "Can I help you?"
Maria starts talking about logistics on and off the world in general terms, pretending she needs a better understanding of the subject -- trying to steer the conversation to the centurion. Fast Talk 16-2(peril) vs 7. The basic reaction roll is 13 -- Emma likes Maria, furthermore, her loyalty to Zorin is an 8. Emma tells Maria what Zorin is planning to do with the Centurion:

Is the centurion headed towards Huling? No, But Zorin is seriously considering it.
Does Zorin know that Maria is the one arranging for the Centurion to be sent off site? Yes, and ... Emma is also aware of who Maria is!

This is not what Maria wanted! She keeps calm and keeps on talking.

Maria: "You can see why I'm stalking in to talk then..."
Emma: "Yes, I can see quite clearly."
Maria: "Well I'd like to make sure that the core doesn't get waylaid. I've already made a deal with the local expert. I like to keep good relations with our contacts."
Emma: "And you can't wait for 48 hours while Huling runs his test?"
Maria: "In this case, yes. I can get the AI core back to Huling, but for reasons I really shouldn't discuss I need to get the core to him as soon as possible."
Emma: "You've painted yourself into a corner then."
Maria: "Corner? no. A unsatisfactory situation? yes. Could you mention its possible to get the  core back after its been looked at?"
Diplomacy  16 -2 (peril) vs 6 -- success!
Emma: "Yes, I can run that by him. Any reasons I should give for taking that route?"
Maria: "Oh, I can think of several. The most pressing of which is the possibility of the device being damaged when testing is done on it out in the open. Another being that dedicated experts deserve the first crack at this, while its in as close to the state of capture as possible."
Emma: "Oh, I think I can work with those."

Maria is happy with this discussion, but isn't sure that it will be enough. There is still delaying Huling and preparing to stall... but what's the likely result of the work already done? As it turns out, Maria has psychology, which is definately appropriate, and administration can be the complementary skill. Administration 13 vs 10 and psychology 13 - 2 (peril) +1 (administration) vs 8 yeild that she has a good idea of how the argument will go down!

Emma saviore faire (patrol) 12 +1 (maria complementary diplomacy) vs Zorin will 11 +2 (boss) -- its a 50% chance. Since she succeeded by so much on the pyschology roll, we'll give her a 75% chance of getting it right -- a 5 and an 8! she thinks its good enough, all things considered, but when its time if the die rolls 14 or higher she'll have been wrong, and we'll reroll the argument. She wants a backup plan. But what?

 Perhaps she could arrange for a request from higher up to expedite the shipment. But then they'd get involved and find that she has already shipped off the core. She could also make a confusing paper trail so that if she has to return it she can send people looking for where it was misplaced rather than investigating why she sent the thing off early. She decides to go with that route -- administration with saviorre faire and professional skill (patrol) complementing: PS (patrol) 14 vs 9, SF (patrol) 14 vs 5, Administration 13-2(peril) +2 (complementaries) vs 12 is a success! It won't buy much time, but it will help.

There is little to do now except send the message to send the core back and to hope the conversation between Maria and Zorin goes well. And... It does! Maria convinces Zorin its a bad idea let a soldier play around with the core before the experts look at it. Rolling for if the core was what it seemed, we find that it was. Its the core of a centurion, and the folks off-world find it most intriguing. Have I not built that world yet--- lets fix that:

Asghar Gatta: Persian, Nobility, Admiring, Reedy, Plump Face, Furrowed brows, Surprisingly open-minded, Hope/Fear:Violence
TL8 Alternate Geography +, Islamic MultiPolar 3 Feudal

Oh wow, this is not a simple crook in a corner with a computer: this is a determined follow with aspirations -- violent aspirations. I can only assume infinity at least doesn't find his goals detrimental -- lets say he is trying to start a civil war for a regime change. Lets call the world Sinbad-5. Its named that mostly for its odd geography. interestingly, Mecca is still in the same place.

How about that reward? Its generous! we get +20% social and financial. Of course, the client was herself, but this means that both Gatta and Emma are useful contacts we can call on in the future, and no further mess is coming of this. At least, none that throw aspirations on here character. Our "now what?" roll leads into another adventure... 

Escort a person at +1 peril for reward only for Standard Rates, Fame and Glory with Reward is Dwindling! (-10% per unit of time) thats Nearby ( 1d3 days, 12 hour tick)
Is this person from Sinbad-5? No
Are they from Steel? No, but... they would fit in with steel.
Umm... Are they from Infinity?... No, but... keep along those lines...
They're from centrum, aren't they? Yes.
Clement Oliveira: Travler/Tansit, Celebrating, Smooth, Heart-shaped Face, Catchphrase, Generally disliked around here, Hope/Fear:Disease, female

Its mentioned that Maria really ought to have looked into centrum's people -- they have an AI expert who was just waiting for a core to come in. Some infinity folks have a problem with sharing such data with their "allies".

But that's a different matter, for another day...

 

Aylo Stormlord

Our Potent Hero is Aylo Stormlord. We will follow his adventures through the many worlds, kingdoms, and rivals he encounters. Lets start this is true journal of the dice fashion, to discover the parameters for Aylo:

Is he aware of Potent Society? Yes, but...
Are one or more of his parents Potents? Yes, and ... They're still alive.
Are both parent Potents? Yes. wow.
Did they raise him? Yes, but ... other folks raised him as well

So far he appears to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Lets stir this pot -- he can't have everything handed to him on a silver platter, or we'll have no action:

Are his parents in trouble? Yes.
Does the trouble after his parents know about him?  No, but... others are seizing this chance
Is the trouble after his parents a single Potent? No, but... Its an alliance of potents then.
Are these potents long associates of his parents? No... they're a new group then.
Do these potents follow an 'evil' theme? Yes, and...
Is this a nest of demon lord potents? No, but demons are involved
Is the theme that of death/undeath? No, but they are involved
Is the theme that of monstrousities or corruption? Yes
Lets link him to 2d6-2 worlds:  9-2=7

Classic Races TL 0 Light Magic and Custom Races TL 4

Mountains and Clouds

Air Magic and Water Magic

Fire Magic and Dark Magic

Custom Races TL 2 Racial Boosts and Humans TL 2 Light Magic

Deserts and Clouds

Air Magic+Lakes

He starts out on the first one -- which is to say his parents start out there, and its the point where all of the trouble starts...

Lets build his power set. His title is 'stormlord' -- his 200 area points almost certainly go to controlling the weather. For his personal points, I want a combination blaster and summoner.

Flight (storm lord -10%) [36]
Enhanced Move (flight) 2 [40]
Lightning Bolt: 5d  burning (increased 1/2 D x10 +15%, max range x5 +10%  acc +3 +15%, Surge +20%, Ignores metal armor +150%, Side effect (stuns) +50%, electricty -10%, stormlord -10%) [25*3.6 * .8] = [72]
Wind Storm : 3d crushing (double knockback +20%, overhead +30%, Persistent +40%, five minutes +60%,  32 yard radius  + 250%, selective area +20%, wind attack -5%, stormlord -10%, no wounding -50%) [15*5.2*.425] = [34/5=7]
Wind Wall : As storm, but with Wall [37/5=8]
Fog: Obscure 10 (32 yards +200% penalties are gradual: -1/yard -40%, stormlord -10%) [30]
Storm Shield: 3d Crushing (Aura +80%, Double Knockback +20%, Melee Attack (c-3) +0%, No wounding -50%, stormlord -10%) [15*2*.4]=[12]
Lightning Strike: As lightning blot, convert max range and accuracy bonus to overhead [72/5=15]
Arcing Lightening: 3d  burning (Area effect 16 yards +200%, Surge +20%, Ignores metal armor +150%, Side effect (stuns) +50%, selective area +20%,  emanation -20%,  electricty -10%, stormlord -10%) [15*5.4 * .6] = [49/5=10]
Detect (Weather, long range) [23]
Mind Control (Super natural Beings) [50]
Modular abilities 25 (Only Conjured Elemental Allies -60%) [100]
Five Allies (Conjured+100%, Minion +50%, 100% of total, always show up x4)  [100]

Allies typically come from the DF book, and Aylo uses both air and water elementals, though he favors air on most occasions. He's somewhat fragile, but can pull out solid front line fighters, stays out of reach of most melee combatants, and non-mystical ranged attacks get redirected by wind.

Lets do his weather control now:

Obscure 2 (area effect 8 miles +20%, general weather bonuses, onset 10 minutes -25%, Power modifier -10%) [100*1.2*.65 =78]
 Obscure 8 (area effect 8 miles +20%, general terrain bonuses, onset 10 minutes -25%, Power modifier -10%) [100*1.2*.65 =78]

Lets leave the other points unspent. He looks pretty good, as far as his main powers go. Of course, Aylo is not just bundle of magical power. He's also a person. One who grew up in the courts of kings and in the shadow of power, but a person none the less. But before we grow that person, lets see what his parents and the world he grew up in is like.

Life and Transformation Wards and Curses / Illusions

Transformation and Technology Blaster / Wards and Curses

Is the first one his mother? Yes

Mother: Military,  Fragile, Unkempt Clothes, Softly Spoken, Very limited social circle, Hope/Fear:Family

Father: Agriculture, Fragile, Tasteful Clothes, Head cocked sideways, Has strong feeling about political/religious authorities, Hope/Fear:Money

They both have transformation  with wards and curses -- you'd have think their child would have inherited something along those lines... His mother leans towards life magic and illusion though, while the father leans towards technology and blasting. Gilrun Stonemaker has a transmutation power set, focused on metal, wood, stone, and other hard, worked substances.  Elsena goodwitch focuses on wards more, setting up long term effects that transform living creatures or trap the nonliving. She is a master of disguise and misdirection.

Lets flesh out this world he grew up on a little more.
Goblins.

Spells: Coolness, Walk on Air
Humanoid Glow Fish
Theme: Underworld
Relevant Terrain

So we have TL 0 goblins whose mages can ride the winds and control the weather, and Fish People at TL 4. And deep sea fish people with ugly fangs. Presumably they use the deep sea vents to fashion their gear. This sounds like a good place to raise a budding Stormlord. In fact, he probably has a goblin teacher.

Hir-brit: Foreign, Eating, Limp, stoop, or hunch, Cruel Face, Dull and Expressionless, More moral than they appear, Hope/Fear:Politics

Interesting. Our goblin is a crippled political exile with a staunch moral standing. That's very wise old master. It is to his experienced care that Aylo is entrusted when necessary. We'll make Hir-brit a 187 point ally.  As a character without powers, Aylo is 246 points, with 4 unspent -- but I suspect things will come up.

Attributes: [180]

ST 12  [10]       HP 12 [0]
DX 12 [40]   Per 12 [10]
IQ 12   [40]  Will 12 [10]
HT 12  [20]     FP 12 [0]

basic speed 6 [0]
Move 6 [0]
Air Move 12/48

Disadvantages: [-37]
Code of Honor (fight fair, show respect) [-5]
Intolerance (Sadism) [-5]
Impulsive [-10]
Greedy (CR 15) [-7]
5 quirks (to be determined) [-5]

Advantages: [78]
Combat Reflexes [15]
Weather Magic 5 [25]
Ally (Hilbrit, FA 15, 75%) [9]
Appearance (handsome) +4/+2 [12]
Goblin (native speech) [3]
Aquatic (accented) [4]
language (10 more) [10]

Skills:[71]

Thaumatology	13	IQ+1	[12]
Occultism	12	IQ	[2]
Research	12	IQ	[2]
Meditation	11	Will-1	[2]
Naturalist	11	IQ-1	[2]
Public Speaking	13	IQ+1	[4]
Diplomacy	12	IQ	[2]
Saviore Faire (Nobility)	12	IQ	[1]
Acting	12	IQ	[2]
Streetwise	12	IQ	[2]
Intimidate	11	IQ	[1]
Control Weather	17	IQ+5	[2]
Staff	12	DX	[2]
Innate Attack (lightning)	19	DX+7	[4]
Aerobatics	12	DX	[4]
Judo	11	DX-1	[2]
Karate	11	DX-1	[2]
Throwing	11	DX-1	[1]
Forced Entry	12	DX	[1]
Search	11	Per	[1]
Flying	12	HT	[2]
Riding	11	DX-1	[1]
Survival (plains)	13	Per+1	[4]
Survival (open ocean)	11	Per-1	[1]
Strategy	12	IQ	[4]
Tactics	11	IQ-1	[2]
Games (chess)	13	IQ+1	[2]
Dancing	11	DX-1	[1]
Literature (old legends)	13	IQ+1	[2]
Traps (magical)	12	IQ	[2]
Hidden Lore (potents)	12	IQ	[2]
Sense Potent Magic	12	IQ	[2]

And that's Aylo the person. He doesn't have much in the way of possessions, but then again, he doesn't need much, does he? This is a session 0 of sorts, and I look forward to seeing what happens to Aylo storm lord.

UPDATE: 1 point is spent on intimidate. He has (3) points in reserve

Building the world(s) of Aylo Stormlord

I was thinking about exploring a fantasy based world hopping character. I was having trouble coming up with the setting until I started asking myself what I really wanted from the character:

•  I want a world hopper in a classic fantasy sense
•  I want a summoner
•  I want someone who effects the outcome of the cosmos
•  I want wide variety of rules on magic, varied by world
• I want the character to be able to interact with all of them

Wow, I think I may want a planes-walker with a plot. Now that I've admitted this, it sounds really cool. I want someone who strides across battle fields spewing magic, tossing armies, and changing fates. This guy is a high powered fantasy super. Somehow, admitting that is liberating.

Will this still be gurps? Umm... yes. The core character will very much be a gurps character. His powers may get a little large and their may be  a little hand-waving, but in the end, this will all be about a 250 point character with hundreds of points in powers and access to epic gear.

Ok, what do I expect out of my worlds?

• I want worlds to be non-trivial to access -- getting in and out of them should take effort. 
• I want quests for both artifacts of power and for the fate (and possession) of kingdoms
• I want opponents in my same league, with similar power sets. I also want
• The TL should stay below 5, though 4+2^ should be possible.
• Non-world changers should treat magic as technology
• I need a way to handle large amounts of combat

Thats good to have out of the way. That sets some setting guidelines -- though we will need much more.

Ok, what do I Expect my Hero and his Peers to do?

• I expect them to have the ability to sniff out magic -- some sense that lets them find entrances to worlds and artifacts of massive power, as well as each other
• They should be somewhat bound to local magic, able to use local magic, and able to use some of their abilities when you wouldn't expect them to.
• They should be able to travel between worlds. Beyond that, they should be able to take others with them.
• They should have innate personal combat abilities. These abilities should be varied and flavorful, and centered along themes. Even the most powerful should have a limit on what they can do against a single opponent though. They should be good at slaughtering mooks as well as fighting each other.
• They should have a cool name for themselves that feels unique.
• They should have a common template that lets the GM both stat them quickly and sets expectations.  
• Truely great powers should be obtained through quests and actions -- and be able to be lost. 
• Powers should be able to be stolen
• Most of the time should be spent obtaining power or shaping worlds to their liking
• They will not be more worlds than heroes, but there should be more kingdoms than heroic peers.

Ok, lets solve some of these issues. They spend most of their time wandering about the cosmos looking for worlds to bend to their vision of things, have much more power than others, and wield it through magic. Calling them 'Potents', after the latin word for power is an option. Latin for wanderer is vagus -- as in vagrant. No thanks. German for magic includes "Zaber". Zaberkin doesn't sound out of place. Mage-lord doesn't give the effect I want. Archmage is a classic, but I'm not sure I like it. I think I'll call them "The Potent" for now.

Magic should be as powers. The template has the following:
Detect (Magic) [10]
Detect (Places and People of Power, Reliable +12) [8]
Detect (Places and People of Power, Long range, Vague) [4]
Energy Reserve (Power Type) 10 [30]
Regeneration (Reserve only, 1/10 seconds) [70]
Wide ranging power set [200]
Close and personal power set [500]
Unusual Background (Potent) [100]
Jumper (not yet determined) [?]

Traveling between worlds

The first time should be the hardest
Should be location based - you must be in a general area -- but you should need more than just location.
Time should certainly be an element: 5 to 10 minutes of dedicated magic, more if you're trying to figure things out.
Portals should be obvious-- bright, loud, magically signification, and so forth.
You should be able to 'book mark' a world and be able to return to it with much fewer restrictions: location you show up in should still be less than ideal, but you should be able to get there from just about anywhere 
Access to each world should be unique -- each world should feel like an accomplishment.

Ok, I think I have a general idea of how world travel works: you piece together its existence from clues found in other worlds, left by former potents.

Wide Area Effects

The Potents are fond of wide area effects. There are lots of things that these effects can do, but they essentially boil down to giving bonuses or penalties over a large area. For this, we're going to base it off of obscure. We will be effecting large areas. The advantage will be re-calibrated so that modifiers give reasonable results. The base effect covers a half mile radius, and costs +5% for each level of area effect. If you can choose who gets the bonus, use the defensive modifier. The ranged modifier is +100% but lets you attack at 5 miles away and lasts for 6 hours. A positive Benefit has a +100% cost. If you have a specific but general effect, the cost is [20] per level, with [+10] for each thing it can do, [10] for a very specific effect, [25] for a set of narrow effects (all kinds of terrain effects),  [50] for a broad set of bonuses. This are tripled for non-combat effects, like navigation, hiking, or farming rolls.

For example, controlling the weather for 8 miles around is Obscure 1 (area effect 8 miles +20%, general weather bonuses, onset 10 minutes -25%, Power modifier -10%) [50*1.2*.65 =39]+ Obscure 2 (area effect 8 miles +20%, general terrain bonuses, onset 10 minutes -25%, Power modifier -10%) [50*1.2*.65 =39]

Languages

On the one hand, languages should certainly drift between worlds. On the other, learning a new language every time you need to visit a new kingdom is highly annoying to say the least. Languages will run racial -- each instance of a language can be understood from the others at one less. Also of note is "The Ancient Tongue", Draconic, and the three languages of humans: high, north, and east. Ancient is considered the linga franca between  Potents.
Summary
Other decisions will have to be made, but this should be enough. I can build a character and start my adventure...

Journal of the Dice: Intro

Welcome to journal of the dice! this is actually my second gaming blog. Journal of the dice is about the results of the dice:the results of random generators, games with solo-gaming systems, and other stuff I'd like to share.

As a gamer, I generally play via Online chat, Play by Post, or as a solo gamer. Play by Post is the category I've done the most of. I generally GM rather than play. I'm also an avid world builder and lover of random generators. I've built a lot myself, and have sought out the generators of others.

The dice are going to lead me on an adventure! Where to? who knows!

Infinite Steel: Mission 1 analysis

For the first mission, I decided to start in a corner of my setting and choose Wong Tai, who leads a chineese heavy weapons fire crew. His mission was to retrieve important data from an installation the chineese government believes still exists in the Steel version of china. He's also bringing along an observer from centrum to impress-- its important to perform well here.

His team of 6 soldiers, 1 commander, an infinity computer cracker and the observer struggle on the short journey from the drop off point. First they ran into a deep canal, barked a shin getting across it, but patched that up and got all their equipment across. The site was hidden, and it took about a day of looking around to find the entrance. In the morning half of them were suffering from some nasty disease native to Steel. They normally would have headed back at this point, but the observer was there, so they trudged on.

The observer, meanwhile, took a personal disliking to Wong. While that mission wasn't considered a success, some of the other moments were.

They found the entrance, and discovered a government military installation full of corpses dead from disease, and with obvious signs of robots. They searched the building for the computers they need, and ran across 8 myridons powered down (they aren't needed anymore) A set of 'just right' rolls, including a critical failure on perception, led the stealthy, trained team to be surprised by the single powered Myridon, which woke up the others. In the initially chaotic fight that ensued, they used up half of their LAW ammo, and had one guy take a serious injury in his arm.

Wong actually performed well at what he was trained to do: lead. As all these things went wrong, and there were times when the green troops could have given up, turned back, or broken and run, but Wong held strong, and organized his men to face the challenges. Of note was his command of the use of the LAW ammo, which at 5 lbs a piece, could easily have been wasted in the fire fight. At the end he managed to lure the last few myrmidons into shooting all of their ammo at the same time so they could be easily picked off with the precious one shot weapons.

Notes:

•     BAT bushwacking lacks a terrain skill, but has naturalist. It'd be nice to have naturalist default to survival or be replaced by it
•     The Myridons where very tough. A large part of this was probably the range-- at those ranges aiming is slow and you have a chance to hit by just by spraying fire -- which favors those who don't have spend 5 lbs of gear per shot. Also, the tech difference between the two sides really hurts: Ultra tech weapons will do much better against the DR 30 armor. Rovers would probably have been a better choice for the threat level indicated.
•     100 point soldiers are not all that impressive. And with all his points in command, Wong isn't all that impressive at anything but commanding.
•     Applying peril across the board isn't a great idea. This was a heavy weapons team, and they did all right at beating a foe two TL's higher than them selves with effective numeric superiority. They struggled with survival because they really aren't built for it. 
•     The fire team is just big enough to need a better mechanic for combat. I suppose this time was important because we needed to find this stuff out, but I'd rather spend more time on Wong and less on his team
•     The fire team is not optimized for medium foes: their expensive weapons were over kill but heavy, and their cheap weapons were just barely not effective enough. They probably would have done just as well against much heavier foes. Once again, this was in part due to the close quarters. 
• I used the Laws wrong -- they shouldn't have gone off against foes less than 10 yards away. I was also told that the blast damage should be including fragmentation when its hitting a tank or something like that. 
• I handled weight abstractly. That was... iffy. Turns out heavy weapons crews have a lot of very heavy gear. Next time I should be more thought into their gear. Also, having a limited number of five pound "solutions" for the enemy turned out to be a great tension builder.
• In many games I play, I find strength to be overrated, at 10/level. In a heavy weapons crew... Its probably worth it. Xing and Qin had high ST, and it was worth every point. They survived hits, used weapons others couldn't, and generally pulled the team along.

Infinte Steel: The World and Premise

My first major campaign on this site is 'Infinite Steel', a game combining a robot apocolypse with the world jumping setting of infinite worlds. One of the 17 AI's that destroyed most of humanity on its own earth, Zone Beijing, has stumbled across the fundamentals of parachronics. Centrum, the culturally lockstepped enemy of infinity unlimited, doesn't have the cultural know how to operate in the wastelands of china, and has grudgingly asked infinity to help stop a foe that will kill or enslave all of humanity that it encounters. Infinity lacks the knowledge of bio-warfare to operate with any kind of security on Steel-1, the designation for the robot-infested world, and requires centrum's help. They've also been forced to bring in heavy weapons than normal, and homeline's PRC is providing military might when needed.

All three of these powers, all with traditionally hostile relationships, are staging the operation from a world now known as cease-fire, a world where multicelluar life is yet to come, and all continents are still in a modern configuration. Here, they send forth feelers, looking for the location Beijing  zonemind, its backups, and the data it can use to escape its world to unleash death across the quanta.

The version of infinity being run is lacking in supernatural firepower: there is some, but the supernatural tend to not work very well on worlds its not from, at least in quantas 5 and higher. This is about heroes that use technology, not magic, to achieve their goals.

The game isn't just about defeating zone Beijing. Its also going to have a strong focus on the politics of centrum, infinity, and china. Their is also not a main party of PC's, but we'll switch view points fairly often, visiting soldiers and agent fulfilling missions, leaders analyzing data and trying to out maneuver each other in the beuracratic quagmire, and pawns trying to eek out a living.

As such, I'm going to do a lot of character generation. And a lot of its fast. Rather than wild cards are eyeballed stats, I'm going to use the Power ups from gurps action 4 on a bunch of simple attribute templates. And yes, I'm running this in many ways as a game that's essentially about action.

The core 'solo play' mechanic is 'The Collaborative Gamer'. The system was designed to be GM-less, rather than for specifically solo play, and some tweaks are needed to make it useful in an action context rather than a fantasy one, but its core is really good, and I'll be using it a lot.

I hope you enjoy this series!

Infinite Steel, Session 1: Wong Kang- Goverment Data

Our first mission is with Wong Kang, the commander of a small anti-tank team.

Session 1

Central Plot at stake
 Peril starts at 1
Adventure: recover ancient artifact at +1 Peril for Standard Stakes, with Reward is Dwindling! (-10% per unit of time) thats Nearby (12 hour tick)

So we are recovering information from before the end, and the matter is time sensative. Lets find out more about why this data is time sensative.

Is it no longer useful after time is up? No.
So its no longer recoverable after time is up? No
Is this about politics? Yes. Very Yes. Oh bother.
Is the problem with infinity, centrum, or internal? centrum.
Is this some sort of race to prove something to centrum? Yes.

Ok, this breifing is getting interesting, lets generate an NPC:

Xing Yongrui: Travler/Tansit, In no Hurry at All, Weak, Fashionable Clothes, Tight Cramped Gestures, Has true freind or Ally, Hope/Fear: Love

Xing is giving this briefing, so he's either the commanding officer or he's a government agent explaining why this mission is so important.

Is Xing Yongrui government? Yes, but.. he's also kind of military. Civilian oversight then.

Xing explains that the glorious leadership of china thinks it will be of use to bring along a Centrum observer on this mission, mostly so that he can be impressed by the Chinese performance of the mission. The target is a government data station that should contain information on where various military bunkers are. Wong and his team are sent to bring back the data. He has his team, an Infinity computer cracking expert, and an observer from Centrum.

Observer:Traveler/Transit, Dismissive, Tall, Catchphrase, Fiddles with Object, Surprisingly open-minded, Hope/Fear:Politics
Ok, we'll call him Fredrick Maxwell, of Centrum. He investigates lots of different operations in Centrum, seeing how they function, and has political ambitions

Data Expert: Foreign, In Transit, One hand or arm, Forceful Voice, Taps nose or ear, Has children somewhere, Hope/Fear:Ethics
Yamauchi Taya is Japanese, and lost a hand a while back. She has a strong sense of ethics, and is fond of children back home. If she lost a hand, she's probably got a lot of experience working in tough situations. We'll replace her hand with a near cybernetic prosthetic, and remember she's go a fair amount of experience in tough spots.

Wong asks what Xing knows about his two pieces of  'cargo'. Xing says that Fredrick appears to be what in centrum passes for a career politician. He's spent a lot of time touring various off-world operations and inspecting them. "so a civilian who thinks he knows our business better than we do." Wong sums up. "What about Agent Taya?"

"Oh, you'll handle Fredrick just fine." Xing rolls a pen in his fingers. "Taya should take care of herself. Infinity says they trust her. She's missing a hand, for whatever that's worth. Can't find anything on her. She speaks mandarin, unlike Fredrick, but we know little about her. We'll know more after your mission."

The journey is short -- they will pop in, travel a few dozen miles, take the objective, travel a few dozen miles and pop back out again. This will be an intense mission, but should be worth it. The peril roll for the journey indicates they have the expected peril of 2.

The chineese soldiers have at least hiking 10, and Wong shaves off -2 to cope for Yamauchi's inexperience. They attempt to make good time... and succeed -- 7 is a really good roll! A unit of time is shaved off. They're hiking through forest with some villages. One of his soldiers has woodland training -- we need to build this guy up more now!

Tsao Yongnian: Military, Solid, Distinctive Book, Head cocked sideways, Weighs things carefully before deciding, Hope/Fear:Power

Yongnian will guide the team:

Navigation 11 -2 (Peril)+3 (GPS)=12 vs 8 is a sucess.
Survival has specific gear that can help, but no general gear.
Survival (forest)* 12 - 2 (peril) = 10 vs 11 -- +2 to the next event roll. dang it.
The event roll gives us a choice of mishaps. Negotiate an obstacle or .. a different obstacle.
We roll for two generic outdoor obstacles.
The first requires Jumping/DX/Acrobatics to overcome.
The second is a barrier of some kind.
It appears they need to either batter down an obstacle or jump across a ravine of some sort.
Is this a natural or artificial obstacle? Yes, its articial, but is an abbandoned feature.
So a very deep irrigation ditch and the fence/control station at the natural crossing. 

*of course, most of the team has naturalist from bushwacker. This should probably be translated to survival in some form. Hmm.

Well, they have plenty of rope, so Wong picks one guy to cross first and anchor everyone else. The decision of what to do could be a crisis moment for Wong.. but a leadership roll determines he handles it well.

He needs a guy to make the jump, and picks one -- one with the 'quick' template, so he can jump farther. We have another named soldier!

Lum Zihao: Religion, Small, Catchphrase, Rythimical Speech, Richer than they seem, Hope/Fear:Politics

Lum takes off all his gear, they tie a rope around him, and he jumps across the ravine: 11(DX)-2 (peril)+1 (speed) =10 vs 12 -- he fails. A second DX roll can save him from hitting something hard... and 11(DX) -2 (peril) = 9 vs 10 fails. Its a close fail, though, and as the damage is to his left leg, we'll let him get by with just a bruised shin-- 3 points of damage. Lum hobbles over to a tree, ties off the rope thrown across, and then each person slowly descends into the ravine and is pulled up the other side. No one rolls too bad on this, (its simple once the ropes on both sides are up and we have time), so everyone is across.

Now Lum needs a medic. Of course there is a medic on the team.These troops are fleshing out quickly..

Li An: Entertainment, Wiry, Cruel Face, Quick staccato Gestures, Poorer than they seem, Hope/Fear:Family

Li has a terrible bedside manner, but applies salve, wraps up the leg, and with 11 (first aid) vs 10 and a healing roll of 5, the leg is as good as new. Or at least can be run on while properly wrapped.

Li wasted a bunch of points on doctor stuff. we hope

Despite the delay, the good hiking means they get to their destination before dark. We're trying to impress Fredrick, so we'll roll vs. the lowest soldier skill, with leadership and administration as complimentary rolls. with a base roll of 9, and two successes on complimentary rolls, Fredrick is duly impressed so far.

Now its time to sneak up close to the location. Wong takes two soliders (lets say Lum and Tsao) with him to investigate the base. All have stealth at 12, camoflage at 10 (though Wong has it at 13), and naturalist at 10 (Wong has it at 11). Stealth rolls are 12 (bare success), camoflauge by wong (13 vs 13) and survival (woods) (12 vs 4) help to bring that to sucess by 3. Now we get to find out about the site!

Peril is one lower than we thought
Is this site abandoned or in use? rephrased: solo6, is it abandoned? No. So its in use.
And our roll tells us that the entrance is concealed. 

That's tricky. No wonder this site is still here. Fortunately, it doesn't appear to be guarded. We'll let camouflage act as a complementary skill to searching for the hidden entrance, but its going to take a
unit of time: this is a big area, if it takes 12 hours to look for the entrance! They call everyone to come help.

 Is it a spot of forest (alternative ruined town)? no, but ... 

We know its around here somewhere...

ok, its a ruined town, but overgrown. We waive the N rule on the roll and just say everyone gets a single roll. we need to succeed by peril, or one... 11 (perception) -1 (Peril) +1 (Camoflague roll) =11 vs 13. They don't find the entrance, and night is falling. We use the camping rules from ATE (we are in a post apocolyptic wasteland). Tsao looks for a spot and finds 12 (survival) vs 11 success - a decent camping spot. In enemey territory, they go for concealment and lines of sight, but not comfort. 1 LFP down for everyone.

Now is probably a good time to see how Fredrick is reacting to Wong. ouch, reaction roll of 5. the +2 from charisma helps, but the two are not getting along.

And as they sleep, a navigation/survival/event sequence is in order. (we roll every 12 hours, remember!)

Navigation is waived , as they're not moving
12 (survival) -1 (Peril)= 11 vs 10 sucess.
 And a high event roll indicates we have more mishaps coming in anyways...
A bad social experience, or a Obstacle/Hazard/Ward/Trap. 

This sounds like a hazard suited for an ATE setting. We have weather, Disease, or Bots. Lets just say its disease -- some how the team was exposed to infections. They could turn to centrum for help, but they're trying to impress centrum right now. Lets roll at HT - peril (original) and find what we have.

reign of steel isn't just about robots...

Wong: 11 -2 vs 6 -- no infection!
Li An: 11 -2 vs 4 -- no infection!
Lum Zihao: 10 -2 vs 11 -- sick!
Tsao Tongnian: 11 -2 vs 9 -- no infection!
Fredrick Maxwell 10? -2  +3 (centrum bonus) vs 14 -- sick!
Yamauchi Taya 10? -2 vs 14 --sick!
Soldier 1 10? -2 vs 8 --  no infection
Soldier 2 10? -4 vs 11 -- sick!
Soldier 3 10? -4 vs 16 -- sick!

Half the team is sick. Li looks at the symptoms and tries to diagnose the disease.

10 vs 9 is a success.
Rolling on reign of steel disease list: Mega-flu.

Ideally they would go back and get treated, but to do so would be to loose face with centrum, who has the cure to the problem. Soldiering on will require a leadership roll 13 vs 9-- success. They will suffer no penalties for being sick while their commander is at the helm! The second search for the entrance yields 11(per) -1(peril) +1 (camouflage) vs 8 -- they find the entrance!

Heading inside the compound, they 'look ahead' to the first area. Its an "Information area" -- the entrance to the place. Detail Round (5 details): Its full of desiccated corpses. Robotic tracks are on the floor. Lots of computers are present. Everyone is wearing eerily familiar Chinese uniforms. The lights are out -- there is no power. Rolling for if things are what they seem, the answer is yes. The mishap roll turns up nothing, and neither does the Opportunity roll.

Next we have an 'Area split': one is more information rich area, the other is a safe area -- lets call it the mess hall. They decide to investigate the safe area first. A perception roll and an 'all is as it seems' answer later, the safe area is entered. There is no mishap, and no opportunities. This was a service food area. The robots don't seem to have been here. Fewer people have died here. The route out doubles back To the first area.

Going down the second information area, it is what it promises to be, but the group has a trivial encounter! They encounter 8 robots at Peril-1. Eight Myrmidons essentially powered down and parked -- one is still up and running. They're sweeping the place room by room with weapons, so lets roll the per/stealth contest. Its time to flesh out the team a little more. We want one guy with urban combat, and to make sure we don't forget him, one guy who handles communications and Demolitions -- but the demolitions will replace heavy weapons, not supplement it.

Qin Guang: Entertainment, Miserly, Unblemished, Practical Clothes, Tight Cramped Gestures, Has strong feelings about the neighbors, Hope/Fear:Sex
Pei Huojin: Underclass, Welcoming, Petite, Distinctive Grooming implement, Frowns, Is a real connoisseur of something, Hope/Fear:Disease

Oh wow, Pei fears disease. This is not the place for him to be to be right now.

Qin is a big man: big enough to use and anti-material riffle (ok, a Barret .50 Browning) without the tripod. Lum, Li, and the last soldier have one shot LAWs out, while Wong has a recoilless riffle (re-loadable), and Tsao and Pei have Assault Riffles. All the folks with assault riffles are using SLAP Ammo. Lum goes in first, Followed by Qin.

Stealth 12 vs 13 failure by 1. Myrmidon Per: 10 vs 9 success by 1. Lum Per: 11 vs 17.

Lum's small frame whips around the corner. "All clear."

And then Myrmidon starts moving. The whine of its servos give it away, but it gets off a shot at Lum. At a mere 5 yards away. Its armed with an assault carbine.  12(skill)+2 (rof) -2 (range) vs 13 = a bare miss!

Nope, all clear. No enemies

"Deer Droppings!" Lum knows this one isn't his target though ... he aims at one of the other Myrmidons...
The active robot belongs to Qin, who fires off a shot from his massive weapon. 13-2 vs 8 = success! 3dx5 (2) coming up -- 35(2) is fairly low damage, but 20 points get through armor, and do 6 points of wounding to the robot. Combat robots don't take shock, and that's not a major wound -- fairly disappointing as a hit goes.

A good tactics roll by Wong (12 vs 7) lets him make a good snap decision. The robots have them at a choke point as it is, and the element of surprise was lost. "Pull Back!".

The Myrmidon aims another burst at Qin. 12(skill)-2(range)+2 (rof) gives another bare miss. Qin takes another shot as he backs up, while Lum just hurries in. Qin has a move and attack, and so misses (his 10 isn't even close) while his bagging clothes sway as he moves in. The Myrmidons are all powering up, but the door is slammed closed. Wong directs the team to head back in good order. His tactics roll is good, but his leadership is a natural 16! Its a route! half the soldiers run back for cover, while the other half ready themselves along the wall. Wong does get everyone in good order, but gets no time to set up the response he wanted for when the Myrmidons open the door.

We realize that we really want to be able to jam these guys, and Pei doesn't have that skill -- but he has a slush fund and the basic background needed. We'll let him take 2 points in electronics operation (Electronic Warfare), for skill 14. 14 vs 8 -- the jamming is well underway.

The myrmidons are NAI, and have to supervisor. So they either will stay put, or will follow the soldiers.

Will they stay put? No, but... 

some will stay behind, presumably to continue guarding and establish contact with possible supervisors. The myrmidons stride through the door, looking for humans. The soldiers have the jump on them. A successful leadership role means only Lum fires his LAW. 13 (skill)-3 (range) +3 (aim)vs 12 is a hit! 3d*6 (10) to the chest+ 3d*4 ex. with 78 damage, the myrmidon is toast. The 8*4=32 blast damage is ignored by its heavily armored comrades. Qin attacks with his riffle 13-3+8 vs 9 is a definite hit.  12*5(2) to the torso is much better than the last hit: 45 gets through armor, for 15 damage -- not full HP, but enough to get a major wound. The robot makes its HT roll, and stays up and keeps coming. It fires at the undetermined solder. 12(skill) -3 (range) + 2(rof) vs 7 is  hit by 4 -- two bullets hit! Another robot steps up to take the place of the one that is fallen, and sprays bullets in the general direction of Quin and Li. Both are misses.

We need information about the last soldier. Lets say he's quick, and that he's the star of the heavy weapons crew: He's taken it twice, and he's 'physical'.

Xing Fang: Entertainment, Welcoming, Powerful, Few Words, Scowls, Poorer than they seem, Hope/Fear:Violence

Xing rolls dodge, and an 8 is only enough to dodge one bullet (this is the first time in combat). The bullet that hits strikes his vitals -- and trauma plates -- squarely. He feels a solid thud in his chest, but nothing more. It doesn't effect him -- he's happy to be be unleashing destruction here.

Wong calls for a shot by Li at the one that just stepped up, while Qin and Tsao hammer the one that got hit before. Li attacks: 13 (skill)-3(range) +3 (Aim) vs 12 is a hit! -- but in the foot. 3d*6 (10) is expended on a foot. Excess damage is wasted. The Knockdown roll succeeds, but the myrmidon still tumbles to the ground.

Quin rolls an 18 -- his weapon misfires! of all things! Tsao: 12-2(range)+1(rof)+6(aim) vs 9 -- three hits! 3d*3 (2) pi- ends up doing: 5 to the neck, 2 to the torso, and 3 to the right arm. The robot is at 0HP. The consciousness check... succeeds. Wow, HT 13. These are trivial opponents?

Another Robot Steps up and sprays, this time at Qin and li. As the bullet ridden robot tries to keep going, it breaks something and topples. Two robots down, one is footless.

Wong fires himself this time, a recoilless riffle. 12(skill)-3(range)+4 (aim) vs 11 is a hit! 3d*12 (10) becomes 144(10) through the torso. the 30 damage around the blast of energy is ignored by the other bots, who are armored. Qin ducks behind cover to work with his weapon. Tsao aims at the robot on the ground. Lum grabs his second LAW. Li Stashes his used law. Xing continues aiming at the spot where the next one will come.

The Bot on the ground Fires at Lum. 12 -3 (range)+2(rof) vs 13 is a miss. Two bots step up to spray fire: both at Tsao and Xing. Each of them get hit... by two bullets! They're both in cover of sorts. Tsao leg shot lands in a computer. the left arm shot... strikes true, for the full 6d pi. And does 28 damage rounded down to HP. Its a crippling injury, and a major wound, and Tsao goes down. Xing's shots are also aimed at his arms.. but his dodge roll of 8 vs 7 is enough to avoid them both.

This is a moment of crisis! The leadership roll is 13 vs 11: the troops remain calm "Man down! keep steady!". Lum brings up another LAW and aims it. Wong is reloading the riffle. Li grabs a replacement Law. Xing lost his aim, but fires anyways -- they've got to keep their fire up, and he's the best aim. And He's tired of not shooting. 14(skill)-3 (range) vs 8 is a torso hit, and 11*12 =121 (10) damage sings through the foe on the left. He's immensely pleased with the shot, but merely grunts in satisfaction.

The two remaining attack Li and Qin, with success 12-3+2 vs 8 each. Both are intended to be torso hits. Quin is in cover, and the bullets slam into the computers and furniture all around him. Li takes a torso hit in the trauma plates -- its not a strong hit, only 10 damage, not close to penetrating. Li gets an ugly look on his face.

No more robots have showed up! victory is close! Wong is still loading his next shot. Quin rolls vs. IQ-based guns skill. An 8 is enough! He's returned the weapon to firing capability. Lum takes a shot: 12 -3(range)+1 (aim) vs 5 is a hit -- but only in the right arm. The massive amount of damage is wasted as the hit only disarms the robot. The robot doesn't go down... but its not armed either. Lum curses again "Deer Droppings". Li aims for the last robot. Xing is grabbing his next LAW.

The two crippled robots are much less of a threat now. The one with no arm moves back towards the old room (where there are still two more), while the footless one fires at Xing. With a 6. Wow. 12-3(range)+2(rof) vs 6-- two more bullets fly at him. His dodge of 8 vs 11 doens't help anything -- but his cover does. The left arm and torso get an additional 10 DR from the objects the bullets fly through first. The trauma plates are not hit -- but the cover is enough to stop the path. He does take a 6 point wound in his left arm though -- just enough to not be major. He grunts, but that's all.

With one left, and no more coming, there is no reason to expose themselves. "Hide!" The command causes everyone to duck out of site and behind cover.

The robot can't see anyone, and so sprays the room with bullets. A bullet goes crashing through their cover and hits Li in the trauma plates as the robot fires away.

Wong has a thought: "Ever wondered how big the clips on their guns are?" And as it turned out, the firing stopped: The robot is out of ammo. "Take out his gun Qin! Lets save our ammo!" The big man pops up, aims at the weapon being reloaded, and fires, as his uninjured teammates all point heavier weapons at the thing. 12(skill)-3(range)+6(acc) -3 (hitting a weapon) vs 12. The weapon takes 12*5(2) damage, and is now useless. The robot begins trying to stand up. Quin keeps shooting, and after five bullets, the thing is no longer able to maintain its hobble back to safety.

There are still three robots on the other side of the door (though one is missing an arm). Tsao is down, and Li is already looking him over. Xing got winged in the arm. Li goes to try and patch it up: Full physician skill at 13 succeeds and restores 3 points of damage -- Tsao is back up, though the arm is pretty bad. But first Pei's frown face warns them that "I can't keep them from communicating forever! I need them down quick."

Wong agrees. The door is open, but the myrmidons have moved out of the line of fire. They need a way to get the jump on the Myrmidons in the defensive position. Wong suggests perhaps their is another way in. Pei is busy jamming the robots and isn't available to look at the layout of the place though. Tactics says that the two robots have guns pointed at the entrance. By training a grenade is most appropriate, but that won't really hurt the robots. Quin, with the urban assault training, suggests that shooting around corners may be a valid strategy. They don't have weapons that fire enough for that to be effective, but Wong then suggests tricking them into firing all their shots-- they can count the shots and then go in.

Its a dangerous idea, but even that takes a full minute to come up with. Pei must roll Electronics Warfare again, and he succeeds. No one present (including agent Taya) is good with AI, but she is good with computers, and evaluates the idea.

We need information about Yamauchi Taya now. Lets say she's Brainy(70), Computer Intrusion (realistic), and of course the basic infinity package. She has computer programming at 13 vs 10, which complements the tactics roll. Tactics rolls 12 +1 (complementary)-2(unfamiliar foes) vs 11 is a success! They use the weapons the other myrmidons were using, and only expose those. DX Rolls by Lum and Wong (the fastest two soldiers) Are successful (11 and 8 against a target of 11).

take that, oh mighty robots!

The robots expend all of their bullets! Xing and Qin pop in, aim their LAWs, and fire. Xing rolls 14+1(aim)-2(range)vs 13 = success. Quin rolls 12 +1(aim)-2(range) vs 9 is success. Xing hits the left leg, Qin hits the torso, and his does down. The one Xing hit fails knockdown but succeeds at the consciousness check. The one with only one arm moves towards Lum and swings an iron fist -- But misses. Lum only has the weapon that he has luring the fire with, but he fires with that. 12+2(rate of fire) vs 9-- two hits, at 24 damage each -- they bounce off of the armor. The others rush to get a weapon out that can hurt it -- those with LAWs drop their spent husks and start grabbing for more -- except for Qin, who readies his massive gun. The second swing also misses, and Lum drops his weapon and reverts to all out defense "Buddha's Bowls!". A third attack comes -- a critical failure, and right next to Qin, who pumps a bullet into its back. the roll of 6 hits, and 55(2) damage to the torso, for 13 injury -- a major wound. Knockdown fails. The one that fell down from the lost leg has recovered, and is trying to reload. Quin carefully shoots up first the gun and then the robot.

Li comes up and patches Xing. its 13 vs 13, but she heals 5 points of damage -- he's down three points, one from the wound and two from disease.

We end the session in the base, with everyone conscious, one minor wound, one major wound, a bunch of sick, and 6 Expended LAWS and 2 expended recoilless riffle shots. They only have 10 laws and five recoilless shots to start with, so half their heavy ammo is gone. We've fleshed out all the characters, but we don't know what's at stake yet... we'll resolve that first thing next session!

Session 2

Personal Plot Element
Peril 1 inside, Peril 2 outside

We have a new plot at stake this session: a Personal Plot element! We get to start Wong's personal plot today. But first, the central plot should be adressed.

The area has been all shot up, and his men all patched up. Wong approaches Frederick the observer. "How was that for a fight? One wounded, Eight enemy soldiers dispatched. Essentially no wasted ammunition. It may have been rough before, but you can't doubt our combat performance."

Saviore-Fairre (military) 13 vs 15 to convince of miltary performance
Diplomacy 12 vs 9 to do so tactfully

Frederick is unimpressed. "You took causalities against idiot robots. That doesn't take any skill at all. I'd expect as much from any troops."

They're still in an info area, so they roll on that table, and find 'treasure'. Huh? What could that be? given that they are in a military installation of a high tech facility, maybe there is some Ultra Tech gear in here.

Is there high tech gear here? No and ...
I suppose the robots would have taken it if there were.
Perhaps the treasure is a way to get in on the robot's communications system? Yes, and...
It allows data to be read. 

This place is hooked up to Beijing's version of the internet, for some strange reason. If they can request a bunch of data about Beijing from here, it would be a brilliant find. But how do they log in on the web, and how do they convincingly fake being robots? This is a huge opportunity AND a huge challenge.

Pei Huojin: "The web is up people! They were trying to send messages via wifi, not via radio. I stopped both though"
Yamauchi Taya: "Wait, this building is hooked up to the internet?" She taps her nose. "Are we in a trap?"
Wong: "Its a secure government facility that fell to disease. I'm not surprised its still got some things running"
Pei Huojin: "We can't stay too long, Or we'll die of disease too"
Wong: "Shouldn't take that long to try to get data off of it."
Yamauchi: "It will take that long if we have to learn to fake logging on as a robot"
Wong: "Any chance one of these normal computers houses an AI?"
Yanauchi: "That's quite possible"
Wong: "So then how do we figure out if it is, and co-opt it? There are dozens of machines around here..."
Yanauchi: "We listen to the signal, and see if any computer is talking. Its possible that its wired in though, so we have two routes to check"
Pei: "Or we could just check power consumption"

Wong debates if they should chase an AI that may or may not exist, and decides that if the AI is around, it is a threat to the main mission. Pei moniters the wifi for activity, and Yaumauchi starts checking which computers are actually consuming power.

Yamauchi is build on Brainy (70), infinity package, computer survalience-realisic (x2), and Electronics, with Electrician as one of her 1 point skills.

Does Yaumauchi find the AI? Electrician (lowest required skill) 13 -1(peril) vs 16). She can't tell... there are just too many computers. So they have t
o go riskier. A second electrician roll is needed to find where the lines leave the building so they can be interrupted. success. Are they in an explored area? No. Dang it. We have to move on.

As a segway, I believe that each dungeon in this system has a set 'size' a distance to the goal. Lets say the last area is the goal: one more mishap, one more opportunity. This area is full of traps, wards, ect. and Pei checks for traps (security cameras) and gets rid of them (two traps roll at 13(skill -1 (peril)). No idea if they actually hooked up to an AI. There are no further mishaps. This area looks much like the other areas, but its higher tech -- and the internet can be cut off properly from here. Does this area have internet as well? Yes it does. Its time to log on and try to flush an AI.

First they will disconnect a computer and Yuamauchi will break onto it, copy the hard drive, inspect the OS, tamper with it properly, and so on. This is Expert Skill (computer security) and Electronics Repair (computer) in combination. Yaumauchi rolls and with 12's she suceeds on both attempts. A follow up computer operation (16-1(peril) - 2 (unfamiliar system) vs 7) gets her in on an account. A cryptography roll succeeds 16-1 vs 13 and she's hacked the admin account of the computer and is ready to roll. She programs a script that will probe for the other AI, collect the data they need from the network, and 'fake' being an AI and ask Beijing for key information. Her computer programming is 15, but this is tricky -- she's working with protocols she's  only seen a little of. In the mean time, the rest of the team is standing by the servers, ready to crack them open and take data or cut the internet connection if all goes wrong.

And now we roll Computer Programming to find a whole bunch of info rapidly:

Is their an AI? 15-3 vs 8... No, but... oooh, this is fun.
 Is there AI code or presence here? No, but...
what now? We don't know yet. script hasn't triggered that.
Did we get the local data were looking for? 15-1  Succeeds, and the question: Yes

As the AI was not found, the script didn't trigger the "Send queries to beijing". They found the data they're looking for. The mission is a success!

They have the data-- normally, It'd be time to head out. But there is more. Yamauchi wants to know if there is no AI, if this system is still being used. This seems to be obscure, so the GM accesses another -4 to the computer operation roll: 16-1-4 vs 8.

Is this station used for something related to the area outside? No.
Is it valuable for research, data stored, manufacturing, or other internal facing purposes? Yes, and ...
that's why all of the computers are up and talking to each other -- its necessary. Its a research station, working on...
a large scale physical simulation? Yes, but...
Computer and human psychology enter into it as well.
Is the data real? No. Its just a simulation. All theory.

Did they get what they needed?

Yamauchi looks at the information calls by the computer, and decides to try faking her own. They need a list of things to ask. Frederick rolls information analysis (at 11), and Wong rolls strategy (at 11) in hopes of getting good questions. These rolls are secret though: we don't know what they are until the high command look them over.

They're worried the zone mind will start looking for them after the questions get asked, and they don't want any robot footage of them. They take some of the circuit boards and memory boards of the defeated robots (very crudely) -- the roll of 9 indicates only a few boards are undamaged, and get ready to head out.  Yamauchi runs the script, gets her answers (Research 8-1 vs 8, computer operations 16-1 vs 15) and then they all head out into the wilderness.

Does the zonemind look for them? No, but.. They see a vulture hovering overhead anyways. The camoflauge roll of 8 is sufficent to escape notice. The journey back will be just as hard as the first. In fact, it will be harder. Many people are sick, and Tsao is very wounded-- he gets a -4 to hiking. They decide to take things both slowly and carefully. Navigation 11 -2 (Peril)+3 (GPS)=12 vs 13 -- Tsao gets turned around a few times, and takes the 'taking it slow' part to heart. Survival 12-2(peril) vs 9 is successful. But the event roll is a 15. (what the heck!). They run into a patrol of robots. Their scout at that point is.. Xing. Xing Has stealth 12, camouflage 11, and per 10. Camouflage suceeds and gives stealth a needed +1 (it barely succeeds with that), but his perception is 15 -- failure by five. Still, they're not hiding and he is, so that counts for +5 to his per roll. As their perception roll is 10 vs 14, Xing sees the robots.

They are N/2 Peril 4 troops, or N peril 2 troops.
They are TL10 exterminators and Industrial robots, respectively.
 Exterminators shift up a category (N/4 Peril 5) and Industrials down one (1.5N Peril 1)
The industrials are a boss bot and a bunch of loaders.
In the area is a juggernaut. 

Xing brings back the news: they can either sneak through the work crew (busily looting a ruined town for metal) or they can shoot their way through (Xing likes killing things). Tsao points out they can also go the long way around -- they're of course way behind already. Fredrick expresses the thought that they should just play it safe -- they could barely handle a few foot soldiers. At which point Wong takes offense decides that this is an anti-tank team, and that those juggernauts are nothing but tanks. "The recoilless riffle will handle them just fine. Or the missile."

Wong needs a personal Plot, and this feels like a standup moment for him. we can at least start giving him some of his promised disadvantages: Selfish. And bloodthirsty (tanks). But is this a real personal plot? something he really needs? that will probably have to wait.

Xing, being the best shot, takes the recoilless riffle (which is the easiest to aim and does twice as much damage), while Wong stays in the rear with the missile -- a just in case precaution. Xing attempts to stealthily creep up on the juggernaut. with a stealth of 9, he's successful. His skill is 15, and aiming give him +6, and juggernauts are SM 6 so he feels comfortable with -13 in range penalties: 300 yards away -- a nice long shot. He sets up, takes aim, and takes his shot. and 14 vs 5 is a success. 12*12 (10) damage is dealt -- enough to hit the juicy innards, but 64 damage is a long ways from a kill. The massive tank stops to look around for its target -- the massive plume of hot air from the blast is one indication. Xing runs for it, as a beam of plasma heads for his location. The forest behind him erupts in flame as a beam of fire bears down on him. Then the laser carbines start up. ROF 10, with four
of them firing. The juggernaut isn't quite sure where he is, but its tearing up the forest, and has a good chance of hitting him, in the long run.

EW goes up, from both the juggernaut and from Pei. With Pei rolling 13 and it rolling 9, they're just about equal -- but it has more powerful tools at its disposal. The message is out. Xing has had two close calls with the laser carbine, but is running towards the tank: he figures he just need to be closer. His stealth against 14 brings him out into the open, and it gets a perception of 12 -- they both fail by two, leaving his movement uncovered, and while it hasn't pin pointed him, its tracking him.

Wong throws up his hands and fires the missile "I'm not loosing anyone today!" its will take a few seconds for the missile to hit -- he's at a longer range than Xing was. The Juggernaut makes its perception skill check (10 vs 5) and fires at the incoming projectile. 11 +2 (rof) -4 size - 2 range vs 14 is a miss! The missile hits the tank with 18*3d (10) damage  -- 180 to be exact. This is a major wound for the tank -- but it makes the HT roll to avoid knockdown. a Perception test confirms this: Major damage done, but still very much up and running. Wong snatches the bipod and runs as the particle beam lances out at his old position and lights it aflame. The attempt to fire cover goes awry (stealth roll fails), and laser fire cuts up the area around Wong. Crouching down and crawling away, he manages to escape the area before a stray laser beam finds him -- but he's left the firing platform for the missile (Bunch of stealth rolls and indirect fire rolls)

Xing, in the mean time, has set up for another shot with the Recoilless riffle. He rolls stealth at 10 (success by two) and its perception roll is 10 +10(fairly clear line of sight) - 12 (range penalties) =8. Time will help its search. Xing takes the full three seconds to aim, giving is foe another +2 to see him. 10 vs 9 -- it sees him with 2 seconds left, aims, and fires. 11 - 12 +12 + 2(rof) = 13 vs 9 -- 4 hits. Xing sees the laser coming and attempts to dodge, throwing himself to the ground, and increasing his dodge from 8 to 11. rolling a 9, he only takes a single hit, to the chest. 18(2) is not to be stopped by 30 points of armor, but it does reduce the damage to 3. Xing at this point is 6 HP down, 1 from a myrmidon bullet, 2 from disease, and 6 just now, but he's still up and rearing. He rolls with his weapon to get away from the fire as well as he can. A successful stealth roll indicates he's not in direct line of sight. He still comes under heavy suppressing fire, and gets at hit -- and while he's prone has little chance of dodging vs 8-3 vs 13. its a skull hit. His ballistic helmet only has DR 12. damage is 15(2) -- of which a mere 12/2(helmet)+2/2(skull)+ cover. What cover? well, lets see if we have good cover... come on solo 6! Yes. But just yes. The beam nicks a 2 inch branch that takes off another 2/2. so he takes 7 damage to the skull. That's 28 wounding. added to his 6... that's 34 damage. He has 13 HP, so he needs to roll knockdown, unconsciousness, and two death checks.

Knockdown: rolled 14
Consciousness: rolled 9
Death Check 1: 11 vs 11 -- made it
Death Check 2: 11 vs 9 -- made it.
Umm... wow. He's alive and conscious. 

Xing has the presence of mind to squeeze the radio and let his allies know he's in trouble "I'm hit". Wong feels a surge of anger and fear. Xing had the only remaining weapon capable of hurting the thing, and now its lying next to him, and he's near useless.

Wong is faced with the decision to either save the men he has, or to risk the safe lives to recover the lives of the soldier dying in the forest. He resolves to save the life of his friend and comrade. And he'll do so nobly. "Lum, Qin! I need you to get to Xing.  Lum, get the riffle and kill this monster. Qin, get Xing out of there. Li! stand by to see how bad Xing's hurt! I'm going to distract the juggernaut!"

Frederick snarls over the comm "This is all because.." Wong: "No chit chat! Move! A man's life is at stake!" Leadership 15 vs 11. Wong needs to be a distraction, without getting himself killed. He takes three LAWs and when far enough away from his men, fires one of them off. He wasn't aiming, just trying to attract attention, but with a roll of 5 -- 12 (range) - 12 + 6(SM) vs 5 is a hit! It only does 8*6(10) damage, not enough to pierce the armor, but it does get the thing's attention. His stealth roll is enough to drop back out of sight as the lasers bear down on his position. The churning lasers don't see him. His second attack is a miss (9 is not enough), but his excellent stealth roll (7)  and more high rolls on the suppression fire let him distract it yet more.

Lum and Qin roll decent on their stealth, and make it to Xing's location. He's in a lot of pain, and Qin lifts the big man (being a large fellow himself), while Lum grabs the weapon and the two remaining shots. "I've got the weapon! now what?". Wong is ready for the last step of everything: "I'm exposing myself one more time! After I shoot, take aim and get rid of that thing!

Wong takes his last shot. By a small miracle (a crit) it hits solidly (table says does maximum normal damage). 18*6 (10) is 84(10) damage -- just enough to penetrate the armor and do 4 points of damage! He has its attention now... which was the point. But his stealth fails when he rolls a 15. Four lasers fire on his position -- though he is far enough away to force a round of aiming and then a mere suppression fire. one of them hits by two! -- torso and left leg. the torso hit, doing 24(2) points of damage, does hit a trauma plate, which drops the damage by 15 points. No cover was hit, and he takes a 9 point wound to the chest.  The knockdown roll fails. The leg attack does have cover, which reduces the 16 to a mere 15 -- but it just hits the leg. Wong fails his consciousness roll, and everything goes black.

Lum has had a distraction with which to aim his weapon, and he rolls a 9 on stealth. He aims the shot, and fires away: skill 13 -12 (range) +6 SM + 6(aim). His roll of 10 is a hit! 11*12=121(10) damage does 41 additional damage -- enough to drop the thing below 0 HP! (41+4+100+64 > 200). It makes its consciousness roll though, and looks around for Lum. Lum has gone to ground, and the searching lasers only pass close to him once. The lasers continue scouring the forest, until with a clattering clunk, the thing stops.

No one says anything. Did they actually defeat the incredibly resilient tank! After a few more moments, a cheer goes up. They did it! Of course, its certainly sent for help, and there are the other robots to consider. Its urgent to find Wong where he went down. With a per roll of 12, the answer is 'too long'. The troops are still in the area when the investigating vulture craft shows up. The stealth and camouflage rolls succeed, and all it finds is the husk of the juggernaut -- but they've got to get out of there.

First aid to Wong and Xing heal 2 and 6 points of damage each -- Neither will be able to walk out of here on their own. Tsao is still going quite slow. Tsao is technically second in command. He's sitting, considering what to do next, when Fredrick decides to take charge. Or would have if not for the language barrier. He ends up merely talking to Yamauchi Taya : "We've got to get out here! they're coming. Tell them to get moving!"

Taya is calm "Who's second in command?".
"I am." Tsao says, breaking the silence of his thoughts. "I'm considering where we're going next."
Leadership from 11-5(default) vs 5 -- the soldiers all know Tsao is next in command. Tsao stands up, and organizes people into stretcher teams. Tsao has the heavy recoilless riffle left behind (along with its last shot), and the group continues  Frederick is satisfied with not having to carry anyone, and indeed, he's sick and not skilled at hiking.

Another successful stealth roll (barely!) gets them out of the area, with vultures still patrolling. They march painfully towards their goal. They will need to spend yet another night in the wild. Survival by their replacement leader succeeds, and he finds a concealed location where they can rest in comfort -- he feels they need it.

Survival 12 vs 11 success
Event: 4 -- golden opportunity
Do good, be virtuous, or help someone, but without reward.
Are the people to help present? No
Is the opportunity military in nature? Yes, and...

They find an old campsite used by some of the unfortunate locals. Tsao looks at how recent it was used (survival 12 vs 12), and knows if anyone was there within a few days. No, but its regularly used. Tsao leaves directions to where he buried the recoilless riffle -- someone is going to love that find fairly soon. There is still one shot left -- hopefully that means another robot dead. The camouflage roll for the night is successful and the robots don't see the crew.

The night is spent comfortably, but there is still disease to worry about -- and with all this carrying around, everyone has been exposed to the disease.

Wong Kang vs 9 -- infected!
Li An vs 18 -- infected!
Tsao Yongnian -- infected!
Lum Zihao -- still sick!
Pei Huojin -- infected!
Qin Guang -- still sick!
Xing Fang -- still sick!
Yamauchi Taya -- still sick!
Frederick Maxwell -- still sick!

This is not good. Not good at all. They've got to get back.  The damage isn't enough to force Xing or Wong to make more death checks, but they're pretty close. Fortunately, its just one more hike until they make it back to the pick up location.

Navigation 11+3 -2 vs 5
Survival 12 vs 12
Event: 10-- uneventful. 

Wong is conscious for some of the trip, but can't do more than encourage Tsao to keep going. Frederick continues complaining, but their is little point -- the only person he can complain to is agent Taya. The band of soldiers straggles in, infected with a bioweapon, half their number wounded and a quarter on stretchers.

They're taken back to cease fire, put in quarantine, and treated by centrum experts -- who can actually combat viruses. This is really 'background' info, and we simply roll to find out if something went critically wrong, and it doesn't: everyone spends time being treated and recovering. The data they got from the lab turned out to be good! Both of the two rolls by Frederick and Wong succeed (barely), and the data will tell us a lot about how Beijing is organized. Frederick goes ahead and writes his report. Wong is in the hospital when the report is written, and never gets to change Frederick's foul opinion of him.The report is slightly tempered by the value of the data gained: infinity is one step closer to the strike on all citadels that will take out the Beijing zonemind.

Wong gains a personal goal and mission: he blames the disasters on not having adequate weapons for the job: it took four hits from "Weapons deemed suitable" to take out robots. He believes that to succeed, they'll need better weapons -- weapons designed specifically to fight robots. He's started a personal campaign to get the weapons improved.

As for experience, two sessions were a success. 8-4 = 4 gives each character 2 points. Additionally, these troops have now seen some combat ... in some ways a personal goal. We'll see how they do when we come back to this group. For now, we'll let them heal from this trip through the ringer.