Playing: Mindjammer, An RPG About Chronies IN SPAAAAAAAACE!

Yeah, @xist you do automatically gain the tools to use your skills, the extras budget is used to get ‘extra’ things… that give you additional bonus (cyberware, a better than average vehicle) etc. So I have no issues saying you have these things organically as the story progresses (want to climb a wall, sure you have rope, and since you are trained in climb I am fine with you having a grappling hook). But what special things you have I would prefer for you, the players, to have more control over. Especially since I would hate for oversight to result in someone unhappy with their gear.

@Rilover already has a space ship…

And don’t you worry @Fraggles I have already kitted out your installation arm… I think you will like the outcome.

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I pushed Enter by mistake hahah I’m sorry, wait a lil bit :see_no_evil:

So I’m updating my character here so you don’t have to look for It.

Name: Bagheera “Baggy” Occupation: Merchant.

Culture: Commonality. Genotype: Ursoid. Age: 25.

Tech Index: T9. Habituated gravity: Standard. Apparent age: 30.

High Concept : Sophist Bear with a ride. (Credit to @Inferry)

Trouble:

Cultural Aspect:

Eats anything

You’re descended from omnivores. You might not know
whether you can eat it, but you’ll try.

Invoke: To forage easily, have no trouble eating “foreign”
or exotic food, wrestle down things which most
people would consider toxic or disgusting.

Compel: To eat something that’s going to do you no
good, or that wasn’t even supposed to be food; be
unable to resist eating something that looks tasty,
whatever the consequences; make a pig of yourself.

Game Aspects:

Teller of tall tales

Invoke: to convincingly lie/stretch the truth, impress another with your achievements/worldliness.

Compel: To fabricate or dramatically overstate events, to place yourself at the center of things.

Skills:

  • Great (+4) Notice.
  • Good (+3) Pilot, Technical.
  • Fair (+2) Ranged Combat, Unarmed, Drive.
  • Average (+1) Physique, Rapport, Athletics, Resources.

Stunts:

Starship Pilot (Use Pilot for construct actions)

Body Lenguage reader (Uses Notice instead of Empathy).

I don't know Rick, It seems fake.

*The idea here is to use my pawn shop-ish talent to detect tech and language with my notice skill, and make It work/understand/talk a lilttle bit. (Duno if that was already a thing but It seem that Notice is more passive?)

Status

Fate points: 5

Refresh: 5

Physical Stress: [ ][ ][ ]

Mental Stress: [ ][ ]

Credit Stress: [ ][ ][ ]

Extras:

Mandatory Extra: Large

Candela (New trader starship,1 stunt/4SP) Fair (+2) Planing; Average (+1) Passive sensing, Ranged Combat; basic cargo.

Biomed kit (2 sp)

Transdermal Reinforcement

Your skin, bones, and musculature are genurgically
reinforced, undetectable on casual scans. You can take an
additional mild consequence. (1 Stunt)

Notes: I have the Range Combat ability and the drive ability so

  • Has a gun just a basic plasma pistol.
  • Laika, a vehicle, since I can’t afford an extra It’s a vehicle from scraps that I’ve been building, maybe It’s not even finished and we need more stuff If you think It’s too much.
    Could be upgradabe, like mounting weapons or amor.

It’s not taking too much space in the cargo bay since we can put stuff inside or under it and It’s not too big either, we can fit everybody in but not comfortably.

  • Tweaked Bio Med kit to hold repair tools, just to have them around with me.
Character Backstory and how stuff looks

On it hahaha I want to describe the Laika and Candela ^^ and myself, and finding my characer pitch and pasting it here.

Laika

the main color is pale green (I named It Laika for a reason haha) and I was thinking of a Jeep, more like a buggy I guess that looks like the Half Life 2 vehicle.

So you see how could be upgraded.

With armor… mounting the gun…

That’s the green I’m talking about in my other equally beatiful Laika.

Worst pic, but It’s daytime ^^

I’m thinking that It has space for everyone in the party, maybe a couple has to stand and hold to the bars and just two seats?

Maybe we could even mount @Fraggles If he has time and feels up to It, to repair while we explore or even on the run like R2-D2 hahaha

Candela

Okey so I tought about Serenity, the thing is that ship is waaay to massive and lets be honest the outside is kind of ugly xd

So I look at Star Citizen Ships so you guys have a tangible space in mind with some tweaks, so there’s room for imagination, literally, I’m changing the cells for rooms, since I transport cargo and sometimes people.

Take a look at our Cutlass Blue, Candela.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLn-MjfiTzU

Instead of the 6 holding cells It has 6? rooms, bigger than those cells (than you can describe If you want) and tiny kitchen when you enter in the rigth corner, also a tiny rest room for everybody so you don’t have to put one in your room (But you can have your private one)

And a folding table/chairs that we can place to eat in the middle of the ship.

With all that + the buggy, there’s really not that much place for big cargo, but space there is and we can shove stuff into the rooms and were It fits on the floor, If the characters are cool with the inconveniences.

I mean I don’t think we’re going around shiping kettle or anything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE7TFnSl9y4

Here you have the add for the Cutlass so you see how nimble It is ^^

And ofc the stats that count/what she has is on the Mindjammer universe so don’t pay too much attention to guns and all It can do in SC.

Backstory

I’ll add how I look in a while, plus probably rewrite this with the book guide. And the technicall skill, and the trouble! (This are just notes for me at this point hahaha, sorry! :stuck_out_tongue:)

So, what I had in mind is a merchant bear, like typical brown bear with his own not-so-big-ship.

Regular stuff for the most part, people/things, not into illegal stuff that much but will do If is easy quid + a lil’ bit of exictment, nothing to gruesome tho.

Because my dad was also a merchant and he grew up in this like enviroment of cool stories of his dad and all and… yeah It’s ob way more tedious than those tales.

I really like the idea of selling shit and smuggling even If he doesn’t need too, like he’s not rich or anything, but still.

By shit I mean not like "Hey, this stone will make your illness go away " but more like:

“This stone was used in this planet to see trough the clouds (like the vikings) in a planet with gas all over It, and I was tiny so I can’t really tell you where the planet is, but we lived and fend with them, and learning the trade they gave this to my Dad as a rite of passage and a sign of respect.”

“My father died a while back… (Not really, dunno where he is but… he’s cool hahaha) so this brings me pain and It’s not like I don’t know the story by heart… mmmmh yes maybe we can make an exchange”

And It’s a random stone that looks the part, and even does It!

I’m selling stories you know, ob I’m full of shit but It’s clear that he can’t use this Item, I also thought of him filling a jar with dirt hahahah and tell the same story but is waterworld :joy::joy::joy: and they gave us the dry land as a token, this ancient merchant civilization.

I feel he got easy quid for that, not to much trouble and a good laugh ^^

Not disrespectfully tho… they bought the story, It is what it is, charming in a way, I don’t think I’m better or anything is a cool story and you pay for that conversation piece.

And you know… I’m a freaking bear so people don’t give me shit, wich I think is a cool thing to have going on for you as a merchant, but I can be nice and chill, and ob I don’t think I can beat another bear unless lucky or whatever.

Long story short, I’m bored and stuck with this life, not that I don’t like It, I certanly embrace routine but yeah maybe too much, but I won’t do super illegal stuff on my own.

I had in mind a pilot/merchant kind of guy, can tinker around and repair stuff I guess but not too much. (again this is like the idea hahah maybe the idea he has of himself, maybe he can’t repair for shit :joy:) a cool guy but could be intimidating.

And the name is Bagheera (See what I did there? :thinking: :smirk:) Baloo was to obvious + he’s not really that chill, minding bussines and that.

My face

I looked at some drawing and I don’t imagine Baggy like that at all, like human body and bear face. Like those creepy ass Sun bears ugh. I’m a thicc boy and as tall as a Bear upright.

1e513b1b0f289cd2e4df4e76377117ec

Baggy is more like… Well like a Bear Imagina a bear walking upright, that’s how I picture It, maybe I’m less advance in that regard and It ties to the fact that I don’t have an implant.

He could’ve been named Kenai hahaha

4776844ce2a14c582b36d16fa9cf2963--brother-bear-motion

Strangle kids time!!

brother_bear_base___looking___kenai_base_by_sydtooth-d9si5ui

You get the idea, I need to think on the clothing tho.

I’ll be adding what does what, like aspects and such, but yeah so you have It already and tell me If I did everything right ^^ (I’ll finish It tomorrow, but the nuts and bolts are there)

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By no means shall there be any sort of mounting happening here.

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It looks great! I like the stunt you picked. Alternatively, Laika, could be a ship you have access to because you are a member of some organization/ on loan from a mentor.

@Fraggles you mean the party can’t use you as a bionic?

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he means he doesn’t want the crew to “mount” him, :rofl:

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As is, It serves the main purpose of just moving us around at first and I like the “looking forward to” making It cooler ^^ so I kind of like the idea of home made looking like ass Laika.

I can make the technical skill into the backstory tho.

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@Rilover sounds good.

Now, I have some big things to attend to this week, so I will be lurking around (but not necessarily free until the 1st sorry for the inconvience)… what I need now is an answer to these questions:

-What general type of story do we want to tell? Since stealth/hacking/tech seem to be the general themes in everyone’s characters are we thinking a ‘black-op’ style game, engaging in espionage and sabotage to achieve the goals or something different?

-I will come up with the general goal of the story, so don’t worry about creating the current plot… but we did skip an important step in FATE games (because I am unorthodox, deal with it).

We need to establish the following things:

-What has everyone’s characters been up to recently?
-Why have the paths of characters crossed (either individually or as a group, as appropriate)

-Any important places/people come up in describing why the character’s paths are crossed?

I will obviously be starting off with the creation of an important place: The mysterious decommissioned and abandoned facility containing a copy of @Inferry’s AI (which may or may not be Inferry itself). This could serve as a hub/base for missions, or simply a location that the party may need to visit for critical plot reasons, whatever the reason, it’s forgotten purpose is going to be important for the story.
It has the aspect: ‘Twisting Hallways with Forgotten Purpose’

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@hivefleetbothan I’ve still got some equipment / stunt questions :smiley:

I’m looking at picking up the Imposality stunt, but I’m not entirely clear what an imposality is. Also, can I even take the stunt as it requires Mindscape Engineer and Domination?

The sample character’s nano-bugs has +1 notice, +3 hack, and +5 detect. Not sure where the +1 to notice comes from. The technology page doesn’t list the cost of nano-bugs as 1+ skills, so I’m not sure if that comes by default, or if you add a skill point to get that.

For hand scanners, do you need to spend 1 skill point for every point the scanner has? Can’t you just spend the points on your own skills for the same effect?

Finally, I’m not sure what else to get with skill points other than nano bugs and hand scanners. Wondering if there’s any useful equipment for 2-3 skill points, but otherwise I can just use them to bump skills.

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You’d have to forgo a whole load of stuff…you’d need occupation permission, the mindscape implant (1 aspect), a special ops chip (1 aspect), Mindscape Engineer (1 stunt: Technical), Domination (1 stunt: Will) and then Imposality itself costs 2 stunts. You can get 2 extra stunts by trading away 2 Fate Points. meaning in total with Extra budget you’d have access to 7 stunts (and 3 Fate Points). To increase Aspects you’d have to agree with the GM what kind of penalising aspects might be an appropriate trade.

An imposality reads to me like you’re the one creating the virtual landscape in the Mindscape, so you’re able to put all the advantages on your side.

It’s a whole lot of work…

The Nanobug description doesn’t list any of that stuff other than Notice, which Is all I assumed they did as super spy bots…I’d assume the number of SP you spent were the number of bots you had.

I assume hand scanners work as you describe with skill point allocation per skill. However, a scanner is going to be able to, for example, scan through a wall to detect an electrical conduit, or a person to detect a tracking implant, whereas whatever your own Notice/Science/Investigate skill is you probably wouldn’t practically be able to do the same. It’s like if you were on the bridge of a spaceship…you could have Superb Notice but not be able to detect radiation fields, but the ship’s computers own Notice would be able to…scenario relevancy.

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Wow, thanks @xist for making my job a lot easier! :rofl:

xist is correct on all counts, the book lists them as having nothing but the notice skill (in terms of the bonuses they give as a ‘proximity detector’), but you can technically purchase any skills on them (to again be able to do things either at the same time or in a different way than people can), if you are going to buy anything really outlandish though I would ask for you to seek my permission (no nano-bugs with, oh I don’t know, the ranged weapon skill through the roof).

There is also another benefit for skill points in scanners/nanobugs, they don’t follow the tree system, so if you want your character to have a great hacking skill, you can invest those skill points into a physical item, and then not worry about having to ‘bump’ up other skills you aren’t interested in. This of course has the consequence that without the item you are not as proficient in the skills as if you were to ‘bump’ them.

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So @hivefleetbothan asked us to come up with back-story for the game etc.

Instead of doing that, I’ve built a few tools that I thought might be useful for when we play :slightly_smiling_face:

I’ve written two Greasemonkey scripts.

First one, adds buttons to the reply box, one called ‘Speech’ that will automatically add your characters chosen speech marks to the text box, then place the cursor between them. I was planning on using:

ǂ Hi, I’m 'Risk ǂ

The other button is for rolling, it just saves you typing the call to Discobot each time. Basically I’m lazy, and in a programmer that’s a good trait!

The second script changes Discobot’s result into Fudge Dice, so really it’s just a nice cosmetic thing, but I could make it more functional by also adding some text that declares what the final result is, x many success / failures etc. (I’ve only just thought of that)

Here’s a slightly recursive screenshot showing the buttons and Discobot:

Anyway, if anyone is interested in using them let me know and I’ll make a post about how to get them all working (don’t worry it’s pretty straightforward, no tech experience beyond copy and paste needed) :smile:

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Seems time well spent, consider me super interested! Anything to prevent discobot clutter is great!

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It’s not going to reduce the discobot clutter, just make it easier to interpret.

I considered adding the ability to roll the dice in our own posts, but there is no way to prevent abuse, even if the roll only happens after the reply button is hit, there is still the 1 minute window (or whatever it is) that allows you to edit your post before showing an edit took place.
Not that I’m suggesting that any of us would cheat. :slight_smile:

I should be able to find some time tonight to add displaying the combined result of the discobot roll and I’ll give links and instructions on how to get it working.

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Yes, Larry Wall.

Perl was the first language I learnt.
Assuming you don’t count messing around with machine code on a ZX Spectrum as a kid.

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You are awesome man * _ *

Your wizardy skills are amazing.

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R tape loading error

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Ok, so here’s what you need:

If you are using Firefox go grab Greasemonkey
For Chrome use Tampermonkey
Once you have installed the addon
You’ll see a little monkey symbol in the top right of your browser - click on it.

In Firefox:
Click ‘New user script…’

In Chrome:
Click ‘Dashboard’
Click on the [+] in the tabs at the top right

The scripts are here:
Mindjammer Utils - Buttons
DiscoFudge - Dice display

Copy and paste the script into your new blank script, making sure you replace all of default text.
Save it, - rinse and repeat.

At the top of the Mindjammer Utils script you’ll see I’ve put the speech delimeters:

var speechInitiator = ‘<strong>ǂ </strong>’;
var speechTerminator = ‘<strong> ǂ</strong>’;

Replace the text inside the ’ and ’ with your own choice of speech marks (notice I’ve left a space after and before the symbols respectively, that just for pretty formatting) - save it.

You’re done, you can now hide the little monkey icon in the browser’s extended menu.

Any questions, or if you are interested in how the code works, let me know :slight_smile:

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var speechInitiator = ‘<strong><big>ATTENTION! </big></strong>’;
var speechTerminator = ‘<strong> As you were.</strong>’;
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I have regrets

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