BJ Back From the Beyond

According to my notes the following items are also in the following places: -1 spare pneumatic canister (aside from the one loaded in the captive bolt pistol) on Nathan's person. -A set of binoculars in Nathan's backpack. -A bottle of vodka in Nathan's backpack. -An empty water bottle in Nathan's backpack (which looks like it was moved to the truck; I would prefer it stay in Nathan's pack). -An emergency radio in the truck. -A kerosene lamp in the truck.

Should work for me.

Dintinadan's probably right. I've never tried that before, so I really don't know. However, I did spot four other mistakes. Line 26: Remove the semicolon after the if statement. Line 27: Should be "set_flag(3,0,1);" Line 28: Should be "play_sound(99);". Line 33: Remove the semicolon after "else". Don't feel to bad about having lots of errors. Even experienced designers get their fair share of errors while writing a scenario.

Dintiradan and ES are both right. When creating a dialog box (except when using the message_dialog call) you'll need a reset_dialog(); at the beginning and a run_dialog(x); at the end (the x there can be either 1 or 0, depending on if you want the player to be able to record the encounter in their journal or not). run_dialog will also return a value equal to the dialog choice the player chooses. Also, it doesn't look like you need that second end(); And always end a state with a break; Below is the code with the changes mentioned so far. Click to reveal.. beginstate 10; if (get_flag(2,1) > 0) { end(); } else { if (get_flag(2,0) > 0) { activate_hidden_group(1); reset_dialog(); add_dialog_str(0,"As you exit the captain's office, you hear a spell. You look around and notice lots of new people in the fort. They have impressive looking armor and deadly weapons. They stand in silence for a few moments, and then one of the bladesmen yells, _ATTACK!_",0); add_dialog_str(1, "You also hear a growl behind you. It is a large six-legged dog. You're not sure what it is, but it's about to kill the Captain.",1); add_dialog_str(2, "You thought you would be fighting Nephilim, but it looks like you will face a more deadly threat. Time to see what's going on.",2); run_dialog(0); } } break;

Oh well. Such things happen. Get well soon!

There are several mistakes there, but they're easily fixed. First off, you're missing a semicolon in talk node 3, the line with the question in it, and four more semicolons are missing in talk node 4, the state, personality, nextstate, and question lines. In talk node 5, the personality line has a "-" instead of a "=". Also in talk node 5, you need to put "code =" in front of the "begin_shop_mode" call and then add a "break;" after it, just like you were making a state in any other type of script. Talk node 4 needs at least one text line, even if you don't put anything in the string at this time. Finally, the state in talk node 1 needs to equal -1, since it's the first node in the conversation, and the nextstate needs to be 1. Below is the script with the mistakes I found fixed. I might have missed one, so don't take me on my word that it will work yet. Click to reveal.. begintalkscript; variables; begintalknode 1; state = -1; personality = 1; nextstate = 1; question = "Lacey"; text1 = "You see a mage pacing around the room. She looks up at you."; begintalknode 2; state = 1; personality = 1; nextstate = 3; question = "What do you do?"; text1 = "_I am the town sage and library keeper. I can teach you spells as well as identify your items._"; begintalknode 3; state = 1; personality = 1; nextstate = 4; question = "What do you know about the building on the island?"; text1 = "_I have attempted to scry it, but someone inside blocked the spell. That is why we need you to investigate._"; begintalknode 4; state = 1; personality = 1; nextstate = -1; question = "Can you identify my items?"; text1 = ""; action = ID 10; begintalknode 5; state = 1; personality = 1; nextstate = 7; question = "Can I purchase some mage spells?"; code = begin_shop_mode("Lacey's Magicks", "There are many useful spells that Lacey can teach you but they aren't cheap.", 1, 3, -1); break;

Click to reveal.. (Lucia) Name: Lucia Hannel Race: Human Female Occupation: Mage Alignment: Cheerful HP: 16/16 STA: 6/10 Magic (Evocation): 12 Perception: 8 (+1 racial) Nature: 7 Acrobatics: 6 (+1 racial) [+1] Athletics: 6 [+1] Arcana: 4 Spare SP: 6

Yeah, Dintiradan's right. It should look something like this: Quote: begintownscript; variables; body; beginstate INIT_STATE; set_name(1,"Lacey"); break; beginstate EXIT_STATE; break; beginstate START_STATE; break;

Turns out I have a dentist appointment an hour before the session is supposed to start tomorrow. Hopefully it wont run longer than an hour, but this does mean I might be a bit late. Sorry.

Click to reveal.. (Lucia) Name: Lucia Hannel Race: Human Female Occupation: Mage Alignment: Cheerful HP: 15/15 STA: 10/10 Magic (Evocation): 12 Perception: 8 (+1 racial) [+1] Nature: 7 Acrobatics: 5 (+1 racial) Athletics: 5 [+1] Arcana: 4 Spare SP: 0 Since Lucia's spell list is getting pretty long, I'll post it here. Spells in gray are unprepared. Click to reveal.. (Spell List) Illumine – Sheds light in a 10-foot radius. Flashbang – Fires a small energy blast that, on impact, lets loose with a blinding flash and deafening crack, stunning anyone nearby. Energize – Charges magical objects, auras, and effects with additional energy. Useful for recharging dormant artifacts or enhancing buffs. Tyinian Sunbeam – Fires a beam of hyper-concentrated sunlight at the target. Does less damage, but is more accurate and has a considerably longer range. As an added bonus, the spell is quiet, making it good in stealthy situations. The caster can fire multiple beams at the cost of 1 stamina per additional target. Solar Flare – (1 stamina) Bombards an area with intense heat and light. The AoE is small, but anyone caught inside takes moderate damage and a penalty to their next combat roll. Blazing Orbits – Creates up to three spheres of concentrated energy that revolve around the caster at blinding speed. Anyone trying to engage at melee range will almost invariably be hit by one and take damage. This spell can be cast on others, but stamina is required to do so. Star Missile - Fires a superheated (in excess of 1400 Celsius) magic missile at the target. The resultant missile is capable of burning its way through all but the most stubborn targets and obstacles, and frequently causing ignition in any even slightly flammable objects. Also leaves a trail of fire in the air behind it because of its incredible temperature. Cyclone - Creates fierce winds about the caster, pushing and knocking down anyone near and potentially stunning them. Capture Light - Draws in light given off by any source within sight. This energy can then be redirected through the caster's next spell, giving it a bonus. Light-based spells benefit the most from this. The ambient light level will drop when this spell is cast, so low light areas can become completely dark for a brief time. Energy held for an extended period will start bleeding out of the caster, causing the caster to glow brightly and the bonus the spell provides to drop steadily. The stronger and more numerous the light sources, the stronger the bonus will be and the longer it can be held. Can be cast as a move-action for 1 stamina. Sudden Winter - (? stamina) Creates a tempest of snow and ice covering a large AoE. Anyone inside takes damage from the cold and will be tossed about by the wind. Particularly strong castings may freeze objects and slow down enemies. Also, Lilith, I forgot to ask how much stamina Sudden Winter costs. I assume it's at least one, probably more.

One of the best things about Spiderweb is that every one of their games has a demo, and they're all huge. If you're not sure about a game, get the demo and play it through. They'll give you a good idea of what the game will be like. Edit: Oh, and welcome to Spiderweb. Please leave your sanity at the door. We all did.

Originally Posted By: Structualise THIS! I also have had issues where doing seemingly nothing more than lingering on an intro screen causes the game to crash too. I've had that exact same problem but have been able to get around it by running BoA as an administrator.

Character creation under the ZombieHack system is actually pretty easy. You've got four base attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Perception, and Intelligence. Each one starts at 1 and you can increase any of these by spending 1 attribute point. For this campaign, level 1 characters start with 5 attribute points. Then you've got the skills, which Sylae listed in the opening post. You can increase any of these by 1 for the cost of 1 skill point, unless the level of the skill would exceed the soft cap, at which point it would cost 2. The soft cap for this campaign is your character's level + 3 (so for a level 1 character increasing a skill from 4 to 5 will cost 2 skill points). A level 1 character gets 10 skill points plus 1 skill point for every point put into Intelligence. You also get one feat on character creation. You can choose one from the list in the opening post. Hope that helps.

Well, this looks interesting. I'll consider making a character, but since I'm in two campaigns already and planning to run one of my own I'll probably just step aside and let someone else play.

I was almost tempted to train in Melee (Slapping) for the next bout between Lucia and Amadan. Click to reveal.. (Lucia) Name: Lucia Hannel Race: Human Female Occupation: Mage Alignment: Cheerful once more HP: 14/14 STA: 8/10 Magic (Evocation): 12 [+1] Perception: 7 (+1 racial) Nature: 7 Acrobatics: 5 (+1 racial) Arcana: 4 Athletics: 4 Spare SP: 1

Originally Posted By: Truimph ??? I don't get it; elucidate please. Ouch, Triumph. That one physically hurt. Dinti, those are just hilarious. Great stuff man.

5 seconds of searching turned up this little gem.

Originally Posted By: Tyranicus I personally feel that SGU got better as the series progressed, and the last half of the second season, which aired after the show had already been canceled was superb. It's very sad, really. I agree with you there. The series had some pretty good moments. I just got the feeling that it was trying to hard to be Battlestar Galactica (a show I personally did not like, but that's another post), so it was missing a lot of the charm that SG1 and Atlantis had. Edit: *facepalm* I completely forgot about Doctor Who and Leverage, and those are two of my favorite shows too.

I don't watch many movies. Pretty picky about that sort of thing. As for TV shows there's NCIS, Sanctuary, White Collar, Burn Notice, Warehouse 13, Eurika, and now Alphas. So, yeah, guess I watch a lot of TV. Originally Posted By: Nioca Also, there's late-night runs of Stargate Atlantis going on the weekends, which I've been watching as well Now there is a fine choice in TV viewing. I'm still sad Stargate Universe didn't live up to the standards of the first two series.

Click to reveal.. ("Loot Magnet") Andrew Nathanial "Nathan" Ward, L3 Male Thief ATTRIBUTES: 2STR/4DEX/2PER/3INT HP [10+2S]: 12/12/14 AC [10+D]: 14 SPD [3+½D]: 5 Coward – +4 Reflex, -2 Will. Scavenger - Can choose to re-roll any search check made when searching for loot. SKILLS Athletics: 4 [+2] Driving: 2 [+1] Engineering: 3 Observation: 1 Search: 3 [+1] Sneak: 4 Tactics: 1 I've got Nathan's inventory here. I moved some stuff around, mostly putting stuff in the truck for anyone who wants it. Click to reveal.. (My inventory according to my notes.) On person: - Black t-shirt - Blue jeans - Sneakers and socks - Aviator sunglasses - Black and green windbreaker - Green baseball cap - Backpack - Steak knife [1dmg Slashing] - Flashlight - Captive Bolt Pistol (ready) [6dmg Blunt, +1Crit, triple dmg on crit, uses DEX] - Pneumatic Canisters: 1 - Pistol (3/10 rounds) [3dmg Pierce] - Pistol (10/10 rounds) [3dmg Pierce] - Small caliber magazine (0/10 rounds) - Keys to brown pickup truck In backpack: - Spare shirt - 32oz clear plastic water bottle (empty) - Box of matches (10 matches) - Small set of lock picks - 3 water bottles (empty) - 2 cans of chicken - Binoculars - Bottle of vodka In/On Brown Truck Fuel: 100% (25/25 gallons) - Canopy - Fishing Rod - Tackle Box with supplies - Spare Engine - Spare Battery - Spare Alternator - 5-gallon gas can (full) - 5-gallon water cooler (filled with gas) - 2 spare tires - Rusty truck jack - Some large pots and pans - Double-barreled shotgun (0/2 shells loaded) [6dmg Piercing Burst, +8 hit at pbr] - Shotgun shells: 0 - Emergency Radio - Spider Wrench - Small kerosene lamp

AIMHack constitutes my first really foray into group RPGs. I used to put on little RPG-like, free-form games for my friends, but that was way back when my age was a single digit. I used to really enjoy doing that. That's at least part of the reason I'm seriously looking at doing some DMing. I don't really play table-top RPGs mostly because I don't know anyone in RL who plays them. Given the opportunity, I'd probably give it a try. Edit: Also, 150th post! And it only took me 18 months to get there.

Originally Posted By: Lilith ...get imprisoned as saboteurs... I so expect this to happen now. It would be par for the course.

(New post because I'm addressing a new subject) Originally Posted By: Dintiradin I can see a high level mage in [the AtCT] system starting to invest in Melee just to get more HP. AtCT's HP system does seem to punish pure magic casters simply for not taking any melee or missile skills. I know that's a problem I've run into with Lucia. The decision to not train her in any melee or missile skills has pretty much caused her to be left behind by the rest of the party in the HP department. For instance, compare Lucia with Lephista, the character with the second lowest HP total in the group. Lephista has 4 ranks in a melee skill and 4 in athletics giving her 22 HP. In order for Lucia to get to 22 HP without branching out from her specialization in magic, she would have to get her athletics skill up to 12. That's a major investment in a skill that pretty much just slightly increases one's HP and makes it easier to run away from enemies. Originally Posted By: Dintiradin I have noticed that, with ATCT at least, non-mage characters are a bit less useful overall compared to mages. That may actually be something specific to AtCT. There are two points here. The first is the type of enemies the party has been facing. With the exception of two fights, the enemies have all been swarms of very small targets; not exactly something that is easily countered by swinging a sword. In the two fights that have been against larger, individual enemies the two tanks in the party have been invaluable (well, less so in the barn fight, but still). The second point is that two of the casters in the party have higher skills in their magic than either of the fighters do in their melee, and it's been that way pretty much through the campaign. Granted, the difference isn't very large, but it's there. Originally Posted By: Dintiradin One small benefit of levelling up with a fixed skill point increase each time is that you are able to plan ahead. Say you just get 6 shiny new points to allocate. You could invest all those into your secondary skill, bringing it from 5 to 6. But you've also got your primary skill at 9, and want to bump it to 10. You need to increase both, and you're not sure if the next level-up will give you any more than 6. So you bank your 6 points. Next level-up, you get 10 points. The levelling system could be changed depending on whether we want to encourage or discourage planning ahead. Personally, I like being able to plan the growth of my characters ahead of time. With previous campaigns, it has usually been clear roughly how many points one will get upon leveling up, and one can plan for that in advance. This system has the benefit of making the player look forward to their next level up. Do not discount the enjoyment derived from simply anticipating something and being able to plan around it. This is one reason I think level based systems are so popular; they're fun. With the AtCT 'skill point' system, it's much harder to plan what skills will be increased ahead of time. We don't know how many skill points we're going to get, so there's no way we can really plan ahead without laying down multiple contingency plans (something I've taken to doing). That just isn't as much fun as knowing how you can make your character grow ahead of time.

Originally Posted By: Nioca I'm of the opinion that a hybrid character should balance with a specialized character, rather than completely upstaging them. I agree with Nioca on this. There really should be a place for both specialist and hybrid characters. In my opinion, both are representative of different player types, with the specialist characters appealing to power-gamers, who want to be able to tackle specific problems with overwhelming force (either combat or non-combat), and hybrids appealing to problem-solvers, who want to be able to apply a variety of skills to tackle various problems (I'm a bit of both myself). When you look at it that way, the question really becomes "what types of players do you want to attract?" In AIMHack, I think the answer has consistently been "as many as possible." This means attracting both power-gamers and problem-solvers with the promise that their specialist and hybrid characters will be both fun and practical. So, I guess that brings us back to the original problem: specialists and hybrids do not balance in the current system as well as they should. As for a solution to this, I'm pretty much lost. (Well that was a circular post, and I probably have no idea what I'm talking about )

Well, I'm afraid there isn't a whole lot I can say as this was the first time I'd played any kind of tabletop RPG. I don't really have any other experiences to compare this to, but I do have some thoughts. In terms of plot, it was confusing, and I think you guys have all touched on the reasons why pretty well. I don't really have much to add here. I will say that while the overall, skeletal structure of the campaign was a bit of a jumble, the real meat of it, each adventure taken as an individual rather than as part of a whole, felt very straight forward, at least until the end. There was hardly ever any question of what we needed to do next until about half way through the last session, at which point the plot suddenly branched and we were all scratching our heads trying to figure out what we needed to do. The combat at times did seem skewed, mostly in our favor. For a DM running his first campaign and presumably using a damage system of his own devising (which I'd love to hear about BTW) that isn't to surprising. IIRC, every DM so far has used a different system, and while that is not necessarily a bad thing the lack of a standardized system does make it harder for new DMs to properly balance combat until they get a better feel for it. This I think leads to combat at the beginning of a campaign feeling more unbalanced, which is what happened with EoD. With taking that into account, the combat in EoD felt about right to me. So, yeah. That's all I've got to say for now. If I think of anything that no one else has brought up, I'll post it. Oh, and once again, thanks for the fun campaign Nikki.