Bounty hunters of the apocalypse discussion

I was under the impression it was just the nine of them. Them being leaders in a huge PMC with hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds and any amount of troops and vehicles like that at their disposal makes them a LOT more powerful and well off than I am willing to allow Player Characters to be. Like, the stuff Recon has on him should pretty much be everything to his name, literally. You're talking being practically leaders of a faction, which is not okay in the slightest; that's not even remotely close to being related to being okay.

And as I thought I explained to you, U.N.A.M. normally wouldn't hire mercenaries, even big PMCs. There's only two exceptions: One, if the contract was of indefinite length with the mercenaries put directly under U.N.A.M. command, as in they're basically just paying them to join U.N.A.M.. Two, if they were faced with a situation in which they needed troops in a location desperately, and before they could get troops there themselves.

In those latter situations, they would hire pretty much anyone available and willing. That is what I thought you meant when you brought up the stuff about Recon working with U.N.A.M., one of those latter situations.

edited 19th Apr '14 12:18:56 AM by FirockFinion

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I thought Shevon had something going with Unam, so she doesn't?

Good to be back

@Troy: No, she's just a sheriff in a small town. It's not even a U.N.A.M. held safe area.

What gave you the impression she's directly involved with U.N.A.M.?

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I...really don't know actually, I guess it was just an assumption.

Good to be back

Now that I think about it, where are Og and Tequila's bikes?

Presumably with Og and Tequila, wherever they are. You guys certainly don't have them.

Anyway, I'm trying to get a clear picture of who wants to try for the train and who wants to just take the truck.

Fantasy (Red) and Nman (Max) seem to be in favor of the truck, while Troy (Molly) seems to be in favor for the train.

Also, since this is sort of an in-character vote as well as out-of-character vote, @Those who aren't Fantasy and Troy: Would you be okay with Fantasy and Troy having two votes each, one for each of their characters?

(Lisa's vote is "I don't care, can we just get going sooner rather than later?" so I will abstain. There's five of you with seven characters, so no matter how you vote there shouldn't be a tie for me to break.)

edited 19th Apr '14 1:42:14 AM by FirockFinion

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I wouldn't mind.

Ditto.

Also, would a werespider work without the penalties?

As for my character, I'm going for a journalist for the GPS (if they exist). Who doesn't let the facts get in the way of a good story and loves putting people, ideally famous ones, to shame and making them look bad. So I thought the hypothetical "web of lies" and "catching people in her web" would work quite nicely. And yes, it's a she, we have too many male characters.

If you're reading this you have 5 seconds to...

Yes - it is a weird virus and it's very annoying.

No, Recon's not in charge of anything. I wouldn't trust him to run a bath. Recon's essentially Earl, except from a different faction. Unlike Earl, he's a specialized troop due to his design, but in the end all he really has to his name is the stuff on him right now and a little room back in Africa with posters of his favorite baseball players.

As for the others, even if you do let them have funds and soldiers, it's unlikely I'll be able to use them (outside Africa). Even if they'd be willing to use all that time and money to transport soldiers to somewhere just for the sake of having them, they're still required to keep order back home. They're a non-factor as far as the RP's concerned (aside from, again, arranging transport. Now that I think about it, arranging transport with the GPS sounds a lot more practical than sending jets over for the hunters), but this is rather important to my characters in terms of "where do they come from, how did they manage to get so many strange and abnormal people together, what role do they play back home, etc."

edited 19th Apr '14 7:21:04 AM by gameknight102xx

I would say Recon's a lot braver than Earl.

Also, I highly doubt this will happen on my Tropes account, but could you guys alert me on Monday if there's any suspicious activity going on with my account?

@Tricksen: A werespider? I suppose they would exist, but they would probably be super rare, plus I'd have to decide exactly what their transformed form would be. Also, it doesn't really matter what kind of lycan it is, I'd be more likely to accept the character if you go with the "I can't fully control myself while in were form" option. Keeping the "I control when I transform though" option would still pretty much qualify them as half to everyone except the NCC. (Who would try to murder them no matter how much in control they were.)

As for GPS journalists, yeah they certainly exist; I think I even implied such a position being a good one for GPS characters. (Since it provides a pretty easy justification for why they would want to come along, going for the 'big scoop' and all.) That said, this character isn't going to be like Rita Skeeter is she? No seriously though, you could actually have her like that if you want, but she probably wouldn't be very popular among the other characters.

Also, in order to keep myself a bit more consistent and not hypocritical, a lycan GPS journalist character would probably have to go with one of two options: 1) Doesn't publicly bring up or advertise the fact that they're a lycan, (Probably in order to avoid any threat from NCC members) or 2) Does, but everyone assumes it's a publication lie to try and get more readers. In either case they might be a bit well known, but wouldn't be super famous or important.

@Gameknight: No. It's mostly a matter of principal, but also as far as I'm concerned, it being just the nine of them still worked with everything you established so far. That and, it is complete bullshit that they wouldn't try to use those assets in-character; you are in a world-at-stake level situation.

They could have some sort of home/small base where they keep unimportant things like those posters. They could probably have a car and/or truck or two. (Doubtlessly modified with scrap armor and maybe guns and whatnot, what with this being the apocalypse and them being in Africa anyway.) They could have a few thousand dollars stored away, at most. That is the absolute maximum I'm going to allow them to have; no troops, no helicopters, no jets, no hundreds of thousands of dollars. None of that.

Also, where the hell did you get this notion that they are super-important peace keepers in Africa? That actually contradicts exactly what you wanted the situation in Africa in the RP to be. It also, again, makes your characters way more important than I've been allowing Player Characters to be, so that's also a no. Can they be making a difference? Sure. Can it be so much of a difference that them leaving Africa would be a really big deal? No.

This isn't really negotiable Gameknight, no matter how much you think it's "important to my characters in terms of "where do they come from, how did they manage to get so many strange and abnormal people together, what role do they play back home, etc." ".

@Fantasy: I'll try to remember, but no promises. I would also be really surprised if anything goes weird with your account. Unless you're actually getting hacked by a troll or something, that shouldn't happen.

Anyway, this is just me stopping in for a while before work. I'm not gonna try to make a main post until after work.

Also, minor announcement: One of the monsters in the bestiary, the Cthulian Striders, is going to be getting a big edit. I wanted to add some stuff to them that I realized would be possible common knowledge and thus should go in the bestiary. No ETA on when this will be happening, though.

edited 19th Apr '14 4:03:49 PM by FirockFinion

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They just wouldn't be able to mobilize those assets in time (would be the excuse). But alright. I guess I'll just work with it then.

Also, would there be such a thing as a were-hellhound or something like that? I imagine it'd have greater speed and offensive capabilities, but less durability as per their non-were counterparts.

edited 19th Apr '14 4:18:44 PM by gameknight102xx

No, the lycans are restricted to their wereforms being based on normal animals. (Even though the end result is neither man nor normal beast.)

edited 19th Apr '14 4:22:15 PM by FirockFinion

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Back from work; not sure right now what I want to put in my main post, so I'm going to start working on those NPC mini sheets for now.

Alright, since Fantasy and Troy got the two votes, looks like we're going with the truck then? Then it's just a matter of how you want to set up the truck and how many people you want to bring with.

I redirect you guys to the post in which I explained what the options are for how many people you could take. This vote's a little more complicated, so feel free to specify your votes here in discussion. (Though again, Fantasy and Troy may have effectively two votes since the decision is ultimately being made in-character. Unless anyone else objects to that.)

There's pretty much three things on the table:

• Whether the dire wolves will ride along, taking up space people/gear could be in, or whether they'll be running alongside but forcing you guys to stop now and then.
• Whether you'll try to cram the truck as full as possible to bring more people/gear, or try to keep it more light on the load to keep it faster and more maneuverable.
• Whether to tow the other vehicle behind you, which would allow you to carry more people/gear, but make the handling for the truck worse than normal.

In this instance Lisa wouldn't completely abstain; as I mentioned before, she doesn't want to be stopping every few hours. So on the first issue, her vote is that the dire wolves ride along; on the second and third issues, she doesn't care.

EDIT: Also, fixed a slight math error I realized I made in the linked post. Towing the other vehicle would allow for 6-12 more people, not 6-11.

edited 19th Apr '14 9:15:13 PM by FirockFinion

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Could we load stuff onto the dire wolves like pack animals? Also - does Thor (if he's coming) count as a person.

Yes, good ingenuity, and yes as far as seating is concerned, respectively. (I already accounted for him in the linked post.)

EDIT: Though if you load the dire wolves up and make them run alongside, they'll have to stop more often.

edited 19th Apr '14 9:41:31 PM by FirockFinion

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Slight edits to my above post that may have been missed. And here's the sheets for the NPCs; Coline and Arthur were put up first because they will actually object if you don't let them come:

• Coline
  • Gear: An LMG and heavy armor composed of bomb defusing armor and a SWAT helmet.
  • Combat skills: Decently skilled with the LMG, along with just about any gun put in her hands besides sniper rifles. Experienced, albeit untrained, in hand-to-hand combat.
  • Other skills: Is a really good swimmer.
  • Downsides: Only speaks French and doesn't understand English. Dislikes most Americans, which is most of the party. Also will actively object if not allowed to come.

• Arthur
  • Gear: An M1 garand rifle.
  • Combat skills: Decently skilled with the rifle. Can sprint pretty fast for long distances. Doesn't feel pain. Is fierce but unsophisticated in hand-to-hand combat.
  • Other skills: Still decent at accounting. Can eat raw meat, and (some) spoiled food, so cooking isn't a factor for him. Being a half-runner, unintelligent monsters will assume him to be no more than another monster.
  • Downsides: Is a half-runner, so he can't donate blood (or swap any fluids) to another person or they will get infected. (Except for Molly and Lisa.) Is bad with any firearm that isn't similar to the M1. Will refuse to kill any runners unless absolutely necessary. Sometimes doesn't realize right away when he's been injured. Also will actively object if not allowed to come.

• Garnet
  • Gear: A toolbox of various tools and also some basic welding gear. Also, her music player.
  • Combat skills: Virtually none.
  • Other skills: Is a really good mechanic, though her methods are usually a lot more improvising than say, following a schematic. (Leading to a Mac Gyver-esque style of mechanics.) Knows the basics of playing guitar.
  • Downsides: See combat skills. Also, tends to get absorbed in her music, turned up loud in her headphones so she can sometimes miss things going on. Will flip her shit if you try to take her music away from her.

• Officer Clark
  • Gear: A hunting rifle with 6x sniper scope, and a glock 17.
  • Combat skills: Is pretty good with his rifle, and with any other sniper rifle. Is decent with the glock, and with any other pistols.
  • Other skills: Being a trained cop, he knows how to communicate with other law enforcement officers. Can also speak French well enough to act as a translator for Coline.
  • Downsides: Won't be inclined to come unless Coline is also coming. Will care more about Coline than the rest of the party.

• Counter
  • Gear: Twin 9mm revolvers, a combat knife, and about $200 in cash. (4 spending points)
  • Combat skills: Is decent with his revolvers, and with any other pistols. Is decent with his knife, and with any other knives. Is okay with other firearms, besides sniper rifles.
  • Other skills: Good at blathering, and at wrangling cattle.
  • Downsides: Won't share any of his money unless it's for something for himself or the whole party. Will expect an equal cut of any money earned, even if he didn't directly help in earning it.

• Flyer
  • Gear: H&K mark 23 pistol with laser dot attachment. (Yup, the one from the station that you left behind.)
  • Combat skills: Is okay with pistols.
  • Other skills: Is pretty good at flying helicopters, and good at spotting things at a distance without binoculars or a scope.
  • Downsides: Besides lack of combat skills, Flyer's personality can be quite obnoxious. (Especially with his fake Australian accent.) Has PTSD-esque moments under certain conditions. (Have any of you spotted the pattern yet, I wonder?)

Now that I'm done with that, I guess I can work on a main post sometime... Hopefully soon... Goddamn writer's block.

edited 20th Apr '14 8:06:27 AM by FirockFinion

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Clearly, we know who to pick first.

And second.

edited 19th Apr '14 10:15:20 PM by nman

Coline, Clark, Flyer and Garnet.

Good to be back

Before you guys decide which NPCs to take, you should maybe decide what you're doing with the truck first. (Since that will determine how many NPCs you can take.)

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You know, Rita Skeeter was exactly the example I was thinking of. And I'll get the Sign-Up up ASAP, although I'll be to busy today.

And I think we should take everyone except Flyer and Counter.

If you're reading this you have 5 seconds to...

@Tricksen: So she is gonna be like Rita Skeeter? Oh boy. Anyway, there's no hurry; she wouldn't be able to join right away anyway. She'll probably be entering the same time Nman's caravan character will be entering.

Also, your post reminds me that I did a complete derp and forgot to mention how I intended for the voting on NPCs to go down. For each NPC, you can vote that they should come, you can abstain from voting on, or you can vote that they shouldn't come, which will count as a negative vote against them coming. (Since some of you may feel that there are legitimate reasons to leave some of these guys behind, even though they are volunteering.)

Once all is said and done, any that come out of the voting negative will be left behind, even if there would be room for them. Those that aren't will be brought along, starting with the highest and going down until hitting the maximum number of NPCs you're willing to bring, if applicable. In the event of a tie for the last available space, I will attempt to get anybody who abstained from voting on the tied NPCs to do a tiebreaker vote; if that's not possible or still ends up tied, I will determine who would go and who would stay based on the NPCs in-character. (NPCs whose negative and positive votes cancel each other out or everyone abstained on will still be applicable to come along, since they are volunteering.)

If all that sounds a little too complicated to grasp, maybe try thinking of your voting options as just "+1"(bring them), "0"(don't care), and "-1"(don't bring them), where the highest scorers come first and anyone with a negative score will definitely be left behind.

The only exception to the above is Clark, who will get a penalty if Coline isn't coming. Also if either Arthur or Coline get into the negative, they will try to argue why they should come along in-character, angrily.

And once again I suppose Fantasy and Troy would get double the voting unless there's an objection. As for myself, (or rather, Lisa) I'll have to think about that and get back to you, but I (Lisa) will probably mostly if not totally abstain.

Of course, how many of the NPCs you guys can bring along still depends on what you're doing with your transportation. (Though attaching something to the back of the firetruck to tow sounds like a popular option right now, which would allow you to bring all of them, even with the dire wolves riding on the fire truck, with room still to spare.) Also keep in mind that there will be NPCs you meet later who will want to join or could be convinced to join, depending somewhat on what you guys do when you encounter them; so having room for additional people is something to consider.

edited 20th Apr '14 10:01:06 AM by FirockFinion

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I don't think Coline actually dislikes most of the party now that I think about it. Recon and Shay are both not American, while Red has, at the very least, earned her respect if not her friendship. She seemed to like Max too because he spoke "French" (quotes are intentional) and wasn't Pyro on the caravan with her?