Dice It Is the Tide, Act 1

[HeinzByTrade]

I resemble that remark.

 

[hellrazoromega]

Well with my edit I was trying to convey that she is trying to dance in amongst them and trip them up and shatter knees to slow them down, even if they are dead not having a rigid structure to walk on should cost them some movement. While also using some entrails a a makeshift tripwire. The hope is she can trip up the front runners and slow down the whole group while she tries to devise a plan to enact some sort of AoE. Sorry if that first part was not conveyed well in the edit.

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Oh, haven't seen it yet.


 
And now that I have, let's do this.


I had already indicated that the zombies don't need structural integrity as much as they should, so I'm going to have their defense Laugh At an approach that tries to capitalize on their injuries. But I'll let you use your Medicine skill with that specialty, so you're still getting +15 to their +5 from that.


It looks like a Disrupt of their Footwork, which will hurt their dodge and cover ground attempts. It doesn't stop them trying to block, so they can still apply that non-disrupted defense, but:


1. They will have trouble leaving the killing ground Ki-Lan has prepared.


2. They will have trouble reaching the villagers.


3. If you describe an attack in a way that it would be harder to block than to dodge, or that blocking it would be unsafe, they would have both defenses penalized, and suffer no matter what they did.


And now, defense rolling.

Spoiler

[dice]8352[/dice]


Whoa. Amazing roll on only six dice. You caused one ripple, and they can take 7 before dropping. Ki-Lan is good for one per round, so they're up to 2 right now.

 

[Blackadder]

So let me know when I should get started on Diax's round.


 
Ok, it's time to begin Diax'ing. Opening the round with Weapon: Knife (Saber)


[dice]8354[/dice]


That's 35 + Strike 10... initial basic attack result 45.


About to post an IC description, then we can add Laughs, Fears and more.

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Sounds good. Zombies are neither formal and ornate, or trying to trap you, so your style doesn't laugh here. Still, 45 and the Saber damage bonus and a +10 Damage against minions with +0 everything. So...


[dice]8355[/dice]


60 vs 23. 2 Ripples, and you're in spitting distance of a third. Would you like to apply any internal techniques?

 

[Blackadder]

For this one I was holding off on internal techniques. Next time, or more likely next battle, they may come into play.

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Clever plan, m'lord.

 

[Blackadder]

[QUOTE="Shining Lotus Sage]Clever plan, m'lord.

[/QUOTE]
Of course it's a clever plan, Baldrick!

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Wait, shit, CUNNING plan.

 

[hellrazoromega]

Of course it's a clever plan, Baldrick!

Poor Baldrick.
 


[QUOTE="Shining Lotus Sage]Oh, haven't seen it yet.
 
And now that I have, let's do this.


I had already indicated that the zombies don't need structural integrity as much as they should, so I'm going to have their defense Laugh At an approach that tries to capitalize on their injuries. But I'll let you use your Medicine skill with that specialty, so you're still getting +15 to their +5 from that.


It looks like a Disrupt of their Footwork, which will hurt their dodge and cover ground attempts. It doesn't stop them trying to block, so they can still apply that non-disrupted defense, but:


1. They will have trouble leaving the killing ground Ki-Lan has prepared.


2. They will have trouble reaching the villagers.


3. If you describe an attack in a way that it would be harder to block than to dodge, or that blocking it would be unsafe, they would have both defenses penalized, and suffer no matter what they did.


And now, defense rolling.

Spoiler

[dice]8352[/dice]


Whoa. Amazing roll on only six dice. You caused one ripple, and they can take 7 before dropping. Ki-Lan is good for one per round, so they're up to 2 right now.


That works, I did not want to capitalize on the structural thing because I was unsure if she had seen enough to act on it. But so long as she slowed them down some.


So question, has she observed enough of the fighting to see that removing heads from the zombies will work, or would the Wu-Wei skill allow her to divine that if the former is not true? Just trying to gauge--so GM's are very touchy about player knowledge/ meta game issues.

[/QUOTE]

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Fortunately, Legend of the Wulin actually provides mechanics for resolving questions like that. You can literally beat these things up to death, so headshots aren't magically special the way zombie fiction tends to make them. That means, what you're asking for is for River to have some knowledge that provides increased effectiveness when attacking them. Easy. She'd have to take a bit of time to study their weaknesses. If they had any kung-fu, you could use a Tactics minor action on your initiative roll next round to figure out how to target the weaknesses of their fighting style. They would resist with Stealth or Tactics to hide their signature moves. I will let you make a Medicine minor action next round, because what you want is to figure out how to target the weaknesses of their construction, but you'll be resisted by Hardiness instead, on account of fewer weaknesses to take advantage of.


If you wanted to try for Learning, against the Learning roll that created them, that could also work.


 
@Blackadder - Will respond. Will. Had a long night, and creative writing is hard.


@Grey - You okay?

 

[Grey]

I'm fine - I just thought I'd taken my action and couldn't do anything for another round.

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Oh. Oh, no, that was the prediction thing. Unless you wanted it to be? I mean, I've mostly lost track of what's intended to be a wave and what you meant as an attack. :/

 

[Grey]

Sorry, my fault.


I meant to make the prediction and use the burning ember as an attack.


But now I can just follow him and continue punching, yes?


This'll all be smoother next time we get into a fight, I suppose.

 

[Blackadder]

Didn't he use his action sets to break the wave?

 

[hellrazoromega]

@Blackadder[/URL] - Will respond. Will. Had a long night, and creative writing is hard.


@Grey - You okay?

Excellent that is what I was looking for, I'll try the Medicine roll with the minor action next round.


So as I absorb these rules a bit more, since she was trying to use anatomy (leg breaks--which wasn't going to work much as it turns out, entrails, and bunching them together) to slow down the horde, could I have declared that as a Shaping at initiative, or would it just fall under one of the Marvel categories?

 

[HeinzByTrade]

We have been super on fleek with our wave breaking thus far.


 
Squad up.

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Sorry, my fault.
I meant to make the prediction and use the burning ember as an attack.


But now I can just follow him and continue punching, yes?

No, it's okay. I can totally use that as an attack, and really, I figured that was where you were going with it. Just need an attack roll to figure out how successful it was, and give you the chance to stack other effects onto the strike, if you want. Generally, you'll roll twice per round for your own actions, plus defense as often as you're attacked.

Didn't he use his action sets to break the wave?

He actually used a combat-time scholar's art to penalize Conqua for leaving the safety of his troops. I shouldn't really have applied it retroactively, but reasons exist. So now the cover ground result was 58 to reach a 60, instead of 63. All happened on initiative, and the confusion is definitely part of the streamlining we'll need to sort out afterward.


 

Excellent that is what I was looking for, I'll try the Medicine roll with the minor action next round.
So as I absorb these rules a bit more, since she was trying to use anatomy (leg breaks--which wasn't going to work much as it turns out, entrails, and bunching them together) to slow down the horde, could I have declared that as a Shaping at initiative, or would it just fall under one of the Marvel categories?

Shaping generally doesn't affect another combat unit, so that's for things like what Ki-Lan did, creating traps and raising the difficulty to maneuver from one zone to another. Or what Heinz is doing, and rendering one zone a dangerous area that is subject to an area attack every round. Or trying to draw your weapon while your opponent keeps knocking it back into the scabbard, like in lower-powered wuxia flims. All waves. Marvels are things you do on your attack roll, and they affect the target of your attack. That seems like what you're doing, trying to make the zombies, specifically, have more difficulty maneuvering, not change the world they have to maneuver through.

 

[Grey]

Rollan that attack, then.


[dice]8379[/dice]

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Did you still have one or more 8s in your river? I can't recall.

 

[Grey]

I think I actually saved three 10s.

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Well, your river only holds two dice. But if yours currently holds two tens, then you can have just rolled a 40.

Spoiler

[dice]8380[/dice]


 
So 45 to 42 is a hit, and 55 to 42 is 1 ripple and a roll, which now means 5d10.

 

[Blackadder]

Defense - Block


[dice]8383[/dice]


 
Ok, base roll is 20 + 5 = 25.... I assume being surrounded by zombies gains the Laugh bonus?

 

[Random Word]

@Shining Lotus Sage did you not notice you rolled a 22 against hellrazor? Why take a 17? Do they have a -5 Strike?

 

[Shining Lotus Sage]

Ok, base roll is 20 + 5 = 25.... I assume being surrounded by zombies gains the Laugh bonus?

I don't think I could agree without basically giving you a blanket Laughs at units of minions. There's "tight spaces and bad situations", and there's "just shredded half the remaining opposition in a hammer-and-anvil maneuver", and I don't think they overlap. On the other hand, the +0 Damage and +10 Toughness means no Ripples. If they had badtouch magic, you'd be subject, but they can't get through your grit with their impotent flailings.

@Shining Lotus Sage[/URL] did you not notice you rolled a 22 against hellrazor? Why take a 17? Do they have a -5 Strike?

Rank 5 minions have a -5 to everything but their one good skill. They're awful rabble, but the villagers are even softer targets than that. Plus likely to sob and fumble when attacked by their own dead family members.