ZaG! Questions and Concerns. [Zoinks, A Gjaum!]

Dietaku

Crimson Cool Sage
This thread is for any questions or concerns that players may have.


Remember, there are no dumb questions, but there are ill-advised ones.
 
1. What country is this in? With the name being Duwang and the school being St. Xavier it could be either Japan or America to my mind.


2. Present day, 20 seconds into the future, a past that may have been?


3. [More setting questions on supernatural occurances here inquiring to details].


4. On syndromes, are they mostly something you decide yourself within the strain's definitions and work with the ST for something reasonable? Or does a specific rule set exist in the book? Not really sure for the power bar on where to shoot around.


5. Any particular character layout for our threads that I should adhere to?


Aside from what I asked in the interest check this is all I really need to get something thrown together.
 
1) Duwang is in Japan, in Kagoshima prefecture, to be precise. Xavier, as in Francis Xavier, was a name I chose because it evoked an old, somewhat classy school, being a Western Saint and all.


2) The time period is about 20 seconds into the future. There are smart phones, widespread internet use, and all the amenities we have. There are also powerful, lifelike electronics widely available, medical knowledge is much improved, and space exploration is resumed, thanks in part to hunting where Renegade (The superhero virus) came from.


3) Is there anything specific you want to know/hear about? Or do you want examples of "This town be the creep, yo"


4) There are specific rules for the syndromes within the rule book. As for power levels, it depends. Some of the powers are pretty mundane (Shoot a ball of fire) to pretty damn nuts (Empower yourself with the Speed Force and act during the Initiative phase, before anyone can even think). It really comes down to the aesthetic and role you're seeking to fill in battle. If you'd like I can talk more about each Syndrome's in-game role more.


5) I'm not a stickler for any one layout for characters, just so long as your stats, lasting Loises, powers and any major possessions are outlined. How you put them up I'll leave to your preferences.


Although, with a little looking, I found a neato fillable character sheet if that makes things easier.
 
1. Yeah, I figured since the guy brought Christianity to Japan. Foreigners allowed or Japanese only?


3. Just some examples of what is in the news/the police findings.


4. That would help me a great deal since I only have a story thematic idea for powers atm.


My character idea so far is [name pending] whose immediate family worked as UN peacekeepers. Taking most of the family along on an overseas vacation in [placeholder], they stopped off at the local workplace to process some paperwork. The building was attacked by members of the *Forgotten Hearts Group lead by Johan C. Cauldwell in an attempt to destabilize their influence in the area while weakening the the task force by spreading them out. Taken alive, [name pending kun] and many others were taken in use of an experiment to reliably increase their ranks through perfecting strains of the virus. Overseeing the proceeding Johan ordered him and the others to take the super cooties which turned most of the lot to monsters.


UN task force arrives by this point after a tip off forcing terrorists to abandon their position. [name pending kun] and the others were saved at a cost. The painful shock of the forced infection, loss of family to monsters, and ensuing violence of supers imprinted an impulsive fear of such things. Returning home to Duwang, Japan his remaining immediate family, the little sister, hated his guts and blamed him for their family's death. Staying at home due to an illness it was determined best to not strain her with the burden of international travel. After this incident the pair of them were **separated to live with different relatives.


All of this changed [NP-kun]'s outlook on the world making him want to avoid the strange and live a *quiet life. After growing up he took "normal" jobs and a career as a salary man while staying in Duwang. After a recession, he lost his job due to mismanagement and was forced to take up a janitor's position at the nearby high school. Unfortunately strange occurances have been on the rise.


This sound okay to you, anything needing work or changing as a rough draft?


*I only know that they are terrorists and presumeably do bad things. Making this up as I go along.


**/squeezing as many tropes as I can in for hilarity by this point


***You should have expected this one by now. I know unassuming life was rolled, but you don't meet terrorists or involve yourself with them through entirely such lives, yeah?
 
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Well, there are ways to have an unassuming life that crosses pathes with terrorists. It takes some thought, but there are options. You go to the bank to deposit a paycheck. The terrorists bomb the place, and steal valuable stuff. You survive uninsured, but they use your car as the getaway, and you lose your job when the police impound it as evidence. You do nothing, but everything happens around you.


I have the books. Now I need to do some reading. I should have the character up in a three - four days. I am really looking forward to a mixed roll and choose style for creating the character. I still haven't decided whether to go purebred or crossbreed. Part of it will be determined by the choices I make. All I do know is that it will be in student.
 
That is an interesting idea, but it remains the same in essence. Just instead of going on vacation he goes to the bank. Instead of losing family he loses material things. Then I have to figure out some equally contrived manner of getting the virus by being ordered, explaining the emotion, and refigure the anchors.


Even if you live an unassuming life you'll still need an event for something like that. Unless I make it something as incredibly petty as stealing my lunch money back in 3rd grade which makes little sense for an anchor. Which is why I pointed out why it's something of a silly thing to roll up and poked fun at it with the yoshikage thing. Should take the time to mention while I might make jojo references he won't be an expy to any of the characters.
 
1) Foreigners are allowed. I just figure since the game is so steeped in Japanese fluff, it would be easiest for everyone to start there.


3) Headlines and rumors, eh? Alright.


"A tall, furry figure was seen in the foothills outside of town. Connections to Bigfoot are being made, but the police have found no evidence of this creature, even if there has been over three hundred sightings in the past three months."


-Duwang Courier, local newspaper


"Now, who can forget the middle school girl who fought that cuttlefish monster on the steps of the Duwang courthouse? She was decked out in this cosplay outfit, and had some sort of submachine gun, and even managed in killing her opponent. On top of this all, she did so in a crowded street. It took the corroboration of a traffic camera's footage with several reporters' own photos to determine that they all weren't being pranked. Truly, wherever you are, Courthouse-chan, you ought to be thinking about your future, and not serving up seafood..."


-Kitan Dozan, talk radio personality


"Have you seen the class president, Mackintosh Airi? She's quite the beauty, but the worst thing is, this way she looks at you. The boys say asking her out is like being that one statue of that Greek god holding the world. Which was it? Erm, Altair? Yeah, that seems about right. "


-Minami Suzu, enterprising newspaper club member


"My, my, I keep hearing about these students summoning monsters in back-alleys with pieces of paper, but that sounds a bit like sorcery to me. If you encounter anything like this, report it to the police immediately, okay?"


-Tatsumaki Maki, beloved homeroom and Humanities teacher


Also, your character looks fine. Cliche isn't completely bad, not if you use it well, which I think you have.


If it helps at all, False Hearts (Jesus, I am off the ball this week) is a terrorist organization with the only known aim of stopping the UN task force built to assist and contain Overeds. Their overall goals or thoughts beyond this are unknown.


I'll illustrate the powers in another post, as this one is getting so big, and the powers will be a lot of words.
 
So, onto powers:


Angel Halo: Angel Halo is a syndrome devoted to senses, improving your ability to aim or perform ranged attacks. It also has the curious affinity towards stealth, with several powerful attacks that can only be used if you have stealth, which you can also achieve easily using several powers.


Balor: Balor has a number of nasty debuffs, from cutting into their target's initiative, to shooting them into the air to halt their movement. They also have great single target attacks. On top of this, they have a simple (Utility) power which allows you to have cool slo-mo walks to make yourself look cooler when you interact with people. Overall, Balor is pretty cool.


Black Dog: Black Dog is largely self-buffing with a few ranged attacks and status ailment inflicting attacks. However, considering that the Syndrome has a major cybernetic theme, it makes sense.


Bram Stoker: Bram Stoker has a few single target attacks and minor healing, but its main draw is the ability to create servants, and use them to gang up on people. You even get some passive abilities to let you conjure a bunch of servants at once, or even create them with basic powers of their own.


Chimera: Chimera is HUGE DAMAGE, HUGE GUTS. They can deal massive damage to single targets, and have several powers to defend against the same. It's almost expected that you're going to leap into the fray right off with this one and rip opponents to shreds.


Exile: Exile is a jack of all trades syndrome with combat, healing and defensive powers. That they also are given body horror-esque fluff about meat-invasion or Pillar Man-style absorption, makes a lot of people I've seen squeamish around Exile Overeds. Me? I think Exile is great, and if you can get over the fact that you're basically playing the Thing, Alex Mercer, or BoBoBo, then you can't go wrong with it.


Hanuman: This syndrome has great self and group buffs, and also has several powers which lets you hit every single enemy in the scene. The downside, is Hanuman is a very offensively and mobility--minded syndrome, with many of it's defensive powers needing you to be moving to use.


Morpheus: I am the bone of my sword. Morpheus is the ur-utility syndrome, as it gives you the ability to conjure damn near anything you can think of out of thin air. It can also empower objects to do outright supernatural feats. The thing is, Morpheus has no real abilities to affect the user or their friends.


Neuman: Neuman is full of buffs and powers to debilitate their opponents. Sadly, Neuman is kinda lackluster in their fluff, as they tend to be so smart, you can think up plans on the fly, without any flashy tricks.


Orcus: Orcus is raw area control. Sicne their ability is more or less to manipulate the scene, they have great ability to either empower or deny their opponents options. That being said, they can't really have the same stopping power as Balor, Chimera or Salamandra.


Salamandra: Salamandra is raw damage. Blasting their opponents with flame and frost, they are pretty scary to fight, as they have access to comparable damage as Chimera, but a lot of their attacks come at range. Sadly, unlike Chimera, their Syndrome is very offensively minded, with several powers getting stronger if you pay HP, and little in the way of defensive abilities.


Solaris: Solaris is pure status and debuffs, as they have many powers to impose statuses or penalties to their targets. That their powers are powerful drugs or toxins makes them unpopular as a PC choice, which is a shame, as they look like they'd combo well with Balor for some debuff shenanigans.
 
After a struggle, I have acquired the core book. Now I can make amends for my shame of forcing the ST to post everything from the pdf~! Thanks for the rumors, they're very interesting. Just the right amount of bokke for the party to tsukomi. For the rumors thread, do we post there in character to ask for rumors or just an ooc whenever we're curious for more news deal?


I also see some errata floating around but I'm not sure if that's for the edition we are using. If I'm not looking at the wrong errata, are we using it or just sticking to the core until we understand things better?
 
Thanks, I appreciate your feedback on the rumors. Do you have a link to the errata? I haven't heard of any, apart from other books, so I'd have to look at it to see.


As for the rumors thread, either or will work. I actually got the idea from another game whereby the ST was giving info on a city-state we were taking over in Exalted. Some were outright false, some were silly, most were true, though, and the circle took a lot of time considering, and investigating a lot of the admittedly off the wall things in the area.
 
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So I'll be going over the pdf in detail. Might change the character concept, might not. Will get something up soon-ish. I've suddenly gone from famine to feast on this site so a lot of things to touch up on roughly everywhere.
 
So, the character is making steady progress. But I have been working 10 hour days, so Wednesday looks like my completion date and post date.
 
That's fine, you two. There's no deadline, and I haven't heard much about what Alice has in mind, either, so it's all good.


Does anyone need any more info about St Xavier's Academy or Duwang itself?
 
Just because you asked. :P


St. Xavier's- What is it famous for? The place seems to be a rumor mill for the strange happenings, is it a hotspot for them as well? Is it rather unique being a Christian school in this sleepy town? What do the people of the city think about it? Is it a nice school? What sort of reputation does it have? Do a specific sort of students attend it? Does it act as a boarding school or is it all just local? How large is the campus? What stands out about it's campus/architecture/layout? Any extremely remarkable people students or faculty that attend the place? Where does it's funding come from if it's a private school?


Duwang- How big is the place and what are the local specialties? What exports/products does it boast about in particular? What is the feel of the town like and the general stance of the town on any important subjects you feel like mentioning? Is the town more rural, urban, or some blend? Do the strange happenings lately attract notice as a pattern or is it still below the surface right now? Does a UN or False Heart presence exist, at least that remains known? Certain places in Japan have a rep (Nagoya, Hokkaido, Tokyo, Osaka, etc) so what about Duwang? How did it get the name Duwang anyways? What are the special places of note in this city? Any interesting landmarks or monuments? What's the main mode of getting around town?
 
Something comes to mind, this book really likes to stress not to take simple things at char gen since they can't be used in battle. Overall it kind of nudges you with a nailbat towards brawling by the text itself. My original character idea is actually less combat (wasn't really building with it in mind).


Then I realized I don't actually know if this is more of an investigative or combative sort of story. So I suppose my question is what sort of experience should we keep in mind for this story when building our characters?
 
We'll do as the book suggests and focus on combat starting out. Then, we can do more investigation when you get access to more exp and therefore, more powers. Don't worry, though, even without simple powers, I won't force you through a gauntlet of combats without framing, so your skills will be important too.
 
Right. Changing the character concept now then. Curious, but what time of the year/season is it now? Just starting the new school year in spring or deep in summer? Think that's about everything that comes to mind right now.
 
I'll have something up soonish. Tonight really.


Still going with exile but I've been nailing down a character. Probably forty year old ex Russian military with links to the Russian mafia disguised as a Japanese schoolgirl. Gun for hire, very good at sneaking in, planting explosives and causing 'multiple simultaneous' eruptions of ultra violence. Terrorist for hire ;)
 
[QUOTE="Teh Frixz]I'll have something up soonish. Tonight really.
Still going with exile but I've been nailing down a character. Probably forty year old ex Russian military with links to the Russian mafia disguised as a Japanese schoolgirl. Gun for hire, very good at sneaking in, planting explosives and causing 'multiple simultaneous' eruptions of ultra violence. Terrorist for hire ;)

[/QUOTE]
"Boris, why are you dressed up as a teenage girl?"


"Is not sexual deviancy! Is disguise! Sexy, sexy diguise"


Sounds great, Frixz. I'll be looking forward to it.
 
The problem with going outside the suggestions is that you don't get too much to start with. So they suggest not getting Simples or things that require 100% or more to activate. The reason is that with only 5 powers or so, you will get stuck with few options in combat. Going outside the suggestions means that you will have even more limited options when combat starts.


Starting characters need to keep the balance. As they develop they can branch out based on what they feel they need. Best to follow the starting rules unless you have a good counter-balance.
 
Few options for those lacking imagination. Apoc world doesn't have a huge amount of moves or skills to utilize but it encourages you to use them in ways that weren't obvious. Using the environment in conjunction with abilities always makes the game seem more alive.
 
So speaking of lacking imagination, going over the encounter chart the whole thing feels rather forced and closed off. I also keep seeming to get terrorists and super bad ultra deadly assassin relations for some reason. I was wondering how you'd feel Dietaku if we used some of the notable npcs you wrote up in the other threads for an encounter chart instead?


Edit: Also on choosing powers, it says select 4 from the syndrome and general powers lists. Is that 4 from each of the 2 or just 4 total?
 
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