Friday, August 30, 2024

Aersalus Season 1, Session 3

 

The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.
Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.
Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.
Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.
In Memorium Christian
NPC's
Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector

Wolftrap, Day 3 and 4

We continue to wander around fixing what is needed and seeing to supplies.
Listens heads to the cliffs, finding a good place for his morning meditations. Its high up, about a 100 yards above the water, he considers jumping but decides its too risky, it would likely not kill him but would be embarrassing and a waste of resources as he heals himself. Still he considers it a minor goal to work towards if this becomes main base.
He spends the predawn and after dawn time listening to the spirits, they are definitely around but seem very quiet for some reason. He also looks for the waterfolk, though its far too early for them to arrive if they choose to act on the captains message.
After awhile just listening and enjoying the fresh air and feel of the wind and sea air he heads to town to get started on the days work. 
On the way he stops by the hut of the town wise woman and healer. Jyrki iul Heino
They chat for awhile as she is cleaning bandages, he uses his magic to speed things up and dry them, she has skill but no apparent ability with songshaping. She mentions the plague that wiped out a town about 8 months ago, and children who broke their legs helping the foresters yesterday. She is quite wiling to share local news and advise Listens on what the town needs. He knows most of it already but the research is still good. She does not really believe him when he says they intend to take care of the bandits but is glad for the supplies and the work done so far. The town is very wary of promises and not trusting of the new duke. Not a surprise after the last one and it will take time to earn their trust.

He heads into town.
The rest of the team is up and about as he arrives, most having already headed out. Rhaum spends the day escorting Altan, not a fun duty but a needful one. Altan can be quite irritating and disrespectful and Rhaum tries to learn him some manners. They start at the Inn before heading out to the farms.

Trapper continues learning the lay of the land and hunting for food for the Inn. The innkeeper Meiri and him are building a good relationship. He brings her a rare bird (super large bird of prey, nearly the size of an adult human) and she asks him to find its nest and bring her the contents.

After talking with the quartermaster to make sure Jyrki gets her supplies Listens looks for the forester. He is curious about what is going on in the area, the spirits are too quiet and of course he has to talk about the injured kids. He expects Riato has already worked to prevent more accidents but still Listens should offer his help. Listens casts a spell and asks the spirits for directions, they should easily find a group of wood cutters chopping down trees after all. The spell works, but at first he does not see the spirit that arrived. Eventually it gets his attention, a land crab. They introduce themselves, the crab is named Myrk the Lurk, though he prefers Myrk.
Murk leads him to the foresters and they have a shirt discussion. Apparently the children were overly excited and trying to be helpful. Getting too close to falling trees.
Riato points out something odd about a stand of dead tress. As a woodsinger, any tree he considers odd is worth paying attention too. The trees have had all the moisture drained out of them and then just broke off. Also moisture has not returned, even though its been months and the rains should have affected the wood. Myrk thinks it reminds him of something and he agrees to ask around. He vanishes into the ground.
Listens wanders around a bit before heading back to town and Myrk pops out of the ground with news.  They head to the inn for beer and mutton (two things Myrk expressed love for) and talk. Meiri is still less than thrilled to see Listens but is at least polite and welcomes his coin. Listens finds a table at the back and sets the land crab on the table, ordering meals for them both. Meiri is rather surprised to hear a talking crab and quickly fetches their food. Listens was expecting her to tell him he could not sit on the table, but supposes she was unwilling to insult a talking crab. Others in the inn take notice as ell and the table remains theirs till Raum and Altan come in.

Raum and Altan had a good day collecting taxes, though some of it was in barter rather than coin. Raum appears to have made a deal with a local spirit, return a kana crystal to it that as stolen by bandits. Listens anticipates a problem from Altan over the matter but will address it then.
They all head back to the constable station. 

Unit 7 is back after scouting unsuccessfully for the bandit camp but found a bonecarver. The bone carver and the corpse appear to not be getting along. Listens looks at the corpse, politely asking if it wants to talk but is ignored and so lets it be. Not really his area as much as nature spirits and even those he tends to leave be if they so desire.
The corpse does however seem to have taken a definite shining to Trapper. It turns its head to look at him periodically.

Raito calls listens outside for a chat. He explains to Listens that his hand is turning blue, a sign of big trouble. Listens bandages it to cover up indication and offer some pain relief. They hear a scream form the wilderness and run to investigate. 
Tesseikai come stumbling into town, gravely wounded.  Listens shouts for help, using his best sailor voice and tends to her wounds with a quick Lesser Succor spell.
Earlier Myrk had warned him about Blood Mama a vampire like spirit that drains blood form groups of people and was imprisioned but somehow released and its making all the spirits nervous. They are not her favorite prey but hungry enough she will go after anything. Listens is worried as the group goes into the forest to see who attacked Tesseikai but they need to check for other survivors as she was not alone.
She is missing a finger but likely she can repair that herself, if not Listens has a Restoration spell.

Aftermath

A few other things happened but Listens is unlikely to know about them so you'll have to read about them in the GMs recap. Myrk expressed an interest in becoming a companion and Listens said to wait a week, make sure he is making a good choice as Listens lives a dangerous life and will be traveling.
A land crab is not my first idea of an allied spirit but its a cool direction and I like Myrks personality.












Wednesday, August 28, 2024

GURPS High Dives and Cliff Diving

 I have a character in a campaign who is part water spirit and one of his gimmicks is being a great swimmer and diver, also a water mage sailor.

For reference he has Swimming -17; Amphibious; Breath Holding 2; Catfall (Accessibility, only to land in water, -50%); Temperature Tolerance 2; and the perk Smooth Diver. The latter lets him dive without making a splash.

We came across a cliff over the water outside town and he wanted to cliff dive from it. The skill penalty appeared to make this an impossible task. Since it was a 100 yard tall cliff that irked me a bit but not by much as it is a ridiculously high height to jump form. However, it appeared that normal heights also seemed way too hard to do. So I went to the forums!

After a few days reviewing the rules and discussing them on the Steve Jackson Games GURPS forums I came up with a reasonable chance at making more normal cliff dives.

The results are....

GURPS Diving

Quoth, p.B431 "When striking water or a similar fluid, a successful Swimming roll (or vehicle control roll, if “ditching” a vehicle) means a clean dive that negates all damage. This roll is at a penalty for
velocity; use the speed penalty from the Size and Speed/Range Table (p. 550)."
Normally it says to read the speed as column 3 on that table, so this wording led me to use column one instead.  At least two others feel that the normal usage is what was intended and I am going with that.
I might ask the line editor when he is back from vacation to be sure and to see if errata should be submitted.
So what is our penalty?
World Record is 60m (-36 skill original way or (-9) the other way)
Standard dive of 85-92 feet (-25 or -26) or (-7).
Reality check thus says use the more typical number.
Highest dive from a diving board is 192'10"* for (-8 to skill)
*Lazaro "Laso" Schaller (Switzerland/Brazil) in Maggia, Ticino, Switzerland, on 4 August, 2015. 
90' dive (Skill-7)
10m dive (about 33 feet) (Skill-5)
3m dive (Skill-4)
Standard diving boards (spring) from 1 to 3m high. (Skill -0 to -4)

If you make the skill you take no damage, fail and you take falling damage into a soft object. At these heights its unlikely to kill you, though the higher dives may very well knock you unconscious so better have someone in the water to rescue you!
Catfall subtracts 5y from falling distance, a great help[ at lower dives and about a +1 effect at higher distances. more importantly it allows a DX roll to grant half damage if you fail that clean dive Swimming roll.

Swimming is used to avoid damage and to move around in the water after your dive.
Sports (Diving) lets you know the rules for the sport, trivia such as record holders and famous diving spots, and perhaps most importantly to look good when diving. Use it or Acrobatics to do things like flips, tucks, and somersaults when diving. Modifiers as per Acrobatics, +1 for Perfect Balance, +2 for 3D Spatial Sense.
High Dive (H) is a technique that lets you buy off the penalty to Swimming when making a dive to avoid damage.

Catfall with Accessibility, only to land in water, -50% is a bit more realistic than regular Catfall so may be more easily allowed in a noncinematic game. Make no mistake, its still cinematic though!

A high diver will need Swimming and can benefit from Sports (Diving), a level of Temperature Tolerance for cold water, Fit or Very Fit, high HT and DX, and perhaps First Aid, Hiking, or even Climbing to get to out of the way spaces.
At Swimming -5 for an Olympic level athlete I think GURPS Diving is reasonably good at letting your character play a great athlete even in a realistic campaign.
Alien or non realistic campaigns may consider Amphibious, DR (Tough Skin), Breath Holding, and a few other things to spice it up.

Special Thoughts

At least 12 feet of water is advised for high dives and clear water is best to help avoid obstacles like high rocks or see other swimmers.
Telescopic Vision can help see what you are diving into from high above.
Good quality equipment and conditions such as a good platform, minimal wind, and clear area  might be good for +1 to +2 quality bonus.
Use Time Spent to help with those tougher dives. Though in a sport your unlikely to get more than a minute to set yourself up.
This is just another example of how GURPS can add to your campaign by giving players or NPCs something cool and fun to do without a lot of special rules or handwaving.



 

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Aersalus Season 1, Session 1&2

 The Cast of B-Team (Aersalus)

Listens to Ocean aka Osprey (Rory) Halfling Magistrate, mage, healer, priest, historian.
Rhum Kaldalsson (Curtis) Minotaur artist.
Trapper (Chris D) Gremian, artificer, hunter, Armsmaster.
Unit 7 (Brice) A Cog, magical construct golem.
In Memorium Christian
NPC's
Altan ru Chuulaii the tax collector


The Trek Begins

Duke Tellengeri has decided to fix up his territory. By beating his brothers, the duke (Tellengeri) gained legitimacy and additional funds and prestige. He leveraged the newfound wealth to create a merchant empire which he then used around 1/3 of to purchase the land from Duke Jutaharro who had no heirs after the Second War of the Ashen killed them all. The old Duke was more into graft than his people and there is a lot of poor sentiment among the citizenry. He has embarked upon a big renewal and rebuilding project.
Along with almost a hundred others the team is dropped off near Wolftrap which is the largest town in the area. This will make several teams

Forestry Team, led by Riato a woodsinger and forester

They will go off to check on the wilderness, primarily the huge forest called "The Great Green" which is an unusually temperate and warm forest for this near arctic area.

Mining Resources Team led by Jarrah?

The goal is to see how the known mines are doing, what needs to be done to get them back to full production, and possibly find new mines.

Mappers#1

Goal is to survey and map the area.

Mappers#2

Goal is to survey and map the area
Aid Team #1 (Us) led by Listens to Ocean

Our team is going to be based in Wolftrap but will circumnavigate the area. We are to bring justice to the towns, collect taxes, and increase prosperity and well being of the regions citizens. Listens is an accomplished spellsinger, Ministry trained healer, Shen (shaman), and magistrate so is leading the team. He also has good experience with working people, being a long time fisherman and sailor. The team also includes a taxman (Altan ru Chuulaii) to collect the taxes. Since dispensing justice and collecting taxes are not too popular we also have three capable bodyguard's and security people who are also good at other things, helping the teams versatility and overall mission.
Rhum and Unit 7 are both very strong and Trapper provides ranged support.
Aid Team #2

This team will head in the opposite direction as Aid Team #1. It includes one magical healer and several Ministry Trained healers as well as a couple of other spellsingers.
We know they have Water, Wind, Stone, and Wood covered.

 Wolftrap

We all roll into town after being dropped by airship a day or so away. Wolftrap has seen better days, it is a port town with a nice freshwater lake nearby. Fed by two aqueducts, one from the lake and another from the mountains. Listens spends the most of the second day checking the first one out and cleaning it.
We meet Meiri the innkeeper who promptly decides to price gouge us for rooms. Listens does not like that kind of corruption and mentions how if she is charging that much for her rooms she must be doing very well indeed - and our tax collector will be glad to hear of her prosperity.
Altan's ears perk up and he is quite pleased to have a conversation with her, she of course is less so.
(Tried to pull an Eastwood here, letting the towns people know we are not to be cheated or trifled with as a strong first impression. Eastwood would have done it better).
Much of the town is in ruins or burned out and we head over to the remains of the Constables station. It has most of the stone walls, a basement, and a few cells.  Trapper investigates the basement, bringing up a corpse and a couch for it to lie on. The corpse appears appreciative. Trapper also fixes the boiler and we get heated floors for the evening.
Next day Trapper does more work on the building, as well as some others from the large group and then goes hunting for food and supplies for the inn. He also meets Toragana, the local tanner and exchanges hides and such. He also makes friends with Tessikai, a young healer and water singer (probably part of Aid Team #2).
Unit 7 is unhappy at waking up to find Listens had already left and is talked into helping out on repairs.
Rhum makes friends, he talks Trapper into getting food for Meiri and the inn and visits the blacksmith Jetei iul to get supplies for hauling wood he cuts down from the forest for rebuilding. Also meets the local miller Molomo.
Listens has a chat with Kohana an Kekkonen about the town. Kohana advises that annoying Meiri was not wise as she is an important town figure. Listens explains what happened, letting him know he will not tolerate corruption but understands his advice and will see what he can do. While they are talking a ship sails into port and having a plan (GM coached) Listens excuses himself during a lull in the conversation saying as an old sailor he wants to meet the ship.
Turns out the ship is run by an old friend, Captain Junras who gives Listens the lay of the local ocean and mentions a community of waterfolk nearby. Listens appreciates that and hopes to get them trading with the town. Listens also buys the entire ships worth of grain for the town. It will help the largest town in the area get on its feet faster, especially with winter coming and helps out his friend who would have to sail it the rest of the way up the coast, trying to sell it as much as he could and possibly not selling it all. This also gets him back to main port faster for another run. he offers Listens an investment opportunity in a ship which Listens takes him up on. Ideally hoping to encourage more shipping to the area.


Player Summary

A good first two session, its been several months since we last played. One of our players who was supposed to rejoin us died recently and it would have been nice to see him again. The rest of us were dealing with personal issues as well, everything from losing a beloved pet, to surgery, pinched nerves (or minor stroke), to the normal maladies we seem to have. It was good ot get together, both sessions were short but we got a lot done and got to start digging into this world that Christopher has rebuilt.