And since I hate having to scroll back to the last narrative point and we're on a new page, here's the description of the front lawn again. Have at it!
The lawn is overgrown from decades of neglect. The drive is buckled and cracked by the ravages of time, but it still carves a rough path through the tall grass and up to the mansion at the top of the hill. Standing sentinel on either side of that path, however, is a row of bare and skeletal-looking poplars. Stacks of autumn leaves, gathered in high drifts, punctuate the wild lawn like tiny islands in a sea of weeds and vines. Up near the estate, a fountain rises protectively in front of the main entrance. A bit further downhill and to the right of the fountain, a decrepit and off-kilter gazebo looms toward you like a crouching predator.
OminousLozenge on
Sometimes I have ideas for things.
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Erin The RedThe Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered Userregular
edited June 2013
Prince E runs ahead of the group further towards the house. As he does so, he stops for a moment to take in his surroundings.
Bolstered by the idea that his suit MAY have actual powers, he does a quick "radar" scan of the area using his "enhanced optics"
"Let's see what there is out here that's noteworthy as opposed to what's just here to look spooky."
"You really shouldn't let grass grow that long. I read in a book that it's like puppy-dog claws, that if they grow too long the veins can grow in them and when you cut their nails it hurts and can bleed. Except the grass doesn't bleed, it just, like, dies more easily or something."
Mia tromps off through the tall grass towards the gazebo.
Prince Ellingston swivels his helmeted head around in a wide sweep of the area, but Mia has no time for such silliness. She starts off toward the gazebo without missing a beat. Davey and Wex hear "beep-boop" sounds coming from inside Elly's helmet, but they can't tell if the noises are human- or machine-made.
Inside the helmet, Elly sees a heads-up display flare to life, and suddenly the night is bright as day in his helmet's lenses, albeit decidedly greenish in tint. The optics come up just in time for him to notice a mound of leaves is... drifting? through the grass in Mia's direction!
OOC:
Geth roll 1d6 for Are the Power Suit's low-light optics online?
Looking askance into the trees every so often and feeling unsure about the stealth properties of his white ghost costume, Davey decides to stick to the path and runs towards the fountain.
"I wonder if I can find any coins in there!"
Thinking of his poor mother's back, Davey does his best to avoid cracks as he runs.
Davey avoids all the cracks on the broken path like an absolute professional, even as the darkness deepens all around him within the shadows of the poplars.
OOC: Davey wins the skill lottery! Immediately choose a skill related in some way to not stepping on the cracks. Feel free to crowdsource if you wish.
OOC: Light On His Feet it is! Feel free to try to do wacky stuff with that.
You can totally just roll for everything. In fact, this game encourages it. You need to roll to advance, generally speaking. Whether it's advancing by getting sixes or failing and earning XP, or advancing the story (and potentially gaining Loot at some stages) by succeeding. In that sense, the game's kind of like Apocalypse World in that you're supposed to play to find out what happens - which in Roll for Shoes means making die rolls that prompt the narrative. You roll to try to make your stated intention a reality, I (or another player if appropriate) will roll in opposition, and the result tells us the direction in which we take the narrative. So coming back to the specific example, you can roll to have Mia bushwhacking through the grass, or to detect the pile of leaves, or really anything relevant you can think of. The really important thing is for me to make sure everybody is making a roughly equal number of rolls - either against the environment/threats, or against each other if it comes to that. But of course, feel free to interact and roleplay to your heart's content!
Sometimes I have ideas for things.
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Erin The RedThe Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered Userregular
"Mia, there appears to be a leaf golem of some sort making its way towards you."
Realizing that sounds terribly nerdy, he revises his statement.
"I mean... there may be a huge snake on its way to get you. In the leaves. Look out!"
OOC Do I get anything for success? No new skills or anything, huh? Can I roll to super speed/jetpack over to help her out, or should I wait for everyone to roll before I go again?
OOC Do I get anything for success? No new skills or anything, huh? Can I roll to super speed/jetpack over to help her out, or should I wait for everyone to roll before I go again?
OOC: Success is its own reward, although depending on the circumstance it may come with other benefits as well. Advancing by rolling all sixes looks like you're getting a bonus for succeeding, but that's kind of an illusion. It's possible to roll all sixes and still fail - say you're rolling 2 dice against something really difficult, and you get boxcars, but since it's so difficult I roll 4 dice and get a total of 13. In that insance, you fail (13 > 12) so you get 1 XP. But you also rolled all sixes, which triggers the advancement mechanic independently of the outcome.
Rolling all sixes grants an instant and automatic advance because skills can be increased any time after a roll by spending [# of dice rolled - # of sixes rolled] XP. If you get all sixes, regardless of success or failure, you have an opportunity to advance something without spending any XP at all. Theoretically I guess you could decline, but it's free!
For your other question, you can do that after Mia and Wex have rolled dice.
Mia's attention to detail is so acute she deftly avoids the muckiest, wettest parts of the overgrown lawn. Sadly, she has to focus her attention on the task at hand and is unable to make out the warning Ellingston tries to shout through that helmet of his.
Minion roll 1d6 for Do the sabatons make it?
Do the sabatons make it?:
1d61 [1d6=1]
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Iron WeaselDillon!You son of a bitch!Registered Userregular
"A snake? Where? Illuminare!" Wex shouts, digging into his robe for his magical Rod of Light.
Geth 2d6 roll for Rod of Light.
Currently Playing:
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
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Iron WeaselDillon!You son of a bitch!Registered Userregular
I said...
Geth, roll 2d6 for Do I have my Rod of Light
Do I have my Rod of Light:
2d69 [2d6=6, 3]
Currently Playing:
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Wex the Illuminator summons forth a magical light! It pushes back the poplars' long shadows, making the rest of the path to the fountain easy-peasy for Davey if he wishes to continue. The flare-up briefly interrupts Ellingston's optics while the auto-compensators kick in.
For Mia, the sudden glare brings the moving leaf pile into sharp relief just as it rears up in preparation to engulf her!
@jdarksun Roll to resist the attack! This doesn't count as your action or anything like that. @TheRoadVirus you can have Ellingston attempt to activate rocket boots or whatnot. If successful, Elly will be able to get to Mia in time to provide backup, but at this moment he's too stunned to prevent the initial attack.
Caring little about some boring ol' leaves or snakes or whatever Elly was talking about, Davey continued down the illuminated path to the fountain to look for coins.
"I'll bet there might be quarters in there!"
Davey excitedly peers into the fountain, hoping for riches beyond his relatively mediocre dreams.
I kept wanting to type loonies instead of quarters because in Canada we have those instead of dollar bills, and Davey would have gotten so much more excited about those. Finding dollar bills in a fountain would be dumb though.
Davey rummages around, digging through silt, decaying leaves, mud, and -yech!- mold stuff. Oh, this is so squishy and gross. But what's this?! Davey withdraws his hand and brings out a very old, large coin! Even after wiping off the muck, the exact origin and nature of the coin remains unknown. A mystery! Mysterious coinage is treasure, everybody knows this.
OOC: Davey gains 1 Loot! As a general reminder, any time you make a roll (pass or fail) and have enough XP to cover the difference between the number of dice rolled and number of sixes rolled, you can spend XP to buy a relevant skill. Rummaging, scrounging, searching - useful stuff. Do ghosts have special senses? Why not?
Davey could be Canadian! Don't be afraid, we're okay with furriners in here. We let IW in, after all!
Geth roll 1d6 for What's in the fountain?
Mia brings her sword about, but not quite in time! For the moment, the sword is knocked from Mia's grasp as leaves swarm down around her. They're wet and floppy and all over! The rustling of the leaves sounds in her ears like raspy, malevolent cackling!
OOC: Mia gains 1 XP, which you can spend now if you like. Anything relevant, including whatever her costume is, is fair game.
OOC: Joan of Arc works. It covers knightly stuff. Armor, swords. Possibly also faith-y stuff. You could go more broad and do Holy Knight, or Lady Knight (Dame?). Any of that's fine with me.
If anyone wants to change up their first skill or two, just let me know. The trek up to the house is meant to be sort of a tutorial anyway. Get us all familiar with the game and give us a chance to suss out what does and doesn't work well for this game in the pbp format.
Sometimes I have ideas for things.
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Erin The RedThe Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered Userregular
Elli sees his "friend" in danger and springs into action.
"I'm coming!" he shouts as he wishes as hard as he can that he's got rocket propulsion.
Elly fires up his rocket boots and makes the jump right on target! He zooms straight into the leaf pile, briefly scattering it before it can fully overwhelm Mia. Now that she has a moment to recover her weapon, she may strike back at the aggressive foliage.
What is Wex up to? The summoned light will be just fine without his attention for a while.
Geth, roll 1d6 for rocket jump trajectory check
rocket jump trajectory check:
1d61 [1d6=1]
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Erin The RedThe Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered Userregular
Davey proudly tucked his new treasure into his costume.
At least, he hoped it was a costume. Looking down at himself, he couldn't figure out where he put the coin, yet if he wanted it back in his hand he could find it in an instant.
Thinking about it now, when he was searching for the coin that's how it happened too; he wanted a coin, he felt it in his mind, and just like that he found it.
Before he could push all the terrifying implications of possibly being a ghost to the back of his mind, he swore his hand was just a bit transparent.
Spending my XP on Being Pretty Ghostly. To a ghost, reality itself is transparent, and finding what you want is a breeze.
Bristling with confidence, Wex draws on his newfound powers and commands fire too appear! ... He gets an effect not unlike a wet firework - smoke and a few sparks shoot from his fingertips, but nothing else happens. Perhaps something was missing from the incantation.
Mia will have to fend the thing off for herself, it seems.
@Iron Weasel The wind intensifies suddenly, whipping Wex's robe about his ankles and threatening to blow off his wizard hat. The gate clangs shut behind Wex, reminding him suddenly that he's all alone back there...
@premium When the wind kicks up, a shrill whistle begins emanating from the fountain. The cobbles underfoot vibrate ever so slightly, and it looks like the spitting gargoyle statue at the top of fountain is turning its head. Something is about to happen...
@TheRoadVirus@jdarksun Ellingston regains his feet after his flying tackle, and Mia prepares to do battle with the leaf-monster as it quickly reconstitutes itself for another attack. The wind pulls more dead flora into the creature's mass, causing the thing to grow before the kids' eyes!
Sometimes I have ideas for things.
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Erin The RedThe Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered Userregular
Ellingston thrusts his palm out towards the leaf monster, intent on blasting it into its component atoms.
Wex the Relocator's words of power echo through time and space, carving a hole through which he nimbly hops. He appears a moment later exactly where he aimed himself... just facing the wrong way. Fortunately, his ball of light came with him, so it will just take a moment to get re-oriented.
Heat and light shoot from Ellingston's palms and lance into the growing creature's flanks. The air fills with the scent of burning leaves, and a thick cloud of smoke billows up from the leaf monster. The creature howls in agony and turns to clobber Elly just as Mia swings -
And ever so narrowly misses. It probably had something to do with the cardboard suddenly becoming steel while arcing through the air. But Mia has a sense of her weapon's balance now. The fiend doesn't stand a chance!
OOC:
Mia gains 1 XP! I hadn't contemplated tied results. Technically it's a failure, but you should get something for tying - it happens less often as the dice pools get bigger. For now, Mia can add 1 to her next roll. She didn't get what she wanted, but she ended up in an advantageous position.
Davey suddenly wished he was transparent. He hit the ground and tried as hard as he could to hide from the gargoyle.
Concentrating really hard, he swore he felt just a little invisible.
Posts
Should have used Knock, I guess."
OOC: I'll take MAGIC! as a new skill. Is that ok?
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
And since I hate having to scroll back to the last narrative point and we're on a new page, here's the description of the front lawn again. Have at it!
Bolstered by the idea that his suit MAY have actual powers, he does a quick "radar" scan of the area using his "enhanced optics"
"Let's see what there is out here that's noteworthy as opposed to what's just here to look spooky."
Geth, roll 2d6 for BIONIC EYES
OOC: All of my rolls are poop from a butt
Mia tromps off through the tall grass towards the gazebo.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Inside the helmet, Elly sees a heads-up display flare to life, and suddenly the night is bright as day in his helmet's lenses, albeit decidedly greenish in tint. The optics come up just in time for him to notice a mound of leaves is... drifting? through the grass in Mia's direction!
OOC:
Geth roll 1d6 for Are the Power Suit's low-light optics online?
"I wonder if I can find any coins in there!"
Thinking of his poor mother's back, Davey does his best to avoid cracks as he runs.
Geth roll 1d6 for not stepping on the cracks.
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
OOC: Davey wins the skill lottery! Immediately choose a skill related in some way to not stepping on the cracks. Feel free to crowdsource if you wish.
Geth roll 1d6 for crackitude
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
You can totally just roll for everything. In fact, this game encourages it. You need to roll to advance, generally speaking. Whether it's advancing by getting sixes or failing and earning XP, or advancing the story (and potentially gaining Loot at some stages) by succeeding. In that sense, the game's kind of like Apocalypse World in that you're supposed to play to find out what happens - which in Roll for Shoes means making die rolls that prompt the narrative. You roll to try to make your stated intention a reality, I (or another player if appropriate) will roll in opposition, and the result tells us the direction in which we take the narrative. So coming back to the specific example, you can roll to have Mia bushwhacking through the grass, or to detect the pile of leaves, or really anything relevant you can think of. The really important thing is for me to make sure everybody is making a roughly equal number of rolls - either against the environment/threats, or against each other if it comes to that. But of course, feel free to interact and roleplay to your heart's content!
Realizing that sounds terribly nerdy, he revises his statement.
"I mean... there may be a huge snake on its way to get you. In the leaves. Look out!"
OOC Do I get anything for success? No new skills or anything, huh? Can I roll to super speed/jetpack over to help her out, or should I wait for everyone to roll before I go again?
OOC: Success is its own reward, although depending on the circumstance it may come with other benefits as well. Advancing by rolling all sixes looks like you're getting a bonus for succeeding, but that's kind of an illusion. It's possible to roll all sixes and still fail - say you're rolling 2 dice against something really difficult, and you get boxcars, but since it's so difficult I roll 4 dice and get a total of 13. In that insance, you fail (13 > 12) so you get 1 XP. But you also rolled all sixes, which triggers the advancement mechanic independently of the outcome.
Rolling all sixes grants an instant and automatic advance because skills can be increased any time after a roll by spending [# of dice rolled - # of sixes rolled] XP. If you get all sixes, regardless of success or failure, you have an opportunity to advance something without spending any XP at all. Theoretically I guess you could decline, but it's free!
For your other question, you can do that after Mia and Wex have rolled dice.
OOC Minion, roll 1d6 for keeping my feet dry.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Minion, roll 1d6 for keeping my feet dry.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Geth 2d6 roll for Rod of Light.
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Geth, roll 2d6 for Do I have my Rod of Light
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
For Mia, the sudden glare brings the moving leaf pile into sharp relief just as it rears up in preparation to engulf her!
@TheRoadVirus you can have Ellingston attempt to activate rocket boots or whatnot. If successful, Elly will be able to get to Mia in time to provide backup, but at this moment he's too stunned to prevent the initial attack.
Geth, roll 1d6 for spoiled leaf-pile ambush
"I'll bet there might be quarters in there!"
Davey excitedly peers into the fountain, hoping for riches beyond his relatively mediocre dreams.
Geth roll 1d6 for looking inside the fountain
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
OOC: Davey gains 1 Loot! As a general reminder, any time you make a roll (pass or fail) and have enough XP to cover the difference between the number of dice rolled and number of sixes rolled, you can spend XP to buy a relevant skill. Rummaging, scrounging, searching - useful stuff. Do ghosts have special senses? Why not?
Geth roll 1d6 for What's in the fountain?
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
OOC: Mia gains 1 XP, which you can spend now if you like. Anything relevant, including whatever her costume is, is fair game.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
If anyone wants to change up their first skill or two, just let me know. The trek up to the house is meant to be sort of a tutorial anyway. Get us all familiar with the game and give us a chance to suss out what does and doesn't work well for this game in the pbp format.
"I'm coming!" he shouts as he wishes as hard as he can that he's got rocket propulsion.
Geth, roll 2d6 for rocket jump!
What is Wex up to? The summoned light will be just fine without his attention for a while.
At least, he hoped it was a costume. Looking down at himself, he couldn't figure out where he put the coin, yet if he wanted it back in his hand he could find it in an instant.
Thinking about it now, when he was searching for the coin that's how it happened too; he wanted a coin, he felt it in his mind, and just like that he found it.
Before he could push all the terrifying implications of possibly being a ghost to the back of his mind, he swore his hand was just a bit transparent.
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
This is totally awesome!
He snapped out of his reverie and shouted, "Everybody down; I got this!" Then he thrust both his hands towards the leaf pile. "Incendo!!"
Geth, roll 2d6 for Burst of Flame
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Mia will have to fend the thing off for herself, it seems.
OOC: Wex gains 1 xp.
@Iron Weasel The wind intensifies suddenly, whipping Wex's robe about his ankles and threatening to blow off his wizard hat. The gate clangs shut behind Wex, reminding him suddenly that he's all alone back there...
@premium When the wind kicks up, a shrill whistle begins emanating from the fountain. The cobbles underfoot vibrate ever so slightly, and it looks like the spitting gargoyle statue at the top of fountain is turning its head. Something is about to happen...
@TheRoadVirus @jdarksun Ellingston regains his feet after his flying tackle, and Mia prepares to do battle with the leaf-monster as it quickly reconstitutes itself for another attack. The wind pulls more dead flora into the creature's mass, causing the thing to grow before the kids' eyes!
Geth, roll 2d6 for palm blast
He decides it would be best to close the distance between himself and his friends and chooses a spot a couple of yards behind the Leaf Monster.
"Tele... uh, mundo?"
Geth, roll 2d6 for translocationality.
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Geth, roll 1d6 for mollecular integrity
Geth, roll 1d6 for pruning resistance
Heat and light shoot from Ellingston's palms and lance into the growing creature's flanks. The air fills with the scent of burning leaves, and a thick cloud of smoke billows up from the leaf monster. The creature howls in agony and turns to clobber Elly just as Mia swings -
And ever so narrowly misses. It probably had something to do with the cardboard suddenly becoming steel while arcing through the air. But Mia has a sense of her weapon's balance now. The fiend doesn't stand a chance!
OOC:
Mia gains 1 XP! I hadn't contemplated tied results. Technically it's a failure, but you should get something for tying - it happens less often as the dice pools get bigger. For now, Mia can add 1 to her next roll. She didn't get what she wanted, but she ended up in an advantageous position.
@TheRoadVirus Take defensive action, because...
Minion, roll 2d6 for Autumnal Rampage
Concentrating really hard, he swore he felt just a little invisible.
3DS: 1289-8447-4695