Heroica: Glory Amongst The Stars - General Discussion

[Waterbrick Down]

41 minutes ago, Dutch Thriceman said:

Bers looks down at the wrench and back up a the greaser. And upset by the sheer foolishness and annoyance of the Greaser says in a mechanicaly distorted voice.

"@lr1ght m3@tb@g, y0u w@nt t0 pl@y 1t r0ugh, th1s un1t will pl@y 1t r0ugh."

Bers moves into position as he prepares to attack with his greatsword."

I'm loving the angrier Bers gets the less intelligible he becomes. Pretty soon it feels like he'll be shouting binary code at his target. 

[Classic_Spaceman]

8 hours ago, The Legonater said:

I'm also cautious about Yelana's ability to freely translate obscure, debated Greek words, but that one's more out of my hands.

This actually brings up an interesting question Re: character backstories - How much do characters' backgrounds reflect on what players can do? Yelana started out as an analyst, then was promoted to field agent, prior to her joining Heroica. As such, she has a bit of familiarity with this language (I am considering Greek to be a specific in-universe ancient language, that, while no longer spoken, has survived via some texts/inscriptions/etc. @Duvors). 
 

[Waterbrick Down]

1 hour ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

This actually brings up an interesting question Re: character backstories - How much do characters' backgrounds reflect on what players can do? Yelana started out as an analyst, then was promoted to field agent, prior to her joining Heroica. As such, she has a bit of familiarity with this language (I am considering Greek to be a specific in-universe ancient language, that, while no longer spoken, has survived via some texts/inscriptions/etc. @Duvors). 
 

So when it comes to foreign languages appearing in my missions, my intention is usually for them to be out of character nods, same goes for names and are typically not meant to have literal translations in game to real world languages. So yes while the project name utilizes a Greek word, it's not necessarily intended for characters to know, "oh that's Greek". It's more for players to have an idea.

[Zepher]

A question regarding Meditate: I took it as a sort of "spell action" that was different than the rest. I was under the impression we would not have to a) prepare it like we do other spells and b) spend spirit to cast it. I might be totally wrong (and it's inconsequential now since the fight is over and my spirit will be restored) but let me know for the future!

[Classic_Spaceman]

27 minutes ago, Zepher said:

"We are looking for a speeder. You know where it is. It is new, and it is red, and it is Haast. Someone took the tracking device out, but that's okay, because we have you to help us now."

The speeder is actually blue. 🙂
 

[Waterbrick Down]

41 minutes ago, Zepher said:

A question regarding Meditate: I took it as a sort of "spell action" that was different than the rest. I was under the impression we would not have to a) prepare it like we do other spells and b) spend spirit to cast it. I might be totally wrong (and it's inconsequential now since the fight is over and my spirit will be restored) but let me know for the future!

It's still up for debate, but under the current rules it is a spell you'd have to prepare. You don't need to spend spirit to cast it as it restores Spirit equal to the number of successes rolled.

[Duvors]

15 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

This actually brings up an interesting question Re: character backstories - How much do characters' backgrounds reflect on what players can do? Yelana started out as an analyst, then was promoted to field agent, prior to her joining Heroica. As such, she has a bit of familiarity with this language (I am considering Greek to be a specific in-universe ancient language, that, while no longer spoken, has survived via some texts/inscriptions/etc. @Duvors). 
 

I don't get why you're asking me, I'm not the mission master.

[Waterbrick Down]

15 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

This actually brings up an interesting question Re: character backstories - How much do characters' backgrounds reflect on what players can do? Yelana started out as an analyst, then was promoted to field agent, prior to her joining Heroica. As such, she has a bit of familiarity with this language (I am considering Greek to be a specific in-universe ancient language, that, while no longer spoken, has survived via some texts/inscriptions/etc. @Duvors). 
 

As a better answer to your question. Backgrounds really should have little mechanical benefit, that's the point of Proficiencies. If you want your character to have the mechanical benefit of ancient languages for instance, take the Culture proficiency. One could easily say that one's character has a background as a genius, a polyglot, and a photographic memory, hoping to get mechanical benefits from incorporating out of character knowledge. While there are no rules against that, it's generally considered in poor taste from a role-playing perspective. It's fun to role-play a genius, it's usually not fun to role-play with a genius.

[Classic_Spaceman]

9 minutes ago, Waterbrick Down said:

As a better answer to your question. Backgrounds really should have little mechanical benefit, that's the point of Proficiencies. If you want your character to have the mechanical benefit of ancient languages for instance, take the Culture proficiency. One could easily say that one's character has a background as a genius, a polyglot, and a photographic memory, hoping to get mechanical benefits from incorporating out of character knowledge. While there are no rules against that, it's generally considered in poor taste from a role-playing perspective. It's fun to role-play a genius, it's usually not fun to role-play with a genius.

OK - That makes sense. 👍
Also, I definitely plan to build up Yelana's Culture, Insight, Persuasion, Coding, etc, stats, since I have found that many of my checks have fallen under those categories. 

[Waterbrick Down]

10 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

OK - That makes sense. 👍
Also, I definitely plan to build up Yelana's Culture, Insight, Persuasion, Coding, etc, stats, since I have found that many of my checks have fallen under those categories. 

 It's always more interesting role-play to see a character build up their skills than to simply start as an expert. Glad you've got direction for your character. 

[Zepher]

2 hours ago, Waterbrick Down said:

As a better answer to your question. Backgrounds really should have little mechanical benefit, that's the point of Proficiencies. If you want your character to have the mechanical benefit of ancient languages for instance, take the Culture proficiency. One could easily say that one's character has a background as a genius, a polyglot, and a photographic memory, hoping to get mechanical benefits from incorporating out of character knowledge. While there are no rules against that, it's generally considered in poor taste from a role-playing perspective. It's fun to role-play a genius, it's usually not fun to role-play with a genius.

Absolutely! I think you can see some clear characters if you look at the proficiencies: Soren is clearly sort of an old school pilot who can fight if they need, Felix a jack-of-all-trades detective, Yissam ready to both set up a stream and then perform on it, and Bers is, continuously and hilariously, ready to mess things up. It's a nice feedback mechanism too: you tend to go for things that you're proficient in, and it makes you play your character in a certain type of way! It's fun to lean into what you're not good at too - that's why we have teams. 

[Khorne]

41 minutes ago, Zepher said:

Felix a jack-of-all-trades detective

Yup, this was definitely the direction I was going for. Having finished the first mission now, I will retailor some Proficiencies, I think. I took the Night Sight spell for RP purposes, since he's a cat; but gameplay-wise I think I can spend the points better.

[Classic_Spaceman]

38 minutes ago, Waterbrick Down said:

Yelana Stealth Proficiency Check (DC 1) - (2, 6, 1, +1) 2 Successes

Yelana Perception Proficiency Check (DC 1) - (2, 4, 1, 2, 1, +1) 2 Successes

Yelana replaces the briefcase, convinced she hasn't been spotted.

 

Edited August 26, 2021 by Classic_Spaceman

[samurai-turtle]

Is that how you want training center post done @Waterbrick Down ? 

[Waterbrick Down]

5 hours ago, samurai-turtle said:

Is that how you want training center post done @Waterbrick Down ? 

Yep, that is just fine. 

[KotZ]

Woo my first quest done! Thanks WBD. Now just to figure out where to spend points.

[Waterbrick Down]

1 minute ago, KotZ said:

Woo my first quest done! Thanks WBD. Now just to figure out where to spend points.

You're welcome, don't forget you're also allowed to swap all of your points around if your particular build isn't working for you.

[KotZ]

Just now, Waterbrick Down said:

You're welcome, don't forget you're also allowed to swap all of your points around if your particular build isn't working for you.

I kind of like the build so far, just trying to figure out where to best spend points right now. Vitality? Varen went unstable a lot.

[Waterbrick Down]

7 minutes ago, KotZ said:

I kind of like the build so far, just trying to figure out where to best spend points right now. Vitality? Varen went unstable a lot.

You've got a few options, increase vitality to take more hits, invest in Skill to avoid hits in the first place, invest in Strength for armor to absorb the hits.

[Peppermint_M]

On 8/2/2021 at 10:44 PM, Waterbrick Down said:

Or if you want to stay with your current weapon, increase Long Range Weapons to +3 and then you'll be rolling 3 dice +2 for each hit.

 

On 8/2/2021 at 10:20 PM, Yzalirk said:

In my opinion, with your current points, I would suggest increasing your Strength to 3 so you can get +1 Vitality and have access to Calibrated Kinetic Weapons.  Hold on to the last point for now and save it until you complete another quest so you can upgrade your Long Range Weapons. 

If I go with the +1 Vitality for calibrated weapons access, I can still use my current weapon? Either or looks good to me, but I don't want to enter another quest with a weapon I can't use (by mistake!).

[Kintobor]

2 minutes ago, Peppermint_M said:

If I go with the +1 Vitality for calibrated weapons access, I can still use my current weapon? Either or looks good to me, but I don't want to enter another quest with a weapon I can't use (by mistake!).

Couple of things to note:

Increasing your Strength to 3 does not give you an increase in Vitality, it's every even number in Strength give an increase in Vitality (so on two, four, six, eight, so on). You can still use Calibrated Energy weapons, it just opens up the possibility of using Calibrated Kinetic weapons. It depends on whether you want to use Kinetic weapons or not. Increasing Long Range proficiency to 3 isn't a bad call if you want Asyu to focus on being a back line combatant, but increasing Spirit by 2 by spending two build also wouldn't be a bad call, giving you access to some more actions in combat like Healing Light or Mystic Binding with your proficiency point in Nature. Increasing Nature to two also wouldn't be a bad call if you want to focus more on spell casting.

Bottom line, there's lots of option, and none of them at this stage are really bad.

[Waterbrick Down]

40 minutes ago, Kintobor said:

Couple of things to note:

Increasing your Strength to 3 does not give you an increase in Vitality, it's every even number in Strength give an increase in Vitality (so on two, four, six, eight, so on). You can still use Calibrated Energy weapons, it just opens up the possibility of using Calibrated Kinetic weapons. It depends on whether you want to use Kinetic weapons or not. Increasing Long Range proficiency to 3 isn't a bad call if you want Asyu to focus on being a back line combatant, but increasing Spirit by 2 by spending two build also wouldn't be a bad call, giving you access to some more actions in combat like Healing Light or Mystic Binding with your proficiency point in Nature. Increasing Nature to two also wouldn't be a bad call if you want to focus more on spell casting.

Bottom line, there's lots of option, and none of them at this stage are really bad.

Plus, if you don't like it, you can always retool.

[Peppermint_M]

Aiming for Sniper with Aysu, so I think the long range to three would be what I want to try first.

[Waterbrick Down]

13 minutes ago, Peppermint_M said:

"Not a problem!" Aysu smiled and set up her rifle to begin practising. Firing at the targets and working to improve.

Long Range Weapons 2 + 1 = 3

Character points 3/13 - 1 = 2/13

So increasing your Long Range Weapon Proficiency from 2 → 3 would actually cost 3 Character Points. Cost is equal to the level you are raising the Proficiency to.

[Peppermint_M]

Ok! Fixing...