Logging #BESM to 'logs\#BESM.Chatsociety.net.log'
The_Guild wishes he had something to drink.
The_Guild	When last we left our intrepid adventurers, they were sitting on a couch in a parklounge, having just wiped the mind of an innocent dimensional liason.
Alice surveys Sianzi cooly.
The_Guild	[Who had just gotten up and run away.]
Lopez	"Looking over shoulder at the fleeing Sianzi" Well that was fairly typical for a mind wipe.
Alice	[that was Alice watching her run away.]
Lopez	at least on the recipiant.
Alice	"Stupid girl."
Alice turns to Lopez. "Mind wipes are common on your world?"
Lopez	Yeah...we do have a few Psi-induced races but the CCW mostly uses technological devices to do it...I think it plays with the neuro-transmiters in the brain I'm not an expert in the field
Alice	"Interesting. So, when exactly did you arrive?"
Lopez	Umm well I'd say several hours...no more than what I'd consider half a daily cycle.
Alice	"Ah so any idea when you will start working?"
Lopez	Dunno...pretty soon I really don't have anything else aside from work. You?
Alice	"Quite a while I believe. There are still many tests to run on my little friend and I need to go through a certain amount of training and evaluation."
Lopez	well I guess I've got some of that ahead of me.
Alice	"I imagine so. They are going to want to make sure we don't generate the wrong ripples."
Lopez	Ahhh those. in otherwords they want to make sure their operatives don't completely screw up fate in any realms they visit
Alice	"They are quite strict about that. I imagine mostly they want to make sure we don't screw up the fate of world in a way they don't want."
Lopez	yeah...Mr. Clairune was most adamant on my understanding of that
Alice shifts uncomfortably and rubs at her arms.
Lopez	Does it bother you?
Alice	"Mildly. Natila-Vv is propagation her feeding tendrels."
Alice raises her sleeve to show a thick vein like bulge running down her arm. It moves slightly as you look.
Alice 's eyes unfocus for a second and her breathing slows.
Lopez	I see..well extreme Physical Modificaton takes soem getting used to...it took me 4 months to learn how to walk again. not to mention learning not to crush things
Alice	To herself in a slightly dreamy voice, "Ah, I see. So very beautiful..."
The_Guild	You hear someone call out "Two hundred!" and a frisbee flies overhead. A group of youths go charging after it.
Alice 's eyes refocus and look at the frisbe, "Heh, some things are always constant I guess."
Lopez	apparently so
Alice	"Would you mind if I tested to see if I can telepathically reach you? I need to gather data?"
Lopez	sure...sometimes the dampeners go off on their own accord though..and i doubt you'll find much interesting in here
Alice	"You have psi dampeners?"
Lopez	yes Wired right into my pre-frontal cortex
Alice	"Even more useful for testing then."
Lopez	They were developed by a race of Psi-endowed people. the Noro would you like me to run a diagnostic on the dampeners..it will shut them off temporarliy Your inside...so what's it like in there?
Alice	~A bit fuzzy from the dampeners. Would you mind if we ran a test against the dampeners on full?~
Lopez	Sure...please exit and I'll make the adjustments..it will only take a second
Alice	"We will need to go to a training room or the Thinkers will block my attacks."
Lopez	Sure..lets go
Alice gets up and heads towards the exit. "I'm in the process of booking."
Alice	"This way."
Lopez gets up and follows
Alice	"Have you got yourself connected to the Thinkers yet?"
Lopez	Nope. I could just get them to synch with me PDA or my QENT-COM but i don't know if that works here
The_Guild	It's a short way to the training rooms, in a very different area of the Guild. Here, the walls are of rougher cut stone, the ceiling lower. The floor is smooth but uncarpeted. Doorways are lower, the doors thicker and bound with metal. One of these doors opens only to Alice's touch.
Lopez	Or is it a strictly mental link?
Alice heads in.
Lopez shrugs and follows
Alice	"Should be possible with a PDA. Okay, this won't take long hopefully. I'd like you to repel my mental insertion in any way you can.
Lopez	Ready
The_Guild	The room you enter is much larger than the spacing between doors out in the hallway would indicate. It is a long, high-ceilinged room with smooth stone walls and a padded floor.
Lopez	Very good...your in what was the sensation?
Alice	~Not much. Just a series of whiplike strikes. On your end?~
Lopez	nothing much..runny nose watering eyes
Alice	"You okay? She's continuing her assault. She still doesn't think she has broken in."
Lopez	She's in..and I somehow feel weaker...I think you may stop now right arm numb. I should let you know that if she is trying to create a sensation of Pain it won't work
Alice	"Okay, I am telling her to stop." "She's being a bit difficult." "Are you still feeling okay?"
Lopez	I'm fine No worse for wear So what conclusions have you drawn?
Alice	"Well she is powerful and enjoys what she does but a bit uncontrollable."
Lopez	I see...what kind of stimulus was she going for?
Alice	"I think she was trying to get you down to a submission level."
Lopez	I see...interesting so she either failed at it or it was going to take a long time
Alice	"I'm not sure, it might be that she did break through far enough. I am still waiting for extrenal results."
Lopez	I see
Alice	"And on your end what did it feel like?"
Lopez	Nothing spectacular a runny nose watery eyes numbness creeping up my arm...and a weakness but its passing
Alice	"Hmmm.... tests seem to indicate you were actually closer to taking serious harm than you might think. Probably a good thing for you to know."
Lopez	I see
Alice	"Well thank you for being such a handy subject. These results should help us a lot. Is there anything you need to test while we are here?"
Lopez	No i did a full diagnostic on my systems when i arrived...I don't think there is anything I particularly need tested. Odd...one thing I've just noticed the Kinetic dampening I noticed when i arrived here isn't here in this room perhaps it dissapated
Alice	"No this is a training room for combat testing."
Lopez	and the dampening field outside?
Alice	"Outside it is meant to stop people fighting."
Lopez	I see
Alice	"Probably a good idea given the variety of races and such. They also block psi activities over a certain energy level."
Lopez	I understand well i should do a stress test on my frame...its the one thing I didn't have time to do and a full sensors test
Alice	"Okay, I want to test a few of Natila-Vv's other attributes."
Lopez	Sure..So I'm going to need soemthing heavy..say around 50 Tonnes and something tough like hull plating or tank armour
Alice throws a couple of snack bar across the room
The_Guild	A tank fades into view at the far end of the room.
Lopez walks over to tank and proceeds to pick it up
The_Guild	*The snack bars skitter across the floor, bounce a couple times, then fly toward Alice.*
Alice reaches out and catches them.
Lopez puts down the tank
Alice	"Impressive."
The_Guild	*One of the snack bars flies over your shoulder.*
Lopez	yep...Stress testing complete everything is normal..procceding to second level
Lopez winds up and give the Tank a haymaker
Alice reaches down and picks up the snack bar and eats it, watching the show.
Alice	"I need a 100kg weight."
The_Guild	*Lopez punches a nice fist-sized hole in the armor plating.* *A small red ball appears at Alice's feet.* *The ball begins to roll, pauses, then comes back, pauses... it slowly rotates in place and then begins to rise into the air, reaching eye height before pausing.*
Lopez	?
Alice is still eating her snack bar.
Alice	"Everything check out okay I assume?"
Lopez	Pretty much..jsut one or two more things to check
The_Guild	*The ball slowly bobs around you, rotating and spinning as it does. When it reaches a place above your shoulder, it pauses... and then shoots toward the tank. The panel dents with a loud 'THUNGGgg'.*
Alice smiles
Lopez tears a jagged strip of metal off of tank
Lopez	This might look unpleasant...but I want to test it
Lopez then proceeds to cut off the skin of his upper arm and hand and trear it away revealing an armoured robotic encoskeleton underneath
Lopez tosses skin the the ground
Lopez	Activating nano-bots in 3...2...1
The_Guild	*Ten seconds later, Lopez's arm is repaired, the skin flawless.*
Lopez steches arm
The_Guild	*A brown cow appears half way down the room.*
Lopez	Good as new do I dare ask?
Alice	"Lunch."
Lopez	you take it red? Well I've tested pretty much everything..you done?
Alice	"Natila-Vv does." "Just give me a minute to eat. Or you can head out without me if you want."
Lopez	It doesn't bother me. go ahead
Alice walks out towards the cow and lays her hands on the beasts sides.
The_Guild	*The cow looks at you with dumb eyes for a moment, then begins to MOOOOOOOOO!!!... then falls over, two raw red handprints on it's side.*
Alice	"Ahhh..... okay. I am ready."
Alice walks out the door.
Lopez	So..I guess I should find Mr. Clairune and find out what I should be doing
Lopez follows
Alice	"I have research I need to be doing. We'll meet again at some point I imagine."
Lopez	Yes..I guess so..well have a pleasant day. if you want to get ahold of me you'll know where to look
Alice shivers To herself, "MMmmmm.... that did feel good."
Alice	"Indeed. Farewell."
Alice walks away.
The_Guild	[So I guess we're splitting into separate windows?] [Just into private windows.]
The_Guild	Not at the rate things are going you won't. :P
Do-N	Yeah, so it seems.
The_Guild	Tris was mentioning the possibility of massive damage for mind combat. Thoughts?
Alice	The argument for it is that mind shield blocks 10 damage from mind combat and the maximum damage possible in d10 is 36. This means that for 4cp you can be immune to mental attacks. However, an actually immunity to mental attacks (take under immunity) costs 40 cp.
Do-N	I was thinking the same thing, with my 1st or 2nd character concept. Yeah, I can't remember all the numbers, but I remember thinking that something like that was pretty much necessary.
Alice	I was suggesting either mind shield does decrease damage from mind combat or allow massive damage mind combat.
The_Guild	THe max is actually 18, it's the average of mind and soul.
Alice	so it is 2 points then.
Do-N	Yeah, that was the conclusion I came to with my one character. I thought that we needed to write some kind of mind massive damage, though I wasn't sure exactly what it should be.
Alice	Well if you went with the normal massive damage rules it would be 2 cp for+10 dmg.
Do-N	Yeah, I wonder if it's closer to Massive Damage or Focus Damage (5 or 2 cp)... I'm inclined to say 2, but I'm not sure, I'd have to read the mind combat rules again, how many types of mind combat are there, really?
The_Guild	Reading it again, I think the basic mind combat rules are similar to unarmed combat, and you'd use special attack to make more powerful attacks.
Alice	Oh really? So I would buy a mind attack then? *wince* ouchie. That will be expensive.
The_Guild	Or buy a weapon that simulates a mind attack, or focuses your will in a new way. Yeah.
Alice	hmmm.... okay. Lemme sketch out a mind attack. I'll get back to you about that.
The_Guild	Even still, massive damage may still make sense. But... it seems almost too powerful.
Alice	Well the thing is that mind combat is basically useless in actual combat.
The_Guild	That's true too.
Alice	You can't dodge or move and you fail instantly if you are hit. Actually I know how to get around it now that I think.
The_Guild	?
Alice	I can nullify mind shield
The_Guild	*L* That's mean. Evil!
Alice	sadly there is no form of nullify that only works on one attribute. Oh, it is down as a valid restriction.
The_Guild	*heh* So not only can you do it, you can do it for cheaper.
Alice	well actually it costs 7 points a level to do
The_Guild	Ick.
Do-N	Well... yes and no, Nullifying mind shield means that they're not immune, but it doesn't deal with how long it takes to wipe out people with lots of energy.
The_Guild	Well, if you want to allow massive mental damage, be aware that it will also be used against you. :) Er, if you want me to allow it.
Alice	So I would have assumed. Actually I am happy to go with Nullify or block power if you prefer.
The_Guild	Let me sleep on it. I'm inclined to say yes, but don't change your character sheets yet. It makes sense, especially since we added multiple mental attacks, too.
Alice	Block power is a very cheap solution. Basically it works out to 1 point per level i want to block. ciao
The_Guild	Except "Targets can't be blocked from the effects of their own power, however."
Alice	"Yeah I just read that...."
The_Guild	*heh*
Alice	However, there is no nullify for only 1 attribute.
The_Guild	Did you log our thing, Dave?
Do-N	Yep... want me to put it somewhere?
The_Guild	Did I have you send me the last one? There's that restriction. (last to Tris)
Do-N	Nope.
The_Guild	Hmm. Could you send them both to me?
Alice	yeah so you would need to make a call on the effect of the restriction.
Do-N	Yep.
Alice	me too!
The_Guild	Why a call? You restrict it to one, and you save, like, two points or whatever. That's a pretty crappy point savings for restrictions.
Alice	Sorry, I meant the Reduction "More than one but less than all>" WTF does that mean
The_Guild	In Nullify's case, if it affects a range of abilities, but not all of them. So, like, Mind shield, armor and forcefield. More than one, less than all.
Alice	Well I only want 1. so it is a reduction. Okay hows this for a flimflam. Reduction you are supposed to take the amount that you reduced the ability and divide the cost by it. So if I took level 1 nullify I would get 1 power blocked at lvl 1 costing 7 points and no reduction. f i took level 10 nullify I would get 10 powers nullified costing 70 points, but then I would only use a 10th of the power so the cost would be ...7. So when I take level 10000000....... I get to nullify at lvl 10000000 and it costs.....7.
Alice does the breaking dX dance
The_Guild	I don't understand what you're saying. Level 1 nullify gives you the ability to nullify one level of any ability, one at a time, for seven points.
Alice	The way a reduction works is that you divide the cost by the amount that you reduced the power. so with the 70 point version I got to nullify 10 different attributes. I only want 1 so I reduce the cost to be 1/10 of the original. Which means it costs 7 points.
The_Guild	How do you figure you can nullify 10 different attributes? Is that with or without the reduction?
Alice	The progression is +1 attribute per level +1 attribute and +1 lvl
The_Guild	I think that might be wrong, actually.
Alice	Personally if I was designing nullify I would have just said that it was half the cost of the attribute or equal cost of the attribute you want to block.
The_Guild	And your math would be faulty then, anyway. You're saying 10000000 points of blocking power costs the same as 1 point.
Alice	Yes that is what I am saying. Math is fine. dX is faulty.
The_Guild	10000000 = 1 isn't fine math.
Alice	no but the cost will be 10000000 *7 / 100000000. Or 7
Do-N	I think that when they wrote reduction, they didn't take into account attributes that scale in two ways, I don't think... that's where the hole is.
The_Guild	So I could buy infinite nullify telepathy for 7 points as well?
Alice	yup Hence the breaking and the dancing
The_Guild	GM rules that the attribute thing is null and void. It's a typo.
Alice	good call. then the skill is utter crap btw.
The_Guild	You can potentially block any attribute.
Alice	rather I would say the the reduction is broken
The_Guild	The linear +1 applies to the level of the attribute that can be blocked. *heh* The attribute would make sense. THe reduction, by the way, is a reduction of cost per level, not cost overall. That's where your math was flawed.
Alice	hmmm... that doesn't seem right. It seems too expensive for dX then.
The_Guild	What doesn't seem right?
Alice	Mostly the difference in cost with the block defence. and the "Against specific attributes." underline the s in attributes.
Do-N	I'm due to crash about know... let me know the results tomorrow :)
The_Guild	Sure thing. Good game tonight. :) See you at the party.
Do-N	Hopefully I can drag some other PCs to that thing, but we'll see what you have in store. :) G'night.
The_Guild	Block only gives the person a penalty to use the ability, Nullify... well, nullifies it entirely.
Alice	plus that goes directly against the text in the drain section where it clearly shows him draining from multiple attributes.
The_Guild	What's wrong with that?
Alice	Well in the drain part he is nullifying three different attributes all at the same time. I'm gonna check the errata
The_Guild	Yeah? With 12 point Nullify. I don't understand what you're not understanding. 12 Point nullify nullifies EVERYTHING.
Alice	I think that the 12 point means that you nullify multiple attributes at a time while the 7 means one at a time.
The_Guild	Yes! Thank you! Multiple meaning everything!
Alice	but the 7 still lets you affect as many attributes as you have levels. just not at the same time.
The_Guild	7 still lets you affect any attribute. But you can only affect one per attack.
Alice	ah I see.... okay. The confuse came from the fact that I thought you now meant that nullify now only works on 1 powere EVER. like you get Nullify: Flight. Now you are the flight nullifier
The_Guild	Oh no. :) It works on everything. Sorry about that.
Alice	7 meaning now you nullify 1 persons flight at a time and 12 means you are absolute ground control. ah gotcha.... okay. I will process this and get back to you.
The_Guild	And I will process and get back to YOU about this, and massive damage as well. :) But I have to sleep. Have a great night! Good game tonight. :)
Alice	Cool. Ciao then. Yeah, was very good. Had lots of fun.
The_Guild	I'm glad. :) It's going well. You should go to the party. Really. :) It's gonna be fun!
Alice	Yeah I agree. Thanks for making the weight that Alice got small btw. She was purposefully not trying to show off to Lopez. I intend to, now I just need to drag Alice along.
The_Guild	*L*
Alice	I'm thinking she want to test Natila's reaction to a large group of excited people.
The_Guild	I want to test that too, actually.... *muwa ha ha haha....*
Alice	Plus she sorta wants to go to the party because she hasn't been to one in years.
The_Guild	And you'll get to meet dave!
Alice	Yup. Do you have work tomorrow?
The_Guild	Yeah, 'til six, then I have a meeting that should last a little while. Want to play in the evening, perhaps?
Alice	SOunds like a potential plan.
The_Guild	Excellent. I'll see you when I get home then.
Alice	Dave will be at work which is a good place for him to play. ciao ciao. IF I am not in, email me. I may be at school part of tomorrow. use tristram@cs.ubc.ca
The_Guild	Sure thing. Ciao.
Disconnected