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doppelgreener

03:07

I'm calling the Alchemist girl Cassandra. It's the first name that comes to mind, it seems now my characters are beginning to name themselves and it's just a matter of how long I take to agree.

I've decided I want her to have Banter, Intrigue and Alchemist for her modes. Alchemist is coming out weird.

> Alchemist (2) - Alchemy (0), Transmutation (0), Notice (1), Will (1), Ravens (0).

Alchemy is a science (create advantage, overcome). Transmutation largely requires preparation and won't be used for attack... I think. Ravens is an Approach and seems like it shouldn't be mapped to either attack or defense either. Which means it's kinda just like a Mutant mode.

But, the thing is: I don't want to put Alchemy and Transmutation at +1 by default, and it'll cost 6 points to bump them up to +3 each. On the other hand, if I put this as my +3 mode, it's basically penalising every ability by +1.

Something I did with Stellata was use her Plant mode to emphasize certain things in her other two modes that were also plant-y. If I did the same here I'm not sure how I should do it.

doppelgreener

03:28

I feel as though Ravens should be a Stunt that calls for a roll at, I dunno, her Alchemist mode's rank +1 or something.

I'll leave her Ravens out of her mechanics for now.

Hmm. +3 Intrigue, +2 Banter, and +1 Alchemist gives me:

> Athletics +3; Burglary +3; Contacts +4; Deceive +4; Empathy +2; Notice +4; Provoke +2; Rapport +2; Stealth +3; Will +3; Transmutation and Alchemy +1.

BESW

04:10

@doppelgreener Do we have her family name yet?

BESW

04:32

> THE FAMILY (9) - Contacts, Deceive, Magic(s), Notice, Provoke, Will.

@doppelgreener [gestures above] You do it by expanding her mode from "Alchemist" to "member of the Family."

doppelgreener

04:56

@BESW ...... I like this. ;u;

@BESW We don't, now that you mention it. I'm not sure what I'd call them, and if I were to borrow someone's surname, I wonder who'd be fun to implicate - Carl Jung was apparently interested in Alchemy to some extent. There's a lot of other alchemists in history, especially in Europe on this list.

(The fact the Chinese list is only two people suggests it's woefully inadequate or nobody kept written record about who did what; China was one of the homelands of alchemy.)

BESW

Koschei

In Slavic folklore, Koschei (Russian: Коще́й, tr. Koshchey; IPA: [kɐˈɕːej], also Kashchei or Kashchey; Ukrainian: Костій, Kostiy; Polish: Kościej; Czech: Kostěj) is an archetypal male antagonist, described mainly as abducting the hero's wife. None of the existing tales actually describes his appearance, though in book illustrations, cartoons and cinema he has been most frequently represented as a very old and ugly-looking man. Koschei is also known as Koschei the Immortal or Koschei the Deathless (Russian: Коще́й Бессме́ртный, Ukrainian: Кості́й Безду́шний or Кощі́й Безсме́ртний, Czech: Kostěj...

doppelgreener

Cassandra Koschei has a nice ring to it.

Magician

Ah, yes. The actual folklore lich.

doppelgreener

@Magician I have been using your ARRPG skill calculator to plot out my new character's skills. :)

Magician

Yay!

That is really good to hear.

BESW

05:08

John Dee

John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occult philosopher, imperialist, and adviser to Queen Elizabeth I. He devoted much of his life to the study of alchemy, divination, and Hermetic philosophy. Dee straddled the worlds of science and magic just as they were becoming distinguishable. One of the most learned men of his age, he had been invited to lecture on the geometry of Euclid at the University of Paris while still in his early twenties. Dee was an ardent promoter of mathematics and a respected astronomer, as well as a leading expert ...

(I prefer Koschei, but had to mention Dee.)

doppelgreener

@BESW This one costs 6, plus the costs of whatever I pick as Magic, but that may be 0-2. So... [examine]

stats sheet for Cassandra

Magician

Vasilisa Premudraya (the Wise) is another folklore option you may not be aware of. If the honorific somehow became a family name...

doppelgreener

> Banter, Intrigue, The Family: +5 Contacts, Deceive; +4 Provoke, Will; +3 Empathy, Notice, Rapport; +2 Stealth, Athletics, Burglary

> Intrigue, Banter, The Family: +5 Contacts, Deceive; +4 Notice; +3 Athletics, Burglary, Provoke, Stealth, Will; +2 Empathy, Rapport

Banter first seems to have the right ring to it.

> Banter, The Family, Intrigue: +5 Contacts, Deceive; +4 Provoke, Will; +3 Empathy, Notice, Rapport; +1 Athletics, Burglary, Stealth

Hmmm. First set feels best still.

First and last set are identical except the last set of skills get bumped down from +2 to +1.

Oh, wait! The second set will put Alchemy and Transmutation at +2 instead.

Ok. Between Banter, The Family, Intrigue and The Family, Banter, Intrigue, I feel best about the first.

doppelgreener

05:44

I'm happy with Atomic Robo just letting me put things together and making me very likely to get something workable, but i always like to have my core skills (in this case Provoke, Alchemy, Transmutation) at +4 or +5.

Magician

Modes are very interesting. They obfuscate the process somewhat, and I can't help but think that's purposeful.

They ask you to think of what's more important to your character, Banter or Intrigue, rather than of whether you should have Provoke at +5 or +4.

doppelgreener

@Magician yeah, this was a case where all of those things felt roughly equal, so I wanted to see which skill combinations seemed to fit well.

I also wanted Alchemy and Transmutation to have some decent base scores or else they'd be difficult to use very often.

and like, that's Her Thing, I don't want them to be mechanically difficult to succeed with.

otherwise I'd go Banter, Intrigue, The Family.

doppelgreener

06:47

@trogdor You play a Scientist, I'm curious to know what you think about that stuff.

namely, having Science at an appreciably high position.

trogdor

oh, which stuff?

you mean because my lowest science skill is at 3?

doppelgreener

the thing where your schtick is in one mode (Science), but there's also other stuff you want decently high as well, creating a dilemma between ranking that schtick's mode high or low.

trogdor

the way I handled that involved having two weird modes

err, not two

but one weird mode and the normal one that did the secondary stuff I wanted

but for you it would be two

I had science, a thing I wanted high, in the 3 slot

I had action, a thing I wanted to do, already built

I molded Plant Mutant to also give bonuses to the secondary stuff I wanted to do, especially the things I already liked in Action

it worked out well, I have at least 3 in everything I wanted Dr Light to do

4 is not rare either, and I have like, 3 or 4 5's

though 2 of em are science

I think

I personally liked the way it worked out, stat wise

doppelgreener

cool 8)

trogdor

most of the 5's had to have the extra points I had put into them

but I did have extra points because science is cheap, and Plant Mutant either didn't go over 9 or didn't by very much

ARRPG is pretty great that way

doppelgreener

06:58

(TBH I like this mode building but with characters like this one I long for the triangle again)

trogdor

it was built to reward you for picking the science mode

thing is, I guess, the difference for Cassandra is going to be that she has two weird modes

so you might need to make doubly sure you only have skills/modes you really want

that being said, it kinda sounds like the skills you made for her won't cost much individually

doppelgreener

yeah, i think with her i can get by with just The Family being her weird mode, representing what she did while being part of her alchemist family

trogdor

that is fine

I suppose one weird mode actually works too

the only difference being if two made more narrative sense

which it doesn't have to

doppelgreener

07:17

yeah, I think Banter and Intrigue are what I want to go for.

She has a way with biting words but can also make friends, and she breaks into places and sneaks around.

The +5 to Deceive was a surprising result, but works.

trogdor

hee

you can get at least one 5 pretty easy

like, notice is in all but one pre-made mode

doppelgreener

for sure :)

trogdor

mk, I gotta go to a class for a bit

be back in a couple hours

doppelgreener

07:34

Tally ho!

2 hours later…

eimyr

09:55

wow, that chat is empty

BESW

Which chat?

eimyr

wrong chat

BESW

Ahah.

2 hours later…

BESW

11:46

Thinking about speedster stunts.

> Faster than a speeding bullet. Immune to physical stress you can see coming, but weak against area effects.

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