Autobots, transform and roll out!

...sorry, I just had to say it.

Gatac

Um...that was some downright sneaky rat-bastardry done by Punkey and Ivan. I honestly didn't know this was going to happen until this morning.

That's what you get for smacking the FBI around.

Ph34r.

Gatac

Beware the PM. That's all I have to say.

Wow. Those're some guy's I'm not planning on messing with.

Nothing says "Kill me, please" quite like threatening to make trouble for a guy who has the words "Troubleshooter" in his character sheet.

Damn, Punkey.

I mean....damn.

Don't fuck with Punkey's characters...ever.

One comment: Yuri has been with Brian and Moten every moment since the two characters met. When were they able to plan this where he would not have overheard?

One other thing: According to Dieter, Mikhail wears body armor (which I don't believe was considered in the earlier firefight). Moten put him down with his pistol?

(Edited by fanchergw at 3:36 pm on Dec. 15, 2004)

I can answer the first one. I imagine they'd be trained in clandestine communications and would be able to slip something as simple as "Kill them when we get to the end of the tunnel" through, especially if it's non-verbal. They were in front of Brian and Moten, after all.

Explanation/resolution to follow. I'm in the process of typing it up now.

Ok. This is tough call. I, for one, don't like "no win" situations. I personally had no idea this was being plotted. That being said, there are several factors that can be addressed here.

1. Moten and Brian had time to plot on the way down the ladder. A whisper in a tight area would not be heard by those several floors below.

2. Brian is SAS and Moten has both police training and an FBI badge. If they wanted to flash hand signals with the intent of "Kill them on my signal", I'd say they have the expertise to do so.

3. Full-auto at close range used by Brian is a death sentence waiting to happen. Brian did 32pts of damage (over half of Yuri's HP) and Yuri failed his CON save to stay conscious...quite miserably.

4. Mikhail is nowhere near the agent Yuri is. He's a 4th level spy with 30HP starting. He took 6 from Brian's doorshot. Punkey rolled surprisingly well on his two shots from his pistol. That did over half his existing HP which made him have to make a CON roll. He failed, ergo he's unconscious.

5. Both being unconscious, the d20 coup-de-grace rules were in effect.

This is a unique situation that, honestly, was due to Yuri and Mikhail falling victim to the good nature of Brian and Moten. Years of being taught to be paranoid about everything/everyone in a game has kept me alive.

Truth be told, they did let you take the lead. You could have refused. I'm not playing armchair quarterback, but it was a mistake that proved to be deadly. Also, Punkey's shots were lucky ones.

I'll shut up now. This went alot longer than I thought it would and I'll open the floor up to the rest of the players. I shall be around all evening to field question, concerns, etc.

Overall, I don't want anyone's experience in my game to be one of contempt or resentment. I'm open to all manner of critique, but sometimes you gotta play it where it lies.

-Dave (Dieter)

(Edited by Dieter at 7:06 pm on Dec. 15, 2004)

In all honesty, the decision to kill Yuri and Mikhail was only reached after Yuri's rant about jurisdiction. He showed little signs of willing to be cooperative earlier, but he seemed like he knew some things that would be useful, and the access afforded by his badge would be useful. However, once he started going on about keeping Jess after she's found and creating additional problems for the team, he had to go.

Quote:

Quote: from Punkey on 7:21 pm on Dec. 15, 2004
In all honesty, the decision to kill Yuri and Mikhail was only reached after Yuri's rant about jurisdiction. He showed little signs of willing to be cooperative earlier, but he seemed like he knew some things that would be useful, and the access afforded by his badge would be useful. However, once he started going on about keeping Jess after she's found and creating additional problems for the team, he had to go.

"....and that's when I shot 'em!"

Alright, my take on all this:

Honestly, Brian was to the point that, despite what he considered a reasonable attempt at extending the whole inter-national cooperation issue, it was being met with distinctly unfertile ground on Yuri's end. Enought that, Brian was pretty sure, sooner or later, Yuri's unflinching sense of duty (which he actually admired), would get in the way of getting Jess out. If he had gotten a feeling the other way, like Yuri was willing to let one particular fish through the next in exchange for help nailing some bigger, nastier fish, things would have swung the other way.

As for communicating, look at Brian's last post. He basically spilled the beans that there was another team, Jess was kidnapped etc. Giving away that kind of information is, depending on the people doing it, potentially a death sentence. In essence, he was saying "I can tell you people whatever the hell I want, because given the first chance, you'll be dead."

Not a happy situation and, if it helps any, one Brian won't be all that pleased about.

I'm in the Knight Rider truck... but this is too good not to comment on.

Did Yuri and Mikhail roll for Notice/surprise/spot/anything? If so, and they failed, then there you are. If they DO make it, and fail initative, then there you are. If they didn't even roll, think about this: if you had Yuri and Mikhail where they were, and two NPCs ready to blast them instead of two PCs, would you treat it differently or would you just start rolling attacks?

I had no idea that the ladder was that long, so I'll buy that.

I did say that Yuri was taking the lead to follow the trail, but I didn't see anything about Mikhail blindly following him with his back to Brian and Moten. As they have worked together for years, it would seem that if Yuri was busy, Mikhail would know that it was his job to keep an eye on the other two. Again, my fault for thinking he was more competant than he was.

If Mikhail's body armor was accounted for and he still took that much damage, then he's dead, Jim.

Yuri was described to me as an old-school hard-ass, and that's the way I played him. He had been assigned the task of capturing or killing Jessica, and he wasn't about to let these two foreign punks get in his way. It seems that's a death sentence in this game, but then again, being an NPC (and perhaps a PC) in this game appears to be a death sentence...

They're dead; let's move on.

Quote:

Quote: from fanchergw on 9:40 pm on Dec. 15, 2004
I had no idea that the ladder was that long, so I'll buy that.

I did say that Yuri was taking the lead to follow the trail, but I didn't see anything about Mikhail blindly following him with his back to Brian and Moten. As they have worked together for years, it would seem that if Yuri was busy, Mikhail would know that it was his job to keep an eye on the other two. Again, my fault for thinking he was more competant than he was.

If Mikhail's body armor was accounted for and he still took that much damage, then he's dead, Jim.

Yuri was described to me as an old-school hard-ass, and that's the way I played him. He had been assigned the task of capturing or killing Jessica, and he wasn't about to let these two foreign punks get in his way. It seems that's a death sentence in this game, but then again, being an NPC (and perhaps a PC) in this game appears to be a death sentence...

They're dead; let's move on.

Noble minded of you. Again, if it helps, this isn't going to sit well in Brian's conscience.

Hell, I just want to avoid a situation that generates animosity. That way descends into all kinds of nastiness we don't need here.

Agreed.

Also, remind me not to cross Punky's characters in the future.

I'm sure this will look interesting in the debriefing.

Gatac