Ben Dayfall and Yuanto Zero

Ben Dayfall has a force sword for ODF +8 with Good skill, a force shield (Good skill) which gives a -2 penalty to attacks and origami armor. The armor is a problem. How much protection does it provide? The only stats I could find for origami armor are on the blog. According to that post, origami armor is effectively an overweight, overpriced bodyweave bodysuit without any real concealment benefit (battleweave bodysuits are already fairly concealable). I will assume that Ben wears his origami armor over his bodysuit. The battleweave bodysuit gives DDF +1, and the origami armor gives +2 when active. Combined with his Fair damage capacity, he has DDF +2 or +4 when the origami armor is active.

Yes, I know that the blog is now on Wordpress, but it is still much easier to find legacy articles on the Blogger site.

Yuanto Zero has a pair of blaster pistols (Good skill) with ODF +4 each and a battleweave bodysuit for DDF +1.

It was an odd alliance but one formed out of necessity. Shaddai is not a hospitable location with the current war, and their target is somewhere behind the Cybernetic Union lines. They met by happenstance (or by Communion’s guidance, but Ben won’t be disclosing that fact). Each knows the other is looking to rescue someone from the Cybernetic Union. After some research and Communion guidance, they have chosen to infiltrate a remote research facility. Allegedly, the facility is being used to research a new secret weapon. What they don’t know is the nature of the weapon. They have arrived at the general area of the facility.

The first task is to enter the facility - hopefully without drawing too much attention. Avoiding detection requires stealth. Entering the facility will require an access card, some type of infiltration skill or forced entry. Yuanto Zero has Good Tactics, and both characters have Fair Stealth and some Good combat skill. Yuanto will take the tactical lead (Ben’s Glory Hound may have been a problem, but letting Yuanto lead would not impact the glory he receives from his order).

Yuanto Zero rolls { , , ,-} for a Fair Tactics roll which is good enough to grant his team a single Fudge point to use in this combat. Next, Ben and Yuanto roll {+,+,+,+} and {+, , ,+} for a Legendary critical success and a Great success respectively. Ben attempts to swipe a key card using his telekinesis rolling {+,-,-,+} for a Fair result. Because of his amazing stealth, he swipes the card without incident, and the team makes it to the entrance of the facility without incident.

As soon as they arrived at the back entrance, a mogwai popped out of a ventilation shaft. Ben Dayfall received an impression from Communion that the mogwai was in recent contact with his target.

“I can’t do anything for the ‘Dr. Tan Shy.’ I did all I could and need to worry about myself now,” the mogwai muttered to himself as he was exiting the shaft.

Upon hearing the name “Tan Shy,” Yuanto rushed toward to the mogwai to question him. Ben also stepped to bar the mogwai’s retreat. “What do you know of Dr. Tan-Shai?” Yuanto whispers somewhat loudly. “Relax friend. We don’t want to hurt you. We are looking to free someone from the Cybernetic Union,” Ben adds. After some discussion (that we are skipping because it isn’t part of the combat test), Crank Botwhisperer describes the situation, hands over the key card he swiped. He has no desire to go back into the facility, but he did speak with the door to get the PIN for the key card (I know that social engineering can’t solve a cryptography problem. Psi-Wars isn’t realistic. Deal with it!).

The inside of the facility is on high alert. The team needs to locate Dr. Tan-Shai while maintaining stealth for as long as possible. If the team is detected, combat will be against a group of mooks with Fair to Great difficulty depending on the circumstances and number of mooks in the group.

They enter the facility and sneak around for a while. They locate an area that seems to be heavily patrolled. Ben and Yuanto roll {+,-,-,-} and {-, ,+, } for Poor and Fair results respectively. A battle ensues!

Finally Combat

“Round” 1

There is a decent number of mooks with a combined Great offensive capability. Yuanto’s Danger Sense alerts him, and he Quick Draws with {+,+,+,+} for a Legendary critical success and {+,+,+, } Legendary Blaster Pistol roll for ODF +4 and relative success of +4 vs the sentries’ +3 DDF giving a total DF of +5 giving a Very Hurt result. Since this is a group of mooks, Yuanto whips out his blaster pistols and expertly blasts several mooks and dropping enough of them to reduce the group’s offensive capability to Fair.

The sentries open fire against Ben and Yuanto who defend with { ,+,+,-} and {+, ,+,+} for Great Force Shield and Superb Mathematics. This is enough to defend easily.

Ben attempts to reflect the sentries’ blasters back at the remaining sentries and rolls {-,-,-, } for a Poor Force Shield result. He is unable to hit.

“Round” 2

Reinforcements arrive! There are now two mook groups of Good offensive capability.

Fortunately, Yuanto saw this coming and set some traps while he was exploring the area. He rolls {-,+,+, } for a Great Blaster Pistol result for ODF +4 and relative success of +2 for a total DF of +3 giving a Hurt result and increased to Very Hurt due to Foresight. One of the mook groups is now reduced from Good to Poor offensive capability. He rolls {+,-,+, } for a Good Mathematics defense which is just enough to avoid getting hit.

Ben throws his force sword at several sentries while moving into melee. After arriving in melee, he continues attacking them with his sword. He rolls {-, -, , } for a Poor result and is unable to do significant damage. He rolls {+, ,-, } for a Good Force Shield defense avoiding the sentries blaster fire.

“Round” 3

Yuanto continues blasting his mook group with a {+, ,-, } for a Good Blaster Pistol roll for a final DF of +3 resulting in a Hurt result and continues defending with a {-,+, , } for a Fair mathematics roll barely avoiding the mooks shots.

Ben attacks several sentries in melee and throws his force sword at a few sentries further away with a {-, , ,+} for a Good result with ODF +8 and relative degree +1 for a total DF of +6 Very Hurt result and uses the tactical Fudge Point to increase the wound level to Incapacitated. He rolls { ,+, , } for a Great Force Shield defense (I guess he tactically reflected a few sentry shots). Enough sentries were destroyed or otherwise damaged that the group is disbanded.

“Round” 4

Yuanto finishes his mook group with a {-,+, , } for a Good Blaster Pistol roll and defends with a { ,+,+,+} for a Superb Mathematics defense.

Retrospective

Some good rolls avoided the first combat entirely. This is not a particularly uncommon result. A good action game should have ways to avoid combat or lay an effective ambush.

I was surprised to see the Great mook group taken down so quickly due to a lucky roll. I had no choice but to add reinforcements to make two “equal” mook groups to see how a “fair” fight against mooks worked. It wasn’t really “fair” nor “equal” because I kept the sentries defensively fairly weak, but that is expected for mooks.

We did get to see the dreaded “death spiral” but only for the mooks. The heroes came out entirely unscathed. That also means that we didn’t get to see how OP shields are (don’t worry, that will be coming).

In hindsight, damage was a bit strange. What is the ODF bonus for dual wielding blaster pistols? Does it make sense that a force sword is more effective against a group of mooks than a blaster pistol? The psychokinesis makes the result a bit less strange, and Precognitive Defense can also provide some justification in story element combat.

We did see that combatants against mooks can work well but that early good/bad rolls can have a significant impact on the outcome of a fight.