Roleplaying
Nov. 5th, 2008 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackOn Saturday was the first Dark Heresy session with Edith. (Cut for anyone in the Sunday group, although I don't think there are any big cross-session spoilers yet. If necessary, I'll start f-locking them too.)
The setting, and Edith's GMing, succeeded in making a fun, but gritty, creepy world :)
In the second half, we were guarding a "passenger" area when one of the psychics lost control of his powers, which means a demon is breaking in from the warp ("hell"). Without knowing for sure how deadly a demon is (OOC or IC), that's really creepy, you really don't know what's going to happen.
In fact, Edith mocked us for rushing to the disturbance and ending up crowded round the door, but I was sufficiently immersed I wasn't even thinking like that. My character was the big rough-houser and it was sufficiently creepy that it felt like I had two options: (a) charge in and slit the psychic's throat before he collapsed completely or (b) it was already too late and we were all probably dead.
As soon as we opened the door, we saw a demon with [description elided] that was so horrifying that everyone has to make a willpower test or suffer various debilitating effects; a test that none of the characters _can_ pass, except with a 1-in-a-100 roll.
This bit of dice rolling is pretty hilarious (although most other bits of dice rolling were similar). Everyone either got 1 or 2 out of a hundred, and a mild headache, or 98 or 99 out a hundred, and something pretty nasty, and spent a fate point to reroll, and then roll a 1 or 2. The whole session was full of lucky and unlucky rolls -- in the end, I was mostly dead but the demon had only ever done one point of damage, and we commented that it was really terrifying, but an illusion would have been just as devastating given its poor luck in actually doing any damage! (Edith, don't worry -- that didn't make it any less scary!)
However, that was still pretty scary, because we survived it by the skin of our teeth, and that was just looking at the demon, what would happen when it started to do something?
I was the rough-houser took point against it with my Big Sword (TM), and was lucky enough to dodge or absorb the attacks, and the others attacked it with guns, drawing its attention back to them too. In fact, the demon was unlucky that we it absorbed most of the damage we could do, but we did one and two at a time, but we all managed to successfully dodge its scary claws.
However, at the start I was sufficiently scared of it to accept our psychic using full automatic while it was still in combat with me, which had the bad luck to do almost nothing to the demon, but eviscerate me with a lucky shot. I was still standing, though anyone who wasn't the designated human meat shield would have been dead-ish.
Standing toe-to-toe is a real bonding experience. I don't trust anything else in the universe, but have a real affection for our characters now.
This decision was also hilarious in retrospect -- asking to get shot by automatic fire? :) But it seemed likely I'd survive, and I was sufficiently ignorant of what a demon could do it seemed likely it could do that much damage in one blow too, and our only chance was to damage it, which automatic fire seemed a good bet for.
When the alarms had gone off and the bulkheads were sealed, I was convinced the whole area would be eliminated somehow unless we could take down the demon first, so wasn't inclined to back off even if I was killed -- I said, if I roll up a new character, so be it, it was a good way to go.
In fact, if you're paying attention, some hints tell you the GM doesn't want a total-party-kill and things aren't as black as a demon makes them seem, and perhaps I could have backed off. But I was too into it. So hilariously we end up without a scratch, except for my being shot to an inch of death by friendly fire :)
Which I think was a reasonable trade. Although I definitely want the everyone else to chip in on my month of recuperation, otherwise I'll have to follow the party low life's lead on finding equipment for us, and start hanging around at the back of combat, offering to charge when I'm offered sufficient compensation in advance :)
In the end, we whittled the demon down and it started melting, and about the time it collapsed the real riot squad rushed in with really big automatic weapons and vaporised it.
Edith: thank you, that was a very very satisfying session!
The setting, and Edith's GMing, succeeded in making a fun, but gritty, creepy world :)
In the second half, we were guarding a "passenger" area when one of the psychics lost control of his powers, which means a demon is breaking in from the warp ("hell"). Without knowing for sure how deadly a demon is (OOC or IC), that's really creepy, you really don't know what's going to happen.
In fact, Edith mocked us for rushing to the disturbance and ending up crowded round the door, but I was sufficiently immersed I wasn't even thinking like that. My character was the big rough-houser and it was sufficiently creepy that it felt like I had two options: (a) charge in and slit the psychic's throat before he collapsed completely or (b) it was already too late and we were all probably dead.
As soon as we opened the door, we saw a demon with [description elided] that was so horrifying that everyone has to make a willpower test or suffer various debilitating effects; a test that none of the characters _can_ pass, except with a 1-in-a-100 roll.
This bit of dice rolling is pretty hilarious (although most other bits of dice rolling were similar). Everyone either got 1 or 2 out of a hundred, and a mild headache, or 98 or 99 out a hundred, and something pretty nasty, and spent a fate point to reroll, and then roll a 1 or 2. The whole session was full of lucky and unlucky rolls -- in the end, I was mostly dead but the demon had only ever done one point of damage, and we commented that it was really terrifying, but an illusion would have been just as devastating given its poor luck in actually doing any damage! (Edith, don't worry -- that didn't make it any less scary!)
However, that was still pretty scary, because we survived it by the skin of our teeth, and that was just looking at the demon, what would happen when it started to do something?
I was the rough-houser took point against it with my Big Sword (TM), and was lucky enough to dodge or absorb the attacks, and the others attacked it with guns, drawing its attention back to them too. In fact, the demon was unlucky that we it absorbed most of the damage we could do, but we did one and two at a time, but we all managed to successfully dodge its scary claws.
However, at the start I was sufficiently scared of it to accept our psychic using full automatic while it was still in combat with me, which had the bad luck to do almost nothing to the demon, but eviscerate me with a lucky shot. I was still standing, though anyone who wasn't the designated human meat shield would have been dead-ish.
Standing toe-to-toe is a real bonding experience. I don't trust anything else in the universe, but have a real affection for our characters now.
This decision was also hilarious in retrospect -- asking to get shot by automatic fire? :) But it seemed likely I'd survive, and I was sufficiently ignorant of what a demon could do it seemed likely it could do that much damage in one blow too, and our only chance was to damage it, which automatic fire seemed a good bet for.
When the alarms had gone off and the bulkheads were sealed, I was convinced the whole area would be eliminated somehow unless we could take down the demon first, so wasn't inclined to back off even if I was killed -- I said, if I roll up a new character, so be it, it was a good way to go.
In fact, if you're paying attention, some hints tell you the GM doesn't want a total-party-kill and things aren't as black as a demon makes them seem, and perhaps I could have backed off. But I was too into it. So hilariously we end up without a scratch, except for my being shot to an inch of death by friendly fire :)
Which I think was a reasonable trade. Although I definitely want the everyone else to chip in on my month of recuperation, otherwise I'll have to follow the party low life's lead on finding equipment for us, and start hanging around at the back of combat, offering to charge when I'm offered sufficient compensation in advance :)
In the end, we whittled the demon down and it started melting, and about the time it collapsed the real riot squad rushed in with really big automatic weapons and vaporised it.
Edith: thank you, that was a very very satisfying session!
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 08:09 am (UTC)