Bay 12 Games Forum

Turn 3:


Carmen Sandiego:

[Hiding place: 2]
Blast it, there's just no good way to hide a red helicopter in this day and age, is there? It's almost like it comes from a different time entirely! That said, you go ahead and put it on a flat roof, so it's slightly less obvious.


April Eploc:

[Dex:4+1]
Who needs any sort of proper ladder? By climbing over some makeshift bits of garbage, jumping up to a window ledge, and then swinging yourself onto the roof, you make it up with record time and a grace that would surprise most people.

So... now you're on the roof of a random house. It's a nice view, but now what?

Epaphroditos:
Over a nice meal, the man asks you further about your story, looking a bit disappointed at the brevity of your reply. Regardless, he answers,

"Different, you say? The land around here is much the same as always... least it was until roughly 6 months ago when that group of bandits came around. Us poor people have ended up needing to travel in packs and work together, lest we get set upon and robbed blind... or worse. Anyway, is there anything in particular you plan to do? Perhaps you were sent here to aid us in getting rid of these evil men. Well... moreso doing all the work yourself... but we'd help however we can."

Hm... despite your best efforts, they seem to really want to think of you as a hero. It seems that tales of legends like Heracles or Theseus are still intact in this day and age, at least.

Ryan Mason:

[Reaction roll: 2]
"This is either an extremely elaborate practical joke, or you're completely insane. Either way, you have until the count of 5 before I call the guards."

Regardless, it doesn't seem like he's intent on using the baton to time travel back right at the moment, so... mission accomplished? Wait a second...

[Baton will roll: 1]
To your utter shock, the baton he's holding and one of the ones you're holding just... vanish completely. It's as if they never even existed in the first place.

[Will: 4-1]
You suddenly feel very faint, dropping to your knees and gasping for breath. The other you just looks on in shock and horror as you try to recover.

[Will: 1-1-1]
And then, as your past self never time traveled to the past, this version of you completely ceases to exist. Congratulations, you've created a TIME PARADOX! As this version of you never existed, the OTHER version of you goes back, and tries the exact same stunt as before (with minor variations), until he gets erased from time in exactly the same way.

[TIME PARADOX escape: 3]
Somewhere around the 34th iteration of the loop, you accidentally cause a huge ruckus trying to get to the past version of the baton (after you'd time traveled back a day).

"What on earth was that noise?"

No way to reach the baton now, you'll need to hide or get out of this time immediately. Aw, now you can't cause some crazy time paradox, you'd have liked to see how that worked out. It's not like you already did that and lost your memory because that version of you erased himself from the timeline, right? Nah, that's crazy talk.

[Time cop perception roll: 5]
Some 500 years in the future...

"What's this? A time paradox back in that time? Hm, it seems it was a minor one, and resolved fairly quickly, so it was likely accidental, or a small experiment. Regardless, I'd better send an operative to check it out."

((You know what this calls for? NPC LIST TIME! GreatWyrmGold, you're first on the NPC list, send me a player application via PM for the timecop, and I'll adjust it as needed.))

Jack Robson:
[Disguise roll: 3]
Using a few rather sharp rocks, you cut some tears in your pants and generally dirty yourself up a bit. Well, at least you don't obviously stand out, but anyone who gets a good look at you will still figure out that you're not exactly normal.

Then again, if you travel forwards a few hundred years, you could do a good impersonation of a homeless man. Come to think of it, you don't have a home in your intended destination anyway, so it wouldn't even be pretending!

[Power roll: 3]
[Precision: 6+1]

Now a bit more familiar with how to work this crazy time machine, you nail your mark, landing in New York City on exactly the date you wanted. That done, you immediately set to work looking for a gun.

[Shopping: 3]
Uh... maybe you could go door to door asking the local civillians if they have any guns to sell to a beaten up looking homeless guy? It's not like they might feel threatened, right? Or you could probably borrow a few from some local gang or the police... they have so many they probably won't mind...

Vash Aarons:
[Endurance: 3]

It doesn't feel quite as cold as it did a few minutes ago... then again, maybe you're just getting numb.

[Power: 5+1]
[Precision: 3+1]

Shooting yourself once more with your special time traveling bullet, you find yourself on a nice hot beach in Tahiti, and waste no time lounging about in the sand and enjoying the concept of not freezing to death. Ah...

"Hang on Milno, let me take a look at that, maybe there's something I can do."

Examine Milno, DON'T do anything yet.

Turn 2:


Carmen Sandiego:

[Hiding place: 1]
Deciding to go with the hide in plain sight idea, you go ahead and park your helicopter over the city, descending onto a low rooftop via rope ladder.

[Population reaction: 3]
A crowd is starting to gather on the street below, gaping at the red helicopter flying overhead. Well... so much for subtlety. At least nobody actually saw you personally.

[Timeline effects: 5]
Not that you'd know it, but miraculously, there's no mention of this incident in any newspaper or anything, leaving you free from any possible time-travelling pursuit... at least for now. You may want to do something about the chopper though.

April Eploc:

[White guy dex: 5]
[Black guy dex: 3]
[White guy strength: 1]

As the black guy tosses a punch, the white guy weaves aside, latching on and trying to throw the other man to the ground. However, that attempt is laughably poor, as his opponent doesn't even seem to notice, instead opting to just try for an elbow to the head.

[Black guy dex: 2]
[White guy dex: 6]

However, his clumsiness accomplishes what the white man's strength could not, and after overbalancing and tripping, the white man is once more on top.

[White guy strength: 6]
[Black guy endurance: 5]

A resounding crack echoes through the street as his fist connects solidly with the black man's face, breaking his nose and leaving a black eye. However, far from disabled, his opponent merely laughs.

"Is that the best you can do? Come on boys, get him!"

[Backup roll: 3]

Another man, this one armed with a metal pipe approaches, ready to strike.

[FINISH HIM: 2]

Deciding to ignore the downed man, the white guy instead opts to defend himself against the black guy

[Pipe-wielder dex: 2]
[Still un-named white guy dex: 4]

The new arrival goes for a swing with his pipe, but the lone white man dodges and grabs hold of his opponent's weapon, trying to pull it away.

[White guy strength: 5]
[Pipe-wielder strength: 2]

Success, he grabs hold of it easily, disarming his opponent and gaining the weapon for himself. Not satisfied, he goes for an attack with his new weapon.

[White guy dex: 3]
[Disarmed guy dex: 2]
[White guy strength: 5+1]
[Disarmed guy endurance: 6]

Not the best swing, but thanks to an even worse dodge, a second solid crack echoes through the alley, as the black man staggers back, clutching his shoulder.

[Sneak attack: 6]

However, this moment of triumph doesn't last, as the white man's original opponent got up during the previous exchange and tackles him from behind.

[White man reaction roll: 6]

Instead of going down hard, the white man somehow manages to roll and toss his attacker off of him, even retaining his weapon in the process. (Seriously, what's up with this guy?)

[White guyNinja dex: 4]
[Attacker dex: 5]

Alice closes her eyes involuntarily as that deadly pipe swings forwards one more time, but a WHOOSH indicates that the assault just barely missed.

[Black guy 1 dex: 5]
[Black guy 2 dex: 6]
[Ninja White guy dex: 2]

Realizing it might be a good idea to actually use their superior numbers, the black men team up to grab the white guy, easily pinning him down. One of them snatches back the pipe, preparing to swing. In desperation, the trapped man calls out to the others watching.

"Don't just stand there gawking like morons, help me out a little!"

[Backup: 6]
The entire white half of the crowd surges forwards, out for blood of the two black attackers. In turn, they cry out for help.

[Backup: 2]
Deciding it's better not to get involved, the black portion of the crowd instead scatters, leaving the two black men to fend for themselves.

[Black man 1 dex: 2]
[Black man 2 dex: 2]
[Mob pursuit: 2]

After a bit of a false start, both men start running, and the crowd gives chase.

[Black man 1 dex: 4]
[Black man 2 dex: 3]
[mob pursuit: 5]

It's not looking good for the two men trying to flee, as the crowd is slowly gaining.

[Black man 1 dex: 1]
[Black man 2 dex: 6]
[mob pursuit: 3]

One of them puts on a burst of speed, managing to outdistance the mob. However, the other one trips, and is soon surrounded by the crowd.

[Mob mercy roll: 2]

You can't even see what they're doing to him through the crowd of rampaging people, and judging by his screams, you decide you really don't want to.

Anyway, that was exciting. Now what?

Epaphroditos:
((Not going to require a roll for this, they're already in awe/terrified.))

At your words the people calm down a bit, with one of them addressing you.

"If you... say so. You're roughly ten miles away from Athens, which you can find by just following that road over that way. However, the hour is late, and we'd be interested in hearing your story. If you like we could offer you food and shelter for the night, if you'd tell us more about how you were sent here."

Well, you really don't feel like travelling at night, and it's getting close to sundown, so this could be a nice opportunity... but then you'd have to come up with some sort of story as to why you ended up here... it's rather unlikely that you'll be able to hide your ignorance of current events, and you have no idea what Athens looks like at this point in time.

Ryan Mason:
Out of curiosity, you examine the crate where you found the time machine originally, seeing it (or technically an earlier version of it) there. You then decide to take it and time travel back to the present/future/whatever you should call it to see what happens.

[Power: 2+1]
[Precision: 4-1]

Warping back to when you found it, you see your past self looking into the crate, pulling out the time machine, even though you took it?

[Baton "will": 5]
One of the batons you're holding along with the one your past self is holding flickers for a moment, but otherwise seems stable.

Then your past self sees you.

[Reaction: 4]
Recovering quickly, he glares, saying in a low undertone "There had better be a very good explanation for this. Start talking."

((Nothing particularly FUN yet, you got a couple of lucky rolls.))


Jack Robson:
[Town guards roll: 1]

With no guards whatsoever, you easily get away, and decide to dirty up your clothes a bit to blend in somewhat better.

[Disguise roll: 2]

However, you just can't bring yourself to actually tear up and abuse your clothes like that. After all, it wouldn't do to make a bad impression, you could give time travelers a bad reputation!

Vash Aarons:
[Endurance: 1]

Brrrrrrrrrrrr, despite not being out here for terribly long, you're pretty sure you have hypothermia. Fortunately, a trip to Tahiti could definitely fix that!

[Power: 1+1]

Seeing your lucky time-travelling bullet respawn, you fire it at yourself, and... nothing happens. Crap.

((Wow, so unlucky.))

Yeah, I know. It's just that causing time paradoxes is roughly the equivalent of casting random magical spells on yourself. Sure, things can potentially work out... but do you really want to take that risk? Anyway, turn will likely come later tonight or tomorrow.

Oh, and by the way, regarding timelines, they're usually pretty durable. For instance, even if you sacked the US government, M. Oron would likely still develop his time machine, assuming that something else took its place with reasonable efficiency. If you sunk Columbus and other ships headed to America, you'd delay European colonization of the US for perhaps a century or so, which would severely stunt US power, as they wouldn't achieve independence until perhaps 1850 or so... but M. Oron would still exist, and he'd still build those time machines. Really, you can get away with anything up to nuking half the continent without worrying too much about that sort of thing.

Of course, there's always future societies and what amounts to time cops from them who might take note and come after you...

So obviously to make everyone happy, the AI is Chief Indiana Vader, and carries a whip and a lightsaber while wearing a fedora and a suit of power armor.

((Just make sure you turn the kinetic amp off BEFORE you facepalm.))