In 1798 Calcutta is a city expanding rapidly under the rule of the Honorable British East India Company. This is the time of great Indian trade fortunes, everyone from the lowliest clerk to the governors council is out to amass wealth. A man must keep his wits about him to prosper despite the corruption, the intrigue, and shrewd local traders.Run by GM 3rd-I
Blackstone takes cover behind the cabin, and pops open the breech block of his distinctive experimental rifle to begin the reloading process. Within a few seconds the bullet, powder and wadding are loaded, and he flicks the frizzen open to begin priming the pan.
Miller meanwhile clambers over the rail and gets his feet on to the deck of the vessel. He passes Blackstone and swiftly moves around the rear of the cabin and takes cover while he reloads his heavy caliber naval pistol.
Sinclair, attempting to follow up behind Miller does his best to scale the side of the boat, but not being the mostly sprightly of fellows, his feet slip on the wet wood and he takes an embarassing tumble backwards. He falls head over heels into the boat landing on one of the coolies who, despite looking pretty annoyed at getting squashed, cushions the Doctor's fall and prevents him from harm. As the Doctor struggles back to his feet, Thurston passes his rifle to one of the coolies and steps forward to make his own attempt to board.
On the far side of the boat, the next boarder makes good his climb and hops over the rail and onto the boat...to be greeted by a slight and slender Indian woman wielding a wicked pair of long knives "akimbo", a gentle smile on her face. The boarder, a grubby white man with heavily tarred hands and a stocky physique lands barefoot on the deck, but hasn't even had a chance to unsling the musket across his back before Nidhi gets to pounce.......
Orvost, FYI you need 2 minutes of cleaning time to avoid fouling penalties, which kick in after 5 shots. You have shot 4 times so far. I think you possibly just intended this as flavour though (from his quirk)?
I'm generally happy with how this is working so far, so long as everyone is following it ok? Lot of bookkeeping required.
Encounter balancing could do with some work maybe, this looks like turning into a hideous spawn-camp fest!
Blackstone 6.25, Nidhi 6.25, Miller 5.5, NPCs 5
Only listing those on board
Skipped forward through some dead time:
Blackstone takes 6 turns reloading and is @ 6/10 turns reloaded
Nidhi takes 5 turns Step and Wait, and is next to the entry hex. It is her turn next!
Miller finishes his climb, takes two turns moving to the south west corner of the cabin and 3 turns reloading his pistol. Currently @ 3/20 reloaded
Sinclair took 4 turns climbing and 1 falling (!)
Sinclair check vs DX-5, +5 = 10 - Roll 13 Fail!
Fall 5 feet. Falling dmg for 1-2 yards is 1d6-4 per yard. Roll 2, Roll 4 - Zero dmg
Last edited by 3rd-I on Sat Sep 05, 2009 6:52 am, edited 4 times in total.
Payne carefully follows his comrades aboard. He stays next to the ceiling, his weapons in his belt and tries to help others to get on the ship.
As he sees Sinclair struggling he reaches out for him if he makes another attempt to climb up.
At least he will do that if he succeeds himself.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
Nidhi aims the knife high towards the boarder's face, but too high. The knife whistles clean past his ear and somehow the alarmed sailor escapes unscathed. He opts not to unsling his musket, but instead circles around to his left and throws a deparate looking punch, trying to hit Nidhi in the gut and knock the wind out of her. Its tough fighting amongst the dangling ropes and tackle near the rigging, and unfortunately his strike is wide of the mark.
As Blackstone and Miller continue to reload, and Thurston begins to climb the rigging, Nidhi gets another chance to cut her target....
Nidhi - Standard Attack w/ Knife vs Head:
Knife Skill 15, -1 (Darkness), -2 (Obstructed By Rigging), -5 (Targetting Head), +2 ("Hit Location" skill) = 9, Roll 10 - Miss!
Boarder - Step and Attack w/ Brawling vs Torso:
Step - NE
Brawling, Roll 12 - Miss!
Nair frowns as she effortlessly avoids the punch of the boarder, tsking quietly to herself. She moves now with another swing, designed to open his belly.
A more conservative swing to the torso. Harder to clean up, but certainly effective.
Sinclair holds off climbing to the clipper until the others have made it up.
Damn, missed that description of sailors in the book. I'll have to rectify that the first time we get exp. I really was trying to make someone who was a competent sailor. That's one of the annoying things about GURPS. It's far too easy to miss a crucial skill among the hundreds they have.
Blackstone continues to reload. He keeps an eye out for additional men boarding the ship. He frowns as the woman's knife misses its mark, it might be unwise to stand near anyone's line of fire. The accuracy of these weapons are sometimes unreliable.
"Kings have no friends, only subjects and enemies."
Nidhi throws a low swinging blow, trying to open up the boarder's belly but the swing is ill timed and cuts nothing but air. The boarder stands his ground and throws another straight thrusting punch towards her. Nidhi attempts to deflect the blow aside with her forearm but is too slow. The punch lands but fortunately glances off her shoulder and causes Nidhi no harm.
The sailor grins wide, showing a mouth partly filled with yellow teeth. He might not have hurt her but he has beaten her guard and starts to grow in confidence.
Nidhi needs to show this old dog he's just lucky.....
Nidhi - Standard Attack w/ Knife vs Torso:
Knife Skill 15, -1 (Darkness), -2 (Obstructed By Rigging) = 12, Roll 15 - (Yuck!) Miss!
Boarder - Attack w/ Brawling vs Torso:
Brawling, Roll 8 - Hit!
(You had quite a few options on the defence there (aggressive parry, parry with knife or karate, retreating etc). Since damage bare-handed was likely to be low and you have "high pain threshold" I thought you'd rather stand toe-to-toe. Opted to have you parry with karate rather than the knife as it parries at 2/3 skill and gave you 8 as opposed to 7. If you parry with the knife though you have the chance to cut him if you succeed.)
Nair smiles in return; perhaps the blow was meant to lure confidence from the man, along with its sister, foolishness. She moves to make a wide slash, only to come up from below with the other hand...
