“It isn’t true, actually, but you’ll find the father thing more believable than me telling you that I am you, a bunch of time travel adventures ‘later’.”
So, Ira lives though this, gets rejuvenated and a nose job,travels back in time becomes Tip.
Time travel, strange clothing, different faces,mostly female companions
This feels familiar somehow.
If they’re on the current rules edition, the cap is 20d6 damage (from a 200 foot fall), which is an average of 70 points of damage and potentially up to 140.
Ira clearly isn’t a martial class, and his Constitution probably isn’t above a 13. Even if he were 10th level, the average damage alone would be enough to drop him cleanly.
Of course, being that he’s a plot antagonist, perhaps it makes more sense for him to have an NPC stat block rather than a PC class and levels. But even then, he’s not the kind of enemy that is dangerous because of its physical prowess – he’s dangerous because of his machinations. It’s unlikely he’d have much HP.
Actually, since he’s a boss monster in his lair, he has access to both Lair and Legendary Actions. All a toss over the side would likely do would be to give him a head start to wherever he’s going to go next.
See, y’all are using D&D while I’m running GURPs. So…
Assuming HP of 10 (generous, because Ira’s clearly an old character and thus would probably have a lower ST*), the equation would be (Damage) = (HP x Velocity)/100. If you consult the Velocity chart on page 431 of the Campaigns book, the 200 feet number used above would be 65-67 yards, which gives a Velocity of 38.
So the base damage times Velocity is 38*10 = 380; 380/100 gets 3.8d crushing damage, which is raised to 4d crushing. BUT! Assume hard ground on the bottom, which gives a x2 modifier. So the *actual* damage would be 8d crushing. These are d6s, so the average damage per die is, obviously, 3.5. 8*3.5=28 points of damage**.
For the purposes of this discussion we’ll waive the hit location rules. 28 points of damage knocks Ira down to -18 HP. He must immediately start making rolls: first, one at HP-1 (or 9 or below on 3d6) every turn (one second) to remain conscious, unless he chooses to Do Nothing. Second, he must make a regular HP roll (10 or below on 3d6) to just not die on the spot (or be mortally wounded). If he takes enough damage to be at -20 HP (2 more points of damage), he must make another Do Not Die roll. BUT! More than 5 points at once is a major injury for Ira, so he has to roll against HT (or 10 or below on 3d6) to avoid knockdown and stun. Failure to do that keeps him from doing anything for that turn, AND he drops his items; failure by 5 or more knocks him out.
So: three dice rolls before we do anything else. Obviously, 9 or less on 3d6 is 37.5% success rate, while 10 or less is 50%, so he has about a… :squinting: 9% chance to make all three rolls? And he’s only got a 50% chance of living through the fall in the first place. So it’s not going to be a good day for Ira, all in all.
I feel this is all relatively straightforward.
*This is Fourth Edition, which swapped the stats that Fatigue and Hit Points are calculated from.
**For the purposes of this discussion, we are assuming that Ira is not wearing armor. BUT! Even if he is wearing some sort of TL9 Tactical Suit (GURPS Characters, Page 284), it would only have 20 DR *and* is rated flexible. Flexible armor lets through one point of damage for ever five it soaks up, so the final damage would be (20/5) + 8, or 13. In this case, he’s going to have to roll against straight HP to stay conscious, but he won’t die. Yet.
The dramatic convention in fiction that the big villain has a suitably big ending–much as I get why it is–often frustrates me.
I mean, I get that’s also kind of by dramatic design, but still. It’s like the hero has been to some kind of training where it’s explained: look, there’s just a way these things are done. You can’t just deck him with a pipe wrench or something like you can one of his mooks and be done with it. The audience will be disappointed. Typically there should be some kind of sneering monologue and a desperate struggle. It should look difficult, painful, fraught, so the payoff is intense and drawn out a bit. Slightly comically anticlimactic and/or ironic stuff is acceptable for the second in command, but the big bad, there’s buildup and timing and you really want to synchronise the moment he falls from the high-rise with the moment the orchestral score hits a climax. Ironic again very acceptable–and sure you can zap him with his own death ray–but these other conventions, they must be observed. Tradition, you know.
… and all the while they’re bantering or whatever it is I’m thinking, oh, fuck it. He’s still just a generally pretty fragile, bipedal sack of bones and protoplasm. And an incredibly annoying one. Dictator, archvillain, demagogue with a billion drooling followers, whatever, it’s still all the same stuff. Just shoot him already, and roll credits. I, for one, won’t mind.
Except it doesn’t do anything here. If Tip shot Ira the moment he was seen, it would have brought nothing for Tip because it’s not Ira himself he needs to stop, but ira’s schemes. Ira would not have allowed a chance for TIp to hurt him if that would stop him.
I always enjoyed the ending to Wizards for precisely this reason. It’s a deeply weird and heavily flawed film, but I always loved the simplicity of the “final showdown”.
Or at the critical moment you reveal the real big bad, demoting the current one and simply offing him.
Snokes ring a bell? Subverted expectations anyone? No? Alrighty then, lets see how this works out
Well, a lot of what Ira knows comes from what he saw through the Second Gate. It’s been destroyed but he’d still remember (or have notes on) what he saw. And he sent Echo Bravo to the Institute counting on his failure.
I don’t know if it’s that exactly, but ultimately the problem with trying to account for every possible contingency is you can’t. The only way to do that is to stall any response until after your plans have reached a point of no return, and make sure that the only two options are you win or everyone loses.
Ira pretty clearly thinks he’s accomplished that, but whatever he’s planning must have some unaccounted for variable that hasn’t timed out yet. My guess is it’s Pavane or her daughter, but there’s so many pieces in play right now that it could be almost anything.
The Battle of Kansas has ended. Anasigma has lost, Tip pretended. But they’re barely involved, and so Ira resolved to advance his own forces—how splendid!
Tip c’mon, he was obviously planning on nuking everyone when they were all in one place.
It is perhaps not the best idea to taunt someone who has access to a time-portal with the claim that he’s too late
Ira I am your father.
No..It can’t be true.
Join me and we will rule as father and son.
“It isn’t true, actually, but you’ll find the father thing more believable than me telling you that I am you, a bunch of time travel adventures ‘later’.”
So, Ira lives though this, gets rejuvenated and a nose job,travels back in time becomes Tip.
Time travel, strange clothing, different faces,mostly female companions
This feels familiar somehow.
Except his time portal isn’t in a large blue box.
That would certainly explain the Doctor’s memory wipe!
If Ira is Tip, I would say more likely Ira is old Tip, which would be why Tip is so flumoxxed.
Waitaminute! Tip can pull Alice out of Hammerspace at a moments notice but struggles with his cell phone?! I don’t think so!
Who’s playing whom? Why does Mr. Green need Project Skin Horse?
Could Tip be a compatible organ donor? Or at least wear the same eyeglass prescription?
I’m also having trouble believing Tip is having trouble finding his phone. It must be some kind of ruse or distraction.
Tip must have left his phone in the white gown he wore at his, er, roof-pass-getting ceremony.
I’m telling you, the edge of the roof is RIGHT THERE. You can’t dodge falling damage.
As i remember it the monk class (D+D) did have a way to “dodge” a fall.
Meh, falling damage is capped, and there’s plenty ways to resist it! XD
If they’re on the current rules edition, the cap is 20d6 damage (from a 200 foot fall), which is an average of 70 points of damage and potentially up to 140.
Ira clearly isn’t a martial class, and his Constitution probably isn’t above a 13. Even if he were 10th level, the average damage alone would be enough to drop him cleanly.
Of course, being that he’s a plot antagonist, perhaps it makes more sense for him to have an NPC stat block rather than a PC class and levels. But even then, he’s not the kind of enemy that is dangerous because of its physical prowess – he’s dangerous because of his machinations. It’s unlikely he’d have much HP.
Well, if Tip gets pushed off the roof, maybe he could land on Shelby’s flying “Falkor” car. Worked in “Back to the Future II”…
Actually, since he’s a boss monster in his lair, he has access to both Lair and Legendary Actions. All a toss over the side would likely do would be to give him a head start to wherever he’s going to go next.
See, y’all are using D&D while I’m running GURPs. So…
Assuming HP of 10 (generous, because Ira’s clearly an old character and thus would probably have a lower ST*), the equation would be (Damage) = (HP x Velocity)/100. If you consult the Velocity chart on page 431 of the Campaigns book, the 200 feet number used above would be 65-67 yards, which gives a Velocity of 38.
So the base damage times Velocity is 38*10 = 380; 380/100 gets 3.8d crushing damage, which is raised to 4d crushing. BUT! Assume hard ground on the bottom, which gives a x2 modifier. So the *actual* damage would be 8d crushing. These are d6s, so the average damage per die is, obviously, 3.5. 8*3.5=28 points of damage**.
For the purposes of this discussion we’ll waive the hit location rules. 28 points of damage knocks Ira down to -18 HP. He must immediately start making rolls: first, one at HP-1 (or 9 or below on 3d6) every turn (one second) to remain conscious, unless he chooses to Do Nothing. Second, he must make a regular HP roll (10 or below on 3d6) to just not die on the spot (or be mortally wounded). If he takes enough damage to be at -20 HP (2 more points of damage), he must make another Do Not Die roll. BUT! More than 5 points at once is a major injury for Ira, so he has to roll against HT (or 10 or below on 3d6) to avoid knockdown and stun. Failure to do that keeps him from doing anything for that turn, AND he drops his items; failure by 5 or more knocks him out.
So: three dice rolls before we do anything else. Obviously, 9 or less on 3d6 is 37.5% success rate, while 10 or less is 50%, so he has about a… :squinting: 9% chance to make all three rolls? And he’s only got a 50% chance of living through the fall in the first place. So it’s not going to be a good day for Ira, all in all.
I feel this is all relatively straightforward.
*This is Fourth Edition, which swapped the stats that Fatigue and Hit Points are calculated from.
**For the purposes of this discussion, we are assuming that Ira is not wearing armor. BUT! Even if he is wearing some sort of TL9 Tactical Suit (GURPS Characters, Page 284), it would only have 20 DR *and* is rated flexible. Flexible armor lets through one point of damage for ever five it soaks up, so the final damage would be (20/5) + 8, or 13. In this case, he’s going to have to roll against straight HP to stay conscious, but he won’t die. Yet.
You could just make a block or dodge roll against the world. Fighter says “Hi!”
And suddenly, just like that, Tip and Ira remind me of the guys I knew from my old chess club! 🙂
Let’s see if any more of the Anasigma forces desert to the other side—whatever that is at the moment.
The dramatic convention in fiction that the big villain has a suitably big ending–much as I get why it is–often frustrates me.
I mean, I get that’s also kind of by dramatic design, but still. It’s like the hero has been to some kind of training where it’s explained: look, there’s just a way these things are done. You can’t just deck him with a pipe wrench or something like you can one of his mooks and be done with it. The audience will be disappointed. Typically there should be some kind of sneering monologue and a desperate struggle. It should look difficult, painful, fraught, so the payoff is intense and drawn out a bit. Slightly comically anticlimactic and/or ironic stuff is acceptable for the second in command, but the big bad, there’s buildup and timing and you really want to synchronise the moment he falls from the high-rise with the moment the orchestral score hits a climax. Ironic again very acceptable–and sure you can zap him with his own death ray–but these other conventions, they must be observed. Tradition, you know.
… and all the while they’re bantering or whatever it is I’m thinking, oh, fuck it. He’s still just a generally pretty fragile, bipedal sack of bones and protoplasm. And an incredibly annoying one. Dictator, archvillain, demagogue with a billion drooling followers, whatever, it’s still all the same stuff. Just shoot him already, and roll credits. I, for one, won’t mind.
Except it doesn’t do anything here. If Tip shot Ira the moment he was seen, it would have brought nothing for Tip because it’s not Ira himself he needs to stop, but ira’s schemes. Ira would not have allowed a chance for TIp to hurt him if that would stop him.
I always enjoyed the ending to Wizards for precisely this reason. It’s a deeply weird and heavily flawed film, but I always loved the simplicity of the “final showdown”.
Or at the critical moment you reveal the real big bad, demoting the current one and simply offing him.
Snokes ring a bell? Subverted expectations anyone? No? Alrighty then, lets see how this works out
When Ira goes down, I suspect it will be both funny and sort of anticlimactic: this comic hasn’t lasted this long by playing to people’s expectations.
Oh just shove the man off the building already. He’s elderly, you can take him.
Old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance.
David Mamet
Here’s what Ira did not plan for:
The love between two agents and a rat. Its too nonsensical to be true.
And that will be the lynch pin to his plans.
Well, a lot of what Ira knows comes from what he saw through the Second Gate. It’s been destroyed but he’d still remember (or have notes on) what he saw. And he sent Echo Bravo to the Institute counting on his failure.
I don’t know if it’s that exactly, but ultimately the problem with trying to account for every possible contingency is you can’t. The only way to do that is to stall any response until after your plans have reached a point of no return, and make sure that the only two options are you win or everyone loses.
Ira pretty clearly thinks he’s accomplished that, but whatever he’s planning must have some unaccounted for variable that hasn’t timed out yet. My guess is it’s Pavane or her daughter, but there’s so many pieces in play right now that it could be almost anything.
The Battle of Kansas has ended. Anasigma has lost, Tip pretended. But they’re barely involved, and so Ira resolved to advance his own forces—how splendid!
I love Ira’s last line. *MUCH* funnier than Ozymandias’s you-can’t-stop-me-I-already-did-it.
Ozymandia has no sense of humor, even less than Jon, that’s one of his defining traits.
Is Ira advancing his forces, or making advances on Tip?
Probably.
Ira seems to think Tip is cute. Not sure if that means cute as in paternalistic, or attracted to.
Not sure where my comment went – they seem to disappear into the aether far too often – but my answer to Robert was “probably”… as in “both”.
That keeps happening to me, on and off. If I try to repost it tells me I’m repeating myself. (Burp, s’cuse me.)