MEST :: Sacrificing Mary

Overview

This was a short MEST Tactics session between two players within the Mythos genre. I used the opportunity to prototype a new scenario and kept the number of figures low.

Setting

The year is 1928 CE. Young Sister Mary has been selected by the Abbot of the Church of Divinity to be a vessel for the Outer God Yog-sothoth and has recruited members of his other "religious" following among the Cult of Charazon to forcefully take her. Among the aide to the Abbot is a local Crazy Cat Lady with psychic powers. Stern Sister Susan of the church has discovered this and wants to prevent Mary from being sacrificed and has initiated a rescue mission.

However, this information as to when and how to prevent such an occurrence is scattered across the Eastwick Village at five different locations. The Abbot and Sister Susan need to collect that information and either use it to summon Yog-sothoth or to defeat its arrival.

Play-aides

Provide 5 Objective markers [ OM ].

Layout

Arrange the buildings and terrain into the four corners of the battlefield. Place one OM at the center of the battlefield adjacent to a terrain element. Place one OM within each of the small buildings. Doors are unlocked, windows are locked. Opening a door, locking, or unlocking it is 1 AP each.

2' x 2' battlefield area

4 x small buildings
6 x walls and other terrain

Environ

Visibility OR 4; it is "Night, Full-moon".

Assembly

Each side receives just four models. Each side receives a model with a Light Revolver, and another model with a Light Source. For sake of simplicity, each receives another Light Revolver but "psychic" which behaves like an assigned weapon but doesn't need to be sculpted on the model.

The Church of Inner Divinity
Sister Maria receives a Light Revolver (30 BP), and Sister Primin receives a Basic Lantern (14 BP) with Light OR 6. Sister Mary receives a "psychic" Light Revolver (30 BP). Total 203 BP.

• Sister Susan 222|222|223
  Average Leader
  Leadership.
  39 BP.
• Sister Maria 222|222|223
  Average Shooter
  Shoot. Brawn.
  35 BP. 65 BP with Light Revolver.
• Sister Primin Proctor 222|222|223
  Average Brawny
  Brawn.
  34 BP. 48 BP with Basic Lantern.
• Sister Mary the Innocent 222|222|223
  Average Coward 222|222|223
  [Coward].
  21 BP. 51 BP with Psychic Light Revolver.

The Cult of Charazon
Spotty McGee receives a Large Basic Torch (14 BP) which is Light 6 (Flicker). Maury receives a Light Revolver (30 BP). The Crazy Cat Lady  receives a "psychic" Light Revolver (30 BP).Total 229 BP.

• Abbot Price 222|222|223
  Average Leader
  Leadership.
  39 BP.
• Spotty McGee 222|222|223
  Average Coward Cultist 222|222|223
  Insane.
  49 BP. 63 BP with Large Basic Torch.
• Maury
  Average Outsider 222|222|223
  [Solitary].
  27 BP. 57 BP with Light Revolver.
• Crazy Cat Lady
  Average Sneak 222|222|223
  Sneaky.
  40 BP. 70 BP with Psychic Light Revolver.

Deployment

Forces start within 8 MU of opposite corners of the battlefield, with the Cultist setting up first.

Victory Conditions

The game-length is 4 Turns. 

• Collection (+1 VP to most OMs collected)
• Elimination (+1 VP if have fewest KO'd or Eliminated models)
• POI (+1 VP if Sister Mary is in Cohesion of only Friendly model)

Start of Turn 1. The Abbot is at the top-left, and Sister Susan at the bottom-right.

This is the start of Turn 2. Sister Primin leads the exploration with Sister Susan and Sister Mary in tow. Abbot Price and Spotty McGee are out of LOS but not Hidden. The Crazy Cat Lady is in position to perform a "psychic Revolver" attack.

Another perspective. Maury is Distracted having run to the side of the house; his job is to acquire as many of the OMs as possible. Within the building at the right one of Objective Markers is seen under the fire-place.

A shot of the Crazy Cat Lady from Spotty McGee's perspective. Sister Primin is in the distance.

This is the start of Turn 3. Each of the buildings have interiors and their roofs are exposed. Many OMs are shown. Maury is at the bottom right, Sister Susan at the left, and Abbot Price at the top. Sister Primin is facing The Cat Lady and Sister Mary the Innocent is near by.

This is the end of Turn 4. Every one is Done and there's been some exchange of weapons fire. Sister Maria is Wounded, and so is Abbot Price and Sister Primin. Sister Mary the Innocent is in the house at the bottom. The Church of Divinity wins!

SH44SER Update :: Captain Gravity

This is a post I placed to RPG Geek at https://rpggeek.com/article/32063917#32063917

Follow that link to get a more nuance overview of the character write-up you see below.

Captain Gravity

Human Supreme Unique Variant, Adult male

Pivoton

Age: 27

Allotment: 70 PRP + 60/50 SAP

Handedness: Right

Item     1×VIG  1×STA  1×END  2×DEX  4×MNT  2×CHA  3×EGO

Initial     15     15     15     15     15     15     15
Assigned    +5    +15    +10     +5     +5      -      -
Unique       -      -      -      -      -    +20      -
Adult       -2      -      -      -      -      -     -1
Variant ×2   -     +5      -      -      -      -      -

Total       18     35     25     20     20     35     14

Overview

Captain Gravity is a male human Supreme Unique and an Emergent Strain Variant allowing him +5 STA above normal human capabilities.

The Gravity Control Power

The Captain’s power is named “Gravity Control”. He has the ability to either neutralize the force of gravity (make things fall upward) or make things heavier. This is a Transformation Attack (×0.5 SAP, 10 SAP) requiring Line-of-Sight (×0.8 SAP), but with OR 2” (×0.5 SAP) that limits its Optimal Range, and does not require Line-of-Fire (default) and will hit targets automatically upon success. Upon failure, it does nothing (default).  It has the Simultaneous modifier keyword (×0.9 SAP) which makes the effect happen simultaneously with 1 AP of all other characters when not used as the first Action in a Turn.

Each successful attack by default makes the target experience 1 gravity-force (G-force or G) which can generate about 50 Damage (+50 SAP). Every Margin-of-Success increases the effect by 1 G (Gradient ×1.3 SAP). A roughly human-sized object can be toppled with a force of 5 Gs causing 5 VIG Loss each as Soft Damage for each G. A target (including the Captain) can be lifted into the air if canceling Earth gravity (1 G). The Gravity power also allows any Gs applied to be dismissed by each MoS.

A character already under the influence of Gravity Control remains so (Continual Effect ×2.2 SAP) and can have additional Gs applied to it to move it in any direction, with each G allowing a change in velocity of 10 m/s every attack.

Thus far, the cost in SAP is;

(10 + 50) × 0.5 × 0.8 × 0.5 × 0.9 × 1.3 × 2.2  = 30 SAP.

Power Skills

The Captain also has a Gravity Control skill providing DM +3.  It is a Simple Skill (3 SAP) but is applied for Transformation Attacks (×1.3) and adjusts the final cost = 30 × 1.3 = 39 SAP. This does not count as SAP spent for Powers.

Final Total of 39 + 3 = 42 SAP for Gravity Control.

Remaining SAP

The remaining 18 SAP are used for Wealth; receives 500 Pd/week Income as an allowance from “Mom” (9 SAP). This gives 32,500 Pd total as starting funds.

Captain Gravity has multiple skills in Art:* LoM 2 (4 SAP), and has skill of Vocation: Loan Officer LoM 2 (2 SAP).

Unusually, Captain Gravity also has Military Identity as a Lieutenant in the Ingurian Airforce (3 SAP).

The Air Belt

Captain Gravity augments his lateral movement with a programmable compressed-air belt plainly named “Air Belt”. It costs zero SAP because the player and Referee have reasoned it is a relatively simple Generation 4 device which should be something that can be requisitioned by the Ingurian Get-Net which is Generation 5.  It has three canisters of compressed air each with its own nozzle allowing 1 m/s adjustments for every press of the preprogrammed buttons on the belt’s electronic control buckle. Up to 3 nozzles can be active at once. There’s enough for 100 m/s of adjustment per canister. Each costs 100 Pd to replace. Normally it takes 1 Action Point to finesse the controls, but is a Short action costing just 0.5 AP is allowed to re-use the last setting.

The default Armor Value for the Air Belt is 25 AV for Light armor. The Referee allows this and that if any canister is damaged, it will not explode because it has explosion suppressants mixed in with it.

The Referee agreed and decides that it can be purchased for about 800 Pd (1000 × Gen 4 × 0.5 for Simple × 20/50 for Difficulty = 800 Pd), plus 200 pd for the buckle.

The Suit

Captain Gravity wears a double-layered Thick SpankTex full-body suit which affords just 35 AV and has the Flex keyword. It allows thermal regulation down to -20C. The suit coordinates with the Air Belt, Night-vision goggles, 6-hour oxygen mask for when flying above 10 KM altitude, and a visored open-face ballistic helmet (AV 55) which is anti-laser.

Some Clean-up on Pics

These are just my gallery of pics of painted figurines up to this point. I need to get photographs of the remainder. What is shown is 138 photos all cropped for use on my MEST character cards.

I'm really noticing that the low-quality HeroClix stuff doesn't render well even with paints, and the low-detail 25mm stuff from Pulp Action is hit-or-miss. I can understand now why many of the veteran painters opt for 32mm figurines; those have more detail whether resin or metal.