Sinister DM Plotting Thread

In which we plan the ruination of the characters foolishly submitted to our fickle whims.

Ah, the sweet taste of power. And yes, I do have the full AdEva book.

Glorious. Here's Zuriel's stat block, which is something worth having out in the open for critique.

Zuriel, Angel of Harmony

ZURIEL, Angel of Harmony
Introductory - Frontal Assault Angel, (Hulking size, Artificial form)

Zuriel appears to be a gigantic floating array of fractured panes of glass-like material, jumbled haphazardly in every imaginable direction and angle around it's gently glowing orange-red core. The core is the center point of the Angel's form; the entire rest of the transparent structure radiates outward like a massive shattered window that is frozen in time. MAGI has determined that this appearance is partly illusory, and that the strength of it's AT Field is so great that the Angel casually bends most normal spectrums of visual detection around itself (extending from ultraviolet light through the normal visual spectrum and extending past infrared and radio detection). In-field detection of it's AT Field through Pilot action may be the most reliable source of targetting data.

It's body will periodically rearrange itself into another confusing configuration in the blink of an eye, often right before the Angel teleports itself again. In combat Zuriel can abruptly alter the position and angle of individual panels of it's body to cruelly bisect attackers who venture too close, this is it's primary form of attack. Fittingly for it's designation, Zuriel is a difficult-to-read opponent which has an unhurried approach to combat. It is content to merely analyze threats for a time before prioritizing it's enemies based on who is attempting hardest to neutralize it's AT Field, then using teleportation to hunt down it's target and methodically eliminating that Evangelion. It will maintain a full Deflective field for a time before teleporting in for the kill, then will use Massive Momentum in order to prepare an attack. It will Feint before making it's decisive melee attack. After exposing itself in this way, Zuriel will revert to it's Deflection strategy while analyzing the results of it's attack and waiting for a chance to teleport again.

WS BS S T Ag Int Per WP Fel SR
40 35 35 20 10 50 40 20 20 100

Fate Points - 1/1

Wound Chart
Core 1-20 w8 ap 4
Body 21-00 w10 ap 6

Weapons: Reality Rend (melee, 1d10+6 Rending, Pen 2)

Movement: Teleportation* (+20 to Intercept chart roll)

Skills: Concealment (+30 bonus from Optical Illusion), Silent Move

Traits: Angel (TB 4), Fear (1), Dark Sight, From Beyond, Celerity (Limited)*, Optical Illusion**

Talents: Combat Master (does not allow attack bonuses for being Outnumbered in melee)

*Hovers immobile in the air between jumps. 100 dm max per jump. Waits 4 turns to Teleport again.
Limited Celerity: In the last round of immobility before Zuriel will be able to teleport again, roll a second time for it's Initiative. It may act twice in the following round, using both it's normal count and again on initiative score just rolled, after which point it acts only once per turn on it's normal Initiative count as normal until teleporting again. Zuriel may no longer do this if it has 1 or more points of Critical damage.

**-20 penalty to Ballistic Skill ranged attacks against the Angel. This may be negated by use of the A.T. Ping power. Whoever has Pinged Zuriel may transmit the targeting data to any single allied Evangelion or VTOL squadron as a Half action. Once Zuriel teleports again, the AT Ping data must be reacquired.

AT Field Powers: Deflective Field, Neutralize, Massive Momentum

The basic gist of it is that for all of it's impressive abilities, Zuriel is fundamentally not a terribly resilient or even fierce Angel. The gimmick of it's Concealment ability will make ranged targeting initially difficult, but it's just that, a gimmick waiting for the players to figure it out. The Angel has very high Armor values, but a low Toughness bonus, resulting in a total of a -10 damage modifier to it's body and -8 to it's core before any potential Armor Piercing is applied (nearly identical to the damage reduction values that Sachiel has). It has far fewer total wounds, especially for it's Core, but doesn't have any legs or arms to target and cripple.

It's melee attack is quite dangerous, however. In order to emphasize the unpredictable nature of Zuriel's attack, the plan is for most turns between teleporting it will merely use the Feint and basic Melee Attack half-actions together to target any adjacent EVAs. It will generally ignore ranged attackers, confident in the abilities of it's concealment field even when proven otherwise. It's teleportation will generally be used to bring itself adjacent to whoever is spending the most points on AT Field Neutralization, at which point the Limited Celerity ability allows it to aggressively burn ATS on the Massive Momentum power, feint, and then attack, all on the same turn as it teleported. Zuriel never attempts to Dodge attacks, and wouldn't be very good at all even if it tried.

Do you think you could almost run a combat with this? Probably around the 19th or so is when my week-long vacation happens, at which point it'll be hard for me to keep up for a bit.

Not exactly sure if I'm reading the entry right, bit it looks like Zuriel can only move every 4 rounds?

As far as running the combat by myself, at this immediate time, I'm not really comfortable with that. This is my first time actually playing AdEva. However, given a few days to run some simulations, I don't think I should have much trouble. What I would like to ask for is a tactical map of Ark, other wise I really have no idea as to how to run the fight without knowing were everything is.

Yes, you read it correct. That's an intentional design flaw in the Angel. I rolled for Zuriel's traits using the method in the book, and did my best to translate the intentions of the result with it's final stat line (after some tweaking) and in it's bizarre appearance (I decided what it looked like in response to what it could do). I felt that it didn't make much sense for the first Angel the players fought to be teleporting every single round. Instead, it will be a large, powerful force that merely decides to relocate itself every once in a while.

My plan, if the players post often enough to allow me, is to have the combat begun before I leave, which will probably be sometime the 19th or the 20th. I'll be checking in from hotels and on my phone, but I'm just not 100% certain I'll be able to update the battle every round, at least not with the speed that I would hope for. That's where you might come in... not running the battle alone for a whole week, but in collaboration to keep it moving along. Especially with answering rules questions and other OOC stuff, which I probably won't have much time to handle while also moving the battle.

My plan isn't to have a tactical map of all of Ark at once, but rather to place each battle in a specific section of the city, which will have it's own map. At a later date eventually Angels might even migrate from one city location map to another, but not for the time being.

I'll show you the map I'm working on for the Prometheus Facility battleground area in just a bit, it needs some touches.

Sounds good, as long as I have some kind of map to work with I should be fine.

I like the Angel though, good balance. It has no range attack, but very good range defense. It's inability to move very much means players can really pour into it at range, completely safe, but limited in their damage. On the other hand, they can get in close and try doing more damage at the risk of getting hit with a rather nasty attack.

Was looking over weapon stat lines for some WWE stuff I was working on and I noticed something in the statline you made up for the Swarm Missiles in the UN Navy thread. The listed range for them is 250dm. Not sure if that was a typo or not, but when compared to most other missile weapons, they are quite overpowered, espesially when you look at their rate of fire and penitration.

Thanks for the heads up. I modified the statline for that weapon extensively... guess I didn't reality-check myself too well as I worked on that ship.

Oh god help me, this is too much damn fun.

So basically, here's the notes for easy updates.

THE PROLOGUE THREAD:
Amanda, Paul, Chloe and Jack are all basically in the last legs of their trip to joining the battle. Ideally I'd like to speed them through and get them in their EVA's and out their to kick Zuriel's ass, so if you can provide encouraging updates to speed them along it would be great. As an example, unless Jack somehow flubs his Drive check by 6 degrees or something I'd like to let them make it to their elevator with the minimum of interference from this point on. Timely updates on that would probably be the most helpful thing you could do for me at the moment.

I'll try to have Tokens for the them soon, so if you're at a point where the only logical thing is to just introduce them in the friggin' battle already then just wait up for a day so I can do that.

THE BATTLE
In the battle, you can pretty much see the cycle of actions that Zuriel plans to execute already, and how to roll dice for it. I actually had used Massive Momentum last turn (that would have been the 2nd half action that Zuriel took right after teleporting), but forgot to add the damage bonus to the dice and decided against it at the last second... better to let Unit 13 off easier anyway, failing that Fear test even after a Fate Point was harsh. Otherwise the mechanical dice roll of it's primary attack plan is already laid out there for you.

Right now it's probably going to do little aside from throw the occasional half-hearted attack at Unit 13 maybe once every other turn or something until it can Teleport again. Even so, if there's nobody Neutralizing it's AT Field at that point and more EVAs are on the field, it will probably wait for provocation. Zuriel is cautious and unhurried, it doesn't really think anything can threaten it yet but heavy Neutralization of it's AT Field from an EVA will be met with extreme prejudice because that's what it fears most.

THE MOST IDEAL PLAN THE PLAYERS CAN COME UP WITH:
If it looks dire for them, use NPC's below to suggest this to them... have every EVA neutralize Zuriel's field just a little bit. It will become indecisive and make poor judgements, and each individual EVA will have at least a decent ATP to defend from it's attacks with. If Unit 13 manages to flee the battle, let that EVA return with it's Critical damage repaired and his Synch Ratio returned to normal for his character after... oh, 2 rounds or so.

I threw them a bone with the most recent turn: nothing was really stopping it from Attacking again aside from my wish to make the OD's bold 'open fire' plan have some helpful effect (strictly speaking rules-wise shooting at the Angel with it's AT Field still up could at best have simply resulted in no accidental collateral damage. Which it did, fortunately). It was a respectable gamble on Lothmar's part, and I chose not to punish him for lack of information about his situation. Gotta be careful with that stuff, or the players feel start to feel helpless which can derail the whole thing.

NERV COMMAND:
If you want to characterize the reactions of the NERV command staff, just think of them like the crew of the Enterprise... a classic Power Trio as you can see across a wide array of literature. MAGI is the Superego, always recommending the most coldly efficient course of action regardless of likely pain to the players. Doctor Taylor is the Id, recommending emotional courses of action and trying to do what's "Good" for others he cares about even if it's not necessarily strictly "right" in a logical sense.

The three Command Officers just relay information in hilariously anxious tones. They should rarely use anything besides an Exclamation point at the end of a sentence, and italics for emphasis on the more disbelieving statements never hurt.

Megumi Saitō should be used sparingly compared to the other two, but when she does speak she is an Ego, trying to balance emotion and logic with simple Pragmatism. If you're going to relay the above plan to the players, use her to suggest it. She should be someone the OD and players can count on to give proper advice (unlike MAGI and Dr. Taylor, who will at best provide two good-sounding options either of which might be unintentionally bad in result), when she makes up her mind about something which is infrequently.



Any other questions? Like I said, I'll try to update myself from the road whenever I have a chance (mostly in the evening, Central and Western timezones, from hotels) so don't beat yourself up over getting updates out.