Kevin's Watch

Have managed to get a little spare time, so I rushed out the opening of the next stage of the campaign. For convenience's sake, Zarkov had the bridge. Garrius is visting one of the transports. Whenever Garrius wishes to jump into the game, we can assume he returns to the Invictus via shuttle.

All other PCs are on the bridge.

One NPC has deserted.

Goatkiller666 wrote:Stone, every time I read a post by Zarkov, I see the bar get raised just a smidge higher. You managed to make "I'm home, I'm tired, I need a shower" into high art. Mad props, boy.

Vielen Dank. I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment. Already found that site.

Just so you know, I have completed my tour so am free to play again. would be nice to try and get back to the invictus. unless you think staying on the other ship would make for an interesting plot device

Garrius Amphael wrote:Just so you know, I have completed my tour so am free to play again. would be nice to try and get back to the invictus. unless you think staying on the other ship would make for an interesting plot device

As soon as you want to, just show up on the Bridge. We can assume a shuttle takes you back without incident. I only had you there in case you were too busy or tired after the tour. How did it go?

Was off the chain! Went stupidly well. Good times all round.

Question, I'm assuming that Garrius only actually has command over his own ship? It could be interesting if I was to command one of the transport vessels whilst Zarkov controls the invictus so we could work together, if there is any point to it. Hmm it wouldnt be a good look wit the ratings however

Garrius Amphael wrote:Was off the chain! Went stupidly well. Good times all round.

Question, I'm assuming that Garrius only actually has command over his own ship? It could be interesting if I was to command one of the transport vessels whilst Zarkov controls the invictus so we could work together, if there is any point to it. Hmm it wouldnt be a good look wit the ratings however

Technically you do only have command over your own ship. However, you hold a Warrant of Trade, which carries A LOT of authority. You probably could get to command the lead transport if there was a conflict, if you asked nicely, or made an impassioned plea.

It's actually a very good idea, and I'll allow it if you want it. Of course, the transports have weapons, but they're not as useful in a fight as the Invictus.

Stone, ya right The invictus doesnt have broadsides, my bad. But I spoke with montresor and the Transports do, so am acting accordingly. Theyre Jericho Class apparently.

As for the torps... Didnt think of that

Frustratingly, the Rogue Trader rulebook did not have space for torpedo rules, and FF have always claimed that a supplement will publish those ship rules that they couldn't. This will probably be the Battlefleet Koronus Expansion in Feb.

However, I find it rather crazy that destroyers, which were designed for torpedo runs, can't use them. I am strongly tempted to rig my own rukes for them. Of course, this is bad news for the Invictus, so I am happy to ignore torps if someone thinks it unfair of me.

As for Garrius's info - let's assume that Vehle sent the information on to the transports regarding scans. By rights she would have done that anyway.

Keep in mind that combat turns for ship-to-ship battles are roughly half an hour long.

Lt. Commander Zarkov wrote: [OOC. Does Zarkov's experience (both as a destroyer group leader and as a larger ship officer routinely trained in dealing with raiders) give him any additional insight into the possible tactics/weaknesses of the destroyers, and their three ship formation?]

I made two tests, one for Common Knowledge Imperial Navy, and one for Common Knowledge War. Unfortunately, Zarkov failed both. We can say that formation is perhaps used more often by raiders in Koronus than Callixis, so Zarkov has no special insight here. However, there's nothing too complex about the formation, so Zarkov would know that it's designed to protect the Havoc and potentially create a cross-fire.

Regarding my above post, please wait for Salt to post her observations (unless she chooses not to make them). Andrea may need to edit her post so that she doesn't march Salt off the Bridge quite so hastily (or perhaps this happens just after Salt's next post).

30min between turns? I'm having this image of this thread as a bad TV movie. Scenes of everyone rushing around firing their huge guns. Then cut to Andrea as she pours herself another cup of tea before moving starting to look at numbers on her data slate. Then more tense fighting. Cut to Andrea, who's now chatting with one of the Librarium scribes. Tense fighting. Perhaps the Librarium staff is having a lively game of cards. etc.

'The Juxtaposition of scenes of battle and slaughter with the almost tranquil research of the Seneschal were perplexing,' critics say.

Somehow, however, I don't think the ship at battlestations is conducive to investigations. All that red light, people being sucked into the Void from great rents in the hull, and others clinging for dear life.

Meh. The Librarium is a closed off area. I doubt it's airtight, if there's a hull breach nearby, but short of that, and maybe the red lights and claxons, she might be able to ignore the battle. And chances are good that in half an hour, she can figure out how to disable the battlestations lights and go back to normal.

Kinda like I pull the battery out of my smoke alarm, so it quits telling me the battery is dying.

I had to rush that post out, alas. I hope everything is clear.

You have all had some excellent rolls so far. Zarkov's first BS test for the ship was a 01!

Will update tomorrow, so as to give Drak-Kung and Garrius a little time to post, should they wish to.

Lt. Commander Zarkov wrote:Ass? Zarkov looked at Bohn, puzzled and aghast, as the ship shot away from the raiders. Bohn shrugged. "Some Hive-ganger slang, probably."

HA! American as the vulgar argot. That's awesome.

Which actually brings to mind a conversation I've been meaning to start. So, my company is huge. We have offices in... basically, every major city in the world. We also have major helpdesk offices in several spots around the globe so that we always have helpdesk folks on shift during local daytime hours, including some in the UK, one in Sydney, and several in the USA. Anyway, while doing a late-night helpdesk call with my customer, I got to chat with this guy from our Brussels office. From his accent, I had him pegged as an Aussie. But, alas, he was a Brit. I thought I could tell the difference. And once you get into a serious Cockney or "Mick Dundee" (not sure what that's called), I can pick it out. But I guess there's an area of less rural Australian and less rural British that starts to sound the same to me.

Anyway, add to that that some recent browsings of www.imdb.com have shown me that several actors I'd thought to be also British were, in fact, from New Zealand. I'll go out on a limb and assume that they were once again falling into the "more educated = less rural" group.

So, I thought I'd just ask all of you kiwis on here: culturally, in AU and NZ, is the "proper" accent (or "I don't have an accent") intended to be the same as British? Or is it just very subtly different, and GK can't tell the difference?

Australia, being such a large place, has enormous regional diversity in accents. Most people in Australia live in coastal areas (which is not what the Tourism Board would have you believe), and those in major urban centres tend to have a slightly more British accent. Travel into the country and you'll find the broadest most horrifying ocker-abominations you could ever imagine.

The university at which I live has a professor who is Aboriginal, yet he has an Oxford-Don accent. Quite striking. Apparently he was adopted by two Oxford professors and grew up over there.

I was once told by an English woman that I was obviously an American, judging by my accent; yet many Europeans have asked me which part of Britain/Europe I am from. I like to think I have a trans-Atlantic accent, despite being nowhere near the Atlantic.

I'm guessing that the Kiwi actors you thought were Brits are Sam Neill and James Cromwell?

In other news, Drak-Kung has had to take a break from the game, indefinitely. I'm open to suggestions as to how to explain this in game - I could treat him as an NPC, or say that he had to remain on Footfall for some reason. Ideas?

Hey Monty, I will post sometime today. Have some errands to run today but will get on it as soon as I can.

As for the accent, the primary difference between NZ and Aus accents is how we pronounce some vowels. Which leads to many cheap jokes about whether we are saying six or sex.

If you want to hear a clear difference between the kiwi accent and the british, watch a movie called The Boat that Rocked. British movie with a kiwi in it. When put side by side the differences are more obvious.

Goatkiller666 wrote:So, I thought I'd just ask all of you kiwis on here: culturally, in AU and NZ, is the "proper" accent (or "I don't have an accent") intended to be the same as British? Or is it just very subtly different, and GK can't tell the difference?

No, the New Zealand and Australian accents are not intended to be the same as British. They are more than subtly different, but then I often have trouble telling Canadians and Americans apart - that would be a subtle "North American" accent difference for me.

NZ and Aussie accents have a horrible "colonial" vibe to them, which we share with the South Africans. They tend to be either harsher in timbre (as IMO the Australian and South African accents) or dulled from the original, as with New Zealanders.

The 'stereotypical' NZ accent has been described to me as quite dull "monotonal", as opposed to an Australian accent which has more 'high pitched' in timbre and has more of a range.

You're not alone GK, as this clip would show...watch how they're pronouncing the vowels in particular. The dude from The Boat that Rocked is the ginger bearded dude from Flight of the Conchords - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re0nu9UtEY8

For the aussie one, I found John Safran done up in blackface for his series "Race Relations" really brought out his Aussie accent - www.youtube.com/watch?v=upw0eYXL2so

One thing with colonial actors is they would usually train with US and British accents (Sam Neill in Jurassic Park, etc), so you rarely see them using their native accent.

I agree with Montresor in that I have been mistaken for an American at times, sometimes by other New Zealanders. Too much rock n' roll I guess.

As for Drak, treat him as an NPC leading the security forces, I think. It would have been his course of action anyway.

Yeah, I was thinking about the Canadian / US differences after I posted. I'm sure lots of patriotic Canadians would disagree with me, but honestly... I don't think Canada has an accent, per se. Much of the northern parts of the US sound pretty similar to Canadians. Both of them are much closer to 'standard' American than the entire US southeast, with their cowboy accents. It really seems like there's a gradual accent shift, starting in the US southeast, where the 'country' accent is strongest, moving north and west. By the US mid-west, it's turned into the standard "TV news" American accent. Farther north, it shifts again, with the most extreme shift being on the far side of the Canadian border. But the Canadians are just the extreme edge of a gradual shift that starts well south of there. Also, some ungodly huge percentage of the Canadian population lives right on the US / Canadian border, or within a short drive of it, so I think it's more an accident of borders that causes the difference to be on a national divide instead of just a "farther north" kind of deal.

And the kiwi actors I was thinking of were mostly the non-named cast members from Farscape, and other lower-budget shows from the Sci-Fi network. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't sticking with their native flavor. On the other hand... my exposure to American actors being horribly unable to mimic british accents has perhaps set my bar pretty low. I just assume that someone faking a different accent would still be noticeable at it. Most brits I've heard faking American accents tend to get it spot on, though.

On the Drak-Kung front, his absence may or may not be for a long while, so it might be best if DK were still on the ship somewhere, so there's no issue later trying to re-integrate him into the story. Wasn't he injured in the previous thread? Maybe he's recovering much slower than expected, or something went wrong in the medical bay? He's still getting used to his new poor-craftsmanship cybernetic lungs. He has to wheel it around with him all the time, and make sure the hoses that connect it to his ribcage don't get obstructed.