Stalkers RPG General Chat Thread (Emissary Clubhouse)

[Lychee]

I'm going to wait to do my action investigating the kill until SOMEBODY TALKS TO SEBBIT

or, if somebody else does the autopsy, I'll talk to Sebbit.

my point is, somebody needs to talk to Sebbit.

Doing the autopsy is a free action- you can do it AS WELL as talking to sebbit! Go chat up that scrap dealer! Good luck! I think you should do it, because you'll have more specific questions for him since you're interested in DeeMangs storyline.

But yeah most likely he wont teach exorcism... which is a skill I haven't seen mentioned anywhere in the game yet ...and im not sure actually exists in this current game... but all the players who have played in the past seem to think it's a very important thing to find and use and learn....
Hmmm.
Am I just missing a vital piece of gameplay information?
Here's what I know, as a new player;

We have our kill skill to outright squish stalkers.

There are only two things left undescribed as (???) in the gameplay manual, and they arent skills- they're default actions.
One of them is clearly going to be [[Restrain Pokemon]] once we build a cell.
I expect the other one will be [[Conduct Sin Purge Ritual On Pokemon]] because that has been mentioned by PCs in game and it'll surely take an action to do.

Is there any other option we even need? Why not just work on unlocking the sin purge ritual, and assassinate if things get dire?
Why is exorcism important? Does it actually exist? Has anywhere in the rules mentioned it? Have any GM posts mentioned it apart from Orins diary, wherein he clearly never found an exorcist?

I mean, if you've got evidence, shoot me down, but I feeeel like theres a pretty strong case that searching for an "exorcism teacher" wont work out, and we should work on putting together a sin purge ritual, which DOES DEFINITELY exist.

[Shruikan]

Doing the autopsy is a free action- you can do it AS WELL as talking to sebbit! Go chat up that scrap dealer! Good luck! I think you should do it, because you'll have more specific questions for him since you're interested in DeeMangs storyline.

But yeah most likely he wont teach exorcism... which is a skill I haven't seen mentioned anywhere in the game yet ...and im not sure actually exists in this current game... but all the players who have played in the past seem to think it's a very important thing to find and use and learn....
Hmmm.
Am I just missing a vital piece of gameplay information?
Here's what I know, as a new player;

We have our kill skill to outright squish stalkers.

There are only two things left undescribed as (???) in the gameplay manual, and they arent skills- they're default actions.
One of them is clearly going to be [[Restrain Pokemon]] once we build a cell.
I expect the other one will be [[Conduct Sin Purge Ritual On Pokemon]] because that has been mentioned by PCs in game and it'll surely take an action to do.

Is there any other option we even need? Why not just work on unlocking the sin purge ritual, and assassinate if things get dire?
Why is exorcism important? Does it actually exist? Has anywhere in the rules mentioned it? Have any GM posts mentioned it apart from Orins diary, wherein he clearly never found an exorcist?

I mean, if you've got evidence, shoot me down, but I feeeel like theres a pretty strong case that searching for an "exorcism teacher" wont work out, and we should work on putting together a sin purge ritual, which DOES DEFINITELY exist.

In past games completing the Sin Purge Ritual was essentially winning. It wasn't a thing you used on specific pokemon, it was a wipe out alll the stalkers in one shot thing that didn't use an action or anything, so unless it's changed drastically it shouldn't take up an action slot.

Exorsism however was essentially Assassinate but without damning the host's soul. Essentially Assassinate is the "bad guy" version of Exorcise, hence wanting to unlock a version which helps pokemon iinstead of dooming them to eternal torment is kinda a priority. Assuming it exists, of course, but I feel that the slot you think is for the Ritual is more likely to be Exorcism, especially with the new battle system. (Using Exorsism was one of the only ways actual fights happened in the older games)

Regardless, going after someone who we know is going to teach us Scavenging seems like a waste, when unknown pokemon could give us both Exorsism or more of the Sin Purge Ritual, which we know will actually help.


EDIT: Another thing from past games is that Exorsism was a learned Ability like Protect/Escort and Investigate, so it might not even be on the actions list until unlocked.

[Truly]

Regardless, going after someone who we know is going to teach us Scavenging seems like a waste, when unknown pokemon could give us both Exorsism or more of the Sin Purge Ritual, which we know will actually help.

I was under the impression that Scavenging allows us to come up with some materials -- included, Iron Ingots used to make the Holding Cell we just got blueprints for.

EDIT: Another thing from past games is that Exorsism was a learned Ability like Protect/Escort and Investigate, so it might not even be on the actions list until unlocked.

If that's the case, wouldn't it be on the list, either as [Exorcise (locked)] or as "???" or something? I thought I remembered SF even saying that we had found all the Ability Actions, but now I can't find where, so I might've dreamed it.

In any case, we have nothing to go on. Looking for something that may or may not exist in lieu of taking action on a concrete plan is foolish. There are a lot of unquestioned Pokemon -- for instance, the ones I laid out as Stalker-relevant in my other thread -- but we're not questioning them, either.

Regardless, going after someone who we know is going to teach us Scavenging seems like a waste, when unknown pokemon could give us both Exorsism or more of the Sin Purge Ritual, which we know will actually help.

We had like two or three players take the Resourceful trait, a trait only useful for scavenging, then refuse to unlock scavenging. That's wasteful.

Anyway, @Lychee makes a good point about the autopsy being a free action to complete and now I'm going to go do both.

[Shruikan]

I was under the impression that Scavenging allows us to come up with some materials -- included, Iron Ingots used to make the Holding Cell we just got blueprints for.

Ok, I conceed that you have a point there.

If that's the case, wouldn't it be on the list, either as [Exorcise (locked)] or as "???" or something? I thought I remembered SF even saying that we had found all the Ability Actions, but now I can't find where, so I might've dreamed it.

Ahh, yes she did say that. Post #215 My bad. So yeah, if Exorcise exists it wouldn't be a learned skill.

In any case, we have nothing to go on. Looking for something that may or may not exist in lieu of taking action on a concrete plan is foolish. There are a lot of unquestioned Pokemon -- for instance, the ones I laid out as Stalker-relevant in my other thread -- but we're not questioning them, either.

Ok yes, it may not exist. But even if it doesn't, we get more info and possible leads at the same time, while your plan may be concrete, it is also far less likely to be useful. Have you ever heard the term "calculated risk"?

Also, if you have suspicions, why aren't you questioning them instead then? Or you know, bringing them up more frequently so people with better typing can?

We had like two or three players take the Resourceful trait, a trait only useful for scavenging, then refuse to unlock scavenging. That's wasteful.

Your're thinking too short term. Those traits last the whole game. They will be the same use if we unlock scavenging in two turns as if we unlock it now but don't use it for two turns.

[Truly]

Ok yes, it may not exist. But even if it doesn't, we get more info and possible leads at the same time, while your plan may be concrete, it is also far less likely to be useful. Have you ever heard the term "calculated risk"?

I mean, feel free. But we have leads, there's no need to shotgun the suspect list if we only have a couple of players actually coordinating. In other words, I believe focused questioning and searching are going to give us better a outcome, while players not coordinating with us are wildcards that may conveniently turn up more leads.

So to reiterate: Go ahead and interview NPCs! That's fine and great. But let's not make the selections completely at random, when we do have leads on who is acting weird, who is being disruptive, and outside of that some guesses as to who may be a Stalker, or Stalker-adjacent. Oh! And I think Dimfred has a side-mission for us.

Also, if you have suspicions, why aren't you questioning them instead then? Or you know, bringing them up more frequently so people with better typing can?

I only get one action in a day, too (despite my attempts to cram three actions into a single phase). Plus, I've been bringing up Sebbit since traits went out. I brought up the Rusty Shine Apartments and the graffiti there several times. In the end, I'm the one to do both, because the people who would be better for the job aren't.

And I did bring up, "hey look at my other thread" but got no engagement there. When people come here and ask, "what should I do?" I do my best to give them a speedy, useful answer.

I am bringing them up repeatedly, and I am then questioning/searching them myself. People either aren't hearing me, or disagree with me, but if they don't come to this thread and talk about it, I won't know which is it.

Your're thinking too short term. Those traits last the whole game. They will be the same use if we unlock scavenging in two turns as if we unlock it now but don't use it for two turns.

Sure, but we need iron ingots now.

The people who took that trait could have taken a trait more in-line with their perk. Morzone is driving me nuts, 'cause he took Diplomacy and then Resourceful -- and has stopped using either.

So I'm really happy with Noble because Investigating is potentially going to get us lucky and she's stacked everything in her favor to be really good at it. Daniel has a character thing going on where he's at war with the avatar of corruption, Nega-Umbreon. And Lillian has gone from Diplomacy -- that is, using her ability-- to being the battle bunny, after a couple of conversations went sour. Yris and Old Lace have similar niches, & are being helpful and productive.

So I'd really like to see, say:
-Lita setting up a Clairvoyance factory to sus items and then Nicklefool going out to charm them away from NPCs.
-Or maybe 4 or 5 people using Investigate to track the same suspects EVERY. DAY. because they seem to make kills one at a time in rotation, and we'd need to do it like 7 times to catch a specific Stalker in the act. Set up a Seer's guild!
-Everybody else either searching the Rusty Shine units or questioning the Pokemon who live there. Did you know all in-game kills except one have been Rusty Shiners? That one of the units smells like a rotting corpse? I'm pretty sure Aliema is going to show up as a robot without a brain, and either fight or lead the Emissaries to Marisha's workshop... again.

[Edit: Oops, Lychee beat me to it!]